Chapter 3

“And you fantasize about eating the wrong things, fattening things, don’t you?” she asked, already knowing the answer. I had told her as much. “All that junk food, all that greasy fast food, day after day, letting it have its way with you. Empty calories, processed food, preservatives, non-nutritious yummy things, with hardly a piece of fruit or unfried veggie in sight. The kind of diet that leaves you with no energy. The kind of diet that anyone trying to get in shape or lose weight wouldn’t dream of touching. From all that you’ve told me, I bet you’d want to eat like that even if it wasn’t to gain weight. You want to indulge in the stuff you know is bad for you because it’s bad for you, because you know bad diets are sexy. Wouldn’t you like me to give you a sexy, bad diet?”

I had trouble hiding how aroused I was becoming just hearing her say those things. She was looking at me expectantly. I knew she wanted me to agree with her. And I wanted to agree with her. I was afraid of where that agreement might lead me. “Uh... like, all the time?”

“Do you want it to be all the time, sweetie?” she asked. I must have looked flustered or worried, so she said, “No, not all the time. Just some of the time, and we’ll see where that takes us. Maybe some day we’ll work up to all the time. Maybe. Let’s just say I reserve the right to make that call. Okay?”

I think I nodded a little jerkily. Was I actually agreeing to all of this? What was I getting myself into? For her part, she looked ecstatic. She was practically bouncing in her seat.

“I knew it! I knew you’d perfect for this. But,” she said, seriously, “I just want to make sure you understand that it’s not simply that you’ll be free to have a bad diet – you’ll have no choice but to have a bad diet. At least part of the time, when I want you to. You have to agree to eat whatever I want you to, no matter how fattening or how unhealthy you know it is for you, even if it’s every day for a while. Okay?”

I felt light-headed again. Why did her saying things like that affect me this way? “Yhee-eess.” The word seemed to be pulled from lips without my full consent.

“That’s wonderful to hear. Don’t worry. Like I said, after you fatten up some, we’ll slow down. No need to panic about changing too fast. I won’t have you stuffing your face twenty-four seven or anything,” she said soothingly. “But with a diet like that there’s no way you can avoid gaining weight, even if it’s very slowly. It’s gonna happen. Your waistline will spread a teensy bit more each day. Hardly noticeable, but it’ll add up. I’m not saying you’ll end up enormous or anything. But, sooner or later, you’ll end up truly and undeniably fat. Just the way I want you.”

“Wow,” I said, weakly. It was seeming more and more unavoidable that I would end up the way she wanted me. I could say no, of course I could. But I wasn’t.

“So,” she said, straightening up and sound officious, “now for the rules.”

That shook me out of my daze. “Rules? Already?”

“Of course. Let’s start tonight. Why wait? We’ve already touched on your diet and how you have to eat what I want, so here’s the main rule: no more exercise for you.”

“None?”

“Absolutely none,” she said. “At all. No aerobics, no weights, no working out of any kind. No biking, no swimming, no running or jogging...”

This wasn’t sounding too hard. I liked bicycling, but I hadn’t done it in a while so I could keep going without it for a while. And I’d never willingly jogged in my life.

“...no sports, no stretching, no hiking, no long walks–”

“Aww!” I finally had to object. “But I like going on walks. On nice days.”

“Aww!” she echoed teasingly. “Sorry. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Walking burns calories and works your muscles. We can’t have that. Agree to give it up.”

“Grr.”

She smirked. “Cute, but it’s no use. It has to go.”

“But... but what if I didn’t do it very often?” I asked. She arched her eyebrow. “And didn’t walk very fast?” Still no response. “And I didn’t go up hills?” I was grasping at straws.

She chuckled. “Okay. If it’s really that important to you. But not often, and only when I go with you to make sure you don’t go too fast and take lots and lots of breaks to rest up, even if you don’t need to. One day you will.” The way she smiled made me feel as though I hadn’t won a concession at all. “It’s so nice to see you taking part in setting the rules for yourself.”

I squirmed uncomfortably.

“But it’s not just exercise and sports and things,” she continued with relish. “It’s everything. I want you to be as sedentary as possible. Isn’t sedentary such a sexy word? I want you to stay off your feet whenever possible; no pointless burning of calories or using your muscles. I want your ass glued to the sofa, right where it belongs.”



“Just the sofa?”

She smirked. “Any chair. Or the bed. As long as you’re off your feet. And no yardwork or housework; I’ll take care of that. If it’s ever unavoidable that you have to do housework or something else like that, you’ll do it slowly and take lots of breaks. You’ll limit your use of stairs and, well, anything else that might raise your heart rate. I want it to stay nice and low. And I don’t want you standing for more than a few minutes at a time, even if we’re public. There are chairs everywhere. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you how to act until it becomes habit.” Her smile became a somewhat sinister. “And if I catch you breaking the rules and exercising, I’ll have to punish you.”

This was sounding very bizarre, but I was completely fascinated. She was really serious about this. “But, um, how long, exactly, would I have to follow these rules?”

Her brow furrowed in thought. “Hmm, well, this isn’t a short term project you know. Growing pathetically out of shape doesn’t happen overnight. It’s taken you, what, nearly a year and a half to get this far. Let’s say until the end of this year.”

My eyes widened. “That’s over six months from now.”

“So? It should be a piece of cake,” she said. “All you have to do is... nothing. Just sit around, be good and lazy, and keep letting yourself go. Easiest thing in the world. It’ll make me so happy to see you sitting around the house, getting a little bit lazier and weaker every day. In how many other relationships would doing nothing give so much pleasure to other person? Besides, six months is just the beginning. After that, we’ll evaluate you, see how you’re doing... and then we can start to work on keeping you out of shape all next year, too.”

“Eep.”