Fat Chance

Fat Chance
Deborah Blumenthal

Plus-size Maggie O'Leary is America's Anti-Diet Sweetheart. Her informed column about the pitfalls of dieting is the one sane voice crying out against the dietocracy.She is perfectly happy with who she is and the life she leads. Until she gets the chance to spend some quality time with Hollywood's hottest star. Maggie knows she can't exactly show up looking like…well, herself. So she swallows her words and vows to become the skinniest fat advocate Tinseltown has ever seen.Swearing her trusted assistant to silence, Maggie embarks on a "secret" makeover. From showdowns with her boss, who is convinced his star columnist is losing her edge–er, girth–to run-ins with her closest male friend, the trip through the famed red door of beauty is anything but graceful. But despite her doubts about abandoning the comfortable life she's known–not to mention deceiving legions of loyal readers who still think of her as their champion, L.A.-bound Maggie is hell-bent on getting her just "desserts"!Bursting with wit, insight and humor, Deborah Blumenthal's Fat Chance is a guilt-free pleasure that is good to the last page!

Praise for

Fat Chance

“Food and men are two of Maggie O’Leary’s favorite pastimes…. To snag her star, she ignores her own antidieting dictates and sheds the pounds but eventually finds that you can get a man and eat your cake, too.”

—People, Spring’s Best Chick Lit, 2004

“Light as a cupcake and as fun to devour, Blumenthal’s debut novel (and Red Dress Ink’s second hardcover) will likely find many fans.”

—Booklist

“Maggie is likable throughout the story line, but especially when she tries to live life to the fullest without concern to her size, and the support cast adds insight into what makes Maggie tick. To learn whether she got her hunk—read the book.”

—Harriet Klausner on reviewcentre.com

“Deborah Blumenthal’s deliciously amusing novel offers a refreshing chick-lit twist: a heroine who embraces with gusto her inner—and generously proportioned outer—food-loving self. Zaftig Maggie O’Leary happily devours barbecued ribs rather than obsessing about whether her own will be visible to the naked eye—and builds a high-profile career encouraging fellow females to do the same. Fat Chance is as much sparkling, laid-back fun as good champagne sipped from a bottle!”

—Wendy Markham, author of Slightly Single and Slightly Settled

Fat Chance

Deborah Blumenthal

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

There are several people that I would like to thank for making this book possible: Claudia Cross, my agent at Sterling Lord, for her quick and spirited response to the book, and Sarah Walsh, her assistant, for handling business so quickly and efficiently, even when computer glitches threw themselves in our path. Renni Browne and Mary Costello are writing teachers extraordinaire, and I thank them both for their vision. My editor, Ann Leslie Tuttle, deserves special thanks for being such a hearty supporter of the book from the start. She is a joy to work with. She is gracious, elegant, supportive, sensitive and always available. I would also like to offer deep-felt gratitude to Margaret Marbury and her associates at Red Dress Ink for their unswerving enthusiasm.

My husband, Ralph, my best friend and mentor, is always having drafts of my work dropped on him and, as ever, I am eternally grateful for all his guidance. Our daughter, Annie, is also a faithful reader and editor as well as an overall great kid, and much love and appreciation goes to her for her unflagging support. Our younger daughter, Sophie, also deserves thanks and love for putting up with seeing my back at the computer for as many years as she has been with us. Thanks to Connie Christopher for offering her wise counsel. To all my other friends and family who have been willing to listen to the whining all these years, thanks for staying on the line.

To Ralph

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Epilogue

Prologue

Chewing the Fat

How could I forget the way it started? We chewed the fat—on our filet mignons that were charred to blackened perfection outside, bloodred inside, topped with a pebbly crust of crushed green peppercorns. We were having lunch at Gallagher’s, Bill’s favorite steak restaurant, and the more excited he got about the idea, the more he waved his fork through the air like a conductor’s baton, never mind that the end of it held a wedge of baked potato enveloped in sour cream that I feared he might inadvertently fling down on my head.

“The entire planet is fat, Maggie,” Bill said, shaking his head. “Between 1991 and 1998 alone, the incidence of obesity almost doubled, and you know better than I do that the only people who benefit from bestselling diet books are the people who publish them.” I opened my mouth to answer, but he went on.