Culinary Librarian - 5 - Rich Cooking and Regular Encouragement

It is my wish that [my cookbook] may not only be looked upon as a compilation of tried and tested recipes, but that it may awaken an interest through its condensed scientific knowledge which will lead to deeper thought and broader study of what to eat.

–Fannie Merritt Farmer, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896

Sonya had purchased a 60-inch measuring tape years ago, figuring it would be far more than she would ever need to take her own measurements. At the time, she was twenty-six; her waist had been a very tiny 28 inches, with her bust a dramatic 40 inches and her hips coming in at 42 inches. Not a small woman by any accounting. She’d assumed that her body would stay much the same for the rest of her life.

By the time she hit 30, her measurements had increased, but only a little: a 42 inch bust, a 32 inch waist, and 46 inch hips. It happened so gradually that she hardly noticed the increase.

Her weight and size fluctuated slightly up and down from then on, but never too dramatically: a half inch up one month, an inch down a year later–entirely normal.

Then, the university started making cuts. Government funding dried up, and extraneous resources like the culinary archive were considered fat that needed to be trimmed. Their budget was slashed, and despite belt-tightening and dozens of grant applications, the other two librarians Sonya managed the archive with were let go. They all prepared for it as best they could, but having a single person do the work of three people (and it had already been too much for three people, really) wasn’t ideal.

Sonya bore up under it well, though. She found more efficient ways of doing things, recruited more interns, and made some hard decisions about what she could actually accomplish with the resources she had. She figured they could always reintroduce those things once there was funding to do so.

That was an overly optimistic outlook. Austerity policies don’t often tend to reverse; they just get worse. By the time three years had passed, Sonya was just barely holding the archive together, and after yet another round of funding requests and grants had been denied, she had to resign herself to the fact that this was it.

Something had to give, and in this case, it was Sonya’s diet. Right about the time Magnolia began regularly visiting the archives, Sonya had started digging into bags of fries. First, it was an occasional treat: a particularly stressful work day every couple months would have her turning to Burger Boys or Joliet’s Chicken for enough sugar and salt and fat to make her feel okay again. Soon, though, “occasional” wasn’t enough. She started going every other week, and then every week. Once she was dining on fast food multiple nights a week, she couldn’t fight it anymore. It wasn’t just a want, but a need. She didn’t go too wild–her meals were still modest, though that didn’t matter much when even a single burger and shake could add a pound to her ass on their own.

By the time Magnolia was ogling her gain, Sonya had a few months of comfort eating behind her. It was, to some degree, a passive gain. Sonya knew she was eating a bit too much, but it wasn’t purposeful.

Now, they were closing in on two months of… whatever this thing between them was, and Sonya was now actively gorging on a regular basis, for both the stress relief and to get herself off. Magnolia’s rich cooking and regular encouragement meant her gain seemed to increase exponentially.

So of course her measurements had increased dramatically. It made perfect sense! But what she hadn’t expected was for Magnolia to draw the measuring tape around her and have only a few inches of slack left over.

Sonya had stripped herself down to her panties, discarding her ill-fitting bra because she knew it would make her measurements inaccurate. Magnolia’s jaw had dropped–it was the first time either of them had seen the other almost entirely naked. (How chaste we’ve been, Sonya thought with amusement.) Magnolia had seen quite a few naked bodies in her time, but Sonya’s was unlike them all. Her hourglass proportions seemed even more dramatic once she stripped. Despite their prodigious size, her breasts sat somewhat high on her chest, with little of the gravity-induced sag one might expect. Her waist looked a little more pillowy and squishable, but still nipped in tightly compared to the rest of her. And her hips–even without measuring, Magnolia could tell they were her widest point by just a little bit. Magnolia said a silent prayer that she’d get to appreciate those hips up close at some point during their sleepover.

When Magnolia regained her faculties after a few moments, Sonya handed her the measuring tape. “Let’s find out how much damage your cooking has done,” Sonya teased. Magnolia blushed beet red from her hairline to her chest.

She read the measurements out loud as she took them. She did Sonya’s waist measurement first, using the measuring tape to pull her close and standing on tip-toe for a kiss before she read the number. “42 inches,” she said. She didn’t say that her own waist was nearly half that, but the thought sent a pleasurable shiver down her spine. Sonya was a little surprised by the number at first, but didn’t comment on it.

Magnolia measured Sonya’s bust next. “54 inches,” she said breathlessly.

Sonya’s eyes widened. “54? Are you sure?”

“That’s what it says. Look.” She took the measurement again and showed Sonya where the two ends of the measuring tape met.

“Wow,” Sonya whispered. She could see only the slightest dangling tail at the end of the measuring tape–six inches of slack left. Before she could think, she murmured, “I like that number.”

Magnolia smiled as she wrapped the measuring tape around Sonya’s hips. This was more difficult–she had to do some odd maneuvering for a moment. She let out a little gasp before she read out the measurement and licked her lips, throat suddenly dry. “57,” was all she said.

“57?!” Sonya replied, shocked. “That can’t be right. There’s no way my ass is almost too fat for a 60-inch measuring tape.” There was surprise in her voice, but no angst. She took the measuring tape from Sonya and put it around herself, her mouth forming into a little “o” of surprise. She’d been stunned at the thought of six inches of slack, and now to realize her hips were only three inches away from a nice, rounded 60 inches?

Well… it made a girl feel a little peckish, she had to admit.

She dropped the measuring tape to the floor and took Magnolia’s hand, pulling her toward the bedroom. Sonya got settled on the bed while Magnolia undressed herself. Before she did, Sonya’s stomach rumbled. “You wouldn’t mind getting us some snacks from the kitchen, would you?” She grabbed a handful of the thick roll of her belly. “That measuring tape isn’t going to outgrow itself.”