chapter 1: pampered into plumpness

Calling Arthur a “doting boyfriend” would have been… a bit of an understatement. He had always taken care of his girlfriend June, always provided for her in every way that he could, which had never been a problem for him, given the nature of his line of work.

As the CEO of a considerably large corporation, he had wealth beyond what most people could imagine, flaunting it with expensive suits, exotic locations and, of course, lavish dinners. June had been swept off of her feet, not just by how lucrative a lifestyle she had been quickly ushered into, but by how humbly and quickly her otherwise proud boyfriend catered to her every whimsy and want. Having already moved June into his upscale brownstone on the upper end of the city, he all but demanded that his girlfriend quit her part-time job, nothing more than a dance instructor at a dilapidated studio, to get used to a life of luxury that he alone would provide for her for years to come. And, when Arthur dropped down to one knee after a particularly pricey dinner and showed June the ridiculously auspicious ring she would be touting on her finger for the rest of her days, June had accepted both him and his lavish lifestyle without hesitation.

In fact, ever since Art had popped the question to June, she had gotten to say goodbye to any care she could have ever had in the world. Which was fortunate for her, she had to admit. June had been a dancer in her late teens and early twenties, and knew that without Art’s successful career she was going to have to find a new line of work in a few years when she “aged out” of any potential job opportunities. But the moment Arthur had proposed at the end of 2019, the twenty-four year old threw away her leotards and kicked her very calloused, very sturdy feet up and relaxed, anticipating her upcoming wedding the upcoming summer with glee.

Of course, the world seemed to have other plans for the two lovebirds.

~~

“And now, with quarantine going into its fifth year, here are some of the things that you can come to expect-“

“Alexa, mute the volume,” June said lazily, the smart tv she was watching from her bed responding instantaneously. She hardly cared for any more quarantine “updates”; it had been the same thing for five years and counting now. Some new vaccine that needed to be administered, some new variant that invalidated the previous vaccine, rinse and repeat. June only ever found the news depressing. Lockdown meant that she had had to put her extremely expensive wedding off for what was now seeming to be turning into an eternity and, even so, she’d lost touch with most of her friends and what remained of her living relatives anyway. It was too much effort to keep in touch, and “effort” was certainly not something June had put into anything ever since Art had put that ring on her finger. Laying in her massive, king-sized bed with boredom, June reached an idle arm over to her chest and picked the ring up. Just as dazzling as ever, she held it up in the light and looked it over, admiring equally both the ring itself and the 14 karat gold chain that it dangled from. She wore the ring as a necklace now, with its gold chain having been upsized and lengthened several times over the years so that it wouldn't be so tight around her neck.

She silently admired her token of Arthur's love with affection, watching how the light from the sun pouring in from the east-facing window danced off of the several diamonds encrusted all of the way around its surface. The ring was so impressive, June thought, that it was a shame that she couldn’t wear it around her finger anymore. But, alas, June wasn't exactly the same woman that she was when Arthur had first presented it to her just a half-decade prior...

A quick knock on the doorframe signaled to June that her future husband had arrived at their bedroom. She placed the ring back down on her chest and smiled, both at the sight of her beloved and in anticipation of what he had brought with him.

"I hope you're hungry!" Art announced, wheeling in a large stainless steel trolley laden down with June's second brunch of the day.

June let out a short scoff, rolling her eyes even though her smile hadn't dissipated.

"Oh... you know me," she murmured.

Arthur certainly did know June. The trolley that he was pushing into the room was loaded up with all of her favorites- crepes, croissants, elaborate whipped up omelets and plates of pancakes almost a foot tall dripping with syrup and butter- only slightly varied in content from the previous one that Art had wheeled in only less than two hours ago. He had prepared the entire enormous meal, June's third of the day so far, on his own; Art had always been a talent in the kitchen, possibly a side-effect of having spent so much of his time around some of the most skilled chefs and cuisine artists in the country. Art was always happy to dote on his fiancé with whatever she wished for, and if that meant catering to her every whim by literally catering to her on a daily basis, he was quick to unquestionably oblige.

And... maybe that had become a bit of a problem.

On top of quitting her job, once quarantine had swung into full force, June had nowhere to go... and not much else to do. She had become very sedentary in her day-to-day life, forgoing walks or trips to the gym in favor of lying around the house, casually flipping through endless channels on the couple's large flat-screen television or taking long impromptu naps until she was woken for lunch or dinner. As a CEO, Arthur was able to manage his company's operations from home, meaning there was an endless amount of time that he was able to spend with June, save for the occasional Zoom meeting, and, even more so, endless amounts of time that he could spend in the kitchen.

Of course, with the entire American populace on a nationwide grounding, there were no longer any fancy clubs or restaurants that Art could take his beloved to, no more extravagant vacations or spontaneous outings that he could treat her with, no more boat trips on Arthur's fancy yacht; in fact, Art had sold the thing some years ago, choosing to cash in on what he could rather than pay to maintain its exorbitant upkeep. Determined to pamper his promised into oblivion, however, Art had still ultimately found a way to smother June with as much affection as he could, albeit an unconventional one.

As it turned out, June had always had quite a bit of an appetite. Although certainly a vice of hers, it had never been too much of a problem for her; a life of dancing, plus the hours a week that she spent at the gym, had always kept her figure lithe and robust, barely ever cracking the 125 pound mark on her 5'6 frame. But with lockdown in full effect, away went the outlet that June had always had for burning away her excess calories. With nothing but spare time, trapped in a house with a very skilled amateur chef, her foodie vice had taken full sway, the hours she normally would have spent on a treadmill being slowly replaced by hours spent indulging in whatever Art had just brought to her from the kitchen.

The effect on her trim figure was immediately noticeable; June had always been a slim girl due to her very active lifestyle, but the sudden bout of idleness and overindulgence brought about by quarantine had ended up adding a good forty pounds to her frame in just the first few months of isolation. June had been mortified at first; spending the majority of her days either in sweatpants or in her underwear had meant that she hadn't noticed the telltale signs of weight gain, the tightness of her clothes, the soft protrusion of her hips and love handles, the increasingly convex slope of her constantly stuffed stomach. Once she had finally noticed, it served as an immediate wakeup call to the former dancer that she needed to cut back the calories, go back to exercising and try to regain her former physique.

But Art was having none of it. As far as he was concerned, "working out" still counted as "working", and he wouldn't be having his baby lift a single finger now that she was to become his betrothed. Plus, he loved the look of elation on his fiancé's face whenever she bit into a new recipe or an old favorite, loved the look of stuffed satisfaction she got whenever he cooked more food for her than she thought she could eat but still managed to finish every single bite and had, at times, even taken to encouraging June to finish every last morsel in front of her despite just how much she had been presented with.

Not that June really needed the encouragement as of late. Despite the... "issues" she had with what the food she was so rapaciously consuming was doing to her rapidly fattening figure, June still relished in every meal, savored and salivated over every bite, allowing herself to put her weight woes off to the side as she slipped into burgeoning bliss every time she approached fullness. Art couldn't have been more content to see June in this state of comfort, and as June's appetite grew, so did his fervor for answering June's near-constant culinary cravings.

It was the quintessential example of killing two birds with one stone; Art finally had an outlet for refining his cooking skills, and he got to spoil his woman all day long. To him, any extra weight that June was carrying was merely the physical evidence of how successful he was at pampering her. And, after five years of this almost daily routine, one thing had become abundantly clear: Art had been VERY successful.