Even sitting down, Heather was now as tall as the average person. Trapped between long bronzed legs, Ben readied himself for whatever task the goddess would bestow upon him. Jason marveled as Heather’s gorgeous face filled the sky. She reached back to undo her hair clip, letting her long blond locks fall to her shoulders. Heather leaned in, letting her hair drape over her knees. She completely eclipsed the diminished duo. Everything to be seen, everything to be heard, everything to be smelled, from the ground to the sky, was Heather. They were in her world. She was their world.

“How’s the view?” she asked, casting a predatory gaze at her shrunken subjects.

“Good.”

“Pretty good.”

The tiny two were trying to play it cool, but Heather wasn’t buying it.

“Not impressed?” she asked, her eyes squinting with skepticism. “Maybe if you were smaller...”

“Whatever you want babe,” Ben said, finding himself for the first time in a world that feels just right.

“I’m not going any further,” Jason said. The novelty had worn off. He was ready to return to his normal size, or larger.

“I think you are,” Heather countered. 

The world began to shift in scale. Whether Heather was growing or the two men were shrinking was unclear. Jason and Ben looked at each other with momentary confusion. Jason focused his energies to grow, but found he couldn’t. He was definitely shrinking, but it wasn’t his doing. Heather was completely in control.

“How?!” Jason shouted, stopping at a half inch.

Heather giggled high in the apartment’s stratosphere. “Relax! I just wanted to test out a theory!”

“What theory?!” Jason demanded.

“You’re so much smaller than me now,” Heather explained, “that your growth power has to be way weaker than mine.”

“Oh shit,” Jason whispered.

“Yeah! Guess you shoulda thought of that before you challenged me!” Heather jabbed an accusatory finger in the air toward Jason. 

Ben found this development deeply alarming. Now both men were helpless. The scientists at AllTec must not have seen this contingency, because it meant one giant could have unchecked power against the other. Then again, maybe AllTec had a solution to any unexpected trouble these giants might cause. Either way, he was fine with the present balance of power.

Sizes were changing again. The Heather-filled sky was replaced with a view of a distant ceiling fan. Ben and Jason stopped growing and reacclimated. They were once again an inch tall, but Heather had returned to her normal height. 

“Now, about that pedicure,” she said, walking out of the room. “I’m gonna run some hot water and get my foot basin. Don’t go anywhere!”

Jason squeezed his fists and closed his eyes, straining against some invisible force. “I can’t grow back,” he said, a hint of panic in his voice. “She’s actually got me....” he grunted, “stuck like this!”

“Ah geez, must be awful,” Ben muttered disingenuously. 

“You better be nice to me,” Jason snapped, “or I’ll have a Ben sandwich for breakfast tomorrow.”

“Yeah? You a big breakfast sandwich guy?”

“Not really.”

“Cool, me neither.”

Heather came back with a wash basin, half full of steamy water. She set it on the ground, next to the two men. Then she returned the apartment furniture to its proper places and sizes. Heather set a towel on a stool, along with a pumice stone foot scrubber. She situated herself comfortably on the couch, and soaked her feet in the warm water. The giantess chuckled at her little subjects.

“You two should get in! The water’s fine,” she said in a cheery tone.

Ben was the first to move. He tossed off his shirt and pajamas, and signaled with a wave to Heather that he was ready. Before he realized what was happening, one of Heather’s warm, wet feet was upon him, squeezing him between her big and second toe. He was lifted into the air, and dropped unceremoniously into the water. It was hot, but not enough to be scalding. Ben swam around the hot tub, eventually finding a resting spot atop Heather’s submerged left foot. This was his true place in life, he felt.
“Jaso-o-o-on,” Heather sang, “I won’t ask twice.” She raised her right foot out of the water and dangled her toes.

Jason was still struggling against her control over his size. He’d managed to regain several inches while Heather was distracted with Ben.

“You can’t keep me like this,” he grumbled.

“And I won’t. We had a deal.” Her foot reached to collect its next passenger. Seeing no other option, Jason stripped down to his briefs. He walked right past Heather’s foot, and climbed directly into the basin. He walked through waist-high water to Ben’s perch on Heather’s left foot. Heather returned her right foot to the water, and leaned back to relax while her skin softened. She turned on the TV.

Ben was surprised to see Jason was twelve times his size. He scrambled backward, toward Heather’s ankle, but Jason was too fast. The tiny giant took Ben’s entire leg into one hand, lifting the smaller man into the air, upside down.

“Dude, chill,” Jason whispered. “I can get us out of this.”

“What a relief,” Ben responded, but his sarcasm was totally lost on Jason.

“Listen, I think she can only keep me small when she, like, focuses her mind on it.”

“Uh huh, yeah, I’m tracking.”

“So, I need you to create a distraction.”

“You mean, like the TV?”

“Yeah.”

Ben feigned deep thought, scratching his chin and shaking his head. “Oh! I got it!”

“Yeah! Lemme hear it!”

“I have a box of fireworks in the closet.”

“Okay...” Jason glanced at Heather. She was still watching TV and not them. Good.

“Now, it’s illegal to shoot them off right now. We don’t want to break any rules, so we’ll have to wait until the Fourth of July. By my count that’s...”

“Wait, what?”

“...Ten months from now. That should be enough time to think of a better distraction, but at least we have a fallback.”

Jason felt the water level in the basin drop, and one large toe caressed his back.

“Jason, put my boyfriend down.” 

He dropped Ben straight into the water. Using both feet, Heather grabbed both men, and dropped them onto the stool, setting her feet before them.

“Since you’re both different sizes you get different jobs,” she said, handing Jason a slightly shrunken foot scrubber. “Jason, I trust you know how to use this.”

He nodded, and went to work, scraping the tool against her foot as hard as he could, removing any traces of dead skin. He moved too fast, with too little attention to detail. Heather issued him a rebuke with a tap on his head from her beefy big toe.

“Slower.”

He groaned, and started over, taking the pumice stone to each individual toe, one at a time. Heather went back to watching TV, no longer listening to the boys. Ben pressed his inch-high body against Heather’s heel, feeling her warmth, sensing her pulse even through the thick skin. He pushed his face against it, as if hoping in vain that he could fully merge with her giant heel. Wouldn’t that be the life.

“Bet you’d rather this was your job,” Jason said to Ben.

“I’d definitely do a better job,” Ben jabbed, unafraid of the man twelve times his size.

“You will when it’s my foot,” Jason jabbed right back. “And I’ll make you so small the job will take all day.”

“Fuck off.”

“Hey, you better be nice to me,” Jason said, grunting as he continued to scrub away at the ball of Heather’s foot. She still wasn’t listening, but she made a joyful sigh at the feeling of having her foot cared for. “Because I gotta level with you man,” Jason continued, “I’ve been thinking something and I bet you’ve been thinking the same thing.”

“What’s that?” Ben pawed at each ridge along Heather’s heel, studying the immense footprint.

Jason wiped his brow, and resumed scrubbing. “There’s gonna come a day when it’s Heather and me on that couch and you’re down here with this stupid scrubber, just scrubbing away at both our feet.”

“Heather doesn’t think so.”

“Yeah? She tell you that?” Jason was beginning to breathe heavily from the rigorous job before him. “Because eventually she’s gonna see you as more of a pet than a boyfriend.”

Ben had a hard time disagreeing with that assessment.

Jason crouched and began scrubbing Heather’s heel. Even while kneeling, his entire body overshadowed Ben’s. “And when that happens, she’s gonna want a bigger man in her life.” Scrub, scrub, scrub. Above, Heather’s toes curled with satisfaction. “And you know, I’ve always thought that there’s one thing every couple needs. A pet.”

Ben turned to face Jason but instead came to eye level with the crouched giant’s groin. Beneath his wet boxer briefs, Jason was fully erect. Oh God. Ben closed his eyes, and turned back to take solace in Heather’s magnificent foot. So that was Jason’s game, Ben thought. Steal Heather back, and reduce Ben to the role of family plaything. Ben shook his head with denial.

“It’s inevitable, man,” Jason whispered. “And I feel bad about it, but it’s the way it is. Heather doesn’t want to date a human keychain. She wants a real man. And I’m the only one big enough for her, so when she figures that out, I just don’t want you to get hurt. But hey, we’ll take good care of you. You might even like it.” He sounded sincere.

Heather’s massive face leaned over the two men to inspect the job.

“Good! Now do the other one!” she said, well pleased.

Jason shifted to her other foot. Heather squeezed a bit of moisturizer out of a tube into an open palm.

“Now it’s your turn,” she said, her green eyes fixated on her tiny boyfriend. With her free hand, she picked him up, and tossed him into the moisturizer, covering his body. She then proceeded to use him as a sponge, gently rubbing him up and down her freshly-scrubbed foot. His tiny face was buried in the endless expanse of her foot flesh, being slowly pushed and pulled across the skin. When she sensed a little friction, she withdrew Ben, and tossed him into a new lump of moisturizer. She began again, and again. 

Jason was nearly out of breath, but he finished his duties on Heather’s left foot. She set him on the coffee table, out of the way, and he yelped as he was shrunk again down to an inch. Then Heather applied a fresh layer of moisturizer to Ben’s body, and put him back to work, rubbing him up and down her other foot. When finished, she rinsed him off in the wash basin, and held him pinched between two fingers in front of her face.

“Having fun?” she asked, teasing him.

He nodded stupidly. “You can just leave me like this, that’d be fine,” he said, oggling her massive body.

“Uh huh. Well I have another job for you two.”

She set Ben down next to Jason, walked off, and returned with a pair of sneakers, setting them on the floor. She walked off again, this time disappearing around the corner for much longer, returning several minutes later with two buckets filled with soapy water, and damp rags. She shrunk those items down and set them in each shoe. The shrunken men exchanged confused looks.

“These are my jogging shoes. They are absolutely rancid,” she said, waving a hand in front of her nose. “I’ve tried everything. I can’t get the smell out.”

“What?!” Jason shouted. “Oh no, you can’t be serious.” He looked at Ben for support, but Ben shrugged, cool with the whole thing.

“You played my game, Jason, and you lost,” she said. “You were the one who wanted to raise the stakes.”

“Yeah I’ll remember this when I win the next one,” he grumbled.

Heather scooped the two men up, and dropped them each into their own shoe. Jason gagged at the overpowering stench of sweat, while Ben swooned. The two began to shrink again, ending only five millimeters tall. Jason shouted inaudible protests, while Heather towered miles above, with a playful and mischievous grin on her face. 

“I’ll come check on you in a little bit, to see if you need more soap and water. Don’t miss a spot!” She giggled, sat back on the couch, and channel surfed.

Ben dropped to his knees, and kissed the sneaker sole. He pressed his face into it, inhaled deeply, and got a good whiff of her foot sweat. Satisfied, he dunked the cloth in the bucket, and cheerfully went about his task. He scrubbed the meteor crater-sized imprint of Heather’s heel, feeling like a geologist at a dig site. After a good 45 minutes of scrubbing, Heather popped overhead, smiling, and holding a fresh bucket of soapy water.

“It smells better already! Keep going!” she said, praising his good work. 

Ben heard her check on the other shoe. But she was quiet for a moment. “Huh? Where did...” She sounded confused. Must’ve been looking for Jason. Ben heard Heather pick up the shoe, and saw her stand back to her feet, lifting the shoe high in the air. She turned toward the light, illuminating the interior, looking for her captive. Ben gazed up at her, wondering what was going on. A shadow was cast from the east-facing window. Heather looked up, and her jaw dropped, along with the shoe. “Oh God,” she gasped. To Ben’s horror, he watched as his girlfriend shrank. Trapped at the bottom of Heather’s shoe, there was nothing he could do to help her. Not that it would’ve made a difference either way. 

From outside, a deep laugh rumbled through the apartment. It was Jason. He must’ve escaped when Heather wasn’t paying attention, snuck outside, and grown large enough to impose his own powers upon Heather. The shadow withdrew, and afternoon light poured back into the apartment. A minute later, the front door opened and then shut. Ben, still looking up through the opening to the sneaker, watched as Jason lumbered back into the apartment, stopping to loom above the two sneakers. He stooped, reaching for something beyond the shoe’s horizon, then returned to his full height, holding Heather in the palm of his hand. A triumphant smile crossed his face. 

“My turn.”