It all Started with a Second Coffee Ch 1
Hughie is a hyena who has noticed that he's a bit larger than he used to be. However, he enjoys the perks of his job too much to make any changes to his diet. Meanwhile, his best friend Gary, a red fox, would prefer to see a few more pounds added to Hughie's growing frame.
Waking up in the morning for work was never a pleasant experience. No matter what that job was, having to shut off the alarm and leave the warm embrace of the sheets on the bed was difficult. And for Hughie, a hyena in his mid-twenties, training his body to wake up at the same time every day had been a struggle.
Initially, when he was fresh out of university, he woke up even earlier in the morning to go running before getting ready for work. At that time, his moderately trimmed body from years of athletics was accustomed to rising with the sun. He would download the latest episode of his favorite podcast while he brushed his teeth, and then just throw on his shoes and run for an hour. It had been his break from his studies, and a tradition that he continued as he started a part-time job at a kitchen while searching for long-term employment.
As the weeks went by, and his career prospects looked more and more bleak, Hughie continued to work at that kitchen. He earned more responsibilities and was promoted from a packer to behind the line. He was able to input his suggestions to menu items and add his personal flair to the recipes that already existed. Not to mention the unspoken benefits that he accrued, such as tasting every dish and making sure excess portions disappeared without a trace. His hours increased, and what had begun as a short-term filler had become his full-time job.
Longer hours meant that he had to get up just as dawn was breaking in order to go for a run. Waking up to an alarm when it was still dark outside had been unpleasant to say the least, and the duration of his morning exercise shrank as he woke up later and later. As the overworked and underpaid hyena tried to manage his stressful day job, he found himself staying up into the night to eat his dinner and trying to catch up in the morning. Eventually, he gave up on trying to wake up any earlier than he had to in order to get to work on time.
It wasn't long before a single, 16 ounce cup of coffee, filled to the brim with hazelnut creamer, brown sugar, and honey, became two. Nor did a single doughnut in the morning suffice. A second, be it cream or jelly filled, became the norm. Then, just last week, the stress of the summer rush led to a third doughnut in the car on the way to the kitchen. While it had been a good idea on paper, hitting a speed bump mid bite resulted in cream shooting out the side of the doughnut and straight down the frazzled hyena's face. Not only did it get right on the fur of his chin, it also left a big stain on his shirt. Looking down, there was no way that he could allow the cream to get on the seat of his car, so Hughie did what any rational fur would do and licked his shirt. The seatbelt was snug against his chest, and he had to multitask while avoiding running off the road or getting into an accident.
After that incident, Hughie's morning continued in its usual pattern. Just as he liked. Routine, easy-to-follow, and mostly mechanical. He didn't have to think too much when he woke up. He could just dive into the sugary rush that would fuel him until he got to work.
The real variety in his day began once he rolled out of his car and into the kitchen. His work provided him the opportunity to prepare and cook a variety of different dishes each day. The kitchen tended to lean towards Southern American dishes, but also attempted to include cuisine from other parts of the world. The recipes were given certain spins and different touches as well. His personal favorite was Pimento cheese made with smoked Gouda cheese for a sharper flavor. Not to mention how creamy the mixture was and how the pimentos seemed to combine perfectly with the cheese.
Oh yes. The absolute best perk of working in a kitchen was being able to sample each dish as it was prepared. And Hughie made sure to taste everything. For quality control purposes, of course. And so what if he accidentally made nine portions of the broccoli cheddar chicken bake instead of eight? Was he supposed to just throw the excess food away? He was still a growing boy, and there was no shame in him eating when he felt hungry. His growling stomach, which seemed to constantly be in a state of hunger, appreciated the nearly two pound meal.
Before packaging the food into containers and shipping them off to the store that would sell them as premade, take-and-bake meals, Hughie would go for his lunch break. Thankfully for him, it was just a short walk across the street to the local fast food restaurant. Even in the less than five minute walk, the sweltering summer heat caused small pools of sweat to form under Hughie's armpits and on his lower back. But stepping inside to a chilly blast of air conditioning and the comforting aroma of crispy french fries was worth all the hassle in the world. Very few smells could make Hughie's mouth water quicker than fried potatoes, and the ones at Big Burger's were among the best.
It was the late lunch rush, which forced the hungry hyena to wait in line. On the bright side, the longer he waited, the more consideration he was able to put into his menu choices for the day.
Eating the same things every day would get stale, so Hughie made sure to work his way through the menu, choosing a number from the combos menu, a number from the all day breakfast menu, a separate side, a dessert and, most importantly, a large coffee with extra milk and sugar.
After paying for his large bounty for his growing booty, Hughie was practically drooling as he sat down at a booth and waited an agonizing five minutes for his tray to arrive. As he waited, he noticed a new sensation. His shirt, and by extension his stomach, was touching the table of the booth. That had never happened before.
Confused at the recent development, Hughie rested his hands on his stomach. Rubbing it to confirm that it was indeed his own stomach and not someone else's, he noticed just how firm and round it was in his lap. It sat on top of his legs like a heavy ball and the hyena found himself closing his eyes as he tried to figure out just how he found himself with such a sizable gut. He resolved to dig out his scale from the back of his closet when he got home from work and check out just how significant the change was in his weight.
Just as he began to look at the growth of other places on his body, his order was called out. Sliding to the edge of the seat, a creaking sound in protest spoke to his recent weight gain. His stomach folded on itself as he leaned forward to push off the seat, creating a roll just below his chest. Feeling the slight jiggling of his butt and gut as he walked, he wondered just how long he had been like this without realizing it.
Maybe work had been so stressful lately that a bit of excess food here and there to cope was to blame. Maybe it was something to do with growing a bit older and his body's metabolism slowing down. Or, maybe it was some excess water weight or bloating. After all, he couldn't have gained much weight in such a short period of time.
It hadn't been more than a year since he last weighed himself, as he had done so right before he moved to his new apartment. If he recalled correctly, he was somewhere around 215 pounds at the time, so he surely couldn't be more than 230 or 245 at the very worst. It wasn't the 165 pounds that he weighed while at university, but then again, no one maintained the same weight from their later teens.
But, that was something for future Hughie to think about. Present Hughie was staring at his order as if this was the first time he had seen food in days. The aroma of fried grease and potato from his side order of extra fries, which had been combined with the ones that came as part of his Biggies #1 combo burger with a large soda, was perfectly balanced with the smell of the dough from his breakfast sausage biscuit. His large coffee and even larger chocolate milkshake completed his tray, and the tantalizing picture of fast food in front of his eyes nearly overwhelmed him in his short walk back to his booth.
He grabbed a handful of fries as he slid back to the middle of the seat, took a large sip of his coffee, and began to dig into his well-deserved lunch. First it was tackling the biscuit. Hughie made quick work of the fluffy dough and greasy and spicy sausage. A few crumbs caught on his chin fur, but his chest and stomach caught a sprinkling of his first course. He finished his coffee just as he began on the Biggie Burger. It was famous throughout the country for the secret sauce and spices that covered the beef patty, and it was just as good as the last time Hughie ordered it.
The hyena had always been described as a messy eater in his youth, and that was a trait he seemed to have maintained as an adult. A single sauce stain on his left pectoral was later met with another as the burger quickly disappeared down Hughie's throat.
He let out a belch and rubbed his stomach. While he wasn't quite full yet, he was starting to feel the impact of his snacks at work. Today had been particularly heavy on the snacking, due to the new hires for the busy summer season. They messed up more than a few recipes, and it was either into the trash or Hughie's gut, and he wasn't about to let good product go to waste.
However, there wasn't much left on the tray in front of him, and Hughie might be many things, but a quitter he was not. After tricking his mind by sticking his fries into his milkshake and finishing them off, there was just half of the milkshake remaining and his large soda. He knew he would take the soda back to work, so it was just about finishing his chocolate shake.
Massaging his gut produced another burp, and the bloated and stuffed weight on his lap groaned as he pushed down the last bit of frozen liquid. With his victory secured, Hughie leaned back and momentarily considered going home to sleep. He knew he had to go back to work, otherwise the new hires would burn the place down. Despite that possibility, all he wanted to do was continue to rub his painfully full stomach.
As a compromise, he gave himself permission to sit at the table for five more minutes and digest his meal, occasionally burping and tasting the grease on his breath. The small circles he rubbed on his bloated stomach were doing wonders for the tightness he was experiencing, and the break gave him time to think about what he had left to cook today.
There was a double batch of macaroni and cheese, a batch of sausage lasagna, a triple batch of buffalo chicken salad, and his bakers still needed to make a single batch of banana bread and a max batch of the snickerdoodle cookies. His stomach rumbled at the thought of tasting the uncooked dough, with a little bit of the cinnamon sugar coating.
With a heave and more than a bit of work to maneuver his bulk out of his seat, Hughie meandered his way back to his job with the strong possibility of tasting those cookies guiding his steps. And the thought of stopping at Pasquale's after work for a large double pepperoni and double cheese pizza gave him the resolve to put a bit of pep in his step.