chapter 1

It had always been easy for me to be in a good shape. A very good shape. Since high school I was a lot into sports, athletics and rowing built my body in a nice, sculpted way. I used to be even too thin before all the activity put on several pounds of muscles on me, bringing my weight from a scrawny 120 lbs of a teenager to the solid 180 – 190 lbs man when I was in college, with broad shoulders, big pectorals and especially a six pack that more than a few girls appreciated openly.

I didn’t need to watch what I ate. My metabolism had always been fast, and all the sports made it even wilder. If it was easy for me to keep my shape, I can’t say the same for my girlfriends. All of them complained of my eating habits rubbing off on them. Not that I was eating junk food, quite the contrary. I was simply eating often and I was always offering to share whenever I was getting something as a snack, on top of sharing similar portions for me and my girlfriends at lunch and dinner.. it just looked unfair to give them less than what I was getting for myself.

Of the three girlfriends I had in my 20s, two gained close to 15 pounds in the time they spent with me, and the last one went up nearly 30 pounds in just a couple of years. Not that I minded too much, I actually ended up finding it cute. It was nice to see them developing a bit of curves on their fit bodies, getting soft, even growing a bit of a potbelly for the last one. I liked to see her gradually building a muffin top where her flat stomach used to be. I started seeing it as a sign of being happy, relaxing into a new relationship, letting down the guard a bit. It was definitely a sign of spending a lot of time with me, and having an influence on them. Definitely a sign of my eating habits having an impact on their waistline. I remember the pouts of each of them the day they couldn’t button their favourite jeans anymore or when they stepped on the scales and saw a number bigger than what they were hoping for, or coming back home after meeting a friend that genuinely commented on how “more relaxed” they looked after a year of stable relationship, which was a way to say they could spot the “happy pounds”. Especially I remember appreciating the round belly roll my last girlfriend had put on. You tend not to notice things which are happening gradually in front of your eyes, or at least you underestimate them. But it struck me one night as we were at a party and she was sitting on a sofa sipping a gin tonic with a couple of old friends, they were still all in a pretty good shape except for one, whose belly was bulging a bit too much over her waistband and her love handles were doing the same on her sides. “Wow” I thought looking at her “that’s a chubby girl, verging to fat..” Only an instant later I realised I was watching my own girlfriend. Probably the fact that she was sitting next to her fit friends made her new pounds looks more noticeable than usual. But looking at her big smile and soft tummy made me feel good.. my girl was definitely happy and relaxed.
In my 30s little had changed, a part from being probably 10 - 15 pounds lighter, which put me at 170 lbs. I guess I was still very active, just not hitting the gym as much as before. My body was more or less the same, very muscular and sculpted, just a bit smaller. Which wasn’t bad, some girls had said that I was even too muscular before.

And I started dating a new girl, Eva, my current girlfriend. She was a couple of years older than me, and she also was pretty active and very lean. I was wondering if she would have put on some weight too. Not that I was giving it too much importance, it was just that coming from my previous experiences I was nearly expecting it to happen sooner or later. I really liked her, I was struck by her determination, if she wanted something she would have gotten it, but at the same time she was very sweet and even maternal. We went along so well since the beginning, and many of our hobbies were the same, like hiking, camping, sea swimming..

I could see her determination at work when I was offering to share a piece of cake or a cookie. If she wasn’t hungry there was no way she was going to say yes. But most of my girls had been like that at the beginning, just to let the guard down slowly and by the time they realised how much my habits had rubbed off on them, they had already the beginning of a muffing top and belly roll spilling over their trousers. Not that I wanting to make them chubby.. It was just a natural consequence of being around me, which I ended up enjoying.

Eva seemed to hold better than my previous girlfriends. Six months into dating she still hadn’t given into my habits at all. She got used to them, just she didn’t let them rub on her. She would prepare me something to snack on when I got home from work, or at mid morning or mid afternoon on weekends, but she wouldn’t get any food herself. And at lunch our portions were different. I remembered one of my ex girlfriends one day we had some of her girlfriends around for dinner. I gave everybody the same portion of pasta as I had for me, my girlfriend smiled at the look of her friends, for them it was clearly too much to handle while my girlfriend started eating and made a little joke “you see, I got used to eat as much as him but he is a 6 ft guy, no wonder I have grown this since I met him.” As she patted the little pot belly she had indeed grown. She wasn’t proud of it, but she got quite used to it, and she knew there was no point trying to hide a 30 pounds gain from her friends..

Eva was different. When I fill her dish as much as mine she would just scoop some into my dish, saying it is too much for her. If there were leftovers I used to split them between me and my girlfriend but again Eva was different. Whenever we have leftovers she would come with the pot at the table and ask for my dish to fill it up again, but very rarely she would have any.
I guess that comes with her very determined character.
But she can be also very sweet and caring. Many times she would say she is going to cook me something nice for dinner, especially if she knows I have a busy day at work.

It’s nice to feel looked after, and she is definitely good at that. She is also very social and she likes to have our friends around for dinner. That’s a good excuse to make an extra effort in the kitchen. She is a pretty good cook anyhow, so our friends are always very happy to come. But even with our friends around she still makes me feel special. She is obviously happy to see people enjoying her food, but if there is any second helping she always offers it to me first. I remember her so many times pointing at my empty dish and saying with a mixture of determination and affection something like “Come here honey, there is some more for you”. I still offer her to get some herself rather than thinking just of me but she usually says something like “oh don’t be silly, you need some more, I’m fine.”

And she didn’t limit herself to the meals we were having together. She extended her effort to make me have a nice home cooked lunch every day at work too. Every morning she was handling me a lunch box with pasta, or rice, or lasagne, a bit of fruit and a couple of biscuits or a snack. It was nice to feel pampered in such a way, and also it was great to avoid the canteen food, as it was not nearly as good as Eva’s food.

That was our routine, but even a year into it I still felt special to her eyes and I was still feeling very lucky to have her in my life and looking after me so fondly. It was nice to get back home and have my girl welcoming me. “How was your day at work honey? Did you enjoy your lunch.. oh you ate it all, good job boy I was afraid I gave you too much.” Her portions were generous indeed but I was happy to show appreciation for all the time and the energy she was spending to take care of me. “I hope you still have some room left, I was thinking of having an early dinner and then watch a movie in bed.. we still have a slice of my mum’s cake we could have it for dessert.. do you like the plan?” I did like the plan. It was not so uncommon for us to have a very relaxed evening like that, but I loved it, there was something so comforting in it, plus there was usually also some action involved, because our sex life was still in full swing, and lying in bed watching a movie usually involved some activity under the covers. Her mum was also a good cook, and her cakes were never disappointing. We got our dessert in bed that night, Eva brought it in on a plate with some cream and only one little fork. “Are we not sharing?” I asked. It was a pretty big slice, it could have been enough for the two of us but she said she was ok “I’ll just have a bite but the rest is all for you hon.”. Again, nothing new.

When it was time to turn off the light Eva cuddled up around me “Did you like it?” she asked as she started caressing me slowly “Yes, it was delicious” I answered. She stopped and looked at me perplexed, then she started laughing gently “I was asking about the movie.. were you still thinking of my mum’s cake? Oh, you’re getting such a foodie hon..” She looked genuinely surprised but also amused by our little misunderstanding. I was feeling a bit embarrassed because on second thought it was obvious she was asking about the movie, and nobody had called me a foodie before.