So Wednesday came, and with it all the worries of exactly how I was going to work out of my current jam. Much as I loved Patsy, I was not going to let her ruin my chances at Tara. With grim determination, I set out that dreary morning for Biology and Tara.

But, as was my luck, it seemed Fate was conspiring against me. My car wouldn’t start and, after a minute filled with obscenities, when it finally did, common sense told me I had better let it warm up more than usual so I didn’t stall out unexpectedly on my way to school.

This caused me to be later in arriving than I would have liked. However, I always left myself plenty of time just in case of emergencies like this, so I wasn’t going to miss the second bell and be tardy. The only thing I stood to miss was the warmth of a classroom that my car radiator failed to give and perhaps the ability to talk to Tara alone.

My mind was naturally dwelling on the latter as I trudged down the hallway towards the science rooms. I had this habit of watching where I was walking when I had nothing to think about (or sometimes too much), and it was this exact thing that caused me to look up in surprise when I heard a soft “Good morning” enter my ears.

As should be no shock to you, it was Tara Kelly standing at the other end of the hallway. She was, as always, looking radiant, dressed in the usual jeans and sweater that were so essential for these 65 degree winter mornings (that’s cold for Southern California, you know). Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, giving me a better look than usual at her round face and chubby cheeks.

“Oh, hi, Tara,” I said as I continued walking, now towards her, rather than the biology room, “Nice game yesterday. Sorry I couldn’t stay afterwards to congratulate you then.”

“Well, they aren’t exactly the best team in the league, so I’m not quite sure congratulations are in order. Let’s wait until we beat a really good team,” Tara said.

“What? Goalie girl wanted a shutout yesterday? Well we can’t have it all,” I joked as we were now a normal distance away from one another for a conversation. I decided that sooner was better than later to get the dirty business out of the way, “But you did play well yesterday. Patsy was effuse in her praise of your abilities as goalie.”

I sensed a slight change in Tara’s demeanor, but in whether for the better or worse I couldn’t tell. “Yeah, I noticed during breaks that you were talking with her.”

“And what a mistake that was!” I moaned, “I had forgotten about what it was like to have to put up with all that. You know, just between you and me, I’ve heard this new report that instead of giving out life sentences, they’re going to make convicted mass murderers listen to Patsy for 15 minutes.”

Tara was seized with laughter so badly that she had to brace herself against the wall with one hand out of fear of falling over. It was actually quite a nice sight as her body jiggled tantalizingly with each giggle. I imagined the soft ripples that were coursing over her frame right now and once again I was seized with rapture for Tara.

When she had recovered her composure again, Tara said to me, “So you really had a dreadful time with her?”

“Horrible. I might have died, had I not had you to watch,” I replied with all honesty. I had a feeling that I was forgiven for yesterday, which set me at ease. “When’s your next game?”

“Friday.”

“Well, if memory serves me correctly, you said that perhaps I’d have the privilege of being able to take you out to dinner sometime. And I think this Friday after your game would be a perfect opportunity, don’t you?”

Tara blushed a deep shade of red. “That’d be really nice, Liam.”

“Let’s leave right after the game,” I suggested.

“All right. Have any place in mind?”

“Not yet, but we can figure it out then.”

“I’ll think up some of my favorite places for you,” Tara said.

“Nothing too expensive, now,” I said, “I’m just a poor Irish boy, you know.”

“Wanna hear a secret?” Tara said with a cute, but slightly naughty, smile.

I moved closer to Tara and bent down so my ear was next to her lips. It was a very nice position to be in, as I happened to get a very good look at her luscious rump in the process.

“I’m a rich Irish girl with parents who don’t care too much about how I spend their money, so I’ll pick up the tab,” Tara whispered to me.

I just about had my knees collapse from under me. Could it possibly be that my dream girl had an unlimited checkbook too? And she was more than willing to use it on meals? I could see the endless potential for dreams to be fulfilled now…

“Tara,” I murmured back, “I think that sounds like a plan to me.”

At that moment, the first bell rang. We were both disappointed that soon the rest of the world would intrude upon our moment of bliss, but that was the way of things. We went with each other to Biology and now shamelessly exchanged glances during class.

At the end of class, Tara loitered more than usual and we exchanged our good-byes until Friday morning. However, for the rest of the day, I couldn’t help but imagine what the possibilities were between Tara and I now.

***

Needless to say, I waited with great enthusiasm for Friday morning when I would see Tara again. Once again, I arrived early in the hopes of perhaps encountering my goddess, but such was not the case. This caused some consternation, as I wondered if Tara was sick, since she wasn’t the type to skip class. If she was sick, then that meant that our date (I suppose that’s what it was, though I wasn’t really thinking in those terms quite yet) was off and I was going to spend yet another evening nursing my dreams. It was then that I caught a snippet of a conversation between two of Tara’s friends who also happened to be in the class.

“Oh yeah, didn’t you hear? They switched all of Tara’s classes around so she could have sixth period athletics. She’s got Bio fourth period now,” the girl, a complete, rail thin ditz, said to an equally moronic twig.

My heart sank. No longer could I gaze lustfully at her robust form! I’d never experience the moments of tenderness where we’d catch one another sneaking glances again. About half a minute later, I realized that perhaps Tara could have been moved into one of my other classes, so I was momentarily buoyed by hope.

Read in that sentence the key word as “momentarily”, because at the end of the day, this hope was gone. Tara had failed to appear in any of my classes, and it seemed as though fate was laughing at me right now. I had finally gotten something started with a girl (my track record hadn’t been impressive until this point in time) and now it was dashed to pieces. Okay, so this wasn’t entirely true in retrospect (if so, would we still have a story?), but that’s how it felt to my wounded heart. So great was my pain that I nearly forgot about the water polo game, and once again wound up getting there late so that I couldn’t talk with Tara before the game.

Ah, but I was still early enough to see Patsy, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood for it right now. Unfortunately, my entry did not go unnoticed by the shrew in question and before long I had myself a partner again.

“Well if it isn’t Liam O’Shea himself!” Patsy said, absolutely delighted with herself, “Who would have thought you’d actually come out to two games! And well you should. You didn’t even stay for my game last time!”

“Patsy, is there any way I can impress upon you precisely how bad my day has been?” I asked, my unhappiness apparent in my voice.

She might have been overly loquacious, but Patsy wasn’t an idiot. Her mood sobered immediately. “Hey, what’s the matter?” she asked softly and gently, in the tone of the friend that she really was.

“It’s personal stuff,” I replied softly enough so as not to be heard.

“Anything you’d care to discuss?”

I looked up and across the pool at Tara, who was idling during a break in play. She was gorgeous as usual in that skin-tight swimsuit that showed off every inch of her amazing body. She looked over at me and flashed a smile that could only have been destined for my eyes. It was then that I realized that things weren’t over like I had been telling myself, and that perhaps love could withstand a silly little schedule change.

“Certainly not with you. Your mouth flaps more than a flag in the wind. It’d be all over the county by tomorrow morning,” I replied, a smile creeping back into my countenance, one that was meant more for Tara than Patsy.

Patsy shoved me in astonishment. “A foul mood, perhaps, but that acerbic wit is still in tact I’d say!”

“No, I think I just realized things aren’t as bad as they seem,” I replied cryptically.

“Really Liam, I haven’t the slightest idea what to do with you! And men complain about how moody women are!”

We both laughed and went back to watching the game.

***

It was yet another resounding win, this time by a 6-3 margin. Tara had been in top form tonight and really kept the girls in it that night. I was proud of her by the game’s end, though I didn’t outwardly show it.

Once again, the best part of the game was definitely the handshake line at the end where I got a good glimpse of Tara and her fine body. I was more than slightly turned on by that jiggling form that bounced down the line of opposing players. She flashed me a quick smile as she grabbed her towel, and then skittered off to the locker room, tittering away with her teammates to the locker room.

It was at this point that I realized that my high school actually had quite a chubby water polo team. During the first game I had been so entranced with Tara (and diverted by Patsy) that I hadn’t noticed the other girls on the team. While Tara was by far the largest, there was Tina right on her heels, sporting a rather ample rack that was perfectly complemented by a soft, fleshy gut, plump arms, and cottage cheese thighs that rubbed together as she walked. She almost had a double chin, for when you looked at her you saw it and then didn’t the next moment. Christy, one of Tara’s good friends, was tan and pretty thick all over, and while she was certainly much better padded than your ordinary high school girl, she was still leagues from Tara. Nina was tall, tan like Christy, had very nice curves, and a stomach that didn’t protrude as much as some of the other girls. General consensus was that she was “thick”, which was only a euphemism used in popular circles to avoid calling someone really nice fat. There was also Kristin, a pretty brunette whose crowning features, though her breasts and belly were soft, round, and sexy, were her wide hips, a soft ass, and plump legs. Lynn was a pudgy little Vietnamese girl with a lot of spunk—and a lot of belly too, complemented by a soft, round face. Jenna had quite the knockers, large, bouncy, and round, but she also had nice round hips with a perky little butt. Chelsea was like Christy, well padded in every department, but slightly shorter and quite a bit smarter. It seemed like almost three-quarters of this year’s varsity team—as well as half of the junior varsity and freshman teams—were at least chubby, if not downright tubby. Naturally, none of them even approached the tier of goddess that Tara occupied in my hierarchy of chubby chicks, but I certainly wasn’t unhappy to have such a wide variety of large, lovely ladies at my viewing pleasure.

Though I was sorry that I had to wait for Tara for about twenty minutes, I actually had the opportunity to watch Patsy play part of her game. She was actually pretty good and scored a goal while I was watching. At least she can’t accuse me of not watching her play this time, I thought to myself.

When Tara came out of the locker room, she had dried her hair and was wearing a t-shirt that clung to her curves, showcasing them beautifully. Her t-shirt hung just far enough to reach the waistband of her jean shorts that allowed me to view her stunning thick legs. I left my spot and went over to meet her. The beaming smile on her face made it clear that she was looking forward to dinner just as much as I was.

“Yet another marvelous win from our star goalie,” I said to Tara as we walked out of the aquatic center where the matches were held.

“Thanks,” Tara said, “Although I should have had that last one.”

“Nonsense. There’s a reason that the other girls actually score goals. It’s so you can have a margin to work with,” I replied.

“Yeah, they did great tonight,” Tara said, “Oh! I figured out where I want to go to dinner.”

“Great! I’ve been in suspense all day,” I said. I really had been ever since Tara had agreed to go, and even though my anticipation had been momentarily interrupted by misery, it all came flowing back.

“Do you know that little Italian place near the book store?”

“You mean Giacondo’s?” I asked. It was arguably one of the best-kept secrets in town and had amazing food.

“Yeah! Let’s go there,” Tara said eagerly.

“You want to take one car or two?” We had both driven ourselves to the game, naturally, and I wasn’t sure precisely how Tara wanted to handle that aspect.

“Let’s drive ourselves there. That’ll be easier for when we’re done,” Tara said, and then smiled, “but that’s a real nice offer of you.” I knew she meant it.

Tara arrived at the restaurant right before I did and got us a table. It was a little hole-in-the-wall place that hardly anyone ever went to, except those who already knew about it. Even though we were fast approaching the dinner hour, there was no danger of having any sort of wait. I knew that if there was, I’d nearly go mad having Tara so close to so much food, but unable to have but a morsel pass through her sweet lips.

The waiter had selected for us one of the booths, which had extremely high backs to them, allowing one to feel isolated from the rest of the diners. I couldn’t have envisioned a more perfect setting for our first real dinner together (I still mentally hesitated to call it a date, just because Tara and I weren’t officially together yet). I slid towards her in the booth so that the two of us were sitting in the middle. Mere inches separated us from one another. Needless to say, I thought it was the perfect distance from her, and Tara appeared to as well since she made no attempt to move away.

When I sat down, Tara was already going over the menu. “I absolutely love the lasagna here,” were the first words out of her mouth.

“Yeah, their portions are huge too,” I said as I opened my own menu.

“Isn’t it great! I love coming here after games, it really gets my appetite up,” Tara said, “Oh, they’re already bringing some garlic bread for us.”

“Great. Ever have the fettuccini alfredo?”

“No. Is it any good?”

“Is the Pope Catholic? You’ve got to have some tonight!” I said eagerly.

“Now I have to decide between that and the lasagna,” Tara said, “I hate having to make choices like this.”

“Then don’t,” I suggested.

“You mean let you choose for me?” Tara asked.

“No, have both,” I said.

Tara looked at me warily. “I don’t know, that’d be a lot,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it. You only live once, you know,” I said.

“Well…” Tara said, mentally weighing her options. One of her hands strayed down to her round tummy and rubbed it unconsciously. I had a feeling that Tara was thinking about that night and Hometown Buffet and was worrying I might think she was some sort of food crazy pig. However, her deliberations were interrupted by a rather loud growl that emanated from her stomach. Tara flushed a pretty, embarrassed pink.

“That settles it,” I said, “You’ve worked up such an appetite from your big game that I think you’re going to need both just to save you from starvation.”

“Well, only if you help me with them,” Tara said reluctantly, but smiling all the same.

I naturally assented and the waiter conveniently showed up right then. We ordered, and I threw in an order of garlic bread to tide us over until then. Afterwards there was one of those awkward silences that neither person wants to break, but both people can’t stand. I decided to take the lead.

“So, I heard your schedule got all mixed up because of water polo,” I said, “or at least that’s what they were saying when you weren’t in Bio.”

“Oh my gosh! They changed nearly every class I had! Luckily I’ve still got the same teachers, but everything’s so mixed up now,” Tara said.

“Bio wasn’t quite as fun this morning without you,” I said.

“That’s sweet of you to say,” Tara said, the pink returning to her cheeks.

We fell into idle conversation and the garlic bread soon arrived. It was very good garlic bread and Tara had nearly the entire basket of over-buttered, garlic-crusted, carbohydrate-filled bread. We laughed and smiled the whole way through, and not just at the jokes we were making. I think we both sort of figured out how much in tune we were with one another that night and how much we truly enjoyed each other. It’s something that just seemed to get stronger over time.

While I would have gladly gotten another basket of garlic bread (one can be very generous when it’s not their own money), Tara said she didn’t want to spoil her appetite. After all, she was looking forward to having her favorite dish here and perhaps finding a new one.

The waiter set the fettuccini alfredo down in front of me and the lasagna in front of Tara. They were both huge plates piled high with steaming warm mounds of noodles, sauce, cheese, and garlic. The aroma was smelled good to me that it must have been like every pleasure one could imagine turned into an olfactory sensation to Tara. Needless to say, we were both eating almost the minute the waiter left, picking at each other’s dish as well as our own.

“This fettuccini is amazing!” Tara said through a mouthful of noodles and sauce, “It’s the best I’ve ever had!”

“I knew you’d like it,” I replied, “It’s a good lasagna too.”

“They’re both so yummy!” Tara squealed in delight, “I can hardly decide which one to eat first!”

Tara was so excited that I couldn’t begin to describe her. She drifted between the gargantuan lasagna and the swimming pool of fettuccini alfredo, sometimes taking one bite apiece, other times eagerly diving into the fettuccini, which really seemed to hit the spot with her. I had ever so carefully stopped eating, as had been my intention from the start, allowing Tara to have her fill. Tara was so absorbed in the meal that I think she didn’t even notice I wasn’t eating anymore.

Tara handily finished off the fettuccini and sat back, rubbing her tummy. “That was great!”

“I knew you’d like it,” I said.

She looked over at me with what I could only think of as loving eyes. “I knew I would too,” Tara said. Our moment of intimacy was broken as Tara glanced over at the lasagna, which only had about a third remaining. “No sense in leaving that little bit there,” Tara said mischievously, though it was far from a “little bit”.

I helped Tara out a bit initially as we talked (or rather, I talked, as her mouth was occupied with much more important business), but like before quickly dropped off once Tara was well in. By the end of the dish, Tara’s rate had slowed, but she didn’t appear to have to push herself too hard to finish.

“That was a wonderful meal, Liam,” Tara said, radiant in her stuffed state.

“It was worth every penny of yours,” I replied.

Tara chuckled, sending tiny ripples through her frame. The waiter came at that instance and Tara took the check, digging in her purse for her credit card. As she did so, I got an opportunity to sneak a peek at her belly, something I hadn’t done during the meal, even though I was right next to her. Her t-shirt had ridden up, revealing about half an inch of her soft, milky white belly, round and full with a fattening feast. Unlike that night at Hometown Buffet, Tara had left the button fastened on her shorts, but I noticed they seemed to dig into her waist, causing her tubby tummy to spill out over the waistband of the shorts.

My examination was cut short by Tara triumphantly finding her credit card, which was shortly handed over to the waiter. From there, we only lingered as long as it took to ring the bill up.

On the way out, I walked behind Tara and caught a beautiful vista of her body as it jiggled seductively through the tables. Outside I came up next to her and we walked slowly out to our cars, which were parked right next to each other. Neither of us was quite sure what to say now that the evening’s highlight was over. We sort of dawdled out by our cars, waiting for the other to say something and racking our brains for what we should say. I decided I had to take the lead here.

“Like I said about a million times tonight, awesome game, Tara.”

She blushed, just like she had ever time before. “You’re really too kind. I was only okay tonight.”

“A win is a win, any way you can get it. And if that’s okay, I can’t wait to see you on a good day,” I replied.

“Well I’m going to have to be good next Thursday. We’re going to play Central,” Tara said.

She didn’t have to fill me in on what that meant. Central was the best water polo team in the county, perhaps even all of Southern California. They hadn’t lost a county championship in the last ten years. In fact, I wasn’t sure that they’d lost a game in the last ten years.

“Well, I know you can do it. If anyone can, it’ll be you guys…or girls,” I said correcting myself, “You play so well together.”

“Thanks,” Tara said with one of those great smiles, “Well, I think I’ll be going now.”

Some deep-seated intuition told me I couldn’t let her go. “Wait!” I nearly blurted out.

Tara hadn’t even begun to move, I reacted so quickly, that it wasn’t too hard. “Yeah?”

I figured there was no use keeping one another in suspense any longer. “Tara, I, um, I want to let you know that I think you’re a really nice person.” How corny could I get? I felt like I was a babbling idiot.

“Thanks,” Tara said, a rose pink coloring her cheeks as the streetlights flickered on above us in the twilight, “You’re a neat person too.”

“It’s not just that, you know, but ever since I’ve known you, you’ve always been nothing but kind, sensitive, amiable, and,” I hesitated here, “and downright beautiful that…that I’ve always liked you, more than anyone else I know.”

Tara stood there speechless as I continued.

“You’re everything I think I’ve ever wanted in a girl, Tara! Smart, caring, cute,”—I just couldn’t get over that part, you know—“and so much more that we’d be here till tomorrow if I took the time to tell it all to you!” I drew myself closer to her and gently took her hands in mine. “I couldn’t have gone another moment without telling you that you’re one of the most amazing people I think I’ll ever know and that I really want to get to know you better.”

Tara smiled, her eyes tearing in the corners, and said, “Ever since that night at Hometown Buffet, I’ve been hoping with all my soul that you’d say something like that, because I can’t begin to describe how much I love you.”

Tara threw her arms around my neck and pulled me into the warmest, softest, love-filled hug that I’d ever been in. I swear we were standing there for over two minutes, our arms around each other, her head furrowed against my chest, my cheek against her soft brown hair, our bodies pressed so close together that they felt as if they had melded into one, my arms encircling her gorgeous girth. It may seem like some sort of silly hippie notion, but I now knew what nirvana was: loving and being loved by the woman of your dreams.

Reluctant as we were, both Tara and I pulled away from each other, but now there was a light in her eyes like I’d never seen before. If things after dinner had seemed like an anticlimax, they were even more so now.

“So, now that we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, I guess you could say,” I said, now much less hesitant than I had been before, “maybe you’d like to catch a movie with me?”

Tara giggled. “Yeah, that’d be great. Doing anything tomorrow?”

“Not if you aren’t,” I said, smiling.

“Then call me when you wake up tomorrow and let’s catch a matinee,” Tara said as she scribbled her number on a piece of paper. I did the same and we exchanged numbers. I had a feeling that it wouldn’t take long to emblazon those seven numbers on my brain.

“Call you tomorrow,” I promised.

“I know you will,” Tara said.

We finally parted and smiled at one another as I pulled out. As I drove away, I watched Tara head in the opposite direction, but now I was no longer filled with longing. I knew I’d see Tara again and I was confident I wouldn’t lose her. Life was different now. The girl of my dreams loved me, and neither of us cared who knew.