Chapter 4 - honeymooners

The wedding planning was stressful for both Gene and Hailey. Both of them were working full time and taking on extra little projects here and there in the evenings and weekends to prepare as the big day drew closer. Hailey borrowed a friend's die cut machine to make her own wedding invitations - all 110 of them! Gene acquired a bunch of inexpensive yet stylish vases and set to work hand painting designs and lettering for use as centerpieces on their tables.

Eventually, the wedding day came and went. Gene looked handsome, Hailey was as radiant as could be. The reception was a hit, probably due to the open bar and a DJ who was allowing more than a fair share of requests from inebriated guests. Hailey and Gene even had to do a double take heading up to their suite afterwards as her sister Lindsey was stumbling down the hall with Gene's cousin Eddie, from whom she had been inseparable the entire evening.

The honeymoon was a much needed vacation for both of them. Gene and Hailey basked in the afterglow of their wedding and enjoyed lazing around in their cabin on a cruise of the Mediterranean. For four straight weeks they sailed, took in the sites at each port where they stopped, stuffed their faces, had as much sex as possible, and just enjoyed every second of being with each other.

It was maybe a day or two after returning home that Hailey first tried to put on a pair of jeans she had worn just a week before the wedding. She had mostly been dressed in loose fitting dresses or her stretchy bathing suit for almost the entire past month. As she attempted to pull the jeans up quickly over her thighs she was met with an immense amount of resistance.

"What the hell?" she remarked with surprise.

"DId my jeans shrink or something? What's going on here??" she worried, yanking the skin tight denim over her ass with some difficulty. She went to button and was again met with resistance.

"What the FUCK?" she shouted, unable to squeeze the button and button loop together. She looked down at her belly. How had this snuck up on her? She had an ever so slight little gut beginning to form. She felt around to her hips and love handles. Softer. Just slightly squishier than usual.

She peeled the pants back down her thighs and yanked them off her feet, then stumbled quickly into the bathroom and pulled the scale out from its home in the cabinet underneath the sink. She tapped it with her foot to zero it, and then climbed aboard in complete silence - a nervous wreck just imagining what it might soon reveal to her. She looked down towards her feet as numbers began to flash.

110...115...121...122

It settled and the number began blinking to indicate the measurement.

"HOLY SHIT! Hailey exclaimed.

Gene was downstairs sorting out laundry which they had been procrastinating on washing since returning from their trip and heard the commotion. He wandered up through the bedroom and into the bathroom to find his wife naked, and frantically stepping back on to the scale, watching the numbers flash, and stepping off with a shout of "SON OF A BITCH!"

"What? What's wrong?" he asked.

"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. I put on 12 pounds in the past month, that's what's wrong!!" Hailey shouted.

Gene had noticed Hailey seemed a little bit curvier and perhaps a bit softer in bed, but he hadn't really thought much of it. She was still very much a thin girl, even if her skinny jeans weren't fitting very well. Still, he felt that same innate and confusing excitement at the realization that his wife, who had been 110 pounds for the past two years that he knew her, had suddenly just one month after getting married, managed to pile on 12 pounds just like that.

"Hey alright, just calm down" Gene pleaded. "I mean, we were enjoying ourselves on the honeymoon and all. It was a month of all you can eat buffets on that ship, and 122 pounds isn't anywhere close to fat, I don't think it's anything to worry about..."

Hailey took some deep breaths and considered Gene's words. Maybe he was right. Maybe she was overreacting to just a little weight gained. After all, her other less form fitting jeans probably still fit just fine. Still, she couldn't shake the worry from her mind that she was facing the same fate as the other women in her family.

"Well...ugh alright, but 12 pounds in a month is a LOT! I'm going on a diet and I'm going to make sure I get back in the rhythm of going to the gym next week!" she said, unsure if she was trying to convince Gene or herself of that.