chapter 15

March finally came, and so did another ten pounds for each of us. Our weight gain had slowed after the holidays, but not by much. I guess you could call it winter weight gain, but it was a lot of winter weight.

On the second Sunday of March, Kelly got an e-mail from Matt. She had been on the sofa and I had been in the kitchen fixing a sandwich. "Jeff! An e-mail from Matt just showed up!" Kelly was sitting with her laptop in her lap. Actually, her belly was in her lap, and her laptop was on the space left on her legs. She was biting her lip, staring at the screen.

"Have you opened it? What's it say?"

"I'm afraid to open it. Come sit with me, so we can see it at the same time." So I left the half built sandwich on the kitchen counter, came around and sat next to her. She was in her usual townhouse outfit, a tank top and panties. By now, her tank tops were partially consumed by her fat rolls, and her panties were totally hidden by her belly and love handles when she was sitting down. In between was a lot of skin showing, her belly pushing out and around her. I was suddenly aroused, which usually happened when I would get a close up view of her fat. I controlled myself, telling myself that this was the e-mail that we had both been waiting for, for four months. Once I was seated, Kelly moved the mouse over the e-mail and double clicked on it. It opened, and had only one line.

"I'll be arriving Saturday mid-afternoon. Matt."

That was it. Just a rough arrival time. The only clue about how he felt was how short and cold the note was. "Six days from now. So what do we until then?"

"Well," I said patting my belly, "we're not dieting all this off between now and Saturday. May as well go to Wet Your Whistle and get some beer and some wings."

"Hell, why not. It won't matter if I'm even fatter."

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening drinking beer and eating. It started with wings, went to ribs and fries, and finally a gooey, fattening dessert. That week we both worked, and we spent evenings eating and having intense sex. It was as though the world was going to end on Saturday, so we had better enjoy our time left.

Saturday finally arrived. We'd had a big breakfast and tidied up the townhouse. Matt could think whatever he wanted of his, but he wouldn't think we were slobs. That was done by noon, so I nuked leftover pizza and we ate that. I thought about another session of sex with Kelly, but I could imagine Matt coming home early and finding us in bed. This afternoon was going to be hard enough without starting it like that.

So we sat on the sofa. To pass time, Kelly was browsing the web and I was playing a video game. Neither one of us was really into it, but we couldn't think of anything else to do. At about 3:30, we heard a car pull up. Kelly and I looked at each other. It was finally time. We heard car doors open, then a trunk open, then a trunk close, and then the car doors close. Matt must have gotten his luggage out of the trunk, which meant he'd be coming through the door any second. We both got up and faced the door. We'd left it unlocked, we didn't want to give Matt a sign that he wasn't welcome. The door opened, and Matt walked in, and we stood there, facing each other.

When I say that Matt walked in, it was Matt, but not the Matt I'd known all my life. The same sandy hair and same brown eyes, fairly tall, but today's Matt was at least forty pounds heavier. I was in shock. Matt had been a workout king his whole life. He'd been in all kinds of sports in high school and college, and went to the gym four or five times a week. But now, Matt had a prominent belly sticking out in front of him, and he was a lot thicker through the hips than he'd ever been. We looked at him, in shock, and he looked at us, and grinned. "Well, bro, what do you think of the new me?"

I sputtered for a moment, and finally spit out, "I'd say that the new you is as fat as the new me!" We both laughed, I went over and shook his hand, and we did the bro hug. Matt then turned to Kelly, who's mouth was still open. Matt walked over to her and gave her a big hug.

"Matt, I-I-I don't know what to say. I wasn't expecting..."

"A fat Matt to show up? C'mon, let's have a beer and sit down. We've got a lot to talk about."

I got three IPAs out of the refrigerator, opened them and passed them around. We all took seats around the breakfast table. Matt took a long pull from his beer and started talking. "Kelly, when I got your e-mail, at first it just blew me away. I couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to be slim, to be in shape. And when you said that were going to stay fat, I didn't know how to handle it. It shocked me so much, I sort of went into a trance. I stopped going to the gym. It was all I could do to keep focused on work. And I stopped paying attention to what I was eating. The next thing I knew, I had put on about ten pounds." He grinned and drank more beer. "It was like I woke up one morning and here was a roll of fat that had never been there before. And you know what?" He paused and took another drink. I think he was enjoying dragging this out. "It didn't suck! All my life I'd been hating fat, and now I had some, and it didn't suck! And eating what I wanted to didn't suck. And not working out didn't suck. I thought some more about what you wrote about me having to accept you the way you are. I thought that not only were you right, but I could do better than just accept you."

"So you decided to get fat?" Kelly asked, still open mouthed.

"Hell, I figured, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" Matt declared, grabbing his round belly with both hands. "And it looks like you figured the same thing, huh bro?"

It was my turn to say something. "I guess I just enjoyed letting loose, and this," patting my belly, "is what letting loose looks like."

Matt raised his beer and said, "A toast! Here's to life in the fat lane!" We all took a long pull, the tension finally broken. There was a small silence, and Matt's face suddenly got serious. "I know that I left you two hanging with that one e-mail, and I shouldn't have. Without knowing where I stood, I'm sure it was hard on both of you. And I'm guessing," he started to grin again, "that you dealt with it by eating and by screwing like rabbits." Kelly and I both looked down a little, and nodded. "Hell, I would have done the same thing. And look, if you two connected while I was gone, I totally understand. I'll step aside if that's where you two are."

Kelly was the only one that could answer that. She had still had her head down, but now looked up at both of us. "Jeff, you're a wonderful guy and being here with you this year has been great. But...but Matt, I love you. And if you still want me, I want you." Matt's face lit up completely, he got up and gave Kelly a big hug and held it for a long time.

"We're going to get fatter, aren't we?" Matt said playfully.

"Of course we are, babe. There's no telling how fat we're going to get," Kelly answered, with her face lit up with happiness.

Finally, they pulled apart. "Then let's get started!" exclaimed Matt. "Is the Wet Your Whistle still open? Let's go celebrate! I'm buying!"

"Why don't you two go ahead. Get to know each other again. I'd be kind of a third wheel."

"Oh to hell with that!" Kelly exclaimed. "You're going with us. In fact," she pulled out her phone, "there's a new girl in the office that you need to meet." And she started looking up the number.

"Wait a minute, how do you know she's my type?"

"She's got potential," Kelly grinned. "She's about twenty pounds overweight. If she starts spending some time with us, I'm sure you'll fatten her up so that she'll fit right in!"