Chapter 3

The Chinese was quiet, so they grabbed a table in the corner and ordered some food and wine. As they chatted, he couldn’t help but like her. Gemma was friendly and had a good sense of humour. At first John tried to hold back on the food, not wanting to look like a complete pig on their first date. She noticed and grinned wickedly. “Not hungry tonight?” she asked. “I can’t have you wasting away. Let’s have an eating competition”. John agreed readily, and soon plate after plate of food was being brought their way. John almost felt sorry for the waiters scurrying back and forth.

He admitted he had been looking out for her on the train over the past few weeks. “After I saw you last time, at first I didn’t realise you liked me” she said between mouthfuls. “I fancied you straight away, but you turned away when I smiled at you, and I was feeling a bit self conscious as I’d put on quite a bit of weight recently.” More forkfuls of food went in. “But I love eating and putting on weight, so eventually I decided I didn’t care what people thought any more and started stuffing myself. Then I thought maybe you were feeling embarrassed too so I thought I’d come into town and hope to see you again”. She paused, let out a belch, and started attacking another mound of food. “You don’t look like you’ve been doing too badly for yourself either”.

“Mmm” John agreed, but he was transfixed by Gemma. She had eaten a huge amount – and wasn’t slowing down – and her top had ridden up as her engorged gut spilled out beneath. Her skin was stretched thin and was almost shiny yet still the food was going in. Suddenly with a ping! The button on her jeans gave way and her stomach expanded outwards, but with a smile she just carried on eating. John was painfully aware of the acute agony from his trousers, but he couldn’t let her beat him so he continued eating also. It wasn’t like before his jeans gave way too, and they giggled together before, undeterred, she commandeered another tray of food.

Shortly after, the manager came across and announced the kitchen was closing. John and Gemma called it an honourable draw, then he rang for a cab to take them back to his flat. John felt elated, and didn’t even mind that the restaurant had charged him double; judging from the ache in his gut which was pushing out inches further than he’d ever seen before, they’d eaten many times what most people ate anyway. He looked across at Gemma, who smiled at him whilst massaging her stomach, which was swelling out in front of her.

He had a feeling they would be eating together a lot in future and he was really going to have to find somewhere that sold some bigger trousers. Much bigger.