Stranger Than Murder

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 3

Finally, Chloe was done with work. She had to stay late to help process a file Francis forgot about so it could make the deadline. She was now headed to her mother-in-law's house, hoping whatever it was she was needed for this time wouldn't take too long, and she could still make it to Fantastic Fabrics before it closed, which for some reason was 8:00 pm on Fridays. Chloe rolled her eyes before knocking just to get it out of the way. She knocked then came in, although she'd been told to go in without knocking, something about it's practically her home and why doesn't she and Jon move in. Of course, if she did that, she would lose what little sanity she had left. "Oh, Chloe, Luv! I'm in the sitting room," her mother-in-law called out to her. "You said you needed help with something urgent, Mrs. Harris?" "Call me, Mom, how many times must I tell you," Mrs. Harris said for the ten billionth time in the past ten years. She motioned towards a bunch of pain

Chloe finally made it to the Auto Dealer, where she met up with Jonathan at the tail end of a business meeting with his father where he went over numbers that his father paid no attention to. "Hey Candy, what's up? Bring my lunch?" Jonathan liked to call her weird pet names. For some reason, he thought it was cute, and she thought it was tacky, but he'd been doing it for fifteen years, and it didn't look like he'd be growing out of it soon. She had known him most of her life but started dating him when 14, Jon was 16. He'd always been a bit thin due to his wrestling and stayed that way through adulthood. He was a relatively decent-looking guy with short-cropped thick brown hair, small squinty blue eyes, a narrow nose, thin lips, and a mediocre square jawline. He was 5 feet, eleven inches tall, and about 180 pounds even though he rarely worked out unless watching Mixed Martial Arts competitions counts. "Yeah, I'm on my way to Fantastic Fabrics, so I figured I'

Chloe enjoyed the party a little too much. At one point, she started a taco tossing phenomenon. She momentarily let the thoughts of the White Rabbit and Alice scene from earlier surface just long enough for her to lose control and toss a mini taco against the wall. All the other girls had no idea why she had done it but having drunk round after round of cocktails and shots, they found it great fun and joined in with elevated enthusiasm. Tacos were being flung all over the party room. She felt a little bad for the workers that have to clean it all up but damn, it was worth it. It allowed her much needed stress relief. She went to the bar after the party as planned to call her best friend and hear her thoughts on what she should do. Covered in mini tacos, Chloe attempted to brush some of the taco debris off but quickly gave up and just walked into the bar, tacos and all. It wasn't exactly a dive bar, but it wasn't posh enough to turn her and her tacos away, so she sat down and

Chloe got to the Café, and Nicki was already waiting at a table in the patio corner. She made her way over to him. She had been thinking of how to tell him since yesterday, and she still had no idea what to say.   "Hello…" Nicki said as she approached. He paused, noticing she looked anxious. "Chloe? What's up?"   "Hey, Nicki," she managed, "Um, how was your workout?"   "It was ok. You don't look so good. What's wrong?" Nicki cleared his throat. "Is everything ok? How's Jon? I already ordered, so don't worry. I got you the strawberry chicken salad and an Ice tea." He nodded towards her drink. Chloe smiled gratefully at him and took a massive gulp of tea, practically downing half the glass before she said anything.   "Oh, Jon? Umm… He's fine. He's at the club with his dad and the guys. Just yesterday, he was with Veronica. She was fucking him on our bed." Chloe was now rapidly blinking her eyes. Maybe