Roll Model
Part One
The idea’s inception came during a 3am brainstorming session at the studio. Hundreds of ideas had been tossed out, but the so called creative team had yet to come up with something that pleased the network president. Finally, as usually happens in television, an idea was settled on because of its lack of originality – another reality show about modeling. A beautiful house near the ocean would house the most beautiful women who were aspiring to be models, and they would compete with each other for modeling gigs, act catty, and in general provide great vapid entertainment for a shallow nation.
The “Model House” stood proud and tall alongside the beautiful southern California beach. The girls lounged around on endless plush sofas framed by palm trees, living in a veritable tropical paradise.
The first couple of episodes introduced each model, but the first test came when the first competitive contract walked through the front door. The nation’s biggest electric car company wanted to do a shoot, and they’d only be picking one girl for the job.
Of the dozen-odd women in the Model House, Tara, Cara, and Julia were the three leading contenders. Tara had a cute button face and a shock of curly, beautiful red hair, but she was a tad short and her figure – though trim – was nothing to write home about. Cara was a blonde who had a long legs and a perfect hourglass, but her face was just a tad long and her eyes were spaced a little too far apart.
Julia, however, had no immediately perceptible imperfections. She had a mane of wavy, black hair that cascaded down her shoulders and contrasted perfectly with her just slightly bronzed skin. He had a diamond shaped face, and an impossibly thin frame that still somehow supported an impressive C cup bust and a small but rounded butt. When Julia was off camera, Cara, Tara, and the other women of the Model House would frequently allege that she must have had work done, or at the very least she had an eating disorder.
When it was her turn, Julia always insisted she was a natural beauty, gifted by genetics with a perfect figure and a fast metabolism that allowed her to maintain it effortlessly. And although Julia was willing to lie at the drop of a hat to get what she wanted, in this case she said nothing but the truth.
Needless to say, Julia landed the gig. They drove Julia out to the desert, and she draped her beautiful body over the cars. When she returned to the Model House, she was beaming with pride. When it came time for lunch, Tara and Cara refused to eat a thing, hoping they could try to starve themselves into becoming thinner to compete with Julia.
“You two should just give up right now,” Julia said as strutted into the living room. She looked at Tara and Cara lying limply on the sofa, nervously chewing on their fingers and dreaming of food. “You’ll never compete with my amazing good looks. And you don’t have the willpower to diet either.”
“You just wait,” Tara said. “You won’t beat us every time.”
“Oh?” Julia said, her ears perking up. “I could beat you two any day of the week. With one hand tied behind my back. In fact…I could beat you two without having to diet at all. My metabolism could take you both on.” Julia snapped her fingers, her entitled way of trying to summon one of the servants working in the model house. “Yes, you there…bring me a cheeseburger.”
“Very good miss,” the man said, and quickly disappeared to the kitchen. Soon the enticing sounds of sizzling and the scent of cooking food began to emanate from the kitchen.
“You’re insane,” Cara said. “How can you really hope to maintain your figure if you gorge on junk food?”
“Besides, we’re trying our best to diet over here,” Tara added. “It’s not fair to eat like that right in front of us.”
“Oh, no?” Julia replied with a loud laugh. When the burger arrived, Julia asked the man who brought it for a cheesecake for dessert. She moaned while eating it and licked her fingers clean while Tara and Cara meekly looked on with envy. When Julia finished off a succulently moist cheesecake, she strutted around in her tube top, showing off her tummy bulge. “Look at my ‘food baby,’ girls. That’s all the evidence you’ll ever see that I indulged this afternoon.” Tara and Cara could do nothing but salivate with jealousy. At the end of the day, one of the producers stopped by the set and congratulated Julia on her gig and on her exciting, sure to be ratings-boosting tiff with the other models.
Buoyed up by praise from the network and her own insatiable pride and appetite, Julia decided to continue this routine whenever she could. She ordered the chef to prepare every unhealthy and fattening food she could imagine: éclairs, donuts, waffles, fried chicken, onion rings, pizza, and more. For several days in which the other models and the audience at home looked on in amazement, Julia gorged herself on the richest foods and suffered no consequences. When the next round of modeling gigs made their way into the model house, Julia would still snag the majority of them. Sometimes, she’d even snap up a job while slurping down a sundae or some other delicious, fattening confection.
Eventually, however, calories have a way of adding up, even when pitted against the best metabolisms. And Julia’s, while remarkably fast, was no exception to this rule.
The first changes were so small, so subtle, that they were barely noticeable. Julia’s trademark diamond shaped face was just a tad puffier, her tummy was just slightly pressing harder against the elastic band of her designer underwear. Her breasts, Julia’s pride and joy, filled out her bra a bit more than usual, creating an eye popping effect on her cleavage – so it wasn’t all bad, she rationalized. Julia didn’t bother stepping on a scale, refusing to acknowledge she had gained any weight. When the next modeling gig floated through the model house, a ‘drink milk’ campaign, Julia didn’t waste any time pouncing on it. All she needed to do was wriggle her shoulders and flaunt her breasts and the contract was hers.
When she returned to the Model House, she came with a colossal jug of whole milk she had received from the shoot. To celebrate, Julia decided to chug it in front of the other girls. Tiny little rivulets of milk made its way down her face and onto her breasts, and then onto the floor as she greedily guzzled. When she finished her mouth, neck and breasts were soaked with milk and her tummy was bulging in front of her, stretched to the brim with the fattening liquid. Julia didn’t even bother exercising to try to maintain her figure; she flopped on one of the soft sofas and decided to sleep it off. None of the producers interfered – she was the character the audience loved to hate, and they knew nothing could draw ratings like that. Well, nothing except the character’s inevitable downfall, but they kept that part of their speculation to themselves.
Julia’s weight gain progressed. What was only a few pounds quickly crept into five to ten. The pounds made their effect known to Julia in subtle ways, though she chose to ignore the signs. When a jean skirt stubbornly refused to button over her slightly poofy tummy, she launched into a tirade blaming the laundry lady for shrinking it. When her rounding thighs tore a set of leggings, she blamed the manufacturer for making a fragile product.
Tara and Cara were able to land some of the smaller gig opportunities, but Julia was determined as ever not to let the next one slip away. It was a major designer sunglasses line, and when the time came, they went with Julia. At the point, Julia’s face was starting to get puffy enough for the agency to notice, and the curves of her body were expanding noticeably – at least to someone in the industry. Julia’s advantage was that she was a known brand, and the company decided that the perceived imperfections were small enough to erase with ‘Photoshop’ and other electronic tools.
When Julia arrived back at the Model House with the altered photos in hand, she believed that’s how she really looked and felt invincible. Tara and Cara had eaten nothing but grapefruit and almonds for weeks and had run two miles on the beach everyday at dawn, and they were still runners up to her.
To celebrate her triumph, she ordered up a smoothie – and asked for it to be gallon. She told the chief to add whey powder, soda syrup, chocolate chips, and globs of peanut butter. “To my reign as Queen of the Model House,” she said in a mockery of a toast as she lifted the calorie bomb concoction to her lips and drank.
Part Two
“Have you seen Julia’s ass lately?” Cara asked, in a voice loud enough that any cameraman in the Model House would hear it.
“I know, if it gets any bigger our sofa is going to start getting a squeak,” Tara complained in a similarly exaggerated tone of voice.
“Talking about me, are you?” Julia said as she stormed into the room. Her stomach, having become stretched by her habitual binge eating, was already grumbling.
“Oh no, we aren’t talking about you,” Cara said.
“Why would anybody be gossiping about your perfect figure?” Tara added, and the two burst into gales of giggles.
There was no denying it now – Julia had put on weight. She was at least 15 pounds heavier than when she started out, possibly 20. Her perfect body had accumulated a layer of fat, and no amount of blaming the help was going to make it disappear.
“Every girl’s weight goes up and down,” Julia said defensively.
“Seems like lately your weight has only been going up,” Tara shot back.
“You two jog every morning at dawn, how hard can it be? You just watch – I’ll get back to shape in no time. I’m not worried in the least,” Julia promised them. Today, though, she had awoken at the leisurely time of eleven in the morning – what use was there in running if the sun was already out? She’d get in shape, starting tomorrow, she rationalized. “I’ll have some oatmeal cookies,” she mumbled to one of the waiters, figuring that her diet couldn’t start without her workout regimen. That would also begin tomorrow. Besides, if all she nibbled on was celery, how could she have the energy for a run?
Little did Julia know that the staff at the Model House was not rooting for her succeed. They were tired of her complaints, tired of being blamed for supposedly “shrinking her clothes” or buying the wrong brand of leggings. The chefs were tired of being asked to cook such immense amounts of complex, rich foods, while the rest of the girls subsisted on simple to make and healthy fruit and vegetable plates. The head chef decided if she was going to ask for cookies for breakfast, he’d give her cookies so good she wouldn’t be able to resist, thus helping thwart any effort to diet and in turn hastening her inevitable departure from the show.
He loaded up the batter with coconut shavings, caramel, and raisins. He also let a large jar of molasses slowly drain into the pot, and smiled as he imagined it sticking to her ribs. Before he shut the oven door, he permitted himself a small taste. It was the richest dessert he had ever created.
When Julia was presented with a plate of cookies, initially planned to keep herself just a few. But as soon as the first bite touched her lips, she knew she was going to eat the entire plate. They were chewy, rich, and delicious. Before Julia knew what she was doing, she was already shoving them into her mouth by the fistful, causing bits of oatmeal and crumbs to fly everywhere, including on the shag sofa, into her hair, and onto her growing cleavage. The spectacle elicited more giggling from the other models, including Tara and Cara.
The next day Julia set her watch, determined to get up and dawn and run with the others. She awoke feeling groggy and exhausted, as she was not used to waking up on anyone else’s schedule.
“Decided to join us?” Tara said when she saw Julia’s bleary face.
“Hope you can keep up,” Cara added as they stretched their lithe bodies and laced their running shoes. Julia had no running shoes, so she had to wear flip flops.
Cara and Tara started running at breakneck speed. They usually kept a brisk pace, but they needed to show off their athletic prowess to Julia. They both felt compelled to beat her at something, and they knew in this was a contest Julia could not win.
Within just moments, Julia felt winded. Her lungs burned and the jogging was causing her too-small panties to ride up on her. In addition, her C-cup bra could barely contain her expanded breasts, and every step caused them to threaten to bounce free. After a few minutes, Julia sat down on the sand, her face flushed and her muscles burning. Desperate to feel relaxed, she pulled out a cigarette and started puffing. This only caused her lungs to burn even more.
When she looked off into the distance, she saw that Cara and Tara were far ahead of her, so far in fact that they looked like mere specks on the horizon. Feeling humiliated, Julia turned around and headed back to the Model House, still panting. When she arrived, all she could think about was how much all that running had whetted her appetite. She couldn’t resist ordering crepes, blintzes, and a parfait with extra whipped cream. She felt embarrassed and asked for the food to be delivered straight to her room.
As Julia lay on her bed, her face smeared with whipped cream and her big food baby gut hanging over her panties, she knew something had to be done. Since pretending the fat didn’t exist wasn’t going to work, and diet and exercise were too difficult to pull off, she decided to try a different tactic.
The next day, several mysterious brown boxes arrived at the front door of the Model House. Julia quickly took them into her room, hoping Tara and Cara didn’t get a chance to peek at the contents: spanx and girdles, the best shapewear to hide any unsightly bulges.
When the next big contract came around, Julia wore a billowy summer dress and her new gear. As long as she was careful how to breathe and didn’t bend too much, she could maintain the illusion that she was still a thin model. Her face was clearly more round that it was before, with chubbier cheeks and a slight double chin that formed when she smiled, and her arms had grown beefier, but most of her embarrassing new curves were effectively under wraps.
Cara and Tara’s jaws dropped when Julia was still able to snag the ad, which was for a new fragrance called “Victorious.” The name applied equally well to Julia’s state of mind when she returned to the Model House. Despite her lack of discipline, she had still managed to win. She celebrated with a cigarette and a pile of pancakes covered in blueberry syrup. She didn’t even bother trying to exercise and she slept until noon.
A few days later, Julia was roused from slumber by a producer, who let her know another client was at the Model House looking for someone for a new campaign. Julia put on her special gear and raced downstairs as fast as she could.
“Ah, hoping to see you here, Julia,” the man said as he eyed Tara and Cara. “I like you both very much,” he said, “but I think Julia is my choice,” he finished.
“Of course,” Julia said. “I’d love to work with you,” she added, and shook the agent’s hand. “What did you say the campaign was again?”
“Our new bikini line. I’m sure you’ll look great in them,” he said with a wink. Julia, looking horrified, politely excused herself and ran upstairs.
In a bikini ad, she couldn’t attempt to hide her weight gain. The shoot was in just three days – how could she hope to lose any weight during that time, even if she had the discipline? But she couldn’t very well pull out and give the contract to Tara or Cara, that would be an admission something was wrong. She had never let them beat her to a contract she had wanted, and she wasn’t about to start now.
Julia was even more mortified to learn that the shoot was going to be done locally – right on the beach next to the Model House. Everyone was going to know what was going on, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She could run away and fade into irrelevance, or become embarrassed and also fade away into irrelevance. She wasn’t sure what to do, so she spent most of her time holed up in her room, stuffing her face with sweets and smoking. Anyone who passed the door could smell ash and cinnamon rolls.
When the day finally came, Julia found herself in a tent on the beach, trying to put on a bikini which was clearly designed for the person she looked like when she had arrived, not the woman she was today. Her breasts had swelled a full cup size, straining the top and making it hard to tie in back. Her tummy now jutted forward at all times, as if she had a permanent ‘food baby.’ When she did binge, of course, it grew to twice that size. Her waist was now sporting love handles that dripped over the sides of the bikini and her butt was straining the fabric of the bottom of it.
“It’s time to come out, Julia,” the cameraman instructed, but Julia refused to budge. Finally, someone entered her tent, and Julia started to cry as she heard the sound of the shutter of a camera. Soon, all the girls of the Model House were outside and were laughing and pointing. The episode was had the highest ratings ever for the Model House – it was called “How the mighty has fallen.”
Part Three
Because of Julia’s prior successes, Julia’s ‘Figure Troubles’ (the term she coined to describe her weight gain) did not result in her immediate expulsion from the Model House. She was, however, officially put on notice. She had two weeks to shape up, or else.
During those two weeks, though, she found that exercise and diet were just as arduous as they had been before. After just a few sit-ups, Julia was winded and in pain. She wasn’t strong enough to do even a single push-up, and running made her feel like a flabby, sweaty mess.
Her dieting efforts fared just as poorly. During the day, she ordered small portions of fruit and vegetables to keep up the appearance of trying, but at midnight she snuck out to the kitchen to get fattening snacks. She carted off boxes of donuts, gallons of ice cream, and dozens of candy bars up to her room to munch on.
The two weeks passed before she knew it, and Julia soon found herself on a scale. The ominous number 141 was displayed, which meant she had gained nearly thirty pounds, and five of those during the two weeks she was supposed to be trying to lose weight. During this time of shame, she had not landed a single modeling job. The producers ordered her to leave the Model House, and when Julia walked out onto the beach, dozens of cameras were trained on her. Each hoped to catch a new curve or a jiggle in her walk, to show just how much she had fallen.
With a heavy heart, she decided to head home, far away from California and its impossibly harsh standards. Her parents lived near Cincinnati. When she greeted them, they both expressed sympathy for how her adventure in reality TV had gone. By the time she was heading to their house, she was already feeling better. She had lived so long in such a competitive environment that she had forgotten how fat other people besides her often were. On the plane ride over, she read an article stating the average American woman was now 163 pounds. She was still well below average!
The first thing Julia did when she got settled in her old room was to meet up with her old best friend. When Linda arrived to meet her at a coffee shop, Julia felt a surge of confidence. Linda had always been on the heavy side, and now it appeared that her weight might be near 200 pounds. Next to Linda, Julia thought, she was skinny as a rail.
“Wow, you’ve sure been packing it away,” Julia said as her friend took a seat. “Be careful with those chairs – they might break on you.”
“I see you’re in a good mood,” Linda said with a sigh. She was used to Julia’s mean spirited barbs by now, but she didn’t have many other friends and so she put up with perpetual abuse.
“No, really,” Julia continued, “You’ve become quite large.”
“You’re one to talk,” Linda said. “Didn’t you just get kicked off a reality show because of your own weight gain?”
“But that’s the best part,” Julia said with a wide grin on her chubby cheeks. “I did, but I’m still so much thinner than you are. My puffy face is nothing compared to your fat mug. My tummy is tiny beside that big, beach ball sized gut you’ve got. Your boobs are bigger, but they are so large they are hanging down on the sides of your tummy.”
“Are you done?” Linda asked. Julia smiled. She was never truly done.
Over the next few weeks, Julia continued to eat what she wanted, emboldened by the fact that she was still thinner than most other women. Still, living with her parents after being a star so recently felt restrictive, and she soon decided to go clubbing and try to find a boyfriend. She had to talk Linda into going with her, but of course her friend agreed in the end.
When Linda picked Julia up, she found her friend was still thin enough to wear designer clothes.
“I’m not even technically in the plus sized section – unlike yourself,” Julia said as she strutted around in her outfit. “My thick thighs and wobbly tummy can still be disguised with a bit of hard work. You, on the other hand, really are a lost cause. Just look at that fat ass,” she said, giving it a playful pat.
“Come on, Julia, ease up, ok?” Linda complained. “You know I have self esteem issues.”
“Fine,” Julia curtly replied, and lit up a cigarette inside Linda’s car.
“Can you not smoke in here?” Linda said, coughing it a little. Julia rolled down the window, but did not put it out.
When the arrived at the club, Julia made sure to stay as close to Linda as possible, hoping the contrast would lead everyone to perceive her as thin. Her clothing – a leather top with a short but billowy skirt – was form fitting enough to show off her impressive cleavage, but hid most of her other growing curves well enough in the low light.
The plan worked like a charm. Julia found herself a near-constant target of male attention. She didn’t engage with any man directly – Julia, ego big as ever, preferred to wait until the best man possible presented himself.
Her patience was ultimately rewarded. A tall man in his late thirties danced his way towards her, wearing a black silk shirt and a pair of sunglasses Julia recognized from her modeling days. She knew that they had a list price of over $2000. This man was a keeper.
“Hello, pretty one, I’m Edwin,” he said as soon as there was a break in the music. He had an exotic accent that Julia didn’t quite recognize.
“Hi,” Julia replied, inching away from him just slightly. She knew he’d be more interested if he perceived there to b a thrill to the chase.
“Do I know you?” he asked.
“No, but you might have seen my face on some advertisements for sunglasses,” she said, batting her eyes.
“That’s it. You were on TV recently. The ‘Model House,’ right?” he asked excitedly.
Julia replied by lowering her head with shame. If he knew her from her humiliating debacle on reality television, her chances of snagging him were nil.
“I know it’s you, Julia, right?” Edwin continued. “I loved your character, you were my favorite.”
“Really?” Julia asked, her face quickly rising.
“Yes, I was so sad to see you go,” Edwin continued. “I hope this doesn’t mean your modeling days are done.”
“Well, you never know,” Julia said coyly, already feeling back on her game. The music resumed, and Edwin was forced to lean down and whisper into Julia’s ear to be heard.
“I have some friends in the advertising business, I could help with that,” Edwin said. “But I’d really love to get some shots for my private collection as well. Come back to my place and we can discuss this further.”
Julia felt a little nervous. She didn’t know this guy, and what he was saying sounded almost too good to be true. Perhaps if she had some backup, she’d be safer?
“Only if my friend can come too,” Julia stipulated through a whispered reply, and gestured to Linda. Edwin looked the heavy girl up and down, and turned back to Julia with a smile.
“Of course. I was just about to invite her as well, in fact,” Edwin said. “Let’s go.”
“Linda, we’re going,” Julia shouted to Linda, who was shimmying with wanton abandon and who was getting very little male attention.
“Going where?” Linda replied.
“We’re going with my new friend Edwin. He says he might have a modeling gig for me,” Julia said.
“At one on the morning?” Linda asked.
“No, not right at this minute. But eventually,” Julia tried to explain. “Just come on.”
“I don’t know,” Linda said. “Why should I come with you? Does he have a contract for me, too?”
“Look,” Julia said as she pulled her friend aside. “This guy is loaded. He might just want to pay for the pictures himself. I just want a buddy for safety, ok? Just do it for me as a friend.”
Linda raised an eyebrow, hinting that their friendship was so strained that playing the ‘friend card’ might not cut it.
“How many rich guys are in your social circle? Aren’t you still working in retail? Come on, this will be good for both of us,” she promised, though she had no intention of helping her once the time came.
“Oh, all right,” Linda said reluctantly. “But you owe me. No more jokes about my weight,” Linda instructed.
“You have my word,” Julia said, “...lardass,” she finished under her breath.
“What did you say?” Linda sputtered.
“I said, ‘you have my word, Linda,” Julia lied.
“Everything OK between you girls?” Edwin asked as he walked over to them.
“Just fine,” Julia said with a smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
Part Four
When the three of them exited the club, they were both pointed in the direction of a sleek, black limousine. A driver exited the vehicle, and Edwin let them climb in first.
The journey took them a ways out of the city center, towards a posh area in the nearby hills. On the way, Edwin explained that apart from the help, he lived alone in his mansion, having inherited it from family whom had recently passed away. He said he looked forward finally having some company.
The limo finally slowed to a stop in front of a massive gothic manor on a hill. This, apparently, was Edwin’s home. When the three stepped inside, they found themselves in the most luxurious home they had ever seen. This place put the Model House to shame, Julia thought.
Within a few minutes, Edwin was going through a binder of contacts with Julia, showing him different ad campaigns that he knew about around the country and the different agencies he knew would be running them. Linda eventually said she had to go, and Julia didn’t mind, as she now felt comfortable that this guy was the real deal. Before she left, Edwin said he might have a job for her with his accounting staff and promised her double whatever her current salary was. She promised she’d be back and Edwin had the limo take her home.
As soon as she was gone, Edwin started expressing interest in taking some pictures a “private collection,” and Julia didn’t object. She felt a thrill being in front of the camera again and loved the fact she wasn’t too big to turn Edwin’s head. She spent the night with him, curled up against him in his impossibly soft bed, and felt as though she’d hit the jackpot.
Edwin kept his word, and the next day Julia was on the phone with agents who were comfortable with glamour or plus sized models. When she wasn’t on the phone or cuddling with Edwin, she was taking advantage of his fantastic staff, which put the folks at the Model House to shame. They had a made to order kitchen as well, but kept it stocked with a much wider variety of items. And this time there was no Tara or Cara to worry about.
“Fried chicken ice cream sundae,” Julia ordered for her first breakfast. She looked at Edwin, wondering if he’d disapprove or remind her that she was trying to resurrect her modeling career. He said nothing, merely simply gazed at her and affectionately stroked the side of her face.
The first shoot managed to play up her new, chubbier look. It was an apple cider company that superimposed her apple shaped cheeks over and actual apple, and called her “the apple of my eye.” When she returned to the mansion after the shoot, she found that Linda was now working for Edwin as an accountant.
“Wow, Linda,” she said. “I suppose you have someone to thank,” she said smugly.
“Yeah, you did come through for me,” Linda admitted. “Thanks.”
“It is pretty amazing, though, huh? I thought I was too big, but I’ve still got it. I’ve still got a body that can snap up a rich guy and land modeling gigs. I’ve got the curves. You, on the other hand, don’t have many curves, do you? Just one big ring of fat encircling your whole body.”
“Julia, please,” Linda complained.
“Please what? Come on, Linda, just look at that belly? Mine still vanishes when I suck it in. Yours looks like you forgot to give birth to a baby!”
Linda sighed, figuring that since she owed her job to Julia’s new beau, she had to play nice and take it.
“You there,” Julia said, grabbing a servant in front of Julia. “I’d like a plate of fried bananas, smothered in honey, with a vanilla milkshake to wash it down.” The man merely nodded and then made his way to the kitchen. “That’s the power of my high metabolism,” Julia taunted her friend. “You try to diet and you’re a whale. I can eat whatever I want and I’m still a supermodel!”
Within weeks, Julia was once again a big success in the modeling world. Her ability to bounce back after her flameout on reality TV was spun as an asset, and her brand was once again marketing gold. Nearly every week, she found herself flying to some exotic locale.
In addition to her intake of rich, fattening confections at Edwin’s mansion, Julia also started to partake in the locale cuisine for wherever she was shooting. She consumed platters of sushi in Japan, boxes of chocolates in Belgium, wheels of cheese in France, and bowls of coconut milk soup in Thailand.
It wasn’t long before this schedule of scarfing took its toll on her body. At first, Julia characteristically refused to admit that her weight was going up. She constantly compared herself to Linda to help herself feel thin, and pretended that her difficulty pulling her pants up was someone else’s fault. She berated Edwin’s staff for ‘shrinking’ her underwear until he secretly bought her some in a larger size, surreptitiously replacing the old ones.
Eventually, though, the weight gain became obvious enough that Julia could no longer try to ignore it. Julia found her belly had started to grow large enough that it stuck out even when she sucked in with all her might. With each step, it visibly quivered a little, and peeked out of every top she owned. Her thighs were rubbing together, and her butt was a bit more blubbery than it needed to be. She knew that even for a glamor or plus size model, there were limits. Truly large women had no jobs open to them.
To disguise her gain, Julia decided to start using her spanx shapewear and corsets again. When it came time for another shoot (a web site design firm), she was cinched so tight that her added weight was barely visible. Her chin was a bit more doubled, and her shoulders were a little rounder, of course, and her breasts were rounder, with longer and more luscious looking cleavage. If the client noticed, though, they didn’t say anything.
“I rocked it again,” Julia informed Edwin when she returned to his mansion.
“Congratulations, baby,” he replied, his hands already all over her juicy curves. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Julia said, feeling more successful than ever. Her clients didn’t notice, her boyfriend certainly didn’t notice - she really could get away with anything, she thought.
Her triumphs once again fueling her overconfidence, Julia decided not to make any meaningful effort to cut back on the deluge of rich foods she was consuming. A couple of hours later, as she lay in bed with Edwin, she felt a craving for sweets and used the phone to request a big bag of jelly beans. When it arrived, she didn’t even bother grabbing the candies individually, instead lifting the bag itself up to her lips and gulping them down by the mouthful. A few errant beans tumbled out of the sides and landed on the plush bedding or into the folds of the sheets. When Julia was finished with the bag, Edwin climbed over her fleshy body and playfully rooted around for the lost beans and fed them to her one by one. She suckled on his finger after each morsel.
Part Five
For a few blissful weeks, Julia gorged to her heart’s content and fooled the modeling world through her fat-hiding gear. Julia’s pride and joy - her fast metabolism - had to strain under the heavy caloric load at some point, and soon her weight had grown so much that even her corsets barely fit. Her big belly and large love handles and a creeping amount of back fat were stretching the limits of what shapewear could do. It was with a heavy heart that she finally asked Edwin to escort her to his personal gym.
“I work out for a few minutes every morning, before you wake up,” Edwin said. “So I’d be happy if you joined me and made that part of your routine as well. But don’t do it out of shame - you look beautiful to me.”
“Thanks,” Julia said, not sure if he was oblivious or just trying to be kind. When Edwin took her down to the basement exercise den, she felt confident she could try to get back into shape. But as soon as she started on the treadmill, she felt tired and her legs refused to keep up the pace. She slid and nearly fell off twice. Edwin recommended she try another machine, but butterfly press would not fit her due to her increasingly massive breasts. He suggested she try jumping rope, but she tripped, falling on her fat, squishy ass. Julia felt tears well up, but didn’t want to let Edwin see her cry. Instead she excused herself from the room, telling Edwin she just needed to go outside to smoke.
Julia did start puffing, and as she burned through five cigarettes she realized that she wasn’t cut out for working out. She was clumsy at it, tired easily, and didn’t have the willpower to keep going through difficulty. This realization only made her feel anxious - and hungry. When she finished off the pack of smokes, she turned around and headed back into the mansion, ordering up a plate of waffles. She asked for fresh fruit to be placed on top instead of syrup, hoping that this small measure might make some difference with her waistline.
After a week of making many similar small concessions, Julia had managed to avoid gaining additional weight - but she had not lost a pound. An important modeling gig was in a few days, and she knew she couldn’t fit into the clothes she was supposed to wear. And she couldn’t request a change in wardrobe either - because the clothing line was the client. They didn’t make a bigger size than the one she was given to wear for the shoot. When she tested the corset, it made the outfit work, but just barely. There was no room for error and hardly any room for breathing.
Julia felt herself panic as soon as her plane landed. So she did was natural to her by now - she ate. Julia found the first fast food restaurant in the terminal and ordered six burgers and three milkshakes. The food was greasy and terrible compared to the heavenly cuisine she was used to at Edwin’s. It was even lame compared to what they had cooked for her at the Model House. Yet she stuffed it down, tears flooding down her cheeks the entire time.
In the dressing room, she struggled valiantly to put on her corset, fighting against her already untenable new fat and her recently created food baby. She pulled the strings as tight as she could, but they refused to move. Finally, she twisted her body and pulled while sucking in, and the strings managed to move about a half an inch. She sighed with relief, and that was enough to cause the garment to rent in two.
Julia ran out of the room in tears, her massive, distended, blubbery belly on display for all to see. It had a sunken belly button and soft love handles, and it hung over her underwear. Her soft, unbelievably large breasts jiggled madly as she ran, flopping out of their bra and onto the top of her round tummy. She didn’t bother to explain what was wrong to the client, she just charted the first plane back to Ohio on her own dime.
She greeted Edwin in tears, sobbing violently in his arms.
“What’s wrong, my darling?” he asked innocently.
“I’m done as a model,” Julia finally admitted. “I keep gaining weight and now I’m too fat even for glamour and plus size. If I get much fatter I’ll be as big as Linda!”
“If you are so concerned, we can work together,” Edwin offered. “We can get you back into shape, I promise.”
“No, I’m destined to fail,” Julia moaned. “I’m doomed.”
Over the next few weeks, Julia was inconsible. She fell into a deep depression, and refused to try to work out or cut back on calories. In fact, she ate more than ever, keeping her belly in a constant state of distension. She didn’t bother trying to fit into designer clothes or wearing makeup anymore. She slept on Edwin’s sofa instead of his bed, telling him he deserved a beautiful girlfriend.
“I can’t bear to see you like this,” Edwin said. “You’re a beautiful woman, Julia, even if you aren’t skinny anymore.”
“Nobody could ever think that,” Julia said into a pillow, refusing to face him.
“I think that,” Edwin countered.
“That’s sweet Edwin, but what am I supposed to believe, you’re the only person on earth? Too much of a coincidence. You are just pitying me,” Julia said.
“What if I wasn’t the only person on earth?” Edwin asked cautiously.
“What do you mean?” Julia asked. Edwin’s only reply for a few minutes was a wide grin. Eventually, he revealed that he had been keeping the photos from their ‘private shoots’ on an a website he built. On this site, each new bugle and curve was celebrated, not discouraged, and legions of comments from people all over the world extolled the virtues of Julia’s expanding body.
“So...some people think I don’t need to pretend to be skinny to be hot?” Julia asked.
“Of course. You’re gorgeous. You’ve only become more gorgeous since you arrived,” Edwin assured her. “You said I deserve a beautiful girlfriend, and you’re right. I have one.”
Julia smiled and gave Edwin a passionate kiss, before taking his hand and leading him to their bedroom. From that point on, Julia started uploading videos of her binging and doing daily weigh-is, eventually becoming the most popular big girl on the internet. Every part of Julia’s body, including her chubby cheeks and doughy chin, her round, widened shoulders, her husky and jiggly upper arms, her cantaloupe sized breasts, her large butt, and her massive, impossible to hide belly, was celebrated.
She didn’t need to change her habits to be seen as lovely. One habit, though, she did change. The day the scale said Julia was heavier than Linda, all jokes at her friend’s expense ceased. Linda noticed, but she never said a word about it.
The idea’s inception came during a 3am brainstorming session at the studio. Hundreds of ideas had been tossed out, but the so called creative team had yet to come up with something that pleased the network president. Finally, as usually happens in television, an idea was settled on because of its lack of originality – another reality show about modeling. A beautiful house near the ocean would house the most beautiful women who were aspiring to be models, and they would compete with each other for modeling gigs, act catty, and in general provide great vapid entertainment for a shallow nation.
The “Model House” stood proud and tall alongside the beautiful southern California beach. The girls lounged around on endless plush sofas framed by palm trees, living in a veritable tropical paradise.
The first couple of episodes introduced each model, but the first test came when the first competitive contract walked through the front door. The nation’s biggest electric car company wanted to do a shoot, and they’d only be picking one girl for the job.
Of the dozen-odd women in the Model House, Tara, Cara, and Julia were the three leading contenders. Tara had a cute button face and a shock of curly, beautiful red hair, but she was a tad short and her figure – though trim – was nothing to write home about. Cara was a blonde who had a long legs and a perfect hourglass, but her face was just a tad long and her eyes were spaced a little too far apart.
Julia, however, had no immediately perceptible imperfections. She had a mane of wavy, black hair that cascaded down her shoulders and contrasted perfectly with her just slightly bronzed skin. He had a diamond shaped face, and an impossibly thin frame that still somehow supported an impressive C cup bust and a small but rounded butt. When Julia was off camera, Cara, Tara, and the other women of the Model House would frequently allege that she must have had work done, or at the very least she had an eating disorder.
When it was her turn, Julia always insisted she was a natural beauty, gifted by genetics with a perfect figure and a fast metabolism that allowed her to maintain it effortlessly. And although Julia was willing to lie at the drop of a hat to get what she wanted, in this case she said nothing but the truth.
Needless to say, Julia landed the gig. They drove Julia out to the desert, and she draped her beautiful body over the cars. When she returned to the Model House, she was beaming with pride. When it came time for lunch, Tara and Cara refused to eat a thing, hoping they could try to starve themselves into becoming thinner to compete with Julia.
“You two should just give up right now,” Julia said as strutted into the living room. She looked at Tara and Cara lying limply on the sofa, nervously chewing on their fingers and dreaming of food. “You’ll never compete with my amazing good looks. And you don’t have the willpower to diet either.”
“You just wait,” Tara said. “You won’t beat us every time.”
“Oh?” Julia said, her ears perking up. “I could beat you two any day of the week. With one hand tied behind my back. In fact…I could beat you two without having to diet at all. My metabolism could take you both on.” Julia snapped her fingers, her entitled way of trying to summon one of the servants working in the model house. “Yes, you there…bring me a cheeseburger.”
“Very good miss,” the man said, and quickly disappeared to the kitchen. Soon the enticing sounds of sizzling and the scent of cooking food began to emanate from the kitchen.
“You’re insane,” Cara said. “How can you really hope to maintain your figure if you gorge on junk food?”
“Besides, we’re trying our best to diet over here,” Tara added. “It’s not fair to eat like that right in front of us.”
“Oh, no?” Julia replied with a loud laugh. When the burger arrived, Julia asked the man who brought it for a cheesecake for dessert. She moaned while eating it and licked her fingers clean while Tara and Cara meekly looked on with envy. When Julia finished off a succulently moist cheesecake, she strutted around in her tube top, showing off her tummy bulge. “Look at my ‘food baby,’ girls. That’s all the evidence you’ll ever see that I indulged this afternoon.” Tara and Cara could do nothing but salivate with jealousy. At the end of the day, one of the producers stopped by the set and congratulated Julia on her gig and on her exciting, sure to be ratings-boosting tiff with the other models.
Buoyed up by praise from the network and her own insatiable pride and appetite, Julia decided to continue this routine whenever she could. She ordered the chef to prepare every unhealthy and fattening food she could imagine: éclairs, donuts, waffles, fried chicken, onion rings, pizza, and more. For several days in which the other models and the audience at home looked on in amazement, Julia gorged herself on the richest foods and suffered no consequences. When the next round of modeling gigs made their way into the model house, Julia would still snag the majority of them. Sometimes, she’d even snap up a job while slurping down a sundae or some other delicious, fattening confection.
Eventually, however, calories have a way of adding up, even when pitted against the best metabolisms. And Julia’s, while remarkably fast, was no exception to this rule.
The first changes were so small, so subtle, that they were barely noticeable. Julia’s trademark diamond shaped face was just a tad puffier, her tummy was just slightly pressing harder against the elastic band of her designer underwear. Her breasts, Julia’s pride and joy, filled out her bra a bit more than usual, creating an eye popping effect on her cleavage – so it wasn’t all bad, she rationalized. Julia didn’t bother stepping on a scale, refusing to acknowledge she had gained any weight. When the next modeling gig floated through the model house, a ‘drink milk’ campaign, Julia didn’t waste any time pouncing on it. All she needed to do was wriggle her shoulders and flaunt her breasts and the contract was hers.
When she returned to the Model House, she came with a colossal jug of whole milk she had received from the shoot. To celebrate, Julia decided to chug it in front of the other girls. Tiny little rivulets of milk made its way down her face and onto her breasts, and then onto the floor as she greedily guzzled. When she finished her mouth, neck and breasts were soaked with milk and her tummy was bulging in front of her, stretched to the brim with the fattening liquid. Julia didn’t even bother exercising to try to maintain her figure; she flopped on one of the soft sofas and decided to sleep it off. None of the producers interfered – she was the character the audience loved to hate, and they knew nothing could draw ratings like that. Well, nothing except the character’s inevitable downfall, but they kept that part of their speculation to themselves.
Julia’s weight gain progressed. What was only a few pounds quickly crept into five to ten. The pounds made their effect known to Julia in subtle ways, though she chose to ignore the signs. When a jean skirt stubbornly refused to button over her slightly poofy tummy, she launched into a tirade blaming the laundry lady for shrinking it. When her rounding thighs tore a set of leggings, she blamed the manufacturer for making a fragile product.
Tara and Cara were able to land some of the smaller gig opportunities, but Julia was determined as ever not to let the next one slip away. It was a major designer sunglasses line, and when the time came, they went with Julia. At the point, Julia’s face was starting to get puffy enough for the agency to notice, and the curves of her body were expanding noticeably – at least to someone in the industry. Julia’s advantage was that she was a known brand, and the company decided that the perceived imperfections were small enough to erase with ‘Photoshop’ and other electronic tools.
When Julia arrived back at the Model House with the altered photos in hand, she believed that’s how she really looked and felt invincible. Tara and Cara had eaten nothing but grapefruit and almonds for weeks and had run two miles on the beach everyday at dawn, and they were still runners up to her.
To celebrate her triumph, she ordered up a smoothie – and asked for it to be gallon. She told the chief to add whey powder, soda syrup, chocolate chips, and globs of peanut butter. “To my reign as Queen of the Model House,” she said in a mockery of a toast as she lifted the calorie bomb concoction to her lips and drank.
Part Two
“Have you seen Julia’s ass lately?” Cara asked, in a voice loud enough that any cameraman in the Model House would hear it.
“I know, if it gets any bigger our sofa is going to start getting a squeak,” Tara complained in a similarly exaggerated tone of voice.
“Talking about me, are you?” Julia said as she stormed into the room. Her stomach, having become stretched by her habitual binge eating, was already grumbling.
“Oh no, we aren’t talking about you,” Cara said.
“Why would anybody be gossiping about your perfect figure?” Tara added, and the two burst into gales of giggles.
There was no denying it now – Julia had put on weight. She was at least 15 pounds heavier than when she started out, possibly 20. Her perfect body had accumulated a layer of fat, and no amount of blaming the help was going to make it disappear.
“Every girl’s weight goes up and down,” Julia said defensively.
“Seems like lately your weight has only been going up,” Tara shot back.
“You two jog every morning at dawn, how hard can it be? You just watch – I’ll get back to shape in no time. I’m not worried in the least,” Julia promised them. Today, though, she had awoken at the leisurely time of eleven in the morning – what use was there in running if the sun was already out? She’d get in shape, starting tomorrow, she rationalized. “I’ll have some oatmeal cookies,” she mumbled to one of the waiters, figuring that her diet couldn’t start without her workout regimen. That would also begin tomorrow. Besides, if all she nibbled on was celery, how could she have the energy for a run?
Little did Julia know that the staff at the Model House was not rooting for her succeed. They were tired of her complaints, tired of being blamed for supposedly “shrinking her clothes” or buying the wrong brand of leggings. The chefs were tired of being asked to cook such immense amounts of complex, rich foods, while the rest of the girls subsisted on simple to make and healthy fruit and vegetable plates. The head chef decided if she was going to ask for cookies for breakfast, he’d give her cookies so good she wouldn’t be able to resist, thus helping thwart any effort to diet and in turn hastening her inevitable departure from the show.
He loaded up the batter with coconut shavings, caramel, and raisins. He also let a large jar of molasses slowly drain into the pot, and smiled as he imagined it sticking to her ribs. Before he shut the oven door, he permitted himself a small taste. It was the richest dessert he had ever created.
When Julia was presented with a plate of cookies, initially planned to keep herself just a few. But as soon as the first bite touched her lips, she knew she was going to eat the entire plate. They were chewy, rich, and delicious. Before Julia knew what she was doing, she was already shoving them into her mouth by the fistful, causing bits of oatmeal and crumbs to fly everywhere, including on the shag sofa, into her hair, and onto her growing cleavage. The spectacle elicited more giggling from the other models, including Tara and Cara.
The next day Julia set her watch, determined to get up and dawn and run with the others. She awoke feeling groggy and exhausted, as she was not used to waking up on anyone else’s schedule.
“Decided to join us?” Tara said when she saw Julia’s bleary face.
“Hope you can keep up,” Cara added as they stretched their lithe bodies and laced their running shoes. Julia had no running shoes, so she had to wear flip flops.
Cara and Tara started running at breakneck speed. They usually kept a brisk pace, but they needed to show off their athletic prowess to Julia. They both felt compelled to beat her at something, and they knew in this was a contest Julia could not win.
Within just moments, Julia felt winded. Her lungs burned and the jogging was causing her too-small panties to ride up on her. In addition, her C-cup bra could barely contain her expanded breasts, and every step caused them to threaten to bounce free. After a few minutes, Julia sat down on the sand, her face flushed and her muscles burning. Desperate to feel relaxed, she pulled out a cigarette and started puffing. This only caused her lungs to burn even more.
When she looked off into the distance, she saw that Cara and Tara were far ahead of her, so far in fact that they looked like mere specks on the horizon. Feeling humiliated, Julia turned around and headed back to the Model House, still panting. When she arrived, all she could think about was how much all that running had whetted her appetite. She couldn’t resist ordering crepes, blintzes, and a parfait with extra whipped cream. She felt embarrassed and asked for the food to be delivered straight to her room.
As Julia lay on her bed, her face smeared with whipped cream and her big food baby gut hanging over her panties, she knew something had to be done. Since pretending the fat didn’t exist wasn’t going to work, and diet and exercise were too difficult to pull off, she decided to try a different tactic.
The next day, several mysterious brown boxes arrived at the front door of the Model House. Julia quickly took them into her room, hoping Tara and Cara didn’t get a chance to peek at the contents: spanx and girdles, the best shapewear to hide any unsightly bulges.
When the next big contract came around, Julia wore a billowy summer dress and her new gear. As long as she was careful how to breathe and didn’t bend too much, she could maintain the illusion that she was still a thin model. Her face was clearly more round that it was before, with chubbier cheeks and a slight double chin that formed when she smiled, and her arms had grown beefier, but most of her embarrassing new curves were effectively under wraps.
Cara and Tara’s jaws dropped when Julia was still able to snag the ad, which was for a new fragrance called “Victorious.” The name applied equally well to Julia’s state of mind when she returned to the Model House. Despite her lack of discipline, she had still managed to win. She celebrated with a cigarette and a pile of pancakes covered in blueberry syrup. She didn’t even bother trying to exercise and she slept until noon.
A few days later, Julia was roused from slumber by a producer, who let her know another client was at the Model House looking for someone for a new campaign. Julia put on her special gear and raced downstairs as fast as she could.
“Ah, hoping to see you here, Julia,” the man said as he eyed Tara and Cara. “I like you both very much,” he said, “but I think Julia is my choice,” he finished.
“Of course,” Julia said. “I’d love to work with you,” she added, and shook the agent’s hand. “What did you say the campaign was again?”
“Our new bikini line. I’m sure you’ll look great in them,” he said with a wink. Julia, looking horrified, politely excused herself and ran upstairs.
In a bikini ad, she couldn’t attempt to hide her weight gain. The shoot was in just three days – how could she hope to lose any weight during that time, even if she had the discipline? But she couldn’t very well pull out and give the contract to Tara or Cara, that would be an admission something was wrong. She had never let them beat her to a contract she had wanted, and she wasn’t about to start now.
Julia was even more mortified to learn that the shoot was going to be done locally – right on the beach next to the Model House. Everyone was going to know what was going on, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She could run away and fade into irrelevance, or become embarrassed and also fade away into irrelevance. She wasn’t sure what to do, so she spent most of her time holed up in her room, stuffing her face with sweets and smoking. Anyone who passed the door could smell ash and cinnamon rolls.
When the day finally came, Julia found herself in a tent on the beach, trying to put on a bikini which was clearly designed for the person she looked like when she had arrived, not the woman she was today. Her breasts had swelled a full cup size, straining the top and making it hard to tie in back. Her tummy now jutted forward at all times, as if she had a permanent ‘food baby.’ When she did binge, of course, it grew to twice that size. Her waist was now sporting love handles that dripped over the sides of the bikini and her butt was straining the fabric of the bottom of it.
“It’s time to come out, Julia,” the cameraman instructed, but Julia refused to budge. Finally, someone entered her tent, and Julia started to cry as she heard the sound of the shutter of a camera. Soon, all the girls of the Model House were outside and were laughing and pointing. The episode was had the highest ratings ever for the Model House – it was called “How the mighty has fallen.”
Part Three
Because of Julia’s prior successes, Julia’s ‘Figure Troubles’ (the term she coined to describe her weight gain) did not result in her immediate expulsion from the Model House. She was, however, officially put on notice. She had two weeks to shape up, or else.
During those two weeks, though, she found that exercise and diet were just as arduous as they had been before. After just a few sit-ups, Julia was winded and in pain. She wasn’t strong enough to do even a single push-up, and running made her feel like a flabby, sweaty mess.
Her dieting efforts fared just as poorly. During the day, she ordered small portions of fruit and vegetables to keep up the appearance of trying, but at midnight she snuck out to the kitchen to get fattening snacks. She carted off boxes of donuts, gallons of ice cream, and dozens of candy bars up to her room to munch on.
The two weeks passed before she knew it, and Julia soon found herself on a scale. The ominous number 141 was displayed, which meant she had gained nearly thirty pounds, and five of those during the two weeks she was supposed to be trying to lose weight. During this time of shame, she had not landed a single modeling job. The producers ordered her to leave the Model House, and when Julia walked out onto the beach, dozens of cameras were trained on her. Each hoped to catch a new curve or a jiggle in her walk, to show just how much she had fallen.
With a heavy heart, she decided to head home, far away from California and its impossibly harsh standards. Her parents lived near Cincinnati. When she greeted them, they both expressed sympathy for how her adventure in reality TV had gone. By the time she was heading to their house, she was already feeling better. She had lived so long in such a competitive environment that she had forgotten how fat other people besides her often were. On the plane ride over, she read an article stating the average American woman was now 163 pounds. She was still well below average!
The first thing Julia did when she got settled in her old room was to meet up with her old best friend. When Linda arrived to meet her at a coffee shop, Julia felt a surge of confidence. Linda had always been on the heavy side, and now it appeared that her weight might be near 200 pounds. Next to Linda, Julia thought, she was skinny as a rail.
“Wow, you’ve sure been packing it away,” Julia said as her friend took a seat. “Be careful with those chairs – they might break on you.”
“I see you’re in a good mood,” Linda said with a sigh. She was used to Julia’s mean spirited barbs by now, but she didn’t have many other friends and so she put up with perpetual abuse.
“No, really,” Julia continued, “You’ve become quite large.”
“You’re one to talk,” Linda said. “Didn’t you just get kicked off a reality show because of your own weight gain?”
“But that’s the best part,” Julia said with a wide grin on her chubby cheeks. “I did, but I’m still so much thinner than you are. My puffy face is nothing compared to your fat mug. My tummy is tiny beside that big, beach ball sized gut you’ve got. Your boobs are bigger, but they are so large they are hanging down on the sides of your tummy.”
“Are you done?” Linda asked. Julia smiled. She was never truly done.
Over the next few weeks, Julia continued to eat what she wanted, emboldened by the fact that she was still thinner than most other women. Still, living with her parents after being a star so recently felt restrictive, and she soon decided to go clubbing and try to find a boyfriend. She had to talk Linda into going with her, but of course her friend agreed in the end.
When Linda picked Julia up, she found her friend was still thin enough to wear designer clothes.
“I’m not even technically in the plus sized section – unlike yourself,” Julia said as she strutted around in her outfit. “My thick thighs and wobbly tummy can still be disguised with a bit of hard work. You, on the other hand, really are a lost cause. Just look at that fat ass,” she said, giving it a playful pat.
“Come on, Julia, ease up, ok?” Linda complained. “You know I have self esteem issues.”
“Fine,” Julia curtly replied, and lit up a cigarette inside Linda’s car.
“Can you not smoke in here?” Linda said, coughing it a little. Julia rolled down the window, but did not put it out.
When the arrived at the club, Julia made sure to stay as close to Linda as possible, hoping the contrast would lead everyone to perceive her as thin. Her clothing – a leather top with a short but billowy skirt – was form fitting enough to show off her impressive cleavage, but hid most of her other growing curves well enough in the low light.
The plan worked like a charm. Julia found herself a near-constant target of male attention. She didn’t engage with any man directly – Julia, ego big as ever, preferred to wait until the best man possible presented himself.
Her patience was ultimately rewarded. A tall man in his late thirties danced his way towards her, wearing a black silk shirt and a pair of sunglasses Julia recognized from her modeling days. She knew that they had a list price of over $2000. This man was a keeper.
“Hello, pretty one, I’m Edwin,” he said as soon as there was a break in the music. He had an exotic accent that Julia didn’t quite recognize.
“Hi,” Julia replied, inching away from him just slightly. She knew he’d be more interested if he perceived there to b a thrill to the chase.
“Do I know you?” he asked.
“No, but you might have seen my face on some advertisements for sunglasses,” she said, batting her eyes.
“That’s it. You were on TV recently. The ‘Model House,’ right?” he asked excitedly.
Julia replied by lowering her head with shame. If he knew her from her humiliating debacle on reality television, her chances of snagging him were nil.
“I know it’s you, Julia, right?” Edwin continued. “I loved your character, you were my favorite.”
“Really?” Julia asked, her face quickly rising.
“Yes, I was so sad to see you go,” Edwin continued. “I hope this doesn’t mean your modeling days are done.”
“Well, you never know,” Julia said coyly, already feeling back on her game. The music resumed, and Edwin was forced to lean down and whisper into Julia’s ear to be heard.
“I have some friends in the advertising business, I could help with that,” Edwin said. “But I’d really love to get some shots for my private collection as well. Come back to my place and we can discuss this further.”
Julia felt a little nervous. She didn’t know this guy, and what he was saying sounded almost too good to be true. Perhaps if she had some backup, she’d be safer?
“Only if my friend can come too,” Julia stipulated through a whispered reply, and gestured to Linda. Edwin looked the heavy girl up and down, and turned back to Julia with a smile.
“Of course. I was just about to invite her as well, in fact,” Edwin said. “Let’s go.”
“Linda, we’re going,” Julia shouted to Linda, who was shimmying with wanton abandon and who was getting very little male attention.
“Going where?” Linda replied.
“We’re going with my new friend Edwin. He says he might have a modeling gig for me,” Julia said.
“At one on the morning?” Linda asked.
“No, not right at this minute. But eventually,” Julia tried to explain. “Just come on.”
“I don’t know,” Linda said. “Why should I come with you? Does he have a contract for me, too?”
“Look,” Julia said as she pulled her friend aside. “This guy is loaded. He might just want to pay for the pictures himself. I just want a buddy for safety, ok? Just do it for me as a friend.”
Linda raised an eyebrow, hinting that their friendship was so strained that playing the ‘friend card’ might not cut it.
“How many rich guys are in your social circle? Aren’t you still working in retail? Come on, this will be good for both of us,” she promised, though she had no intention of helping her once the time came.
“Oh, all right,” Linda said reluctantly. “But you owe me. No more jokes about my weight,” Linda instructed.
“You have my word,” Julia said, “...lardass,” she finished under her breath.
“What did you say?” Linda sputtered.
“I said, ‘you have my word, Linda,” Julia lied.
“Everything OK between you girls?” Edwin asked as he walked over to them.
“Just fine,” Julia said with a smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
Part Four
When the three of them exited the club, they were both pointed in the direction of a sleek, black limousine. A driver exited the vehicle, and Edwin let them climb in first.
The journey took them a ways out of the city center, towards a posh area in the nearby hills. On the way, Edwin explained that apart from the help, he lived alone in his mansion, having inherited it from family whom had recently passed away. He said he looked forward finally having some company.
The limo finally slowed to a stop in front of a massive gothic manor on a hill. This, apparently, was Edwin’s home. When the three stepped inside, they found themselves in the most luxurious home they had ever seen. This place put the Model House to shame, Julia thought.
Within a few minutes, Edwin was going through a binder of contacts with Julia, showing him different ad campaigns that he knew about around the country and the different agencies he knew would be running them. Linda eventually said she had to go, and Julia didn’t mind, as she now felt comfortable that this guy was the real deal. Before she left, Edwin said he might have a job for her with his accounting staff and promised her double whatever her current salary was. She promised she’d be back and Edwin had the limo take her home.
As soon as she was gone, Edwin started expressing interest in taking some pictures a “private collection,” and Julia didn’t object. She felt a thrill being in front of the camera again and loved the fact she wasn’t too big to turn Edwin’s head. She spent the night with him, curled up against him in his impossibly soft bed, and felt as though she’d hit the jackpot.
Edwin kept his word, and the next day Julia was on the phone with agents who were comfortable with glamour or plus sized models. When she wasn’t on the phone or cuddling with Edwin, she was taking advantage of his fantastic staff, which put the folks at the Model House to shame. They had a made to order kitchen as well, but kept it stocked with a much wider variety of items. And this time there was no Tara or Cara to worry about.
“Fried chicken ice cream sundae,” Julia ordered for her first breakfast. She looked at Edwin, wondering if he’d disapprove or remind her that she was trying to resurrect her modeling career. He said nothing, merely simply gazed at her and affectionately stroked the side of her face.
The first shoot managed to play up her new, chubbier look. It was an apple cider company that superimposed her apple shaped cheeks over and actual apple, and called her “the apple of my eye.” When she returned to the mansion after the shoot, she found that Linda was now working for Edwin as an accountant.
“Wow, Linda,” she said. “I suppose you have someone to thank,” she said smugly.
“Yeah, you did come through for me,” Linda admitted. “Thanks.”
“It is pretty amazing, though, huh? I thought I was too big, but I’ve still got it. I’ve still got a body that can snap up a rich guy and land modeling gigs. I’ve got the curves. You, on the other hand, don’t have many curves, do you? Just one big ring of fat encircling your whole body.”
“Julia, please,” Linda complained.
“Please what? Come on, Linda, just look at that belly? Mine still vanishes when I suck it in. Yours looks like you forgot to give birth to a baby!”
Linda sighed, figuring that since she owed her job to Julia’s new beau, she had to play nice and take it.
“You there,” Julia said, grabbing a servant in front of Julia. “I’d like a plate of fried bananas, smothered in honey, with a vanilla milkshake to wash it down.” The man merely nodded and then made his way to the kitchen. “That’s the power of my high metabolism,” Julia taunted her friend. “You try to diet and you’re a whale. I can eat whatever I want and I’m still a supermodel!”
Within weeks, Julia was once again a big success in the modeling world. Her ability to bounce back after her flameout on reality TV was spun as an asset, and her brand was once again marketing gold. Nearly every week, she found herself flying to some exotic locale.
In addition to her intake of rich, fattening confections at Edwin’s mansion, Julia also started to partake in the locale cuisine for wherever she was shooting. She consumed platters of sushi in Japan, boxes of chocolates in Belgium, wheels of cheese in France, and bowls of coconut milk soup in Thailand.
It wasn’t long before this schedule of scarfing took its toll on her body. At first, Julia characteristically refused to admit that her weight was going up. She constantly compared herself to Linda to help herself feel thin, and pretended that her difficulty pulling her pants up was someone else’s fault. She berated Edwin’s staff for ‘shrinking’ her underwear until he secretly bought her some in a larger size, surreptitiously replacing the old ones.
Eventually, though, the weight gain became obvious enough that Julia could no longer try to ignore it. Julia found her belly had started to grow large enough that it stuck out even when she sucked in with all her might. With each step, it visibly quivered a little, and peeked out of every top she owned. Her thighs were rubbing together, and her butt was a bit more blubbery than it needed to be. She knew that even for a glamor or plus size model, there were limits. Truly large women had no jobs open to them.
To disguise her gain, Julia decided to start using her spanx shapewear and corsets again. When it came time for another shoot (a web site design firm), she was cinched so tight that her added weight was barely visible. Her chin was a bit more doubled, and her shoulders were a little rounder, of course, and her breasts were rounder, with longer and more luscious looking cleavage. If the client noticed, though, they didn’t say anything.
“I rocked it again,” Julia informed Edwin when she returned to his mansion.
“Congratulations, baby,” he replied, his hands already all over her juicy curves. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Julia said, feeling more successful than ever. Her clients didn’t notice, her boyfriend certainly didn’t notice - she really could get away with anything, she thought.
Her triumphs once again fueling her overconfidence, Julia decided not to make any meaningful effort to cut back on the deluge of rich foods she was consuming. A couple of hours later, as she lay in bed with Edwin, she felt a craving for sweets and used the phone to request a big bag of jelly beans. When it arrived, she didn’t even bother grabbing the candies individually, instead lifting the bag itself up to her lips and gulping them down by the mouthful. A few errant beans tumbled out of the sides and landed on the plush bedding or into the folds of the sheets. When Julia was finished with the bag, Edwin climbed over her fleshy body and playfully rooted around for the lost beans and fed them to her one by one. She suckled on his finger after each morsel.
Part Five
For a few blissful weeks, Julia gorged to her heart’s content and fooled the modeling world through her fat-hiding gear. Julia’s pride and joy - her fast metabolism - had to strain under the heavy caloric load at some point, and soon her weight had grown so much that even her corsets barely fit. Her big belly and large love handles and a creeping amount of back fat were stretching the limits of what shapewear could do. It was with a heavy heart that she finally asked Edwin to escort her to his personal gym.
“I work out for a few minutes every morning, before you wake up,” Edwin said. “So I’d be happy if you joined me and made that part of your routine as well. But don’t do it out of shame - you look beautiful to me.”
“Thanks,” Julia said, not sure if he was oblivious or just trying to be kind. When Edwin took her down to the basement exercise den, she felt confident she could try to get back into shape. But as soon as she started on the treadmill, she felt tired and her legs refused to keep up the pace. She slid and nearly fell off twice. Edwin recommended she try another machine, but butterfly press would not fit her due to her increasingly massive breasts. He suggested she try jumping rope, but she tripped, falling on her fat, squishy ass. Julia felt tears well up, but didn’t want to let Edwin see her cry. Instead she excused herself from the room, telling Edwin she just needed to go outside to smoke.
Julia did start puffing, and as she burned through five cigarettes she realized that she wasn’t cut out for working out. She was clumsy at it, tired easily, and didn’t have the willpower to keep going through difficulty. This realization only made her feel anxious - and hungry. When she finished off the pack of smokes, she turned around and headed back into the mansion, ordering up a plate of waffles. She asked for fresh fruit to be placed on top instead of syrup, hoping that this small measure might make some difference with her waistline.
After a week of making many similar small concessions, Julia had managed to avoid gaining additional weight - but she had not lost a pound. An important modeling gig was in a few days, and she knew she couldn’t fit into the clothes she was supposed to wear. And she couldn’t request a change in wardrobe either - because the clothing line was the client. They didn’t make a bigger size than the one she was given to wear for the shoot. When she tested the corset, it made the outfit work, but just barely. There was no room for error and hardly any room for breathing.
Julia felt herself panic as soon as her plane landed. So she did was natural to her by now - she ate. Julia found the first fast food restaurant in the terminal and ordered six burgers and three milkshakes. The food was greasy and terrible compared to the heavenly cuisine she was used to at Edwin’s. It was even lame compared to what they had cooked for her at the Model House. Yet she stuffed it down, tears flooding down her cheeks the entire time.
In the dressing room, she struggled valiantly to put on her corset, fighting against her already untenable new fat and her recently created food baby. She pulled the strings as tight as she could, but they refused to move. Finally, she twisted her body and pulled while sucking in, and the strings managed to move about a half an inch. She sighed with relief, and that was enough to cause the garment to rent in two.
Julia ran out of the room in tears, her massive, distended, blubbery belly on display for all to see. It had a sunken belly button and soft love handles, and it hung over her underwear. Her soft, unbelievably large breasts jiggled madly as she ran, flopping out of their bra and onto the top of her round tummy. She didn’t bother to explain what was wrong to the client, she just charted the first plane back to Ohio on her own dime.
She greeted Edwin in tears, sobbing violently in his arms.
“What’s wrong, my darling?” he asked innocently.
“I’m done as a model,” Julia finally admitted. “I keep gaining weight and now I’m too fat even for glamour and plus size. If I get much fatter I’ll be as big as Linda!”
“If you are so concerned, we can work together,” Edwin offered. “We can get you back into shape, I promise.”
“No, I’m destined to fail,” Julia moaned. “I’m doomed.”
Over the next few weeks, Julia was inconsible. She fell into a deep depression, and refused to try to work out or cut back on calories. In fact, she ate more than ever, keeping her belly in a constant state of distension. She didn’t bother trying to fit into designer clothes or wearing makeup anymore. She slept on Edwin’s sofa instead of his bed, telling him he deserved a beautiful girlfriend.
“I can’t bear to see you like this,” Edwin said. “You’re a beautiful woman, Julia, even if you aren’t skinny anymore.”
“Nobody could ever think that,” Julia said into a pillow, refusing to face him.
“I think that,” Edwin countered.
“That’s sweet Edwin, but what am I supposed to believe, you’re the only person on earth? Too much of a coincidence. You are just pitying me,” Julia said.
“What if I wasn’t the only person on earth?” Edwin asked cautiously.
“What do you mean?” Julia asked. Edwin’s only reply for a few minutes was a wide grin. Eventually, he revealed that he had been keeping the photos from their ‘private shoots’ on an a website he built. On this site, each new bugle and curve was celebrated, not discouraged, and legions of comments from people all over the world extolled the virtues of Julia’s expanding body.
“So...some people think I don’t need to pretend to be skinny to be hot?” Julia asked.
“Of course. You’re gorgeous. You’ve only become more gorgeous since you arrived,” Edwin assured her. “You said I deserve a beautiful girlfriend, and you’re right. I have one.”
Julia smiled and gave Edwin a passionate kiss, before taking his hand and leading him to their bedroom. From that point on, Julia started uploading videos of her binging and doing daily weigh-is, eventually becoming the most popular big girl on the internet. Every part of Julia’s body, including her chubby cheeks and doughy chin, her round, widened shoulders, her husky and jiggly upper arms, her cantaloupe sized breasts, her large butt, and her massive, impossible to hide belly, was celebrated.
She didn’t need to change her habits to be seen as lovely. One habit, though, she did change. The day the scale said Julia was heavier than Linda, all jokes at her friend’s expense ceased. Linda noticed, but she never said a word about it.