Chapter 4 Blonde Beauties

Marissa

"Hello my blonde beauties!" Denise's voice rang out from the hall before she turned the corner into the kitchen.

The fuzzy purple hat sitting on top of her fiery red hair was dotted with white snowflakes. She'd pulled off her coat already and was working on her gloves as she flicked on the kettle and plopped down in her seat for breakfast. "Man, is it coming down out there. I'm frozen."

"And apparently you've taken a dislike to knocking and doorbells," I told her, unable to help the smile pulling at my lips. I loved that she felt so at home here she no longer knocked, but I had to give her at least a little grief about it.

Rolling her olive green eyes, she piled some egg onto her fork and bypassed my comment. "Why are all men the same?"

"They can't help it. It's because of their-" I trailed off, suddenly remembering Annie was in the room with us. "Anatomy. It's because they're so much bigger."

Denise winked at me, but then she sighed. "Bigger, yeah. Got you. Still, guys suck."

"Justin doesn't suck," Annie chimed in, adding, "He got a dragon. I think it probably bites. Maybe it's still a baby and it still sucks."

"Okay, okay," Denise conceded. "Not all guys, just guys my age. I'm giving up on dating."

"I've been telling you that since I met you," I told her. The kettle started boiling and I got up to fix us some coffee. "What happened?"

"Dating is gross," Annie stated, as though it was a fact we should have been very well aware of.

"Yeah, dating is gross," I agreed, adding a dash of milk to our coffees before carrying them over to the table and handing over Denise's mug.

She shot a look in Annie's direction and shrugged. "Let's just leave it at me taking Annie's advice. Dating is gross and I'm done with it. Let's talk about something else."

"I've got the rest of the week off," I volunteered. "Annie and I talked about doing something fun later. Maybe ice skating."

"You and I would look like giant blobs at the ice rink, but yeah, that could be fun." Denise and I were both what people would caller bigger, beautiful women. We weren't shy or embarrassed by our body types, though. We owned it and often joked about it.

I had never been, and never wanted to be, stick thin, and Denise felt the same way. We'd bonded over it shortly after I met her. Real women had curves, and that was how we felt about it. We were not unhealthy, we exercised whenever we could fit it in, and enjoyed the occasional ice cream.

It was society's obsession with girls who had their ribs sticking out that was unhealthy. Not the girls, necessarily, but the obsession with it. The way I looked at it, your build was your build. You could either accept and embrace what 'mother nature' blessed you with, or spend the rest of your life being unhappy and feeling bad about yourself.

Denise drew my attention back to reality. To the kitchen where I was enjoying breakfast with my family and not, in fact, busy delivering a motivational monologue to the crowd of women I was talking to in my mind.

"When do you go back to work?" She asked, smiling. "Next week there's a ballet starting I thought Annie might like to watch. Do you want to come with us?"

"I love ballet," Annie said, dropping her cutlery to clap her hands together excitedly. "Do you think we'll get to dance?"

Denise's eyes remained on mine and clearly she could see there was something wrong. "Sissy? When do you go back to work?"

She had started calling me Sissy a few months ago, a play on my name, but also a sentiment about how close we'd grown. I'd never been a sister to anyone before, but I had always wanted one. I had found that in Denise, a kindred spirit I saw as my sister.

I shrugged, not wanting Annie to get alarmed about my job or our conversation about it. She was so sensitive to my feelings. "I have no clue. Since my boss passed, no one really knows what's going to happen. Human resources just told us to take the week off."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Denise assured me. "In a company that size, the boss doesn't really matter."

"In mine it does," I told her, doing my best to keep my voice even. "People hired us for him, not the firm. There's no one to take over work only he could do."

"They'll figure something out," Denise said. "Plus, who knows, maybe your boss left you some money."

"Yeah, I wish, but I know that's not the case." It would've been nice though, to receive an unexpected windfall.

Denise, Annie and I would have been able to live out the rest of our lives without worry for a fraction of what he was bound to have had in his bank accounts. It would be nice not to have to worry, but hey, worrying was what moms did anyway.