Page 1 of Fixed Up Ever After
CHAPTER1
Lola
Lola Roberts managed a feeble smile at her sister’s engagement news, even when Marisol announced she would be marrying Archie, Lola’s ex-boyfriend. It was fine. Totally and completely fine. In fact, Marisol did her a favor. No woman in their right mind would voluntarily agree to marry a guy with the first name of Archibald, as if they were living in their own little version of Bridgerton.
Sir Archibald of Douche Baggery and Lady Marisol of Back Stabbery.
Honestly, they were a match made in hell. A business exchange disguised as two people happily engaged. Or as happy as Marisol could be. She rarely saw her sister smile and for most of her life, Lola didn’t think Marisol was capable. Except someone turned up the wattage inside her brain and her radiant smile lit up the room. She clung to Archie like pet hair to black clothing.
Their manufactured happiness disgusted her.
Not as much as her mother’s over-the-top reaction though. Her stone-hearted mother openly wept over the news and expressed how proud she was of Marisol. Their mother, Luciana, thrived on material goods and a well-rounded image. Lola, her youngest daughter, had never been able to fit into the box crafted for her.
Her hair was too unkempt. She was too fat. Her clothes weren’t by the right designer. Her job didn’t scream luxury. She didn’t befriend the right people. The list went on, but thinking anymore about all the ways she came up short in her family would make her spiral. And she couldn’t do that without a strong drink in her hand.
No one noticed as she left the table, too consumed with admiring the giant rock on Marisol’s left hand. It was a miracle her petite sister could even carry it on her slender finger without breaking a bone. She wondered if the ring had originally been made for her when she believed Archie would propose, but like everything else in Lola’s life, the ring and the man went to Marisol.
“They sure are good-looking, aren’t they?” the bartender asked. Unconsciously, she had made her way over to the open bar, the one positive thing her family did at special dinners.
“Sure. If you can look past their superficial facade, then I guess they look good together.” So she was feeling petty, but her sister marrying her ex would do that to a person. She deserved to be a little bit of a bitch.
The poor bartender fumbled for something to say, but clearly, his classes on mixology had not prepared him for Lola’s particular brand of sulking. She spared the man by requesting whatever beer he had on tap. He fluttered away, all too happy to get away from her.
The gray cloud in the room.
As far as Lola was concerned, she had two options right now: she could sulk and drink away her sadness, or she could do something brave to wipe her mind of the last hour.
Sulking was always a safe option. She could throw herself a literal pity party back in her hotel room—complete with ice cream, pizza, those little street tacos she liked so much, and cake because every party deserved cake. Basically she wanted all the foods her mother would normally chastise her about while never letting her forget how many carbs and calories she was consuming.
“Dolores, do you think you’ll magically lose the baby fat if you keep eating like a high school boy?”Her mother would constantly nag, no matter how many times Lola asked her not to. The “baby fat” was just fat at this point. She was twenty-four, but her mother still treated her like a teenager who lived under her roof.
Thank goodness she didn’t. Lola had been put through enough fad diets under her mother’s watchful eye to last a lifetime. Her mother couldn’t fathom how Lola liked her body. As if bigger bodies weren’t worthy or desirable.
Lola was far from cocky, but she knew she looked good, even with her thick thighs, soft belly, and heart-shaped face. It took her a long time to appreciate the body she had, but when she stopped hating herself for simply existing in a bigger body, her life got tremendously better. She found clothes that showed off her curves. Learned how to style her thick curls and watched countless YouTube videos of plus-size beauty influencers doing their makeup until she found a routine that worked for her face structure.
She was thriving. Until she’d met Archie and lost the woman she was in order to become the woman best suited to be on the arm of a future CEO of a multimillion-dollar company.
If she were a character from one of those superhero movies her father enjoyed so much, this would be her villain origin story.
A cold, pale beer was placed in front of her, giving Lola a reprieve from her wayward thoughts. The bartender disappeared, as if afraid she’d rope him into another off-putting conversation. “Coward,” she mumbled under her breath, bringing the beer to her lips and taking a sip. The rich coldness of the beer sent a jolt of electricity through her, stiffening her spine.
It was exactly the shock her body needed to get out of the funk this whole engagement dinner put her in. She still couldn't believe she voluntarily got on a plane from Florida to fly to where her sister lived in California, only to walk into this messy disaster. No one seemed to care how she felt, so why should she give these people power over her? It was time to pull up her big girl panties and take matters into her own hands.
She needed a way to leave this crappy family function because there was no way she could spend another second watching Archie and Marisol pretend to be in love. What she needed was a good, old-fashioned hookup. And thanks to the wonderful world of dating apps, Lola did not have to search far.
With newfound vigor, she swiped up on her phone, letting face recognition unlock it. Her finger hovered for a second until she remembered what folder she put the dating app in. “Dating app” was probably not the best name because she doubted anyone had found love amongst a pack of horny people. Its purpose was hookups and that was what she needed.
The app opened under her manicured finger. It had been months since she last used it. The last two times had been a week after Archie broke up with her and again when she learned he had started dating her sister. So she had a few security questions she needed to answer before it restored her profile.
The red dot at the bottom of the screen indicated she had unread messages in her inbox. After a quick scan, she determined they were all over two months old and promptly deleted them. They served her no purpose now. Instead, she fell down the rabbit hole of endlessly swiping left on countless men.
There was a whole damn sea of them. She didn’t consider herself picky, but she could only handle so many profile pics of men holding fish. Most of these men were as white as her father and definitely didn’t want a plus-size half-Mexican woman.
No, she needed a man who could handle all of her for one night.
Out of the legion of men, only one caught her eye. His name was Javier and his dark eyes held a certain warmth that drew her in. His golden-brown skin stood out against the white of his shirt, pulled taut at the chest. He sat alone in his photo, smiling wide at whoever took the picture.
Scrolling through his brief bio, Lola discovered he was adventurous, enjoyed video games, and loved horror movies. Next to the job box, he stated he worked in construction. That was evident in his well-toned biceps, which were covered from wrist to shoulder with tattoos.
