Chapter 1

He looked at his watch. 4:52PM. Not long now, he thought. God, the day had dragged. The seconds seemed to run down at an agonisingly slow speed until the 5:00PM clock off. As he waited, his mind wandered. What did she have in store for him tonight?

At 5:00, he was out of his office chair with as much speed as he could muster. The last two years had not been kind to his waistline, and a significant contribution to it was the sedentary office job. Only last week, there had been an embarrassing moment after lunch when he lost a button on his shirt. Thankfully he had a jumper he could pull over to cover the eruption of soft flesh that had protruded through the hole, but she had been giddy when he told her what had happened.

As he approached his car, he checked his smart watch. His total steps today had been only 1,300. She’d be happy. His goal was to stay under 2,000. She didn’t want him wasting any calories or building any muscle. He opened the door, and sunk into the seat. The suspension made an audible creak as the 450lb man lumped down. He threw his bag into the passenger seat footwell alongside the remains of drive-thru burger boxes and fry bags. Even from the short walk from his desk to the car, he could feel his heart racing, and beads of sweat forming on his forehead. I swear that gets harder every day, he thought to himself, as he started the engine and headed home.

When he arrived, her car was parked in the drive already. She was upper manager at a regional bank, and had recently gone down to part time hours. Even so, she was earning more than his full time position. The reason she’d given the board of directors was that she needed to find a healthier work-life balance. In truth, there was nothing healthy about her decision to reduce her hours. All she really wanted was more time to dedicate to her pet project, which was, of course, his fattening.

He pulled up, huffed and puffed his way up the drive, and opened the front door. As he did, a tidal wave of delicious smells broke against his reddened face. The sweet and savoury smells were heavenly, and he knew he would be in for a night to remember.

“Hey honey! I’m in the kitchen!” She called through after hearing him close the front door.

“Hey, what are cooking? It smells amazing!” He replied. He knew she wouldn’t tell him, but he also knew she liked the game of it.

“It’s a surprise, silly. I’ll be up shortly, can you get yourself ready?” Her voice was sweet, but he knew what the request would entail.

“Sure thing, but don’t be too long now dear.” He called through, as he set about climbing the stairs. He contemplated them for a moment. It was funny, when they had moved in a year and a half ago, he knew he had been able to bound up them without any issues. Now, he was on the verge of needing to pause for a breather, and he broke into a sweat every damn time. When had that transition happened? It was one of those things that happened gradually, he thought, but only when you look back do you see how far you’ve come.

He entered the bedroom, where she’d laid everything out ready. He stripped naked, attached the wrist and ankle straps (the latter of which took a significant amount of effort with the mass of his belly in the way), and positioned himself in the middle of the king size bed. He reached for the nightstand, and grabbed the silk eye mask, and put it on. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed some new hooks in the wall. Had they been there before? He put it out of his mind, and laid himself down and waited. A few moments later, he heard a knock on the door.

“I’m ready.” He replied.