3 - Weight

She reached into her pocket for a quarter. Ahh, there were two, almost enough to get a soda at the machine. But she discovered when she reached in, that her pocket was loose, not tight against her stomach as had always been in the past. Now, it was loose and she shook it around. Could it be she had lost weight? Enough to make her pocket flop?

Liz was on her lunch. Mostly, she never had lunch there, hating every minute she had to be there, she would go anywhere to get away and then buy some fast food and eat in her car. As she headed back to her office to get her purse to leave, she ran into Ramiro.

"Having lunch?" he asked.

"I am," she said in passing him.

"Have a good lunch!"

"I will!" But she only said it because she was trying to be nice. Somehow Ramiro always seemed to find her and she had to be pleasant to him because he was so nice. It's not that she was avoiding him. She just was not interested. Not interested in anyone or anything.

Thanksgiving had come and went. Liz had spent her's alone. Her two son's spent their Thanksgiving with their wives' families. She stayed home, watched some television and then fell asleep. She never even cooked.

Christmas was coming up. Ugh, the dreaded Christmas Party. Something she would have to do. There would be no way to get out of this one. Not this year. Everyone would be there and she needed to show that she was involved. It wasn't that she didn't like anyone. They were perfectly fine people. She was just done with her job. It was a good job, good enough place to work. It was just that she didn't see any future there and that went into all of her life. No future.

After work, Liz stopped by the store and tried on a couple pairs of pants. Sure enough, she had gone down a size. She celebrated by buying a new blouse too. The next day at work she wore her new stuff and actually felt good about it. One of her co-workers noticed too and complimented her on her new blouse. She felt just a tinge of good about it.

But, in her inbox was the dreaded Christmas Party Invite. She opened it with some trepidation. Dinner and Games.... at an adult game venue. She thought about that. Yes! The only thing good about that would be the games! She loved playing arcade games and video games! This would be fun! Now, you might wonder why Liz would enjoy these games... Her boys had taught her how to play these games a very long time ago and ever since then, she did enjoy them. She could actually see herself having fun here. Well, as much fun as she could.