Autumn (Chapter 9) Revised (Patreon)

Chapter 9

Mike came home later that evening. The apartment was dark and quiet. He flipped on the lights, set his helmet down next to the shoe rack that displayed Autumn’s vast array of boots and high heels; hung his jacket on the wall hook, then went upstairs.

He found his girlfriend laying in bed, deep beneath the covers. He carefully moved her knees, sat down beside her and ran his hand gently through her soft hair. “Hey.”

Still with her head on the pillow, Autumn shifted into almost a fetal position. Her eyes remained closed.

Mike gave her shoulder a nudge. “You okay?”

She grabbed the corner of the comforter and drew it up so it covered her entire body from the neck down like a cocoon.

Mike leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “What’s wrong?”

She opened her eyes, let out a disgruntled sigh, then squeezed her eyelids shut again.

“Are you hungry?” he said. “There’s cake in the fridge, I can bring it up for you if you want dessert in bed.” He slowly pulled the blanket off. She was naked except for a pair of beige panties. Her body was tense and her hands were balled into fists. He stared at her, confused. “Does that sound good, cake?”

She opened her eyes.“No Mike!” She sat up abruptly, swinging her legs over the edge of the mattress and shoving her pillow aside. “No more cake. No more desserts all the time!”

Mike stood. “Hey, what’s the matter with you, what’s wrong?”

She sniffled and glared at him. “Everything.”

His eyes, as if beyond his control, dissected her body from head to toe. She was clearly upset about something, but despite that, or perhaps because of it, she looked unbelievably gorgeous to him. Her naked breasts were an exhibit of youth and beauty and beneath was a soft round tummy that spilled over her panties like a ball of pudding. Although her belly wasn’t small, it was dwarfed by her ass and thighs and her hip cleavage had become a fully formed and distinct thighbrow of symmetrically folding flesh spreading wide across milky white skin. He stepped forward cautiously. “What does that mean?”

With her arms at her sides, she clasped the bottom sheet of the bed with both hands and sniffled again. “Nothing. Nothing is wrong and everything is wrong.”

He sat next to her again. “Baby, have you been crying?” His voice softened and he stretched his hand around and placed it on her far right hip. She had become so broad that it was getting to be a bit of a reach. His eyes drew downward to her pudgy sides and subtly budding back-fat. He had never realized it before, but her waist in her sitting position was actually quite a bit thicker and bigger around than his own, maybe even twice as big. “Why? Come on, talk to me.”

“Nothing, I just…” She became silent for several seconds, then turned her head so she could look him straight in the eye. “I weighed myself.”

Mike inspected her face nervously. He swallowed, then shrugged. “Okay…well, so what.”

“So what?” She stood, then spun back around to face him. “I’m two hundred and sixteen pounds. That’s what!”

Her words hit him like a ton of bricks.

Two hundred and sixteen pounds?

Was she serious?

Goddamn that was a lot of weight.

He didn’t know how to respond, so he just sat there dumbfounded for a few seconds before muttering, “Umm, well…”

She stomped her bare foot on the carpet like a child that didn’t get their candy and her entire body jiggled in rippling waves. “Two hundred and sixteen pounds! I couldn’t believe I was over 200, let alone 216.”

Mike stared at the brown leather of his boots for a moment, then slowly looked up. He examined her closely.

Two hundred and sixteen pounds.

He was having trouble believing it himself.

Could she actually be that heavy?

He found it baffling because she really wasn’t a big person. Her bone structure was truly quite petite. She had small elegant hands, small dainty feet and ankles, a small ribcage and narrow, almost fragile looking shoulders. Her facial features too were smallish, slight and delicately feminine. She had accumulated so much fat in her breasts, hips, and ass however, that they were not small in any sense of the definition, yet they were equally as womanly and feminine as the rest of her exquisite characteristics. She still had her hourglass, coke bottle shape, but he noticed that from her side profile, her belly looked much more prominent than it did when she was facing him head on.

He cleared his throat and spoke without a thread of conviction. “Maybe the scale is…broken?”

“It’s not broken Mike, I checked like 4 times!” She crossed her arms beneath her tits. “I’ve gained over 30 pounds since January and this fucking year isnt even over yet! Do you realize what this means?”

“What?”

“It means that I’m clinically overweight.”

Mike thought about that for a second.

Clinically overweight? In his opinion, and despite maintaining a curvacous, hourglass shape, if she was really two hundred and sixteen pounds it was more likely that she was now clinically obese.

He had anticipated this moment for some time. The moment when she’d come to realize how big she had truly become, and in all honesty he was surprised that it hadn't come sooner. He did his best to console her, wishing he could somehow make her feel as beautiful as he thought she was. “Well you look great I mean…”

“No I don’t look great Mike! I’m fat. I can’t find any clothes that fit me anymore, I can’t even walk up the stairs to the bedroom without getting out of breath and it’s all your fault!”

“What did I do?”

Her eyes bored into him, penetrating and severe. “You’re constantly buying desserts, constantly bringing me food and constantly encouraging me to eat.”

“Well I just… want to take care of you. My love language is acts of service.”

“Don’t throw my love language stuff back at me.”

“Sorry.” He rose and drew closer, wondering if maybe she was going through nicotine withdrawals or something. “You want to go outside? Do you need to put some clothes on?”

He reached his hand toward her waist but she spun away and collapsed back into bed.

He gazed at her and pulled his hair subconsciously with both hands. He sighed. “I’ll…be outside.”

He already smoked two cigarettes when the door to the balcony opened. Autumn, wrapped from head to toe in a plush fluffy blanket, stepped outside and squeezed herself between the railing and the small round table. She sat in the collapsable metal chair across from him.

She seemed to be empty handed so he pulled out one of his own cigarettes, leaned forward, placed it between her lips and lit it for her.

She took a long, soothing drag, then stared at him silently for a moment.

“I’m sorry I got upset,” she said, finally.

“It’s okay.”

She paused and took another drag. “It was just that the number was so shocking. I can’t believe how much I’ve let myself go.”

Her hair was wavy, slightly tangled and looked wickedly sexy as did the pouty part in her luscious pink lips.

Goddamn she was good-looking.

Even with all of the weight she put on, her face had changed very little, and from the neck up there was scant evidence of the bountiful and ample curves that lay below.

“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I think you’re every bit as beautiful as you were the day I met you, but I suppose it doesn't matter how beautiful I think you are.”

Her eyes, still slightly puffy from the tears, flashed into his. “Why not?”

“I mean, well…I want you to feel beautiful too.”

“I do feel beautiful, and I appreciate how much you love my body…” She trailed off as a police siren wailed in the distance.

Mike sat up straight and lit a third cigarette. There was a ponderous moment of silence. “You remember that time back in the Starbucks days, when it was black Friday and they were doing the Christmas tree lighting? I had to go get more supplies or something…”

“A DSL?”

“Yeah I had to do a DSL and there were so many people outside I could barely get through the crowd with my little cart or whatever, and I can’t remember why but you were outside too and the lights were on and Christmas music was playing and everything…”

“I remember.”

“You came to tell me something. We were like right next to each other and there were so many people we could hardly move and I thought…what if I just kissed her right here?” He smiled in a subdued and melancholy kind of way. “Thought it would be super romantic, like in the movies or one of those famous black and white photos.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know, got scared I guess. You were always so hard to read and I didn’t know how you would react. Thought you were too pretty for me.” He flicked ash into the bowl on the center of the table. “What would you have done? Would you have kissed me back?”

She was smiling through her eyes. “Yes.”

“Damn. I wish I would have.”

“I wish you would’ve too.” She adjusted her blanket so it covered her naked shoulders. “Look, I am very grateful to have you and I’m grateful for the way you’ve stood by me and the way you’ve taken care of me during this whole crazy year…” She paused for a moment, searching for words. “But I feel like my weight has gotten out of control, and it’s really not healthy for me to be this big.” She placed her cigarette between her lips, sucked in her cheeks then exhaled a mist of smoke. “I don’t know, (cough) maybe It’s just that you’re in such great shape and I’m starting to feel kind of… self-conscious.”

“Okay first of all, I am not in great shape.” He held up his burning cigarette. “And second of all, isn’t that part of what makes attraction so beautiful? The contrast…the differences in our bodies is what attracts me to you.”

“I know but I’ve never struggled with my weight like this before, and I really need to put a stop to it before I get any bigger.”

As much as he hated to admit it, he knew she was right. He felt as though he was playing with house money anyway, as he never really expected her to put on as much weight as she had. Two hundred and sixteen pounds was a lot, especially considering she had gained so much of it relatively quickly. It was her body, her decision, and he respected that. Besides, she was such a knock-out that she could be stunning at any weight, and even Mike, in all his blind lust, could acknowledge that there was a point where perhaps a woman could become too curvy, and he knew that Autumn was probably on the cusp of reaching that point, if she hadn’t passed it already.

He looked into her eyes and nodded. “I love and adore your body, and I think you are just spectacularly beautiful but, I understand what you’re saying, and I will support you in any way that I can.”

She leaned back in her chair. “Thank you.”

He paused for a long moment. “Do you ever miss having a job where you actually go into the office?”

She scrunched her nose. “Not one bit.”

“Guess you were already used to it, and now the whole world’s doing it.”

“What about you? Have you heard any more news with your work?”

He shook his head. “Nope, looks like we won’t be going back anytime soon.”

“God, it’s so crazy they’re still paying you.”

“I certainly can’t complain.” He shrugged. “Are you getting sick of me being home all the time?”

She puffed on her cigarette. “No, I like it, and I’m kind of dreading the day when you have to go back.”

“Me too. We’ve done okay with this whole corona thing so far, could be a lot worse, so many people are struggling out there.”

“I know. This year has felt like 5 years. I was thinking about when we lived on the hill and it seems like that was so long ago.”

“I know what you mean. Feels like we’ve been together forever too. In a good way.”

Her head became still and she stared at him long and hard. “What kind of a relationship do we have?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, all our circles of friends have like shrunk, we don’t even really see family anymore and, sometimes I feel like we’re the only two people on earth.” Her eyes drifted toward the vast illuminated skyline of the city for a moment, then she looked back at him. “But we never talk about what like, we’re actually doing.”

He leaned forward and gazed at her as the feeling of romance waxed heavy in the evening air. “I know that I love you.”

Her eyelashes fluttered and her lips parted slightly before she spoke. “I guess what I’m saying is that I want to feel secure in this relationship. I don’t really see a point in getting married, but I need to know that we’re committed.”

He extinguished his cigarette and his eyes beamed into hers. “I am committed. I don’t want anyone else but you.”

She smiled, her gaze warm and melting. “Same here.”