I suppose it was sort of asking for trouble even taking the job. I never kept house worth a darn in real life and now I was supposed to be working as a maid. But there aren't a lot of jobs in Montana, so the hotel job in ski season was about the best thing I could find. And I probably would have lost the job the first day if Katie hadn't come along to show me how to do it pretty well and pretty fast.
Katie was kind of a big girl, as tall as most boys and not exactly fat but big-boned, I guess is the way people describe girls like her. Just big in all directions. Me, I'm not exactly skinny, I've got big hips and big boobs, but in a curvy way, I never had trouble attracting attention from guys, where Katie seems like she'd scare a lot of them off. But she was real nice about my not having a clue about cleaning, and as I got better at the job, we got to kind of be friends, and would hang out after work together once a week or so. It was nice to just have a friend friend after breaking up with my long time boyfriend-- we'd gone out since junior high, but as soon as we moved in together he turned into an asshole, always flirting in front of me and putting me down. When we broke up he said it was because I was letting myself get fat. I told him he was letting himself get mean and stupid, and between the two of them I'd pick fat. That pretty much put a permanent end to things right there.
One Friday night I asked her if she wanted to go with me to have a beer after and maybe rent a movie. She said something in reply that surprised me. She said she had made friends with an older couple that were staying at the hotel, and they had invited her to eat dinner with them. She often seemed to take an interest in the people who stayed at the hotel, a lot more than I did, but I didn't expect it to go that far. Seeing my surprise, she explained that they were friends of some guests she had gotten to know well a few months back, but that didn't really make it seem any less surprising-- so now she had two sets of close friends among the guests passing through? Oh well, it wasn't any of my business, really, so I went into town and had a couple of beers, running into somebody I knew from high school. A quiet night, all in all.
The next morning we were cleaning the rooms on the second floor and we came to one room that had really been kind of torn up-- I don't mean they wrecked things but both beds were used and stained, like people had been doing it in both. In fact, it had to have been more than two people, unless they made a point of messing up both beds. I made an offhand comment to Katie-- "Looks somebody had a wild night in here."
She looked at me funny for a minute, as if she was deciding whether to tell me something. Then she said, softly, "Yes, we did."
I was shocked. I mean, the idea had occurred to me that the couple who'd invited Katie to dinner was interested, you know, that way. But it was one thing to think that in the back of my mind, it was another to have her admit it right where it had happened. I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just put my head and down and got down to stripping the bed as quickly as I could. When Katie tried to ask me something, I just said "It's your business, it's none of mine," and went on down the hall to the next room.
Things were pretty chilly between us for a few days but after a while I realized I really missed her-- there weren't many others to talk to, she was the closest friend I had there. So after cleaning rooms separately for a few days, I just kind of slipped back into the routine of working with her in a pair. It seemed to go faster that way, I told myself.
The second day we were back together-- I mean working together-- Katie waited until we were joking around and in a good mood, and then suddenly she said, "So I guess I shocked you the other day."
I turned away. "I said it was your business. None of mine."
"But you're my friend. Did it shock you to learn what I've done?"
"I don't know what you've done and I don't--"
"Fucked a man and his wife. On several occasions. Different ones."
I turned bright red and turned away again. "Katie, if that's what you choose to do--"
She put herself in my face. "You're judging it and you don't know about it," she said. She took my hand and sat me down on the bed, next to her, holding my hands in her lap. I really didn't want to have this conversation, but it looked like I had no choice.
"So what, you just fuck guests you like?" I asked.
"It's not like that at all," she said. "It started with this couple I met here in the summer. A really nice older couple. I didn't have any friends here. They took an interest in me. But it wasn't only that they were nice to me-- they were the first people I'd ever met who liked my size. Who saw that I was strong and beautiful. Who wanted to worship a strong, powerful and sexual woman like myself."
"Worship? Is that what you're doing in bed with them?" I said, pretty sarcastically.
"Yes it is," Katie said, unbothered by my skepticism. "In past cultures the fat woman was a symbol of strength, fertility, and health. Only today do we worship the skinny girl who starves herself. These people all know this and believe it, and they hear about girls like me who are willing to be worshipped and share the bounty of their big bodies with those who admire them."
"So what, it's like a secret society of fat girl lovers or something?" I asked. "What do they do, meet in a cave or something?"
"No, I think they read dirty stories about BBWs on the internet," she said. "That's how they get to know each other. Or sometimes, one of them meets a new girl with the right shape to take part, and she initiates her into the group."
