She doesn't tell her about the creature

"It's ... a dare."

"Daring, more like..." Victoria sighed and turned back on her chair. "I don't believe you. If you're willing to **** yourself just to catch Eric's eye, go right ahead. Ridiculous."

She bit her fist, trying to resist the urge to defend herself for fear of digging deeper. She let the conversation die and tried to focus on work. Her mind kept drifting to her new figure, her predicament and Eric.

He was her dream man: a pretty, intelligent, funny, high earning professional, but he'd never paid her any notice. Yet today, finally, not just attention but a smile. It was too easy to imagine a life with him; she'd indulged in that fantasy many times. It had never felt like a real possibility before that moment, though.

She wondered if this was a blessing in disguise, as the imp had claimed all along. She also wondered if Eric would be her ticket to freedom from the imp. If it's true that she had to sleep with him, though, she couldn't rush that. She couldn't see a way to get into his life quickly enough to free herself before the changes get any more humiliating.

She wondered if it was true that she would never be able to wear anything more modest or practical than what she was wearing right then. The imp had certainly said it was true, but there had to be some kind of way to undo it.

"Eric smiled at you." The little man beamed up at her, a couple feel below her eyeline.

"Yes," she smiled. "He did. See, I'm making progress." She spoke happily, for a change, optimistic that the creature might just leave her alone and let fate take its course.

"That you are. At the current rate, you'll be out of my hair in, hmm, I don't know, a decade?" He spat.

He wasn't as pleased as she'd been hoping.

"I, well, yes: I can't find love in 48 hours."

"I'm not asking you to find love, I'm asking you to get fucked!"

He accentuated the last word with a flick of his wrist, which coincided with a strange sensation in her ankle. Sure enough, she felt her ankle rise further off the ground. She looked down to see the heel of her boots heightening. She also felt a sense of constriction around her waist.

She was taken aback by his lack of sympathy. "Look, this is new for me, I just need you to slow down a bit! You've done your part." She put her hands on her waist, trying to feel what was changing.

"I can't slow down, I have a schedule; why do you find this so confusing?" He seemed anxious. "Why don't you speed up, hm? Did you even speak to your 'crush 'yet?"