chapter 3

During the next days Elvira tried to ignore the electric feeling she felt every time she pictured Brian with his fake santa belly…
or a real one.
Ofcourse she wasn’t attracted to fat men! Who would? It was something you accepted and maybe even expected after being together for years and getting comfortable with each other.
However she understood the joy of spoiling her boyfriend.
After all, wasn’t there a thing like ‘relationship pounds’? Or a ‘chubby hubby’ for that matter?
Not that she and Brian were married yet, but she thought their relationship was going in a forward direction.
She spent a long time thinking about Catherine and how supposedly Jerry used to be thin… maybe just thinner, Elvira thought to herself. Through the years Catherine must’ve forgotten how her husband looked in his younger years. Sure, compared to his +300lbs body, 250lbs might have looked thin.
Or maybe she’d been loveblind and hadn’t noticed how big he was untill years later.
Surely one couldn’t gain that much from just being a little spoiled?
Deciding it was best not to dwell on it, Elvira kept following her instincts as a caring girlfriend.
She prepared decadent breakfasts, that often turned into brunch as she kept Brian at the table for multiple hours, baking eggs, bacon, pancakes, small pasteries, …
Brian often read a journal or a book while munching on the many dishes she prepared.
Brian tried to repay Elvira’s spoiling by taking her out to diner or spending some more quality time together as they’d done when the first started dating.
They went to the movies, visited museums, an intimate concert of a local band Brian knew the drummer of, …

And ofcourse they had a few Christmas parties to attend.
The first was with Brian’s family.
Brian came from a very carefree and warm family. The only thing that was never to discuss was how Brian’s farther had died in a car accident.
Elvira suspected it was the reason Brian chose his bike over a car to go to work even though it was a 50 minute bikeride.
Brian had an older brother, Ethan, and an older sister, Celeste.
Elvira had never met Celeste, as she lived farther away and was busy building a career as a hotelmanager. Ethan she had met twice, once at Brian’s parental home and another time at an art show.
As far as she could tell, both were very protective over their little brother and wasted no chance to tease him.
Brian’s mom, Debra, was the reincarnation of sunshine, always smiling. Elvira hoped she could grow old like her.
Debra was full of life and seemed to make it her goal in life to try out a new hobby every month.
Elvira thought it was charming even though Brian and his siblings often had to deal with reselling the many items she bought to practice the ‘hobby of the month’ and that ended up being packed in her already overfull house.
This month his mom had become a fast fan of some cooking show were they only cooked outside, either over a fire or in a wood oven.
So, Debra had watched some youtube videos and had ordered her sons to help build a stone wood oven in her back yard.
And that’s how Elvira and Brian ended up, packed in multiple layers of clothes, in Debra’s garden, waiting for a turkey to bake in the oven.
They had a little fire going where they all huddled around while Debra kept bringing them different appetizers.
So far, she’d served a soup made from grilled paprika and home made bread, baked in her oven ofcourse, with different antipasti.
Brian had already downed a second helping of soup, hoping it would keep him warm after he’d given up one of his layers to Elvira, who was still cold.

Elvira was bonding with Celeste over their mutual love for sitcoms, when finally Ethan and his wife arrived, an hour late.
“Well well look who finally decided to show up!”, Celeste teased as she went to hug her brother.
“Sorry everyone Zoe had some troubles with her outfit”, Ethan chuckled.
“Come’on babe! *huff* You didn’t have to tell them that!”, a voice loudly called from inside the house. Elvira assumed it was coming from Zoe.
Ethan laughed at his wife’s comment.
“Come outside, honey! And bring Brian and mom with you!”, Ethan called back.
A moment later Brian returned to the garden carrying two blankets.
One he tossed to his sister and the other he draped lovingly over Elvira’s shoulder before swooping under it next to her.
It was such a sweet gesture, Elvira’s heart swelled.
Thanking Brian she placed quick kiss on his cheek. To her surprise, Brian lingered with his mouth to her ear and wispered:
“Okay, fair warning, try not to stare for too long”
Elvira frowned. What could he possibly mean? But then the door to the garden opened and Zoe came into view.
It was hard not to stare.
Elvira had always thought Brian’s boss was the largest person she knew.
But Zoe seemed to be of roughly the same height as Jerry and she was well… definitely larger, and not just in the bust area.
In fact she hardly seemed to be getting through the door.
“Hey, guys! Oh, Celeste how are you? It’s such a long time since we’ve seen each other!”, Zoe enthousiastically exclaimed as she waddled towards her sister in law.
Thinking about Brian’s comment, Elvira tried to take her eyes of Zoe. She noticed Ethan helping Debra bring out a large, iron chair for his wife to sit on.
But when Celeste hugged Zoe, Elvira eyes were immediately drawn back to the large woman and how fascinating the contrast was between the to woman.
But then Zoe’s attention turned to her. Luckily Zoe didn’t seem to notice that she’d been staring.
“Oh, Brian! Is this your little girlfriend? She’s stunning!”
Elvira’s her cheeks turned red at the compliment. She felt Brian’s arm tighten around her as he said:
“I couldn’t agree more. Elvira, this is Zoe, Ethan’s wife.”
“Hi, nice to meet you”, Elvira shyly waved with her free hand.
“Oh no, none of that! Brian let go for a second so we can hug!”
Brian gave Elvira a little push towards his sister in law and before she knew it, Elvira’s hands were pressed against Zoe’s massive form.
Elvira immediately had flashbacks to when she’d hugged Brian in his Santa costume.
Only this was even softer, better.
An alarm went of in Elvira’s head at that thought. But she tried to ignore it and focus on the people around her.
She probably took a second too long before letting go of Zoe’s wide back and belly, before stumbling back into Brian.
After that, Zoe waddled to the chair Ethan thoughtfully placed for her: close enough to the fire that she could enjoy it’s heat and next to a small table, that suddenly contained a very large bowl of soup and many slices of bread.
Zoe thanked her husband and wasted no time in starting on the food.

The rest of the evening was quite uneventful. Just a friendly family enjoying a meal together, sharing stories and food. Lots of food.
Zoe’s plate never seemed to be empty thanks to her caring husband who kept a watchful eye and made sure she never had to reach or ask for anything.
Compared to Zoe, the rest of the family seemed to be eating modestly, but Elvira had spotted Brian adjusting his waistband more than one.

After a while, Zoe seemed to be the only one who wasn’t frozen to the bone and Debra gave permission for everyone to go inside and warm up with some coffee and dessert.
While Brian and Celeste helped their mom, Elvira decided to take a look around the house.
She giggled at baby pictures of Brian, Celeste and Ethan, felt sad at pictures of them with their dad, but suddenly her interest was drawn towards some wedding pictures of Ethan and Zoe.
Glancing at Zoe and Ethan seated at the table, she decided ‘mariage pounds’, were definitely a thing.
Sure, the Zoe in her wedding dress wasn’t by any means a skinny or fit woman. In fact her dress seemed to be clinging to her every curve, but Elvira was fairly certain she wouldn’t be able to fit in it today. Probably not even after losing 50 or even 100 lbs.
However, looking at Ethan - who was feeding his wife leftovers - he didn’t seem to mind her weight gain. In fact they looked as happy as they did in those wedding pictures.
Elvira mindlessly went through the family’s dvd collection, thinking about how a young woman such as Zoe managed to get so fat.
She was startled when suddenly Ethan’s voice came from next to her.
“You a ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’- fan?”, he asked, looking at the dvd she was holding.
Shit, lost in thought she must’ve been staring at the dvd box in her hands, which at second glace, turned out to be season 5 of ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’. Luckily she was a fan, so it didn’t have to be to awkward.
“Oh yeah, must’ve watched it more than twenty times by now”, Elvira replied putting back the dvd.
“Who’s your favorite character?”, Ethan asked politely.
“Tough choice, but I’m wanna say Joey?”, Elvira answered.
Ethan nodded.
“Mine’s Monica, but I mostly like the flashback episodes.”
Looking at his wife, Elvira wasn’t surprised. After all, Monica was portrayed as ‘fat’ in those episodes.
But apparently Elvira was more drunk then she thought, because out of her mouth slipped a laugh followed by: “I’m not surprised.”
Ethan laughed but gave her a weird look.
Whatever he was thinking, he seemed to shake it off and said with a shrugg: “Yeah, I guess I like woman with a bit more flesh to them.”
Zoe nodded understanding. She’d always known there were men who liked bigger woman. And recently she couldn’t remember why that ever seemed odd.
Deciding Ethan wouldn’t judge her for what she was about the say next, she added:
“You know, I always thought the show didn’t handle Monica’s weight all that well. They talk about her as if she was massively overweight, but when you see Courtney Cox in her fat-suit, I wouldn’t never call her anything but chubby.”
Ethan nodded and Elvira felt a sigh of relief after her whole rant.
“Yeah, I get what your saying. I kind of wished they’d casted an actual plus size actress. It would have been good diversity. Besides, wouldn’t it be nice and refreshing to watch someone larger find love?”, Ethan asked looking lovingly at his wife.
“Yeah, it’s such a shame they’re mostly just used as the ‘comic relief’”, Elvira added. She’d never given much thought to any of it, but felt that she meant every word.
Maybe Ethan would understand how she felt when thinking about Brian with a little belly.
Maybe hearing what someone else made of it would help her understand herself more.
But before she could decide if and how she could breach the subject, Debra called out:
“Desserts ready!”
“Coming!”, Zoe enthusiastically yelled back as she started the slow process of getting out of her chair.