Chapter 3 - mother-daughter bonding

«Oh hi, dear!» beamed Sharon, her happiness audible over the line. «How are you doing? It's been so long since we've last talked!»

"I'm sorry for not calling in so long, but... could you spot me a few dollars to get me through the weekend?"

«I had a feeling you weren't just calling out of the blue. Don't be ashamed, I'd occasionally call your grandmother and ask for things all the way until you were born! What's the money for?»

"ᴺᵉʷ ᵖᵃⁿᵗˢ"

«What was that, dear?»

"...new pants. I kinda outgrew my current ones."

«Oh, my poor baby girl!» Samantha couldn't tell whether Sharon was being sincere with her pity; her mother wasn't above feeling schadenfreude for her family's actions, especially when she had warned them otherwise. «How long has it been since the last one, a year?»

Samantha briefly considered lying, but she would never live it down either way. "Six months, actually."

«Aww, that's nothing to be ashamed about, dear! When I started shopping at Torrid, I just went for their smallest size—turns out I was two sizes bigger than that! I was as red as a beet going up to the cashier! Have you started shopping there yet?»

"No mom, not yet." The way her mom spoke of Samantha shopping at the plus-sized store like it was an inevitability filled her with a sense of foreboding.

«Well, you said you needed money for some new pants? I'll do you one better!»

"Wow, thanks mom!"

«You can have some of my old jeans!»

Samantha's heart stopped. Had she seriously gotten that fat and old that she would have to start wearing mom jeans? She was rubbing it in her daughter's face, wasn't she?

Sharon, undeterred by her daughter's sudden silence, kept going. «If you don't have anything tomorrow, you can swing by and pick them up!»

"Wait, why do you still have them?" Samantha asked. "I thought you got rid of all your old clothes every other year."

«I used to, but after you went off to college I figured it would be good to hang onto them just in case. I can get the house all ready for you, we can go out for lunch, maybe even stay for dinner if you like...»

"No, mom, it's fine. You don't have to-"

«Oh, I insist! I also have some other things I can give you, too! There are some diet books that are just sitting around; I haven't gotten much use out of them, because I can't stick to a diet, but I'm sure YOU'RE disciplined enough to do it!»

Was Samantha's mother mocking her by throwing her words back at her? How the hell did she even remember that more than a decade later?

«Besides, it'll be so much fun to have a girls' day! When's the last time we met, when you helped me polish off the pecan pie at Thanksgiving? Wait, it was Christmas; you finished the entire plate of cinnamon rolls at breakfast! You called to wish me a happy Easter while you were waiting in the line for seconds at brunch...»

Samantha felt her round cheeks turn red with embarrassment, and a faint feeling of wateriness developed in her eyes. Was that her mother's goal, reduce her daughter to tears by listing off every time she acted like a glutton? But what started swelling up within Samantha's chest wasn't despair, but something far more volatile.

"ALRIGHT, I GET IT ALREADY! You were fat, you told me I'd get fat too, I didn't listen to you, now I'm fat and getting fatter just like you! Is that what you wanted to hear?! Is it?!"

Samantha frantically walked to the apartment's meager kitchen as her mother tried to console her. «That's not what I meant at all, dear! I'd never make fun of you for your weight!»

Although Sharon couldn't see it, Samantha raised an eyebrow skeptically as she opened a cabinet and pulled out an oatmeal cream pie from the box. "Really mom? That was all just sentimental reminiscing?"

«Okay, maybe a little bit of it was me getting to say 'I told you so.' But I'd never want you to feel bad about it! You were always gonna be a big girl, that's all!»

"Mm-hmm."

«I know exactly what you're going through Samantha, where the moment you stop being a young adult, it's like a switch flips and you just start to balloon. I don't know when it started, but on my 27th birthday, I- are you eating something?»

"Mm-hmm."

«T isk, tisk. Anyway, I had this beautiful chocolate layer cake that your father got me—he just knows my weaknesses!—and we ate just a couple slices during the party. But I just kept munching in on the rest of it all evening, and when we went to bed, I had eaten the entire thing. I looked at Steven and said 'Oh my gosh, I'm such a pig, how could you possibly find me hot after that?'"»

"*gulp* What a surprise," Samantha snarked after finishing the oatmeal cream pie.

Sharon ignored her daughter's insult and continued her story. «I was sure right then and there that he'd break up with me! But you know what your father did? He pulled me in and told me that he'd love me, no matter how big I ended up getting, as long as I was happy with myself. He even said that he'd love me more if I was bigger, since there'd be more of me to love!»

"That... that wasn't some fetish thing, was it?"

«Let me just say that your father and I don't stay together for just my personality.»

"Ew-ew-ew-ew-ewwwwww!&q uot; The last thing that Samantha wanted to learn today was that her dad was a total perv! She'd have to go on a bar crawl of epic proportions tonight if she wanted any hope of forgetting that.

«My point is, you need to find a guy who'll love you for you, no matter who you are. And it doesn't hurt if he finds you sexy, too!»

"Even if he's into grotesque fat assess?"

«Oh, I wouldn't call us grotesque, dear! Just one thing: please don't bring this up with your father, he'd get so red with embarrassment that he'd just burn his way through the floor!»

"Don't worry, mom," replied Samantha with a chuckle, "my lips are sealed. Just one question before you go: how big did you get when you were pregnant with me?"

The excitement was palpable in Sharon's gasp. «Are you saying you're considering having kids? Have you finally managed to work things out with that Martin boy? He's sweet, but-»

"Whoa, mom, let's wait until lunch for you to talk my ear off about relationships and grandkids. See you tomorrow, love you!"

«Love you too, dear!»

[Credit for the cover image is 06624 on DeviantArt]