chapter 1

Rob met Mary at a home decorating center. It was mid-March in St. Louis, Missouri, and they had both been living there for about a year. They were both twenty something young professionals. Rob was a service manager for a large cellular company, and Mary was a software developer for an on-line shopping service. It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday when they were both looking for patio furniture. They each had an apartment with a balcony, with no patio furniture and spring was coming. When Rob saw Mary, he was immediately attracted to her. She was fairly tall, about five foot seven, with auburn hair, green eyes and a slim figure, albeit with breasts a little bigger than average. He noted no ring on her left hand, and struck up a conversation with her. About patio furniture of all things. Well, it was a start. Mary also found herself attracted to Rob. He was about six feet, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes and at 175 pounds he had the trim physique of a runner.

Their conversation led to introductions, which led to exchanging phone numbers, which led to Rob taking Mary out, which led to more dates, which led to going together, which, in September, led to Mary and Rob moving in together. Their leases were both up, and they went in together on a two-bedroom loft apartment that looked over mid-town.

Rob was indeed a runner, although nothing so extreme as marathons. He ran three or four miles, roughly every other day, and he was careful about his diet. Mary, on the other hand, wasn't much for exercise, and she wasn't much for healthy eating either. Rob ate a lot of salads, chicken, vegetables, and fruit. Mary was all about pizza, steak, potatoes and desserts. Mary's fast metabolism kept her from ever gaining any weight, at least so far.

Rob and Mary liked everything about each other, except when it came to diets. Mary would occasionally tell Rob to live a little and have something besides "twigs and leaves." Rob would tell Mary that she ought to eat better "for the sake of your health." Mary usually reacted to that by having another slice of pizza. In fact, the more Rob nagged her about how she ate, the more she reacted by having another helping of whatever unhealthy food was in front of her. She didn't worry about her weight, why should she? Her metabolism had worked just fine for her. So far.

Mary had been at about 145 pounds all her adult life, but in the waning days of October she found herself having a hard time zipping up her jeans. She stood in the bathroom with the door open, tugging at them and sucking in to zip them. Rob was watching her, leaning on the doorway with a slight smirk.

"Maybe now you'll listen to me, Mary. I told you that you needed to change your diet, and now it's caught up with you. You're getting fat."

"Get off my ass," snapped Mary. "My jeans shrunk in the wash. And if I did gain a few pounds, and I mean a few, it's not the end of the damn world."

Rob would have been well advised to let it go, but instead he added fuel to the fire. "Yeah, funny how its only your jeans that shrunk. Mine fit just fine," slapping his flat belly. "Gonna have to put you on a diet, girl."

"I'll decide when and if I go on a diet! You sure as hell aren't the boss of me!" As Mary barked at him, she finally got the zipper up, which showed the beginnings of a muffin top. Rob reached over and pinched the little roll of flesh, and Mary slapped his hand away. "Let's finish getting dressed. I'm hungry, I want a beer, and we're going to the Bodacious Brew Pub, right!?"