Momma's Got a Brand New Jag: BBW Shifter Romance (Seaside Shifters Book 1) (2 page)

The restaurant was busy tonight and after a few minutes Han came back and apologized for the delay, saying that their POS system needed to be rebooted because one of the new servers had been training a new person and the new person had somehow managed to freeze the entire system. It would still be at least ten minutes before he could run their cards, so he brought them some egg custard tarts on the house to thank them for being so patient. The girls weren’t in any particular hurry, but it was a nice touch. Han was definitely getting a big tip. He was walking away from the table when he spun back around.

“Oh, almost forgot,” he said with an apologetic smile. He pulled some fortune cookies out of his apron pocket and put them on the table. “Finish your dessert first or it’s bad luck.” Then he disappeared among the crowded tables.

Rina finished the last of her tart. “Bad luck, huh?” she said as she picked up a fortune cookie. “I definitely don’t need any more of that.” She opened it up, popping half of the cookie into her mouth while she coaxed the fortune out of the other half before eating that as well.

She read her fortune aloud. “A pleasant surprise is in store for you tonight.” She gave a little snort at this. “It’s about time,” she said. “I’m way overdue for something pleasant…in bed,” she added with a laugh. The ‘in bed’ fortune cookie game always made them laugh at the end of their Tuesday night dinners.

Kris and Cely had finished their egg tarts, so she motioned for them to follow suit. Kris went next, delicately opening her cookie but not eating it.

Kris scanned over her fortune quickly before reading it aloud. “You will receive unexpected support over the next week. Accept it graciously…in bed?” she said. She laughed, saying, “I think maybe my fortune got mixed up with someone else’s. I mean, this doesn’t really apply to me.” She slid the remaining cookie toward Cely.

“Don’t be so sure,” said Cely as she cracked open her cookie, only eating half, scrunching up her nose to indicate she didn’t like the taste. She pushed the remainder to the side along with the wrapper.

“They’re deliberately vague, so that anyone can get any fortune and it’ll still apply. Sort of like horoscopes.” Cely thought the fortunes in the cookies were bullshit, and didn’t believe in horoscopes either. She read her fortune aloud regardless since they were playing the game. “Do not dwell on differences with a loved one—try to compromise…in bed.”

Rina and Kris exploded into fits of hysterical laughter. Cely tossed her head defiantly. “Even if I had a loved one in bed, I sure as hell wouldn’t compromise.”

“Oh, believe me, we’re well aware,” Rina said as she and Kris continued to laugh. Kris had pulled off her glasses and was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. Cely hadn’t even wanted to share food with them when they’d first become friends. She was a true diva. Neither of them could imagine Cely not getting her way in bed.

Han came back with their receipts, apologizing again for the wait as they reassured him it was fine. They each tipped well over twenty percent on their checks and exchanged hugs as they parted ways in the parking lot.

Chapter Three

Rina walked into her apartment and slipped off her heels as she tossed her purse onto the couch. The apartment had seemed way too empty this past week. Maybe she’d get a cat. Having grown up with them, cats have always held a special place in her heart, but Jeremy had said he was allergic. Somehow that had been her fault, too.

“Now what?” she said to her reflection in the entryway mirror.

She decided to check her email. She’d been putting it off for way too long, not wanting to see notifications about Jeremy on various social media sites. But seeing that he’d become engaged to someone else almost immediately after breaking up with her made her determined to delete anything related to that loser out of her life. She grabbed her laptop and sat down on her couch.

“One hundred thirty three new emails?” She groaned, then gritted her teeth. She knew she’d feel better once she was done.

“Delete, delete, spam, read you later, delete…” Ten minutes and one piece of cookies and cream polvorón later, she’d managed to whittle her inbox down to about fifty emails. The cleaning process was making her feel better, but she did feel a little stab at her heart every time she saw “Jeremy has updated his status…” before chucking those emails into the trash.

One email in particular caught her eye. The subject line read, “Congratulations on winning the grand prize!” She’d almost marked it as spam, but her spam filters were pretty efficient and had ignored this e-mail regardless. Curiosity got the best of her. If it was nothing, it’d take her two seconds to toss it in the trash.

“Holy shit,” she said as she scanned the e-mail. “Is this for real?”

A few months ago she’d entered a contest online for a trip for her and two others to an oceanside resort, complete with a shopping spree and makeover for the winner. She knew the odds of her winning were astronomical, but she’d entered anyway. She’d told Jeremy about it as she typed in her info, saying it would be a fun and romantic vacation for them if she won.

Jeremy had made fun of her, telling her that she was wasting her time on internet surveys and contests even though she regularly traded in her points on survey sites for gift cards for both of them. The truth was that after a long day at the hospital, sometimes she just liked to decompress by doing something mindless like taking a survey that usually didn’t require anything more complicated than clicking a mouse a few times. Well, it had finally paid off in a big way. And Jeremy was not going to be involved. That douche.

She couldn’t wait to tell the girls. She called and told them the details as she walked around her apartment, throwing Jeremy’s things into a large trash bag. They’d moved into this apartment together only a few months ago, and she’d thought their relationship had finally been moving forward. Her mom had disapproved of their cohabitation, taking every chance she could to say, “Why buy the cow when he can get the milk for free?” Rina hated that line with a passion. She’d convinced herself that living together would only help Jeremy see that she deserved a ring on her finger.

She tied up the bag, sealing it tight. Jeremy had been remote and distant even before he’d left for his trip back home. He’d even seemed happy to be leaving, even though it wasn’t to go on a fun vacation. All the signs had been there but she had ignored them. She couldn’t face the possibility that maybe she’d failed, that maybe her mom had been right. Still though, that didn’t mean that there weren’t quality guys out there, or that she didn’t deserve to be with one. It just meant that Jeremy hadn’t been The One.

Jeremy was an asshat, but he’d been right about her knowing deep down that it hadn’t been working out. She just hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself. She shoved the trash bag deep into the recesses of her guest room closet as she said goodnight to Cely and Kris and hung up her phone. The trash bag tipped over, and when she went to pick it up, she stubbed her toe on something in the dark.

“Ow! What the…” She reached down to pick it up. It was her Magic Wand.

Jeremy had tried to get her to throw it away, and had always been pissy that she hadn’t. Nevermind that it had been a gift from one of her best friends, something that Rina had thought could spice up their sex life. He’d made it clear that her using it was something he considered cheating, even though he’d never been able to bring her to orgasm without her helping. He’d always been so basic in bed, rarely wanting to make love in any position but missionary. Not that she didn’t like it—missionary was great, but a little variety once in awhile would have been nice. She looked at the box, considering. Suddenly she remembered her fortune from dinner earlier.

“A pleasant surprise is in store for you tonight…in bed,” she said to herself with a grin. Finding out that she’d won a vacation package had been one hell of a pleasant surprise, but maybe she could make the ‘in bed’ version of her fortune come true. She hurried to her bedroom with her Magic Wand in hand.

Rina opened the box and removed the wand from the packaging. She plugged it into an outlet behind her nightstand, placing it on her bed as she undressed. She climbed into bed and picked up the wand, checking the weight. It was lighter than she thought it would be.

The wand had two speeds, and she started out on the low speed as she held it against her clit. It was pleasant, but she needed a release. She wanted to cum. The last time she’d had sex had been a week before Jeremy had left to go visit his mom, and she hadn’t even cum then since Jeremy had said he was ‘too tired’ after he’d gotten off. Funny how he’d had plenty of energy to fuck her until that point.

He’d always made excuses about why he had never been able to bring her to orgasm by himself. She needed a lot of stimulation in order to cum and Jeremy had always whined about certain positions being too uncomfortable to hold for longer than a minute, or how his hands would get tired, and so on. It was always something with him.

The worst had been when she’d wanted to 69 with him. Jeremy had said that it was too uncomfortable with her on top, but the height difference between them had made it impossible for her to be on the bottom. They’d only ever tried it once. He’d always acted like Rina should have felt grateful to be with him, like because she was bigger than the average woman she could only get a certain kind of guy. Jeremy had made it clear over the years that he was that guy, and that he’d settled for her.

Rina shook her head. She didn’t want to think about Jeremy anymore. He’d left her sexually frustrated for five years way too long and she deserved better.

She let her mind drift as she touched herself, imagining herself on vacation at the beach and meeting a hot guy, and fucking in the warm ocean water. She’d had sex in a pool a few times before, but never in the ocean so she often wondered how it compared.

She could feel her orgasm building deep inside her as she continued to tease her clit with the wand. She played with her tits, pinching her nipples and spread her legs wide as she ran the wand over her clit.

She switched the wand to high and came almost immediately, moaning into a pillow as her body shook.

As she drifted off to sleep, she hugged a pillow to her chest and realized she couldn’t wait to go on vacation with the girls. The last time they’d done that had been in college, long before she’d even started dating Jeremy. At the time, she’d believed they’d never be able to top that vacation due to her youth. She chuckled at how naive she’d been. At thirty-two, she knew that all of them were more mature, more experienced, and more comfortable in their own skins than they’d ever been in college. This was going to be the vacation of her dreams.

Chapter Four

Rina was finding out that maybe the all-expenses paid vacation of her dreams wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be.

Her travel coordinator had booked their flight through Bicoastal Air, which had a reputation for having some of the smallest seats in the airline industry. She’d asked about upgrading the seats and paying the difference themselves because they’d all agreed that it would be money well spent, but the travel coordinator had apologized and said that it wasn’t possible. Something to do with some rule in the fine print that Rina hadn’t read when she’d signed up for the contest in the first place. To be fair though, it’s not like she’d thought she’d really had a chance at winning.

The worst part was that the travel coordinator had been unable to get them three seats together. The best she’d been able to do was two next to each other, but the third seat was a middle seat. The girls had debated over who would take the seat for days. In the end, they’d left it up to chance, drawing cards. The low card was the loser and ‘won’ the middle seat, and Rina had gotten stuck with it. It had been the fair thing to do, but she knew that her body wouldn’t care about things like fairness once she sat down. At least the flight was only a couple of hours.

Rina hoped that her seatmates would be friendly, but she knew it’d be a crapshoot. She’d never flown Bicoastal before, but she’d seen plenty of advertising for the recent startup airline. “Fly Bicoastal…on a budget!” Well, it wasn’t her budget, so she couldn’t really complain. Mostly, anyway.

They were in line now, waiting to board. Cely and Kris’s seats were in row 16, and they quickly took their seats once they were on the plane. Rina had been right behind them. Cely and Kris gave her sympathetic nods, mouthing ‘good luck’ as she kept moving toward the rear of the plane. She was in row twenty-three, and the guy with the aisle seat was already in his chair. He had unlocked his tray table and was reading a newspaper on top of it.

“Hi, excuse me,” she said with a smile. “I’m in the seat next to you.”

The guy looked her up and down balefully, then sighed as he folded up his newspaper. He stood up slowly and stepped out into the aisle so she could move past him.

“Thanks,” she said as she awkwardly maneuvered into her seat. He hadn’t bothered to lock his tray table before moving so she’d had to hold it out of the way while sitting down.
Geez, what’s his deal?
she thought. There was no way anyone could have gotten into the middle and window seats without temporarily displacing the person seated in the aisle. There just wasn’t enough room. She stuffed her purse into the tiny space at her feet. She was glad she’d made the choice to check the rest of her luggage.

Rina could only find one half of her seat belt. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she looked for the other half with the seat belt clasp. It had fallen down in the space between the middle and window seats. She didn’t want to stick her hand down there if she could help it though, so she tried tugging on the strap, trying to coax the buckle out. It wouldn’t budge. Next to her, aisle guy cleared his throat to get her attention.

“They have seat belt extenders if you need one,” he said snottily. He must have thought Rina was struggling to fasten her belt.

Rina flushed.
What the hell is this asshole’s problem?
she thought. Besides, it’s not like he was rail thin himself. Cely and Kris had buckled up just fine, so she knew the belt would fit her since they were all around the same size.