1 Chloe Starts Out Rough

** Author's Note: I revamped this story and deleted the previous version titled Stranger than Murder. I have been writing on it off and on and have been able to add several new chapters. I hope you enjoy the new look. **

Chloe was having a rough morning. She could feel it in her bones and the jiggles around those bones when she woke up. She knew, just knew, she had gained more weight. Not that she was fat, more around average-sized, but she adored cheesecake whenever possible. She thought about the three slices she had the night before as she examined her five feet, six inches figure in the full-length mirror that morning. She had twisted and turned in her comfy tank and matching pajama bottoms and her comfortable sleep bra, of course.

Chloe always wore a sleep bra as she thought they made her boobs stay up. She vividly recalled her grandmother telling her when she was six, "your boobs are the first to go. Bam! Straight to the floor, they'll be. Darn right, damn gravity!"

Her grandmother was the wisest person Chloe had ever met to date. She held onto those little gems of wisdom so she would do whatever she could to fight gravity.

She figured she was doing an okay job as her 34C boobs weren't much to complain about; they were the perfect size for her and fit nicely on her hourglass frame, she thought. Though her sides were looking a little meatier and her belly wasn't relatively as flat as she'd like, she was pushing 30. She looked pretty good even if she did occasionally indulge in three or more slices of cheesecake in one sitting.

She was married and had been for ten years. She wasn't trying to turn heads. She can damn well eat three slices if she so pleased, thank you very much! At least that was her line of thinking on the matter.

After she finished thoroughly examining every additional inch of herself in the mirror, she looked herself in her blue eyes reflecting back or tried to, but she had some blonde bedhead in the way. She puffed at a strand of disarray hair, and it fell back in place. She puffed at it again a few times until it finally freed her heart-shaped face so she could have her morning heart to heart with herself. She again looked into her eyes and said, "you are not fat. You are beautiful, and you will leave this room loving every inch of yourself."

There, she thought, that should do it. But she better double-check the scale because, unlike her, it never lied.

Two pounds, the scale told Chloe she had gained. Two pounds and she was now 141 pounds on her 5'6 frame creeping closer to the overweight side of the scale. She did not want to be there.

Chloe swam weekly and usually swam three miles in a go, which was a pretty good workout, but she needed to stop eating three slices of cheesecake in one night. Just ten more pounds and she would reach the dark side.

Enough already, she told herself. She stepped off the scale and jumped in the shower.

Chloe got dressed and headed out. Her first stop was McDonald's. Since she was trying to watch her weight, she ordered a diet coke with her McGriddle sandwich. She had lots to do today, so she needed to stay focused. She had to pick up a birthday present for her Crafty Thirty's group member Donna. The group had decided to throw Donna a crafty birthday party on Saturday, and it was Friday.

Chloe, of course, waited until the last minute to pick up a gift. She had to go to the super craft store Fantastic Fabrics to pick up the gift. The store was near work, so at lunch break it was. While she is there, she can pick up some stuff for herself. She needed extra hot glue sticks; one can never have enough hot glue sticks, fabric markers, and fake jewels. The group was going to bedazzle the shit out of something or another at the next meeting. But before all of that, Chloe needed to make it through half a day of work.