Emboldened

[chrissy]

“Well if it isn’t haha,” Kaitlyn wrote. 

Fair, I thought. Though we first met working together a couple of years ago at Starbucks, fall 2019 in Montreal, I never really imagined anything more would transpire out of it. Though, in retrospect, it did have an air of obviousness—we were both ukulele-wielding musicians and frequently traded new songs and musings on how it was going on the job; I even saw her at smaller gathering apartment parties a couple of times. And you could probably guess this, but she was just arresting beautiful: a bit curvy, but nothing out of the ordinary, you might say—her auburn hair reached her shoulders and framed her slightly plump lips, out of which came the dulcet sounds of a singer. 

She’d actually moved on from Starbucks in February, a couple of months before the pandemic hit, and I’d somewhat lost touch with her since, the natural consequence of no longer having that convenient, regular meeting place at work. Though, I missed her, and evidently, she possibly did too. 

“You know I could have texted you this whole time,” Kaitlyn continued, “and now I’m wondering why you didn’t, you dope.”

“Guilty as charged,” I texted back through regular text. 

“So where you wanna go? Doesn’t have to be a whole event. We can just see a movie or something.”

“Yeah… I mean, if unremarkable is the goal, or at least mainstream, the latest Marvel would fit that bill.”

“That it would. That it would. 7pm?”

“Sure thing.”

Even then I was a little surprised at the mundanity of it, as if Kait and I hadn’t missed anything; as if the past twenty months since I’d seen her hadn’t happened. 

I looked up her Facebook, unable to resist. The last picture was from December 2020. Just a selfie, not really looking that different…

“Hey, weird question,” Kait texted me back around 4pm. “Ahem… cleavage or no?”

“Is this a trick question,” I responded, naturally.

“Hahahah. No. I guess I just wanted to know if too much.”

“If what is?”

“This.”

Kait sent a picture—what hit my eye first was her chest, as she warned me about. It must have been a 38D, at least, whereas the Kait I remember was two or three sizes down. Her black shirt cascaded down into a mess of tantalizing ruffles, a curtain that undoubtedly hid more. Between that and that way her arms filled the sleeves, she had me right there. 

I’d been with girls like Kait at her current size before—they want you to think it’s all in the chest; you have to help them realize they’re totally, completely beautiful, head to toe. It’s an art. Really.

Tonight potentially got a lot more interesting.

“I guess it’s my way of being up front that I’ve changed…”

Okay, I thought. Be enthusiastic… but not too enthusiastic.

“Kaitlyn, you look amazing. Honestly; I can’t wait to see you tonight and catch up. ”

She responded with a smiley emoji. 

[AllContrast]

Yess!!! Looking forward to the next installment. Any updates on the other stories?

[chrissy]

28 minutes ago, AllContrast said:

Yess!!! Looking forward to the next installment. Any updates on the other stories?

Happy to focus on one you might be particularly interested in! DM me?

[chrissy]

I sat at the Starbucks at 7 as planned, unable to stop thinking about the picture Kait sent me. Still, I was able to get out my laptop and get some work done, to distract.

“Hey, going to be about 20 minutes, sorry,” Kaitlyn texted.

“No worries!” 

Finally she came; in emerged a pair of dark blue jean leggings in what I estimated must have been a size 14 or 16; her shirt, as shared earlier, cascaded into loose fabric that served to draw the eye up to her chest. Still, she couldn’t hide her arms much either, filling out the sleeves conspicuously. She seemed a bit nervous, her footsteps tepid. She seemed obsessed with composing herself, making sure she could appear as small as possible, possibly used to certain tricks for doing so successfully, but starting to fail. A sliver of double chin appears from time to time depending on the tilt of her head, or as she spoke.

“Well hey stranger.”

“Haha. Can I get you a coffee or something? Want to chat or maybe look at the books?” There was a bookstore attached to the Starbucks. Or the Starbucks was attached to the bookstore. Whatever. I was busy trying not to be too obvious devouring Kaitlyn with my eyes.

“Um yeah, sure.” Kaitlyn walked over and got in line with me and we started to catch up on all things post-pandemic. Jobs, loss of jobs, considering that masters degree and deciding doing it online would be too much.

“And what about you? Doing alright?” I turned it to Kait.

“Yeah… well I mean I can’t complain; few of us can right? I’d started that office gig in sales for a cloud storage company in early 2020 and then, well yeah. At least I got to work from home.”

“What was it again, eStruxture? Didn’t Monica end up going there too?” We had all taken a couple classes way back in undergrad, Monica, Kaitlyn, and I. I don’t know why I brought her up, except that I vaguely remembered she was slightly curvy too…

“Oh yeah, Monica and I work together. Started going out on Fridays actually. Fun, right?”

“The more things change?”

“Mmm.” Kaitlyn nodded. 

We nursed out coffees and browsed some of the in-vogue nonfiction of the year. A new graphic novel version of Sapiens. Terry O’Reilly’s book about mistakes. 

I checked my watch. “Movie?” I glanced over at Kaitlyn.

“Sounds good!” She strode over; the increased gait caused her to wobble a bit. She confidently took my hand. 

“This is a date, right?” She looked over at me, smiling in stunning lipstick and bouncing curls of auburn. Her nose looked so cute, I suddenly thought. She was a textbook case of skinny face and growing waist, and hell had I lucked out.

“Absolutely.”

I grabbed two for Shang-Chi. As we set up in our seats, Kaitlyn leaned over to me. “So um… I actually had like, an original idea for what I was going to wear, under this.” She immediately laughed a little. “You’re so cute.” 

She started to pull the looser shirt over her head. Underneath was one of the baseball-styled tees she would wear when we worked together at Starbucks. Back then it was sort of loose… and now, it was tight. Tight as hell. Distinct rolls for her lower belly and midriff jutted out; her arms were huge and plush. Her chest was as spectacular as ever, even in the dim theatre light.

Kaitlyn leaned over to me. “Don’t think I didn’t see you liking all those posts over the past couple years.” 

I could only grunt a little in response. What this even happening?

She pulled my hand to her upper arm. “This feels nice.”

“It’s a good thing Marvel movies run pretty long then,” I leaned over and whispered. 

She smiled.

[chrissy]

I spent the duration of the movie idly touching Kait’s hand; the movement of her fingers back alone was electric. Her shirt was a heather grey, a bit difficult to make out in the dimness of the theatre, but there was no mistaking the changes that had taken hold over Kait’s body. 

About an hour in, unable to without myself, my hand found its way to where her shirt just barely managed to clear her hip, where her tight jeans took over. Lifting it up ever so slightly, my fingers eagerly expected a bit of heavenly skin, but were instead met by another taut fabric. 

“Hmm, what are you doing?” Kait whispered to me amusedly, smirking a little. She took my hand again and held it out on the arm rest. Was she wearing shape wear, or something?

It looked like the move was on the home stretch. Kaitlyn excused herself to go to the washroom; as she did so, I was able to get the best view of her bottom half yet—and there was no denying it there. It was a high-waisted, three-button dark wash jeans kind of deal, and packed into them looked like possibly a size fourteen rear. Watching her navigate that past the others in our row fully distracted me, I’ll admit.

I felt my watch ding. It was bad practice in a movie, but on the off chance it was Kait I surreptitious shielded my wrist and checked. It was. 

“Sooo Monica just texted me and I kind of let her know I was on this date, and that actually make her more insistent that I get a drink with her after this. Would that be OK, to hang with her for like an hour? I think you’d enjoy it. Also, obligatory mirror selfie. Haha.”

Kaitlyn was nothing if not masterful at covering her curves in a selfie; her double chin, usually an occasional sight in person completely disappeared; she was very clearly sucking it in in my eyes knowing how she looked sitting in the theatre, but the casual observer would probably only mostly see some very well filled out jeans and an impressive chest. The biggest tell was her arms, which she couldn’t do much about. Classically in denial, I thought. I wondered if Monica was similar at all. I could have sworn I could see the top of where her Spanx or whatever it was ending just below her bra, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Yeah of course! Now come, movie’s ending, haha.”

Shortly after the credits, Kait put her looser layer back on.

“It’s a bit chilly out there now… and more comfortable in a bar like this, hope you don’t mind, haha.”

“Yeah no, of course. Where to?”

“Um, I think Monica said the Fox?”

“The Fox it is.”

It turned out to be slightly out of walking distance, so I ordered an Uber for us. Usually I’d drive, but I halfway expected us to be inebriated by the end of the night; it had been that way before after staff parties and on occasion back when we worked together. 

“So.” Kait said, turning to me in the Uber. “Tell me more about you. Things I didn’t know from before. Things that have happened since. Things you want to do.”

I told her about my freelance writing, all my personal research about types of coffee since moving on from Starbucks. How I was thinking about doing a masters, but the usual song and dance about whether it’s worth it. And everyone’s favourite topic, coping with the pandemic.

“Awww, you made it so far without talking about the profiterole, haha.”

“The what?”

“The pizza. Any P word but…”

“Ah, haha, okay. You do make it sound more delicious than it has any right to be.”

“Call it a talent. Speaking of which, I am super hungry…”

“Haha, well we’re almost there.”

We went in unceremoniously. It was pretty dim, but had a good vibe. Not too loud, but loud enough to drown out your inhibitions, like a good buzz. 

I recognized Monica at the bar, sure enough. And sure enough, I could immediately tell she had grown at least a little since undergrad. It wasn’t shocking, but it was definitely there—a pretty similar getup to Kaitlyn, actually, just with a dark green shirt that accentuated her own chest—a size or two up—and devolved into a ruffled mess by the bottom. Her arms looked much bigger, too; her face was gorgeous, with wavy, dirty blonde hair brushing the nape of her neck. I’ll freely admit that I was on a date with Kait, but for at least a moment Monica commanded my full attention.

“Well if it isn’t! Oh my God,” Monica hopped off the bar stool and immediately went in to hug me. I remembered we were actually pretty good buddies; things just got busy. And suddenly I felt bad about not keeping it up with her. I even wondered if she was single—incorrigible me.

“Kait, where did you find this guy, on the side of the street? Nevermind, he’s getting us a round, all good, haha.”

I oblige, never wanting to say no to that.

“… So then I make this late night, last minute pitch, pitch number what, thirty six?—and that’s the one, that’s the thing that gets me started. So freelancing is hard.” Monica explained to me about ten minutes later, as the conversation moved to my meagre writing ambitions and Monica divulged on her own nascent career as a freelancer. I wanted to ask if she worked elsewhere to make ends meet, but decided it wasn’t a good idea.

Kaitlyn sat in the middle, seat pushed back a little, taking all this in, nursing an IPA and picking at  one of the two baskets of fries we got.  

“So tell me,” Monica started, “it’s kinda sus that a guy like you would still be single. What are you going to do for my girl Kaitlyn?” She asked, semi-jokingly.

“Well, I mean, thank you,” I said. We all laughed. “Um. So you see, there was thing called a global pan—“

“—pistachio donut,” Kaitlyn interjected. 

“That sounds pretty amazing right now,” Monica added.

“Um right, a global pistachio donut… and that made it easy to kind of go your own a little. And yeah. I mean, that’s kind of it. As for what I’d do—“

“You’d get her a pistachio donut! Aw, that’s so sweet.” Both girls giggled. I eyed them both over. It was pretty clear neither was a stranger to indulgences.

“Well. They would go pretty damn well with a good coffee, that’s for sure,” said, opening my phone and Uber Eats.

“Wait, you’re not actually—“ Monica started.

“I’m just saying, if anyone wants a decaf and a donut at my place later, they’ll be there.”

“Haha aww… that is actually so sweet.”

“Literally,” Kait added. 

“Um this is slightly awk, but is that offer open to like, anyone?” Monica asked.

“Heck, I mean yeah sure. I have the new Mario Party too if you just wanted to hang out. No worries.”

“God I forgot how fun and spontaneous you can be. Slightly jealous of Kait right now, hahaha. Hold on.” Monica hopped off and went to the bathroom; I tried my best not to look after her, seeing at Kait was right there in front of me.

Kait and I looked at each other. 

“Fun indeed,” she said, taking my hand and moving it up her plump upper arm again. I shivered a little in response, which made her laugh, her chest responding in turn. 

“Didn’t think I’d be having a donut at your place on date one, but can’t say I’m complaining,” she laughed.

[Zorro252525]

Great start, Chrissy! Can't wait to see where you take this one