Coat Hangers

Chapter 1 - Coat Hangers

After a short drive, you turn into the store's parking lot. As you complete the turn and head to the front, a car quickly backs out of its spot. You slam on the brakes and the seat belt hold you tightly. Your belly wobbles despite the seat belts best efforts to hold it still. After the car leaves, you ask yourself why you don’t just walk to the store anymore. After all, it is only a 5 minute walk. You remember that the walk has become more and more tiring as of late and that’s why you’ve started driving. Luckily a spot in the front is open, so your walk will be much shorter than it used to be.

As you walk in the store, you tell yourself all you are getting is a pack of coat hangers. You’ve ran out again after buying new clothes for the fifth time this year. In a short time, you’ve gone from wearing a small to a 3XL. You’ve got new clothes, but you haven’t thrown any of your old clothes away. You’re going to start your new routine of diet and exercise soon so you can get back to wearing that small again.

But it won’t be today. Today, you’re feeling a sugary treat from the store’s coffee shop. You can’t remember the last time you’ve done your shopping without one. You justify it by telling yourself that it’s not good to shop on an empty stomach. That might have worked many pounds ago, but today it didn’t stop you from heading right to the grocery section. You have a lot of your favorite meals and snacks at home already, but you’ve been going through them quick lately, so you decide to stock up.

After an hour of loading your cart in the grocery section, you go to check out. You recognize the cashier, and they recognize you. They make the same casual conversation they usually make, but it is clear that they are looking at you more than they would other customers. You worry that your outfit doesn’t match quite right. You wore a tight black tshirt you bought while buying XL clothes. It was 2 sizes too small, but black is supposed to be slimming. It doesn’t matter that the shirt squeezes your love handles so much. That’s the price of looking good. Maybe the belt was the issue. It was a brown belt that barely fit as loose as it could go. Your black belt would look better, but you outgrew it when you hit 2XL.

When you finally get done checking out, you walk to your car while eating the candy bar you bought in line. You make it home and put away your groceries before going to do your laundry. It was then that you realize you never bought any coat hangers at the store. You spent too much time finding new snacks to eat. You feel frustrated because you don’t have enough hangers to hang the shirts you washed. With a defeated sigh, you take all of your small shirts off their hangers and hang up your clean 3XL shirts on them. You put all of the small shirts in a pile on your bed. You haven’t tried them on in so long. You take off the tight black XL shirt you had on and put on the small shirt. It gets halfway down your body before leaving your soft belly exposed. It’s tight, but comfortable enough to be worn around the house. Your partner is the only one that will see you in it anyway. You take off your pants, leaving just your shirt and underwear to walk around in. With every step you take, you feel your belly jiggle. You open some of the snacks you bought and watch TV until your partner gets home.

When they do, the first thing they see is you and your exposed belly and all of the wrappers around it. Without a question, they go to you and give you a kiss. Then another. And another. Then several on your belly. Before you’ve said a word to each other, they are holding your hand and guiding you to your bedroom.