chapter 1

Kevin worked a city desk job in an accounting firm just over an hour’s commute from his home in the suburbs of London.

He lived with five housemates, though didn’t spend much time with them beyond the occasional after-dinner sofa chat and cinema trips every now and then. They were all young, single city professionals with steady routines and often long hours.

Like many people in the feedism community, Kevin hadn’t shared his fetish with anyone. He didn’t feel the need to talk about it and he’d barely even considered how he’d approach it in a relationship if that were ever to be a thing. His enjoyment had almost entirely been browsing YouTube and forums, or in the realm of imagination in spare moments on his commute or in his room on his small alcove bed.

When he was a teenager back at his family home, he’d a few times snuck to the nearby supermarket and bought heavy cream and cake boxes. He’d secretly hide them in his bedroom for stuffing whilst the family were out. He’d hope to see higher numbers on the scale in the days following, but if he ever did, it was temporary.

Now, with a lengthy commute and swimming routine, even a week of takeaways wouldn’t budge Kevin’s steady weight; not even to a slightly chubby, muffin top softness that he often wistfully imagined whilst looking at his 6 foot slender build in the reflection of his bedroom mirror.

Kevin enjoyed the implied embarrassment of weight gain in stories, videos and discussions on forums— it made up a fair chunk of the excitement he got from it— but on himself, imagine though he did, he thought it might be overwhelming. The idea of sticking out from his colleagues and maybe even more so his gym-loving housemates was too daunting. Almost nobody in his life was noticeably overweight.

So, he had concluded a few years ago now, a chubby physique was going to stay a fantasy and left it at that.

Kevin walked into work, about 10 minutes early as usual to avoid the lift queue. On entering the open plan office, he noticed his two bosses chatting to one another solemnly. They looked at him and then walked over.
“Is everything okay, Nora?” Kevin asked, a little weirded out.

“Well, not really, if we’re honest, Kev... CloudPush have closed up shop, hopefully temporarily—” Nora began.

Kevin’s other boss Alex continued: “— and as things are already, we’re not sure how we’re going to sustain things without the income from our biggest client.”

“And you think they’ll be back?”

“Yes, we think so— I mean they were doing okay, and there might even be a chance of bigger business if they return, they’re just going through a merger and so all accounts are moving.”

“Basically…” Nora started, looking at her business partner unsure,

“We think we can manage if we put some of the team part time.”

Though a little shaken, Kevin knew that Nora and Alex cared a lot about their workforce. It was like a family, so he knew this was tough for them. He was also relatively sure after helping win a recent smaller business’ accounts, he’d not be going on furlough anyway.

That evening, though, Kevin changed his mind.

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Hey thanks for reading! This whole thing is quite flow of consciousness! I hope you enjoy it :)

ps. The chapters get longer as the story goes on.