chapter 1

“So how did you two meet again?”, Maggie asks while drawing another snowflake on the window.
I’m sure she heard about our meet-cute a hundred times from Brian, but I answer anyway.
“Oh, right here at the library.” I see her nodding with a sweet smile on her lips.
Oh, yes. She’s definitely heard this before, but I believe her to be a hopeless romantic so I continue.
“I’m a middleschool teacher, you see, and every year we schedule a visit to the library to stimulate reading.”
“That’s really nice”, Maggie responds.
I smile. I really love my job.
“Yeah, it’s also very important for kids who’s parents don’t want to spend money on books. Here they can find the opportunity to read books anyway.”
I come from a family that didn’t have much money left to spend on books, so I know first hand what an enlightening experience a trip to the local library can be.
“So this year, there was a little crisis with little Elliot. He’d been so enthousiastic for the visit because the next part of a series he’s reading was out. But after searching, it seemed as if the library hadn’t yet purchased the book.”
I let my voice down like any good story teller would do.
“Elliot got so angry, he started throwing books!”
I hear Maggie gasp, perfect on cue.
“And then there he was, my savior”, I smile thinking back to that day.
“He explained to little Elliot that the library had purchased the book, but they needed to prep it before putting it on the shelf. He asked me if it was okay to lend Elliot and together they disappeared into the back.”
Looking at my own drawn snowflake on the window, I move on to the next.
“Later Elliot came big with a huge smile on his face and the book tucked under his arm. Brian told me how he’d shown him the book and together they had put on all these special stickers and codes and a extra plastic cover to protect it. I’ve never seen Elliot so happy as when he checked out that book.”
“You’re really lucky Brian was working that day. A lot of our colleagues wouldn’t have done that and probably would’ve scolded you for the thrown books”, Maggie says honestly, I even hear a hint of sadness in her voice at she mentioned her colleagues attitude.
“Yeah, I know. I guess that’s what made it impossible to forget about the encounter”, I sigh dreamily.
“After that I started coming more often to this library instead of the one near my parents. Desperately trying to find this nice librarian and thank him for helping me. We talked a little after that and I thought that after I’d expressed my gratitude, I’d be done. But I wasn’t, I only wanted to see him more.”
I have to admit, I like telling this story. Probably because I’m a hopeless romantic as well.
“So I kept coming and kept bumping into him”
“Or he into you”, Maggy interjects.
I huff a laugh.
“Yeah, turns out he was watching me as much as I was. Anyway after a lot of snooping looks at each other and the odd conversation, he finally asked me out.”
I said ‘yes’ ofcourse. By then I’d had more than one steamy dream about him.
Not only was Brian a friendly guy with who I had some interests in common, he also fitted perfectly into my type; a tall, broad shouldered man with dark hair and kind eyes. A man who put no effort in his appearance, apart from his personally selected clothes. He mostly wore these vintage looking sweaters, which always made him look comfortable and cosy. Unlike most women, I don’t like muscular, fitness boys, with expensive clothes and meticulously styled hair.
Not that Brian was out of shape, but you could see that his muscles came from dayly activities and were protected by a soft layer any person that didn’t focus on dieting had.
That fact that he was good with kids also helped.

Maggy took a step back to assess the work we’d done.
I had been happy with the snowflakes I drawn on the window, but could easily picked them out from the ones Maggie had drawn with near perfection.

It was the last week before christmas. As a teacher my holidayvacation had already started while Brian still had to work. So as the lovesick person I am, I came with him to work in hope of spending more time with him during these special days.
Brian had thought it was a lovely idea, untill I reminded him of the presence of a ‘real Santa’ at the library for kids to visit.
I thought this would give as more time together as most of the library visitors would come for Santa and not to check out books.
It almost seemed as if Brian was embarrassed about having a Santa at the library, because suddenly he came up with many silly things trying to dissuade me. Like how there were going to be a lot of kids from my school and that he would totally understand if I wanted a break from that. Or how the holiday songs on repeat would surely drive me insane. Or how I probably wouldn’t have enough time to come and decorate my apartment.
Truth be told, the more he tried to convince me to stay home, the more I knew he wasn’t telling me the real reason why I suddenly wasn’t allowed to come.
Jokingly I’d said: “Yeesh, are you having an affair with Santa or one of his elves?”
“No, no! Ofcourse not. Elvira, sweetie, you know I only have eyes for you”, he quickly assured me with a kiss.
“Then I see no reason why I can’t come with you”, after that he’d only mumbled something.
And that’s how I ended up helping his colleague Maggie with the last holiday decorations.
Drawing snowflakes on the windows with chalkmarkers had been my idea, since I’d done the same thing in my classroom.

“So it probably took you some persuasion to allow you to come today, right?”, Maggie asked after a few moments of silence.
How did she know about that?
“Yeah, I don’t know why he made such a big deal about it”, I laughed awkwardly.
“Don’t you think it’s cute he’s nervous about it? Jerry had to promise Brian that he didn’t have to work on any holidays this year before he said yes. Well, one favour is worth another I guess”, Maggy commented.
My frown deepens. Brian hadn’t told me anything about a favour he’d be doing for his boss Jerry.
Maggy didn’t seem to notice my frown. She quickly checked her watch and added to me: “Maybe you should go check up on him, visitors will be arriving soon.”
“Yeah sure, I’ll go check”, I nodded and handed my marker to Maggy before walking to Brian’s officespace.

Brian’s door was closed, which was quite unusual for him. Taking it as a hint, a knocked.
“Brian, sweetie, can I come in?”
I heard a deep sigh before he opened the door and stuck his head out.
I lifted my eyebrow at him. Why was he acting so strange?
“Okay, you can come in but promise not to make fun of me?”, Brian asked growing red in his face.
“Ofcourse, just tell me what’s going on, I’m freaking out. I don’t want to you to hide things for me”
He quickly hugged me and pulled me inside his office.
Placing his hands on both sides of my face he looked me deep into my eyes.
“Hey, I’m sorry, El. This is all really silly of me. It just… Ah. Jerry asked me and I couldn’t really say no. But I never planned on you seeing me like this”, Brian stammered. Only then did I notice that Brian’s arms were bare and that he was wearing red Santa pants. His normal clothes were lying at his desk with next to them the rest of the costume.
Suddenly everything was clear.
“Oh my god, you’re Santa”, I giggled.
Brian only blushed harder.
“I thought Jerry normally played Santa?”
“Yeah, but it seems that he no longer fits into the costume”, Brian answered.
I couldn’t hide my laugh.
To be honest I wasn’t suprised. Jerry, Brian’s boss was a very large man who only seemed to be growing larger each time a saw him.
“Honestly last year it was already really snug”, Brian laughed with me.
“Okay, now I understand why you’re playing Santa. But honey… I don’t think this count as a ‘belly full of jelly’!” I joked as I playfully poked the soft layer over his abdominals.
“That why Jerry gave me these as well”, Brian said handing me a bag. Inside the bag were 3 things: a fake belly, the upper part of a superman suit and another long pillow with strings.
“Why the superman suit? I didn’t know Santa was shredded?”, I laughed.
Briand took the suit from me.
“Ha now, it’s supposed to make my arms and shoulders look bigger. Otherwise I would drown in the Santasuit and would probably look pregnant instead of fat.”
I bobbed my head, following his logic.

I helped him putt on the superman shirt. As I zipped him up, I was again thankful that my man didn’t always look like this. However as he put on the fake belly and Santa’s vest, I had to admit I kind of liked this more bulkier version of Brian.
He looked even more cuddlier than usual.
Testing my theory, I gave him a big hug and a kiss on the lips.
It was a weird sensation trying to wrap my arms around his full figure.
“You like this look?”, Brian teased as I ended our kiss.
Taking a step back to take it all in, I almost blurted out ‘yes’.
I frowned.
“Something still missing…”
“Probably the beard and the Santa hat”, Brian contemplated.
“Yes, obviously but that’s not what I ment.”
“Oh. Maybe it’s this other pillow. But I have no idea were that’s supposed to go”, Briand said giving me the last item from the bag, which I had totally forgotten about.
Taking a good look around him, I noticed his pants still looked very baggy.
“Don’t shoot me, but I think you’re supposed to put it around your hips”, I explained awkwardly, specially saying ‘hips’ instead of ‘butt’. I was 99% sure the third pillow was supposed make his butt bigger.
“You got to be kidding me”, Brian sighed as he pulled his pants down.
I immediately started giggling.
“Come on, get it over with! Tie the stupid thing around my hips before anyone else comes to check up on us.”
I quickly did as I was told. Brian had to lift his fake belly so I had space to tie the strings. I had to make several attempts as I was a bit distracted with my face so close to his crotch. Feeling the fake belly rest on top of my head, I couldn’t help but wonder how this must feel like if you had an actually heavier partner.
“Elvira… We don’t have time for this”, Brian said, his voice huskier than usual betrayed that he was just as distracted as I was with the proximity of my mouth to his crotch.
I quickly finished the strings and helped him put on the white beard and Santa hat.
Luckily those pieces of his customes helped me from getting to distracted by the view of my man with a nice, cuddly fuller figure.