I'd always had a crush on Jeff, so when my skinny best friend Jenna, started going out with him in our junior year, I cried. With her long black hair and doe-like brown eyes Jenna was lovely, so I couldn't blame him.

 

Nevertheless, I, the chunky girl named Lisa, flirted with him throughout his courtship of Jenna. What's more, he flirted back, but he never deviated from the course I dreaded. Seventeen months later, I served as Jenna's maid of honor and Jeff was gone-I thought.

 

I spent the first two weeks after the wedding in lockup-self-imposed solitary confinement-the occasional salad and water the only thing sustaining me. When I emerged from exile, I had lost ten percent of my weight and people, mostly guys, but some women, for the first time in my life, looked at me in a way that appealed to me. I liked it so much that I continued my fast and went from size twelve to six.

 

Now, at five-five weighing one hundred twelve pounds with my newly styled, wavy, shoulder length hair, piercing, blue eyes and a svelte but shapely figure, I really turned heads. With newfound desirability, I entered a phase of my life I call my wild streak. I'd remained friends with Jenna, but I started hanging out with a girl, with whom I seemed to have more in common, named Trixie.

 

Drugs, alcohol and sex, my wild streak, which lasted fifteen months, consisted of partying at least three nights a week until the wee hours and sleeping with someone-anyone.

 

I wasn't out to harm myself, I took the necessary precautions, stayed away from the really dangerous drugs and never got shitfaced drunk. After all, I liked the new me and just wanted to enjoy my newfound allure without the crappy limitations of society.

 

One night I saw Jeff at the snack bar at a multiplex movie theater and that old longing came back. Standing a little behind him and one line over, he didn't notice me until he turned around with his giant popcorn and large soft drinks. He nearly dropped his tray. "Lisa?"

 

I glanced his way and flashed my most flirtatious smile. "Why, Jeffery Lang. Imagine running into you. How have you been?"

 

"Look at...oh, I've been fine." He licked his lips.

 

"I haven't. I mean, look at you. You look fantastic! What did you do...to yourself?"

 

I wagged my eyebrows and smiled. "Oh, not much. I lost the equivalent of a forty-pound sack of flour. Then I went to modeling school and learned how to dress and fix myself up. Didn't Jenna tell you I'd lost weight? Where is she, anyway?"

 

"Oh, she's in the viewing area. I can't get over how good you look. If you would have looked like...eh-"

 

I had to rub it in. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your wife?"

 

"I should, but...it's just that I haven't..." Jeff raised his eyebrows and gave me a not so subtle full body scan.

 

"I know what you were going to say. It's been so long since we've seen each other, you want to catch up."

 

He nodded, then grabbed my elbow and directed me to the side.

 

A half hour later, Jenna came out. "There you are...oh, Lisa, how are you?" She twined her left arm with Jeff's right.

 

"Hi Jenna, I'm fine. I ran into your hubby. Sorry to take him away like that. We were catching up. How've you been?"

 

She looked at her watch and sighed. "Fine. We'll have to get together soon."

 

Jeff nodded earnestly. "Yes, we should go out with Lisa and her boyfriend."

 

Jenna's artificial smile gave me the impression she thought I wanted to steal him from her.

 

"Sweetheart are you ready to go? You've already missed a half hour of the movie."

 

I didn't want to steal Jeff, just borrow him. It always felt like I had some unfinished business with Jeff-like f*cking his brains out-and now he acted like he had similar feelings.

 

Finally, Jenna managed to drag him away after he exacted a promise from me that my boyfriend and I would double date with them sometime.

 

Only, I didn't have a boyfriend...right then. Who could be my boyfriend?