Chapter 1

PART ONE

It was a warm Autumn morning and Stephanie cautiously stepped out of the shower. She did something she never used to do and looked at herself in the full length mirror. She smiled at her reflection as she touched her belly and made it jiggle. As Stephanie got herself dressed (struggling into the size 16 jeans she had been wearing comfortably the last few months) her mind pondered all the recent changes in her life. She was only in her early 30's but some days she felt so old and so alone. She was married to a seemingly lovely man who others saw as kind and caring, but there was no spark any more, she realises that there has been something missing from their relationship in a very long time.

Stephanie continued to get herself dressed – taking longer than usual to choose a top from her wardrobe, she always liked her breasts - and wanted to make sure she looked good today. She tried to think back to any compliments her husband had given her over the years, and as Stephanie settled on a pretty blue flowery top she realised sadly that he hadn't given her any compliments in years, She looked at herself, admiring the way it showed off her cleavage and skimmed over her belly – not hiding it completely, just covering it lightly with soft material.

There's no doubting that this lack of confidence affected Stephanies self confidence, and it had affected her in other ways too. From a young age Stephanie used to comfort eat, her father worked away a lot and everytime he left she would secretly binge on food in her bedroom without anyone knowing. She was quite an active child with dancing and gymnastics, so although her binging left her slightly chubby she was never really a fat child. She knew that her husbands lack of attention also gave her cause to binge as an adult, but with her not being so active she did find it difficult to maintain her weight. It had slowly crept up over the years bur she still felt she wasn't what you would call fat, and she could hide it well under her clothes.

As Stephanie sat at her dressing table brushing her hair she looked at herself again - admittedly even to her she had a cute smile, its just a shame she didn't feel like smiling more. She tried to think about the last time she had got herself dressed up for anyone – she couldn't remember. She had given up trying to make an effort in her marriage years ago, being pushed away continually does not really give someone much motivation. Stephanie had spent so much time feeling trapped and miserable that she had tried to look at ways of improving her life – and that's what prompted her to take a long hard look at herself all those weeks ago......

It had started when randomly Stephanie had decided to do some DIY, she was fed up with all the half finished jobs around the house and decided the end of summer would be a good opportunity to try and get some done. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to do -but she thought she would head down to the local DIY shop to get some inspiration.