Read The Alpha Dating Game: An Extremely Sensual BBW Shifter Romance for Free Online

broke?” Kyle’s parents never had been broke his entire life and so he couldn’t imagine the situation.
    “Yes. My Dad lost his job in the recession five years ago and he couldn’t find another one. My Mom worked in a glove factory and she had an accident, and so she has been claiming disability ever since. With three kids, it isn’t easy to make ends meet on whatever support we got.”
    “I see.”
    Careful, he warned himself. It was so easy to sympathize with her. No emotional involvement, remember?
    He said, “But it’s admirable how you got the scholarship.”
    She nodded happily. “I know. I was told that several hundred people were going for it. It was a miracle I actually got it.”
    “What did you write about?”
    “About what it’s like being poor,” she said. “For one, when you have a bit of money, you splurge like there’s no tomorrow. Like last Christmas. We received a check from the welfare department. Dad went on a shopping spree to get us all the things we wanted for Christmas that he couldn’t get us for a long time. And then he bought presents for everyone we knew. At the end of it all, we had nothing left.”
    The first thing he’d do if he was poor was to save the money.
    “Why is that?” he said curiously.
    “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because my parents thought they’d denied us the good stuff for too long. And when you’re poor, you eat a lot of canned and processed food because they keep better than fresh stuff, which can be expensive. But I know now that the canned stuff contains a lot of fats, and so that’s why my whole family is so fat, I guess.”
    She tossed off a sad little laugh.
    Funny, but he never saw it that way. He never equated being poor with being fat and unhealthy, and certainly not with Christmas binging. He now understood why she could be dazzled by Spago’s and what he had just ordered for the two of them.
    “I don’t think you’re fat,” he said, keeping his face blank.
    “Of course I am.”
    “In Papua New Guinea, you would be on the lean side, I’m afraid. The ‘fat’ definition is a conundrum. Human beings actually possess the fat gene to store energy should there ever be a famine. So what was essential for the human race is now frowned upon and denigrated as a joke.”
    “Unfortunately, there isn’t a famine right now and my BMI tells me I’m overweight.”
    “Overweight does not equate obese.”
    “It isn’t exactly very healthy either.”
    “Neither is being underweight. But let’s not talk about weight in the presence of our starters, which are looking sinfully delicious, I might add.”
    Their starters arrived. Everything was new to Jessica, and so he reveled in letting her taste everything.
    “Everything is so good,” she gushed.
    “I know.”
    He liked playing Santa Claus. He liked watching her enjoy her food and he felt really good that he could share this with her.
    Well, don’t feel too good. It’s not going to last.
    It was her turn to ask him questions. He had rehearsed what he was going to say in the mirror. Because of what would happen, he had to give her part truth and part lies. This was the most difficult part, because he had to remember exactly what he had told her.
    “So are you out of college already?” she said.
    “Yes. I went east. Just finished my degree and I’m back here now to join the family business.”
    “What’s the family business?” She seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself with him and finding him easy to talk to.
    “Real estate, among other things. My Dad buys and refurbishes old houses to sell them for a profit.”
    My Dad would really like to meet you, but that is for another day.
    “And your Mom?”
    Careful. Not too much of the truth, just in case she told a friend who could put two and two together.
    “She died when I was little. Cancer.”
    “Oh.” Her face fell and she put down her fork. “I’m so sorry.”
    “Thanks. But there was nothing the doctors could do. It ate up