chapter 1

‘Damn it.’ He peered over his belly at the number.

He was starting to get chubby.

Again.

As if on cue, she walked through the bathroom door and caught him up on the scale.

Her interest piqued, she glided over and kissed his cheek.

‘Oops,’ she said, glancing down at the screen. ‘Thought you’d put on a little weight.’

She patted his bare belly with her hand. ‘That’s good to see.’

‘Don’t start,’ he replied, clearly annoyed at her reproach. ‘I’ll be back out on the bike next week.’

‘You mark my words.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ she said, and turned towards the medicine cabinet and opened its doors.

‘Must’ve been all those cakes you ate.’ She giggled to herself as she searched the medicine cabinet's shelves.

‘Thought you’d gone at them pretty hard.’

Her eyes dropped to his waist and she gave him a wink.

He rolled his eyes. She was clearly loving this a little too much.

But she was right.

He had cut loose a little of late.

And her endless baking 'experiments' weren't helping a bit.

‘Slipped your mind to tell me this?’ he asked, his eyebrows raised.

‘Must’ve done,’ she said, as she brought her index finger to her chin. ‘Now how could I forget?’ She smiled.

He stepped off the scale and let it reset.

To give her her dues, it shouldn’t be for her to police what he ate.

His new belly was his own to blame.

He stepped back on the scale, and the same number flashed as before.

‘Dammit.’ He muttered. It was a fair few pounds from the 180 he had seen a month or two before.

‘Must’ve noticed you were getting fat?’ she asked, a little fascinated, as she saw him up on the scale again.

He ignored her question and continued to prod at his waist.

He was chubby, if anything.

Not quite yet fat.

But well on his way.

That was for sure.

Not that she would mind of course.

They had both been into feederism since time forgot, but had had ‘the talk’ soon after hooking up.

He wasn’t gaining. And that was that.

‘A-ha!’ she announced, loudly, as she fished a half-open pack of cotton wool buds from the medicine cabinet’s depths.

‘Knew that’s where they’d be.’ She turned to face him and held them up. ‘Swear these things grow legs sometimes.’

She smiled at him. ‘If not little bellies like your good self.’ She patted her own slim waist and puffed out her cheeks.

‘Very funny,’ he said, clearly unamused.

‘Don’t be like that.’ She winked at him. ‘It’ll only get bigger, if you keep last night's eating up.’

That was a barbed remark to the pan of brownies he had devoured on sight the night before.

She had insisted she could bake more.

A gesture which now seemed less virtuous than at first blanch.

‘Enjoy it whilst you can.’ He patted at his gut confidently. 'Because soon all this will have melted away.’

‘Yes dear.’ She mocked him with a fake curtsey as she walked past.

‘Husband knows best,’ she added. ‘At least you now have a spare tyre for all those hills.’

‘Enough.’ He shooed her away. ‘No more jokes.’

‘It'll be gone by the end of the month,’ he said. ‘That’s for sure.’

‘So glad you’re taking action dearest,’ she replied disingenuously from the door.

‘Because once you boys break the two hundreds.’ She leant playfully against the door-frame. ‘Well it's very difficult to go back after that.’

And with that parting gift, she left him alone to his thoughts.

He stepped off the scale a penultimate time and let it reset.

Stepping back on, same number again.

Two hundred and five pounds.

And not a single ounce less.

‘Dammit.’ He sighed again forlornly as he patted his gut. ‘Hope that bike’s in better shape than me.’