Changing Places with Yourself

Chapter 7

I had my meeting at Novell Industries with Grandpa, Jimmy and my lawyer, where grandpa announced he was going to retire as soon as I graduated.  Since I was going to do that in January instead of June like Evan.  Grandpa said Jimmy would be co-CEO with me.  Then it was decided Evan and I would have a Christmas wedding.  My lawyer would have a version of the prenup completed by November 1st and we could sign it around Thanksgiving once their lawyer had reviewed it.  I had final approval since I was worth so much more than Evan and Grandpa agreed with Jimmy backing me up.  Mid-October had the girls were trying to get me to buy new clothes because mine was really hanging off me making me kinda look kind of like a homeless person.  I took a bunch of my 3x clothing to Goodwill and picked out some 2x clothing, hoping that would be better since I didn’t want to show off my true size yet.  By Halloween, I could fit in a medium shirt and coat.  Chef Annie still came every Sunday to help me make my meals for the week and she was the only one who actually saw me in normal fitting clothes.

“Hey Becky, can I ask you something? If it's too personal just say so.”  she had broached the subject mid-October.

“Shoot,” I replied.

“I see you at school and you look about 30 lbs. heavier than when I come and see you on Sundays.  Why don't you wear better clothes there too?” she probed.

“It’s simply because of reason almost everyone judges by appearances at this age.  None of those who see me as ‘fat’ at school have taken the time to get to know me at all.  So, why should I dress to impress any of them?  I don’t need their approval to feel good about myself.  If I went to school in this outfit tomorrow they would try to be my new friends, not because of who I am but because of the brand name tag on my clothes and the fact that they fit.  I know that I'm down to 170 from 220 that I was at when school started and that my body is getting sleeker, but it’s none of their business.  Just like this house and my real cars.  If they knew that I had money they would try to be my ‘friend’ to get me to spend it on them.” I concluded to her.

She nodded understanding what I was saying and we got back to work.  I had asked her to cater to my company holiday Christmas party and we were working on the menu for 300+ employees plus their families.  Our parties for legendary, but last 3 years the food wasn't quite up to par since we didn’t own the company.  Needless to say, Dad and Mom were upset by this when they spoke to old friends who still worked there. So, I decided since Annie was a trained Chef to hire her and the cooks she worked with at school to feed everyone.  I showed Annie the pictures from previous years we did the parties, so she could get sense of the style and what kind of food we liked to have.  I wanted to have a completed menu done by Halloween to make sure they had plenty of time to shop and cook.  Annie had looked over the contract my corporate attorneys drew up listing her staff's duties, as well as financial aspects of how much she was going to get paid and when she saw the amount she signed quickly before we could hire anybody else.  The party was being done at corporate headquarters and we had a fully functional kitchen large enough to feed our workers on a daily basis and she took a tour with our head chef on Friday before the meal planning with me on Sunday.  She asked why our head chef didn’t take the job and I had said he likes to enjoy the party instead of having to work.  He had told her if she wanted to consult with him after we plan the menu he would be willing to do that since everyone knew how picky I was about the food that I would eat.  He was ready and willing to share recipes with her and she decided to do that with him Monday after school using what we did today as a starting point.  After she left, I went to veg out in front of the TV for a while since I had everything ready for the following week.  Harmony called about 5 p.m. to see what I was up to and invited me to her place when I said nothing.  I told her I was wiped from stuff I did earlier and that I’d see her at school the next day.  So Monday at lunch I distracted the girls, my new cheerleading friends, by asking them for party ideas by posing a series of “what if” questions to see what all their ideas for a family-focused Holiday party would include, from door prizes, tokens of thanks from the owners to the employees, music selection, decorations, and food.  I used the full advantage of the body Cam and had my lawyer’s assistant view it to jot down all the suggestions which were then passed on to the others helping coordinate the party at a corporate level.

It happened gradually, but I found myself at the cheerleaders’ lunch table more days than most, which meant football players were close by since many were dating each other.  Evan glared at me the first week Gwen in harmony pulled me over to sit next to them and just because they love to stir the pot they made sure he had to sit next to me if he wanted to sit with them.  There have been days that Troy would beat Evan to that seat, he hasn't liked it one bit, especially since Troy has been openly flirting with me every chance he gets.  None of them knew yet that I was graduating early or that Evan was going to be married when he comes back from winter break because the time just wasn’t right to tell them. Besides, my gaydar is seriously going off whenever Troy is around Zack, the way they joke together there's something going on with those two.  I knew it would happen one day someone said something to some of the cheerleading and football coaches and by the beginning of November, not only were most of the cheerleading squad joining me in the pool and weight rooms, but some of the football team was there too.  The girls must have talked to their coach about how the water aerobics with me had helped them firm up, but their energy and stamina had increased as well making it easier for them to perform their dance routines at practice.  So much so that the squad's coaches had actually started joining us in the pool by mid-October.  At first, they came out of curiosity then after a week or so they started noticing the difference in themselves and they got permission for others to join in from the office.  The team coaches had everyone do their warm-ups in the pool because the water resistance is great training then they would hit the field to practice or play.  The only nights I had the pool to myself was when they were doing an away game.  Since there was only so much room in the pool and so many players to warm up on the home game nights I stopped going.  I would either go in the mornings before school started to get my working out or Judy had actually offered me use of their heated pool in the backyard and I would go over there when Evan was still at school during his practice.  This gave Judy and I time to go over wedding plans and I didn’t have to worry about Evan seeing me and my suit since I was always dressed by the time he would get home after his games or practice.

“Don't you have your own home, ugly? Why are you always here?” he barked at me one night.

Before I could even respond, Judy told him to go do his homework, while Jimmy apologized saying it was a hard game that night and two members of the team had gotten seriously injured, which is why Evan was in such a foul mood.  I shrugged it off and said my goodbyes.  But that was the turning point that made me decide to get rid of the house that I was living in one because it was too big for just me.  Also, I knew the reason there was no pool in the property was that my counterpart’s parents were extremely overprotective when she almost drowned when she was little.  They got her lessons a few years after the incident, but when she refused to put her head underwater they let her stop going.  Now when I was five I did have a near-drowning scare, too, but my mom caught me up before I could really realize what had happened or what could have happened if my family hadn’t been watching.  And it did take me years before I could put even my ears underwater let alone my nose.  I had many teachers in the gym try to show me how to control my breathing underwater, but it never took.  I would either have to wear nose plugs or a diving mask to swim or dive underwater.   Although that didn’t stop me from loving pools.  It did for her which explains why the only suit I found in her closet, even though it was new, didn't fit properly.  Again my heart was saddened for what she went through growing up in her life.  Yeah, so my family didn’t have as much.  But we still had each other, she was an only child and the last of the family line.  It was days like this that made me understand completely why she switched places with me.  Death would have been a welcome change from the loneliness she had to have been feeling especially after her parents’ death and the abuse at the hands of her own aunt.  Putting that house on the market felt like I was able to give her a bit of closure from the past.  My real estate agent, Gwen’s dad, had found me a penthouse with a private entrance, but I didn't want to rent something so I told her to make an offer on the whole building.  That way I could control who lived directly below me in the four apartments that were located one floor down, which were currently empty.  After haggling with the owners we finally settled on a price of 20 million dollars, which was less than the 45 million that I sold the mansion for, but they didn't need to know that.

My lawyer went through and reviewed all the current leases that were attached to the property with the manager to make sure that everyone was current on their rent.  Given how high end this building was only those that could afford the massive monthly rent live there, which meant the monthly rent collected was approximately $375,000.  Which came out to over 4.5 million dollars every year and that was with only half of the units rented, so far.  There was a huge full gym with pool on the main level, and 8 levels of general underground parking for normal tenants and another level for my cars alone.  Each apartment had four bedrooms and three full baths there was an on-site cleaner that would come and clean apartments for people at a nominal rate, two different restaurants, Italian and Chinese, which delivered, and full security to provide protection for all tenants.  The building used to be a hotel that went out of business and a group that sold it to me basically flipped it into apartments for profit.  My penthouse had a private elevator that was secured to the 9th level of the parking garage with a non-stop to my door.  I had a private garage door to get into my parking level with a keypad entry and I could fit up to 12 cars in the spaces that I had left after I moved the five that I already owned in.  The main area had five bedrooms, three of which had ensuite bathrooms, the other two had a Jack-and-Jill bath between them.  I had an exercise workout room that had stairs leading to the roof.  The roof was split into sections, I had a helicopter pad on one and a heated infinity pool, hot tub, fire pit, outdoor BBQ area and huge BBQ smoker with attached grill, and dining area on the other.  To say the living room dining area and kitchen on the main level was huge is an understatement.  Okay, so it was the little too much space for one person at least I could work out in private now.  After what happened last week I have avoided the girls’ locker room like a plague.  I can’t even think about it because I have to get too much done before I graduate and end up married to Evan, to worry about what Donovan attempted to do to me.