“This thing is kind of tight,” I say, squeezing my butt into it.
“Do you want a bigger size?” she asks from outside the stall.
“Honey, you never need a bigger size,” I quote from one of my favourite movies.
Lex giggles from the other side of the curtain while I tug the suit up to my waist and try to finagle it over my chest, but the straps are all crossed and confusing.
“Um... Lex?”
“Yeah?”
I grunt as I try to pull the thing up, but it won’t budge. “I think I’m stuck. For real.”
“Can you get it off? I can grab you something else.”
“I think it’s going to fit, but the straps are tangled.”
“Do you need help?”
I sigh. “If you don’t mind.”
There’s a long pause. Then, the curtain quickly opens and shuts as Lex steps into the tiny space with me. There’s barely room for one person in here, let alone two, and Lex isn’t exactly a slim person—lucky her, with those delightful, plump curves.
“What do you need?” she asks, her eyes staying firmly affixed to mine.
“The straps,” I say, covering my boobs with one arm and pointing over my shoulder with the other.
“Turn around,” she commands.
I do as I’m told, my hips sliding across her front as I move in the cramped space, ending with my ass tucked against her belly. When she doesn’t move or say anything I glance over my shoulder. “Everything okay?”
She sucks in a sharp breath. “Yep. It’s, um... I’m going to have to touch you.”
“Please do.”
Lex hesitates for another long moment, and just when I think she’s never going to help she reaches up and traces herfingertips along one of the straps, down my shoulder blade to the middle of my back. A shiver dances along my skin, and I tremble.
“You okay?” Lex asks, her voice low, a little hoarse.
I nod, swallowing. “Yeah. Just cold.”
But I’m not. It’s hot as hell in this cramped space meant to fit one body, with no air conditioning at all in the tiny store, and the sun shining high in the sky outside in the middle of a July heat wave. But I don’t know what else to tell her, because I seriously don’t understand my body right now. I don’t understand how the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as she nimbly untangles the straps. I don’t understand how my muscles tighten and clench as she uses one hand against my waist to ground me while the other plucks a knot free. I don’t understand why my skin tingles when her fingertips linger on my shoulders after pulling the fabric into place.
And I especially don’t understand why I break the tension by turning around, slapping her on the shoulder, and saying, “Thanks, partner.”
Lex blinks a few times, then shakes her head and steps out of the stall, closing the curtain behind me.
I lean against the cool metal wall and close my eyes.Thanks, partner?What the hell was that? Before I can make anything weirder, I take a few breaths and then step out of the change room, turning in a slow circle so Lex can witness how terrible this swimsuit is.
“You look... Good.” Lex is rubbing her neck, which I know is her tell.
I run my hands over the material that accentuates my FUPA, while somehow simultaneously also making it look like I’m wearing a waterlogged diaper. “I do not look good,” I state. It’s simply a fact. “But it will take the jaws of life to get me out of it now. Nobody will care what I look like, except...” I trail off.
“Except, what?” Lex’s brows pinch together.
I sigh, looking down at myself. “It sort of sucks looking this ugly around Olsen. He really is so perfect.”
“Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about?”
