CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Juliana
The auditorium on the first floor of the Children’s Hospital was packed, standing room only. Not only that, but several nationwide news outlets were there to cover the forum. So obesity in the schools wasn’t a battle I was fighting alone. It had gotten a lot of attention recently, and now, more people were taking notice.
Good.
It didn’t help me feel any less nervous.
A female pediatrician finished her speech to thunderous applause. She was great, impassioned, interesting, and engaging, someone who clearly loved giving speeches to throngs of people. I watched, waiting in the wings as she stepped down from the podium and the applause died down.
Then all eyes turned to me.
It was time for my presentation.
Ugh. I hated this. I’d always been afraid while speaking to groups of people. If I hadn’t been so passionate about this topic, I’d have done everything to get out of it.
I strode up to the podium, seeking out the kind faces of my friends in the department. Leah was there too, and my supervisor, Dr. Irwin. They smiled encouragingly at me, willing me to go forward as I strode past the white screen, where the first slide of my PowerPoint entitled Is School Lunch Killing Our Kids? shown on the screen. I reached the podium and turned, holding my index cards in front of me.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,” I began, nodding to everyone. “It is an honor to be here today, speaking about a topic so near and dear to my heart.”
I flashed to the first slide, a slide of me as a teen, round-faced and desperately overweight. It’d been at my sweet sixteen, and though I was smiling, wearing a strapless pink gown, the smile didn’t quite ring true. I’d hated myself so much then.
“This is me,” I announced as murmurs rustled through the crowd. “When I was in high school. Thanks to an abundance of widely available junk food on my high school campus, I’d made a lot of wrong decisions. But I’m happy to report it doesn’t have to be that way. Our children deserve better. So let me tell you what I would like to see.”
In the back of the enormous room, a hand shot up. A male voice called, “Miss Hurley?”
I hadn’t expected questions so early. I’d hoped to save them for the end of the presentation. In fact, I thought Dr. Irwin told me that questions wouldn’t be entertained until afterward.
I started to speak again, but the hand remained up, and the man called to me again. I couldn’t just let him linger, or else my presentation would be ruined.
The light from the camera was shining into my eyes, blinding me from getting a good view. I strained to see the source of the voice, but my eyes remained unfocused. “Yes?”
“Hi. I’m so glad you’re presenting today. Can I tell you what I would like to see?”
I frowned. “Yes. All right, go ahead.”
“I’d like to see your tits.”
More murmurs in the crowd. I looked around. This couldn’t be serious. Who the hell was this guy, and why wasn’t someone coming forward to remove him from the auditorium?
“Can you show them to us?” he continued.
The more I squinted at him, searching through the shadows, the blurrier it got. I turned to look at the podium for someone to help me, but I was alone on the stage. “Could someone please remove this gentleman from the auditorium?” I asked, hoping to see one of the other doctors who’d organized the event.
Then I realized that several of the people in the front row were nodding as if his question was perfectly legitimate. They craned their necks to get a better view around the podium.
They wanted to see my tits.
I started to cover my chest with my crossed arms, but when I looked down, that’s not what I was doing. No, I was unbuttoning my blouse. I easily tore it open, then unhooked my bra, letting it fall to the stage. The cool air braced against my bare skin, and my nipples peaked instantly.
People nodded as if what I was doing made perfect sense. I stood in front of them, topless, as my supervisor, Dr. Irwin, licked his lips and said, “Don’t stop there. Take it all off.”
I found myself, without wanting to, unzipping my skirt. It felt wrong, but deliciously right, because dammit, I was horny. I let it fall to the floor, then slid my thong down and stepped out of that too. Now I was just there, in my sensible high heels.
Suddenly, the room was filled with men. Leah was gone, as were my friends. One of the men let out a wolf whistle. I looked down and realized I was now touching myself, running my hands over my breasts. Both of my nipples were engorged, and as I lowered my hand between my legs, I realized I was soaking wet. I started to rub my clit ferociously, getting hotter as the men’s cheers grew louder. They started to chant, “Come for us! Come for us!”
“She’s ready for you,” Dr. Irwin said to the man in the back of the room, the one who had started all of this.
“Of course she is. She’s always ready to fuck,” he said, striding down to me. He already had his pants open, his monster cock protruding from the opening, wagging toward me as he climbed the stairs. Zachary.
He turned the podium to give the audience of cheering men a better look. Then, he came at me from behind, running his hands up my waist, cupping my breasts. He bent me over the podium and slowly entered me from behind as I gasped and swayed against him. I pushed my backside up until I was flush against him, his cock buried deep within me.
He pulled out and pushed back in, slapping my ass. “You have a fucking perfect ass,” he murmured into my ear. “I’m going to fuck you hard.”
“This is really going to help the cause,” my supervisor called to me as Zachary pounded into me. “I’m giving you a promotion!”
The men only cheered louder. For some reason, I felt proud of myself, as if I was giving a stirring presentation that would change school lunches forever.
I screamed, I moaned, I came, and came, and came.
I woke with a start, panting like an animal, twisted in my blankets, covered with a sheen of sweat. I was still coming, shuddering in waves of slowly lessening intensity.
Oh, sure, let time pass. You’ll forget him eventually!
What a dumbass I’d been. No, the dreams about Zachary were only getting longer, more erotic, kinkier, and more… real. They’d started with him coming to the edge of the bed, touching my cheek, looking at me with those intense emerald eyes. But they’d evolved, and soon we were fucking in the Great Hall of the Met, in cabs, on the city street, everywhere. Sometimes he had me tied up, sometimes we had an audience, but one thing was always the same… he made me come, thunderously, every time.
I laid there, spasming inside, my body still wracked with the subsiding waves of orgasm. The boy had made me sex obsessed. To think, a week ago I hadn’t thought it was possible for me to achieve orgasm. Now, I was doing it just as easily as I breathed.
All I had to do was think of him.
Cursing myself for ever deciding to let fate take the wheel, I rolled over in bed and looked at the clock. Six a.m. Time to start the day.
It’d nearly been a week. Fate had made its decision. The Zachary Vaughn chapter of my life was over. The end.
Tell that to my subconscious. It felt like he lived there, in my dreams, ready for me to fall asleep so he could taunt me.
I couldn’t even begin to pretend it didn’t sting like a mother. Maybe that was why I hadn’t bothered to even google his name. Because that, at least, was something I could control.
I had something to distract me, today, at least. The open forum on school lunches was this morning. The old Juliana probably would have had nightmares last night about giving a presentation in the nude. Instead, I’d had that crazy sex dream, pumped up with Viagra. Whatever it was. It felt so real, I didn’t know how I’d ever face Dr. Irwin again. How I’d ever make it through my presentation without getting the urge to undress.
Oh god, please don’t let me undress.
I needed to practice. Just to make sure I didn’t subconsciously do anything while standing up there that could potentially get me fired. Or unwittingly posted onto Pornhub.
I packed my presentation supplies, and as I was taking the subway to the Children’s Hospital, group texted Leah as well as my friends Avis and Bianca, who were also nutritionists at the center with me. Avis and Bianca were both working at the center, and Leah was in Vegas, so none of them would be there. No, it would just be a sea of strange faces. So I asked my friends if I could get online and present to them, just to make sure I had it down.
They all agreed. Leah texted me privately at what must have been five in the morning, her time, and said, Why, what’s up?
I didn’t want to tell her about my dream. It was all too embarrassing. I texted, I just need all the help I can get.
My heart was going a million miles an hour when I got to the Children’s Hospital. I checked in with the event organizers, then asked for a room so I could practice. They put me in a tiny room in the back of the auditorium where they kept extra supplies. I opened my laptop and started a group chat with my three friends. They were already in there, waiting for me.
“Thanks, guys!” I said to them when I got on, smiling and waving. “I’m just so nervous.”
“You’ll do fine!” Avis said, ever the cute cheerleader. She was just a year older than me, had come from California, and didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
Bianca was the grandmother of my friends. She could be a little stodgy and blunt. I knew I could count on her to give it to me straight. The two did a good job of offsetting each other.
“Okay, okay,” I said. “Now, just imagine me walking up to the podium. And here goes.”
I took a deep breath. Don’t undress, don’t undress, don’t undress, I chanted to myself as I began.
I finished, exactly twelve minutes later, to their polite applause. “Now, I’ll open the floor to questions.” And I will not call on anyone who even sounds remotely as sexy as Zachary.
“That was fantastic!” Avis said. “I couldn’t even think of a way to do it better! You’ll knock ‘em dead!”
Bianca said, “Don’t read from your cue cards so much. Look up from the podium now and then.”
I nodded. “Right. Okay.”
I admitted that I probably had been reading from the cue cards a lot of the time. At least I hadn’t taken off my clothes. That was a good thing.
Leah said, “It was fine the first hundred times I heard it.” She was exaggerating, after all, I’d only put together the PowerPoint a few days ago. But yes, I had gone on and on like a broken record about this subject. I opened my mouth to apologize as she added, “It’s great, girl. You’ll slay them.”
“Right.” I exhaled slowly, wishing I could just stay in there with their kind faces for the rest of the day. But I couldn’t. I checked my phone. The forum was about to start. I waved at the screen. “Bye, guys, and thanks! Wish me luck!”
The screen went dark. I packed it up, took my flash drive with my presentation in my hand, and closed my eyes, praying I could get through the next hour unscathed. Then I smoothed out my cashmere sweater and slacks — I’d purposely worn something different from what I was wearing in the dream, just in case I got any ideas — and stepped outside the room.
The presenters were already congregating in the hallway outside the auditorium as guests began to arrive. I noticed Ella Greer, the woman who was organizing the event and waved to her.
“Hello, Juliana,” she said to me with a smile as I greeted her in the hall. “Are you all set?”
I nodded. “As set as I’m going to get,” I said brightly, trying to push away the nerves that were threatening to tangle my vocal chords. I handed her the flash drive with my presentation.
“Well, this is going to be one of our biggest forums yet,” she said enthusiastically. “We have a thousand people who RSVP’d to be here in person, and would you believe, another ten thousand from around the country will be joining us via closed caption television.”
I swallowed. Eleven thousand people. Holy. Cow.
“Like I’m sure you’ve read, today you’re going to hear lots of viewpoints, some that may be in direct conflict with what you’re arguing. But that’s the reason why we have these conversations. To open up the line of communication and make people aware of other views.”
I nodded. I knew there’d be other people here who didn’t share my viewpoint. I knew that things could get heated in these debates. But as far as I was concerned, there was only one viewpoint that mattered in this issue. The right one. Mine.
“Shall I introduce you to some of the other presenters who will be on the panel with you?” she asked.
“Yes. Thank you.” My voice quivered as I followed her. I needed to stop that and remember the children. They were depending on me.
She led me to the group of presenters. I shook hands with a tall, gray-haired lady named Dr. Scarborough, who was the head of pediatric endocrinology, and a man named Dr. Flange, who was a clinical nutritionist. They were on my side, I knew, so I smiled warmly at them. Then she led me down the line, to two men dressed in suits.
“These men are major suppliers,” she explained, her voice low. I could tell she was secretly on my side. I mean, who wouldn’t be? “They provide the food that makes up most of our school lunches. Franklin Marsh from Marsh Distributors, and the CEO of Yum! Foods, Alexander Wideshall. Marsh is better known for their pizzas, and Yum, of course, specializes in ethnic-based foods and revolutionized the Taco Tuesday that most of our schools have adopted. This is Juliana Hurley, a nutritionist at Healthy Steps, who specializes in treating young people.”
They were cordial, but I shook just the tips of their hands. Tacos and pizza, two of the worst offenders, right behind the packaged desserts and snack cakes that were sold in vending machines. Jerks.
“Oh, and of course, to keep things even. Three per side,” she said, looking down the hallway, seeming perplexed. “We have another individual who is a supplier, somewhere… oh, there he is!”
I turned and… oh, my god.
This wasn’t happening.
I came face-to-face with him.
Zachary.
“Mr. Vaughn!” she trilled, sounding like a schoolgirl with a crush. She was clearly on his side. “Come meet our other panelists!”
At first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me, that I was so obsessed with him that I was seeing his face on somebody else’s body. But as he came closer and his face didn’t change, my knees locked, my palms dripped, and my throat went dry.
Dressed in a three-piece suit and carrying an expensive looking briefcase, he strolled up to me, leaking nothing from his expression. He offered me his hand smoothly, and those green eyes bored straight into my soul, doing a tap dance on my insides. Suddenly, the urge to undress was back.
I reached out to take his hand but stopped as Ms. Greer said, “Zachary Vaughn, Vaughn Industries. Famous for, among other things, the most popular snack cake in the country, the Heigh-di-Ho!”
My hand fell back to my side.
How could I shake the hand of the devil himself?