Free Nothing Tastes As Good (Cupcake Goddess) by Shéa MacLeod Page A

week.” Tiffany rolled her eyes.
    “She’s that fat?” Branwen asked.
    Tiffany gasped and shook her head. “Oh, no. Well, I mean, she’s big boned. Curvy. But she’s super pretty. She just has low self-esteem, you know? Always dieting, thinking if she’s thin it will solve all her problems.”
    Branwen eyed the slender Tiffany with her ridiculously long legs and nicely formed C cups. It hadn’t escaped the goddess’s notice that all Tiffany’s straight male friends were interested in being a lot more than just friends.
    “Can’t imagine why she’d think that.” The goddess’s voice was as dry as dust.
    Tiffany shrugged as she popped open a can of diet soda. “No idea.” She sounded truly baffled.
    “I’d like to meet this Kate.”
    “Ohhhh!” Tiffany clapped her hands together with excitement. “We can do lunch.”
    “Oh, yes.” The smile on Branwen’s face was just this side of wicked. “Let’s.”
    * * *
    Kate Llewellyn frowned at herself in the mirror. Mirrors added ten pounds, right? Or was that cameras? Maybe the lighting just sucked. Yeah, that was it. Dressing room lighting was always unflattering.
    “Crap.” She’d tried on six different dresses and every one of them made her look like a hippo in a table cloth.
    She ripped off the last dress and threw it on the pile of other rejects. Damn it all. If only she were skinny. Then she could walk right into any shop and find cute dresses in her size. Dresses that would make her look good instead of emphasizing everything that was wrong with her body.
    She closed he eyes and took a deep breath. She opened them and gave herself a good hard look in the mirror. “Get it together, Kate.”
    All she needed was one dress. One halfway decent dress that wouldn’t make her look completely ridiculous. Was that too much to ask?
    A knock on the dressing room door nearly sent her into cardiac arrest.
    “Miss? I’ve got another one for you to try on.” It was the sales girl.
    “Um, great, thanks.” Kate opened the door slightly to grab the dress and stopped to stare at the thing in horror. The shapeless gray monstrosity looked like it belonged at a funeral, not a date. She grabbed the dress anyway and slammed the door shut in the sales girl’s face.
    Oh, God, she was going on a date. She hadn’t had a date in…well, in longer than she cared to remember. What had she been thinking? Joining an internet dating site had to be just about the dumbest thing she’d ever done. The place was full of cowboys and personal trainers who were looking for “slender, toned, athletic” women. Something Kate was very definitely not. Two months on the site and this was her first date.
    She was still kind of shocked that someone had actually asked her out. And a cute someone at that. Had he not noticed the “plus size” tag on her profile? Had he not looked at all her pictures? Didn’t he know she was…fat?
    She looked at the gray blob in her hands. Might as well try it on.
    The gray blob actually didn’t look too terrible on her. It fit, which was a plus, and covered up most of her flaws. Maybe with some jewelry and a nice pair of shoes she’d look halfway presentable, if completely blah. It would have to do. Kate was exhausted, irritated, and this was the only dress that had looked close to decent.
    With little enthusiasm she headed to the checkout with the gray dress. Maybe she should cancel the date…
    * * *
    By the time she pulled into the parking lot near the Riverwalk downtown, Kate was shaking so hard she could barely steer. It was a wonder she hadn’t hit somebody with her car on the ride over. Her stomach was such a mass of nerves she doubted she’d be able to eat anything.
    Why had she let Tiffany talk her into keeping this date? Tiffany had no idea what it was like to go on dates when you were a bigger person. The men always stared at you like you were some kind of vermin, judging you if you ate too much, rushing out the door as quickly as