Autumn (Chapter 13) (Patreon)

Chapter 13

2021 began much differently than did the previous year, for both the world and Autumn in particular. In January of 2020 she felt overweight and lethargic, and was excited at  the idea of moving into a brand new apartment adjacent to a gym, developing  a consistent workout routine and getting back into shape. Never in her worst nightmare did she think that 12 months later, the gyms would be closed and she’d be carrying an additional 45 pounds or so on her already voluptuous figure.

She was now beyond merely out of shape and beyond lethargic, but it didn’t feel like a nightmare. On the contrary it felt sexy, and for lack of a better term simply felt natural. Her eating habits and opulent self-indulgence had increased little by little, each day, each week, each month, so much so that her behavior had become justified and normalized in her own mind.

In reality however, and though perhaps unbeknownst to her, she was addicted to food, completely hooked on the oral fixation of deliciousness on her tongue and the wonderful relaxed sensation of fullness in her belly. These feelings had become so synonymous with intimate desire and sexual pleasure that she now had trouble separating the sense of comfort from food and the perception of arousal that came with it.

As the months passed her behaviors built on one another and it was starting to get out of control.  The more she ate, the more weight she gained. The more she ate, the more her appetite increased. The more weight she gained, the heavier she felt, the heavier she felt, the less she moved her body and less she moved her body, the more weight she gained and so on.

Not only had her addiction to food taken hold, but she had also become addicted to the way she could make Mike conform to her will with just a shimmy of her widening hips and wiggle of her expanding ass. It had not gone unnoticed to her that as her body grew larger and softer, her abilities to make her boyfriend swoon also increased.

For Mike it was all heaven, and never before had felt such a relentless attraction towards a woman and yet despite this, and in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but worry and wonder where it was headed or when it would end. He was well aware that his girlfriend’s broadening proportions were causing her to get easily winded from the slightest of physical activities and had rendered her less mobile and less energetic, and that her daily diet of grossly excessive fats, sugars and carbohydrates was neither healthy, nor virtuous. He was torn between blind lust and unadulterated love like two passengers on a runaway train headed toward some uninhabitable destination as in addition to her caloric surpluses, she was also consuming THC edibles on a daily basis, and smoking more cigarettes than ever, nearly 2 packs per day, significantly more than him and by the month April, the toll of this unsustainable lifestyle of lavishness was obvious.

“Shit,” Autumn said, standing in the lobby of their building. “Are they serious? How the hell (pant) is it possible for both elevators to be out of order at the same time?”

Mike shrugged, holding brown paper Whole Foods grocery bags, one in each hand. “We’ll have to take the stairs.”

Autumn shifted her weight to one hip and swung the leather strap of her purse over her right shoulder. She sighed deeply. “That’s okay, (gasp) I guess the universe is telling me that I need some exercise.” She spoke in a tongue in cheek kind of way, but deep down Mike knew that she must on some level agree with that sentiment. Having been 238 pounds in January, February saw her at 244, in March she was 249 and now in April she was astonishingly over 250. She wasn’t trying to gain weight but with the way she was living the pounds kept on piling on like an unrelenting force that could only be slowed by some serious and drastic changes to her behavior. Changes she showed zero inclination of making anytime soon.

They walked together to the stairwell and Mike opened the door for her, then followed behind as she slowly trudged upward with echoing weighty thuds. It wasn’t long before she was audibly gasping for air from the effort.

“You okay?” Mike said. Autumn slowly placed her fashionable boots on each step, carefully and one at a time as if the task demanded extreme concentration. Getting no response, Mike asked again. “Are you okay?”

She turned and glared at him. “Yeah, (huff, pant) why?”

Mike gazed at her from behind. Her black and white checkered patterned skirt-set was clinging to her oversized curves like a second skin and her dumptruck of an ass had gotten so big that it seemed to take up much of the width of the staircase, or was that just his imagination? The recently formed back rolls visible beneath her top most definitely wasn’t his imagination, nor was her girthy, puddling-like upper arms despite being covered in long sleeves. “No reason.”

She went back to hauling herself up, huffing and puffing as she went. Her butt looked so heavy and it swayed back and forth and jiggled like a perfectly formed jello mold with each wobbly laborious movement. After a while she stopped and leaned against the wall. “Hang on, (gasp, pant) I just need to rest (cough, wheeze) for a second, out (pant) of breath.” Her face was flush and a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. She fanned herself with her hand. “God (pant, gasp, cough) this only the fourth floor?” Her breath was so choked and wheezy that it was making a slight whistling sound from deep in the back of her throat.

“Come on, I'll push you.” Mike put both grocery bags in his right hand then pressed against the warm doughy small of her back with his left, and they continued making their way towards their seventh floor apartment. By the time they got there Autumn was so winded she could barely talk.

“Holy shit, (gasp, wheeze, cough) I’m so out (cough, cough) of shape,” she said as she reached in her purse and pulled out her pack of Camels. She had recently made the switch from her usual American Spirits to the more chemical based cigarettes.

Mike scoweld. “You don’t need to smoke now do you?”

“Fuck, (gasp, pant) do not micro mangage me (huff), I’m fucking pissed that we pay all this money for this place and still (huff, wheeze) they can’t figure out how to make (cough) an elevator work.” She had a look of both worry and frustration on her face as she fought to get oxygen into her nicotine and tar inpared lungs as she stormed off toward the balcony.

Mike put the groceries away then went outside to join her. After lighting up himself he said, “Maybe it’s time.”

Autumn took a drag from her second cigarette and gave him a look. “Time for what?”

Mike nodded at her pack, half empty on the outdoor table. “Time to quit.”

She squeezed her brows. “Why (pant) just because I got (gasp) winded from the stairs?”

“I got a little winded too,” Mike said. “I don’t know, the only way we’re going to be able to quit is if we do it together.”

Autumn sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“What do you say?”

“It’s not going to be easy, (cough) we’ll have to get some patches.”

“Yeah, or a Juul or vape or something.”

She adjusted her posture, but even that was a struggle. Her hips had become so big and blubbery that they were wedged between the armrests of her chair and oozing against the metal like rising dough in an undersized baking pan, looking like she was a donut away from being permanently fastened to her seat. “I (gasp) don’t know I need to do some serious (huff) mental preparation if we’re going to actually do it.”

“What’s the date today?”

She glanced at her phone. “April 11th.”

“Okay so, you want to say like starting May 1st, no more cigarettes?”

She pursed her lips pensively for a moment. “Yeah, (cough) I could be on board for that.”

Mike gazed into her beautiful coffee colored eyes. “In it together.”

She took a short final puff and stabbed out her cigarette. “Yep, it’s a deal.”

“Okay then.”

She took another smoke from her pack and lit up.

Mike’s eyebrows arched upward. “What are you just going to chain smoke for the rest of the month?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You know (cough, cough) I really don’t need your judgments right now. I feel lightheaded and I (gasp, pant) think my blood sugar is low. I haven't had anything to eat since lunch.”

He rose to his feet. “Okay, umm…should I run over to Roccos and grab a slice or two?”

She fluttered her eyelashes and stared up at him blankly. “If you were smart (cough) you would have done that (huff) already, and if you were really smart you’d get a whole pizza instead of a slice. It’s cheaper (gasp) in the long run that way.”

He shrugged and nodded. “Okay, I’ll be back.” He opened the door to go inside.

“Mike.”

He turned. “Yeah?”

With her cigarette held between the index and middle finger of her right hand, she looked like some sort of exaggerated blown up plus sized version of a young Audrey Hepburn in an old time movie, either that or a curvy redheaded barbie that had let herself go completely. She smoked quickly, almost frantically. “Bring me a (gasp) couple of those gummies before you leave, need to (cough, cough) calm my nerves.”

“Okay.”

He went inside and came back out moments later and placed two gummies between her lips. She ate, put out her smoke, rocked forward and put both hands on the table so that she could get into a standing position. Simple tasks were not as easy for her as they used to be. With a look of discomfort she rose, but the chair was coming up with her.

“Omigod babe, little help?” With her knees and back slightly bent she gave Mike a pouty worried look. She bit her lower lip. “I think (gasp, pant) my butt’s too big for these chairs.”

He swallowed nervously, although he could feel his arousal rising up below his belt. “Oh my goodness, poor baby.”

This, while incredibly hot to witness, had to be one of those harsh reality moments. If this wasn’t the wake up call or the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back that would get her to change her ways and go on a major crash diet then nothing would. As much as it saddened Mike to think that all the sexy fun was over, he knew that it was probably for the best in the long run, and he had mentally prepared himself for an occurrence such as this. He quickly jolted forward and helped wiggle her hips free, letting the chair fall to the epoxy painted floor with a clang.

She stood up straight with a sharp gasp and a toss of her hair. “Babe?”

Mike looked at her attentively and waited for the inevitable speech about how she had let herself get too big and she needed to lose weight. “Yes?”

She stared at him haughtily, almost proudly. “Honey-do list time. Can I (pant) count on you to order some bigger chairs that are a little more comfortable and roomy?”

His jaw fell open. “Ummm, yes, I can do that.”

“Good. (cough) Now run and get that pizza, I need to get off my feet.”

During the rest of the month of April, Autumn indulged in food, cigarettes and wine, well into excess; as if she was trying to squeeze in all of her vices and guilty pleasures before giving up smoking in May. Mike was surprised and actually a little taken aback by her overt gluttony, but he cherished it, nurtured it and encouraged it while it lasted.

It was really fucking hot, whatever it was she was doing, and when the first of the month arrived, she had accumulated another 6 pounds, making her already remarkably plush body just that much more T and A dominant.

Quitting cigarettes however, was no easy task, especially during the first few days. Even with nicotine patches and e-cigs it was a struggle. Autumn was a bit of a terror to be around and she tried to curb her withdrawals by constantly snacking and gorging herself on as much food as she could get her hands on.

Whenever a craving hit, she’d reach for a bag of chips, a box of cookies, a cupcake, or handful after handful of chocolate-covered almonds.

Together, they somehow got past day one and day two, and after much grappling with their own willpower they made it an entire week without so much as one cigarette contacting their lips.

The physical dependency was over, but their bodies, especially Autumn’s, were still adapting to the sudden change. Daily smoking speeds up a person’s metabolism and increases the amount of calories burned by abou 8 to 15 percent. Without cigarettes, one’s body will burn food at a much slower pace and Mike and Autumn were no exception.

They dealt with this problem much differently however. Mike threw himself into physical exercise, replacing tobacco with more pushups, pullups and brisk runs along downtown Seattle’s waterfront streets and parks.

Autumn on the other hand, dove into her work and found that she could focus at her desk for more extended periods of time, as she no longer had to get up and go outside every hour. At least she could do so if she had something to munch on at all times. Not only do cigarettes speed up the metabolism, but they also reduce one’s appetite, and without them, Autumn found that she felt hungry seemingly all of the time and she made zero attempt to hide or suppress this fact.

Mike thought she had been eating a lot and gaining weight at an alarming rate before quitting smoking, but after giving up her cancer sticks, that pace only seemed to pick up steam.