Free Sushi for One? by Camy Tang Page B

her jaw. “What do you mean?”
    His handsome smile could charm the knife away from a serial killer. “You’d fit your clothes better and feel great about yourself.”
    What?
    Sure, she didn’t have curves, but she never thought she looked out of shape. She glanced down. Her tucked-in blouse ballooned out from her skirt waistband. She thought the loose top would hide her flat chest while the pleated skirt would give her hips, but maybe it gave another illusion entirely. Did he actually think she looked fat ?
    Lex didn’t say anything for a long time. A weird emotionless feeling had descended on her. She blinked, wondering what her reaction should be.
    Gee, I ran five miles yesterday, and the day before that, I did lateral movement drills on a sand volleyball court. Not enough toning?
    You know, I didn’t care much for sparring sports, but you’re making me rethink that.
    My life has been completely changed by your sensitive insight into my weight and self-esteem.
    The waitress saved him. Maybe she had a premonition of George’s imminent demise and swept in to rescue him. She removed the salad plates and presented the garlic roasted crab with a flourish.
    Hot, pungent aromas steamed Lex’s face as she leaned over the plate for a long, ecstatic breath. An exotic mix of spices melded with the warm richness of browned butter. Only a whiff of brine. The shells had a warm, healthy sunset color. Her mouth watered.
    She lifted the top shell and inhaled a sweet tang of the sea. She picked out a forkful of feathery meat and took a bite.
    She magnanimously forgave George for everything. Because of him, she sat here in pure bliss.
    George nattered on about fat cells, he checked out the miniskirt of the woman sitting at the next table, and she thought he called her Alicia once. He could call her Big Bird for all she cared. She had reached Shangri-la.
    “Hiya, Lex!”
    She plummeted straight into hell.
    Mimi posed beside their table. Her sleek black dress revealed her curvy hips, while her perky C-cups squished under the low, tight neckline. She flashed white teeth framed by lipstick that screamed “Red Light District.”
    “How nice to see you here, Lex.” Mimi tossed her shimmering, calf-length ponytail. She then ignored Lex and sidled up to George.
    “Hi, I’m Mimi, Lex’s cousin.”
    He seemed dazed by the jiggling mounds waving in his face.
    “George.”
    Her mesmerizing, half-lidded eyes drew close to him. “You seem familiar. Have we met before?”
    Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute. What was Mimi doing? She already had Kin-Mun, and if the two-hundred-pound hunk of steroid-built muscle glaring at them from across the room indicated anything, Mimi had men by the dozen. Why go after Lex’s measly lamb? Well, granted, George was more like good-looking slime, but still. Lex sat forgotten on the other end of the table, a lump on the couch watching a bad soap opera.
    George lived up to her abysmal expectations with a delighted reply. “I promise, I wouldn’t have forgotten you if we had.”
    “Are you sure? I could have sworn I saw you at a naked coed Ultimate Frisbee game.”
    His answering look smoldered with wicked glee. “Oh, darling, I would only flaunt this body for a private audience.”
    Lex tried not to gag. George wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she expected a little consideration while she remained within reasonable distance. Like three feet away across the dinner table.
    Mimi gave her a sly sidelong look. Can’t keep your date’s attention, Lex?
    Heat rushed into Lex’s face like her head had been stuck in an oven. Her chest tightened in pain, and her lungs felt punctured. She gasped for a breath that burned down her throat. She hunched her shoulders, trying to shrink within her clothes, make herself smaller, more delicate, more feminine.
    “Oh!” Mimi’s graceful hand touched her shell-shaped ear.
    “Where’s my earring?” She bent to search the floor, affording a generous view down