Sweet for You: A BBW Billionaire Romance by Harper Ashe

Chapter 1
    T he flyer was on a table at the back of room 106, sandwiched between a stack of business cards for a bariatric surgery center and brochures for a hypnotherapist specializing in weight management. The single sheet of lavender paper with the giant cupcake in the center caught Abby Branson’s eye. It read:
    TASTE TESTERS WANTED
    Get Paid Up to $1,000 for Your Honest Opinions
    About a New Line of Gourmet Diet Desserts
    Under the cupcake was a toll free telephone number to learn more.
    Some company was paying people to eat dessert? Abby’s sweet tooth salivated at the thought, but she didn’t pick up the flyer.
    She was in room 106 for the weekly BBW Support Group meeting. Although the table of literature might indicate otherwise, the group for Big Beautiful Women wasn’t about weight loss. It was about empowerment.
    While Abby didn’t have any close friends in the group, she felt a bit of camaraderie with everyone there. The two dozen women in the room ranged in age from under 20 to over 50, and they all had one thing in common: curves. The BBW Support Group was one place where Abby didn’t feel self-conscious about her weight and where she was accepted for who she was rather than what she looked like. Plus, the free presentations were usually pretty interesting.
    Tonight’s topic was plus-size fashion. The speaker would be discussing “How Curvy Girls Can Dress for Success” and hosting a virtual fashion show displayed on the big screen with before and after photos.
    Abby was looking forward to the presentation. Her low-level admin job was getting old and she was thinking of applying for a higher position. Before she did, she needed to step up her game in the clothing department. Nobody was going to promote a lowly admin dressed in yoga pants and a tunic top to executive assistant, not even if she was a natural blonde with a pretty face.
    Choosing a seat that had a good view of the screen, Abby took a spiral notebook out of her tote bag. While waiting for the session to start, she doodled, drawing a larger-than-life cupcake like the one on the flyer. Quickly flipping the page, she scolded herself for getting distracted.
    Abby had never met a sweet she didn’t like: cookies, pie, chocolates, donuts, and yes, cupcakes. Sugar was her downfall and the main reason why her figure had curves. Well, that and the fact that she wasn’t willing to starve herself to fit into a size that was more socially acceptable. Even as a little girl, she had been chunky. Her mom chalked her weight up to genetics; Abby chalked it up to fate.
    The year before turning 30, Abby had made the decision to stop beating herself up for being a BBW. That was when she joined the support group and began to discover how to embrace her curves.
    The presentation was about to begin so she turned her focus away from the flyer to pay attention. The speaker introduced herself as Lois Carlyle. Like the rest of the women in the room, Lois was a BBW, yet her well-tailored suit downplayed her imperfections and highlighted her attributes. Her polished hair and makeup conveyed a level of class than nobody else in the room had.
    As a public speaker, Lois was engaging. She soon had the group responding with claps and groans as she used humor to describe the challenges of dressing a plus-size figure and provided tips for shedding baggy styles and sweatpants.
    Abby wished that her curvy little sister lived close enough to attend the BBW support group with her. Claire had a great sense of humor and would have loved watching Lois Carlyle in action. But the four hour drive round trip was just too much for an evening of empowerment, no matter how entertaining it was. 
    Although Lois’ pep talk was empowering, the highlight of the evening was the fashion show. Like a supersized edition of What Not to Wear , the show brought Lois’ advice to life and Abby furiously scribbled down notes as she explained each model’s “Before” mistakes and “After”