Damn, I was so close on the Gulliver thing! I mean, I knew the bondage thing had to come into play at some point, so maybe half a point for me?

You know, I've spent a lot of time talking about how Trish finds happiness in making Thomas happy, but the reverse has been no less true throughout this story. The way he resists her when she's playing her games with Thomas (like the first one during the picnic, for example) let's him still be that strong, confident man that Trish wants, even when she's giving him what he wants. From what we know about Thomas, I think his natural reaction to a living, breathing giantess telling him what to do would be to be submissive, but he has fun with resisting her the same way she has fun dominating him (that is, their enjoyment is in making the other feel good). I just wanted to backtrack for a second and acknowledge that, as this kind of culminates in the back half of this chapter.

Thomas coming up with the bondage device was a brilliant move on his part (although I'm sure that particular conversation with Jeb, who I assume paid for it, was an awkward one), as it not only let's him fulfill Trish's fantasy (and boy did she get off on the fear of not having control for the first time since her growth started) but also allows him to please his fiancé safely on his own. But equally important here was his demeanor from start to finish. The way he took control before she even knew what was happening (more on her reaction to that in a second, or maybe a minute, I don't know how fast you read), claimed her, then teased her in the most agonizing way possible is all exactly what Trish wants. And Thomas was clearly enjoying himself the whole time, even though he didn't cum himself until Trish took care of him after the fact. He was into it because she was into it.

Not to get biblical here, but this relationship kind of reminds me of the concept of "one flesh." With both Trish and Thomas living for each other's happiness, both get to be fulfilled and experience their deepest desires. It's a beautiful concept, really.

As for Trish, it was pretty cool to see her breakthrough in the first half of the chapter manifest itself in the back end. She's finally okay with being big, so now it seems that domme role is becoming more natural for her. I was a little surprised (but smiling) when reading Trish's inner thoughts when Thomas started giving her orders. She still listened to him because of love and curiosity, but I couldn't imagine her thinking "Who does this little man think he is?" even two chapters ago. And that confidence she had that she didn't need a safe word and that if things went too far she could "just stand up" and have Tiny Thomas at her ankles. Her mental transformation has been at least as fun as her physical one so far.

The proposal was really well written, I thought. It blended concepts that are unique to such a situation (Thomas using a ferris wheel to propose and Trish dropping the oversized wine flute were pretty cool ideas) with some classic, tried-and-true tropes for it (the "suspicious" girlfriend and "She said yes!"). This gave the scene a familiar feel but its own vibe at the same time. And it was pretty cool that the whole town celebrated with them (or under them, technically, I guess). Early on, I felt like Trish was going to be kept an isolated secret throughout most of the story, so to see the town accept her (well, except for stupid frat boys, but do they even count?) even know that she's hitting more ridiculous heights is heartwarming in and of itself. The fact that Trish was still nervous to even go into town and was so careful and considerate for all things not Thomas's window just adds to that.

The elastic engagement ring was a pretty slick thought as well.

As I've been a big fan of Melanie throughout this story, I have to mention how sad her brief passage was in this chapter. That she so badly wanted to see how they've been shows that, on some level, she still wants to be their friend, even after what they did to her. I think deep down she understands why things turned out the way they did (she was getting third wheel vibes even before they actually started the affair, so she knows how naturally they're drawn to each other), but, of course, that doesn't make being cheated on hurt any less or her feel less betrayed.

It has to be a complicated feeling for her, but it seems like her own guilt over doubting Thomas at the trial (or maybe convincing herself to doubt Thomas because of these feelings) may have helped to subside some of that sense of betrayal. Or maybe time healed that wound on its own. Who knows?

Well, we would have if Melanie had made that run to the courtyard (of course, it might have been awkward for Thomas to have such a conversation with his ex on the day he plans to propose to the love of his life). But that was the saddest part to me. Melanie knows Trish wouldn't hurt her, but the latter's size (and maybe her own sense of guilt as well) still intimidated her enough to not only keep her from seeing her (maybe) friends but keep her planted in the same place for some time afterward as well. Personally, I don't think Trish and Thomas will hold anything against her for the trial and would probably apologize themselves and just be glad that she still cares about them after betraying her trust.

So I don't know if this was a bit of a "sad sendoff" for Melanie or if it's a sign that we'll get that eventual resolution between the three of them that I'm hoping for (I feel like the latter is true, but I could see it going either way), but I do know that I focused on Melanie in this review far more than I thought I would when I started writing!

Lastly, I just want to point out that I really enjoy the way you've ended a lot of these chapters. You've hit some high notes with some cute, personal-feeling scenes that have really helped humanize Trish and Thomas. This last one is certainly no exception! I love the idea of Trish, after everything that happened throughout the day, just needing Thomas in the middle of the night and him playing that confident role for her once again. The whole scene just fits them so well. I really appreciate a writer finding little ways to flash their characters' personalities like this!

I'm not sure if I've ever seen the idea of a giantess using sign language to communicate without deafening the tinies before, but it was such a brilliant one. Not only does it make logistical sense, but it also shows just how considerate Trish is. Not only that, but between that and her size, this served as a clever way to have Trish still be involved in the chapter during the first half of Thomas's lovely stay in the county jail. Those interactions were as heartwarming as the were funny (that "pulling your socks off" line got me!).

And it was hilarious that the city had to ask Trish to stop coming because she was intimidating everyone. ASL really is a threatening language, what with all those hand movements and whatnot!

Two months in county just for hitting Vale one time? Man, the judge must have been pissed, or maybe the feds leaned on him a bit just as a bit of revenge for Thomas ruining their plans again. That gap in time does do a good job of advancing Trish's height faster (from the reader's perspective, of course), and now we get a 50-foot Trish! Also, the way they were longing for each other with every communication was really sweet, and it also played into Trish's earlier-expressed concern that, at least as far as we know at this point, these two are on a bit of clock due to Trish's expanding size.

Trish practicing and memorizing that routine for Thomas may have been the cutest, most sincerely wholesome piece of smut I've ever read. I love how you continually emphasize that Trish gets no sexual gratification from playing these parts for Thomas but instead from Thomas's reaction to her doing so. She finds it hot that she can get him so worked up, which is a more realistic emotional response than what we typically see in fetish stories.

Not only that, but it's hard not to smile when reading about the legitimate joy (even beyond anything sexual) that she gets just by making him so happy. Thomas was right, once people get to know her, it's impossible not to love her.

Of course, Thomas is always willing to return the favor, even if Trish won't let him because of the danger that comes with him trying to do that. Still, they find a way for him to play an active part in her getting off, which is great. One day, he's going to have to figure out how to tie her down Gulliver-style. Not only would she be into the bondage, but if he could tie her down firmly enough, he might be just be able to have some fun inside her without the risk of being crushed by intense spasming. It's really only a question of how he could pull that off without the help of at least half of the farm (I think Trish would be mortified at the thought of so many people being clued in on her own secret fetish).

As for Trish's "routine" itself it was damned hot. This may not be her thing, but she really gets into the part and takes it seriously. Going along with what I said above about Trish getting into the role without being into it, there were once again minor touches you put into the scene that really made it stand out. For example, Trish comparing sucking on Thomas to sucking on a guy's finger was a pretty relatable way for her to rationalize it, and the way she casually wonders just how much of him she can fit in her mouth comes off as playfully curious rather than something she found particularly sexual in nature.

I've said it even in previous reviews, but Trish's approach to this fetish is so unique and refreshing, and it makes scenes like this enticing for reasons completely alien to pretty much every other story on this site. That creativity is really appreciated!

Ooh, are we going to get a little giantess courtroom (or block around the courtroom) drama soon? I love a good fictional legal battle, and it might be fun to see what that silly government will get up to next!

This chapter made me think back to the beginning of the previous one, with Thomas and Jeb sitting at the dinner table (and at breakfast time, no less!). It makes sense to me that Jeb can't see what Trish sees in the former psychologist, not because it's hard to see but rather because I'm not sure Jeb has the emotional capacity to understand it. I think he's a good person who loves his daughter, but he seems a hard man that would struggle to comprehend having to rely on someone emotionally.

I bring this up because I feel like we see in this chapter that value in Thomas that Jeb just can't grasp. As I was reading it, I kept thinking back to how Trish was a couple chapters ago, before making up with Thomas. How would that Trish have handled the government's tactics here? Honestly, I don't know if she ever would have even made it to the courthouse. She would have assumed that everyone saw her as a monster and either have been too embarrassed to show up or, if she did actually make it into town, would have been so emotionally spent, malnourished, and uncoordinated that she would have easily made one of those mistakes the government was hoping she'd make.

But Thomas gives Trish the confidence to be herself, and because of that, kind of like what we saw between Melanie and her, other people are starting to see the real Trish as well. Thomas assured her that people will fall in love with her once they see her for who she is, and Nancy proved him right. That whole interaction between the two women was incredibly sweet, and it was touching to see how grateful Trish was to have earned Nancy's trust, let alone the little (er, normal-sized) woman's support.

As far as shady plans go, the government's wasn't a bad one. The odds were in favor of her getting frustrated and looking scarier than she really is by trying to get into the building. Agent Grisham surely knows enough about Trish by now to know that she's not an actual threat, but he clearly expected her to cause at least some property damage, if not express outright frustration in a way that would terrify the media. Good on Trish for not falling into that trap. Also, I thought it was funny that she actually wanted the judge in company to be at least a little afraid of her (but, of course, wasn't willing to do anything to make them feel that way).

One segment in this chapter that I found particularly well written was the short one in which Trish wakes up Thomas in the middle of the night seeking comfort. I love the fact that she didn't say a single word during that conversation; it conveyed a sense of vulnerability that now line of dialogue could match. It also matches her general meekness, which is part of her charm and sets her apart from pretty much every other giant character written about on this site. She's willing to be assertive and domineering and even enjoy being so because of how happy it makes Thomas, but this quiet, reliant (I like how she matched his deep breathing in order to fall asleep) demeanor is her true nature. It's incredibly cute, too!

After saying that, however, I have to admit I'm loving Trish's evergrowing confidence! Despite her nerves and needing Thomas's support to get over them, the confidence with which she handled the media (especially after seeing that Thomas was right about people liking her) was pretty impressive. Between that and her genuine nature (that "Oh, hi!" she gave to Nancy even made me smile), there was no way the government was going to be able to shape the narrative here.

Like I said before, I'm really curious to see what else the government has up their sleeve. They're playing dirty, and I'm wondering if they might drag in a certain ex-girlfriend to make Trish and/or Thomas look bad (I'm not sure how they would make her seem relevant to the case, but I wouldn't put it past them to find a way). The accommodations made for Trish ought to be pretty interesting as well.

I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me in the entire chapter was Trish comparing her game with Thomas with playing with a pet.

Now, at first glance (particularly in stories on this site) that might be looked at as a demeaning thing, like Trish thinks less of him or puts herself above him. And while I do think that Trish's view on humanity as a whole has been changing for a while now, I don't think that's what she means here (at least not entirely).

I think the comparison has more to do with the fact that her enjoyment from playing with Thomas came from knowing how much he loved what she was doing with him and what it made him feel for her. We don't play fetch with our dogs because we just love to throw a ball around; we do it because we love to see how happy it makes them to go fetch it. The same goes for petting a cat; it makes us happy when they purr because we know that means we're doing something that they enjoy.

Trish liked playing with Thomas more than she admitted to him (at least I felt as though her answer to him didn't match the enthusiasm she had for it in the narrative). She probably played it off because she didn't want to give him the wrong idea and make him think she got something sexual out of it, which she didn't. Her fun was based entirely on his pleasure, and once she figured out what he liked, she really got into it, to the point where she wasn't going to stop until he said the safe word (which we know because she wasn't the least bit worried that she had overdone it when he screamed "Jumbo! Jumbo!).

So I think that's what she meant when she compared getting him off to playing with a pet. She had fun because he had fun. If wasn't into it, she would have been bored and probably hated doing it.

Of course, having said all that, Trish's view on humanity has been changing for a while now, so I can't completely discount her starting to view her relationship with Thomas through that lens. She said a while ago that she wasn't really human anymore and even argued when Thomas tried to tell her that she was. She's also commented in the past about how cute everyone is getting as she gets bigger and bigger. What's interesting about this is that it has been viewed as a negative by Trish throughout most of the story (mainly her depression over thinking that everyone thinks she's a monster, even if they like it), but that's starting to change, with this chapter including a big step in that development.

Speaking of said development, I loved the back and forth Trish went through in the first half of this chapter, battling herself over dual feelings of embarrassment and sexiness over her size. The embarrassment has always been there, even with the help of Thomas's confidence building, but we saw her start to feel sexy over her size at the end of the previous chapter, when she compared it to getting her curves in before the other girls. This chapter both built on that and dealt with the head on collision it was bound to have with her natural discomfort over being big very well.

It makes sense that, with a lover who's into it, her wanting to be desired would win out over the awkwardness she feels about the size difference. And the way she went about trying to get more of that feeling, using stuff she read on the forum and slowly building confidence after some direction from Thomas, was as cute as it was erotic, all without her feeling like a different person. I'm really interested to see where this budding confidence in her size goes from here.

Thomas knowing what Trish is into, both when he embarrassed her (I like how she was embarrassed by him knowing about her bondage kink despite her knowing about his much less common and far more embarrassing one) and when he helped her get off. The latter, in particular, was pretty impressive, as he knew just what little things to do to make Trish's fantasy feel more real to her, which I think is why it turned out better than she had expected. Besides, your therapist is going to know about your bondage fetish. I mean, come on.

But I think Thomas's knowledge on how to get Trish going is yet another thing that shows that he loves her as a person and isn't just into her because of his own fetish. He knows her very well, and he uses that knowledge to do everything he can to make her feel as good as possible. Seeing Trish incorporate what he was doing into her fantasy really helped show that he knew what he was doing, too.

Jeb's acceptance of this situation was kind of funny to me, too. I mean, it makes perfect sense, but it's just funny that he had to go from "there's plenty of places to bury a body out here" to giving Thomas a place to stay is pretty funny, especially since he clearly still doesn't very much care for Thomas. He's a good dad, though, and he's just happy to see his daughter happy. We talk a lot about Thomas being the only one that doesn't see Trish as a monster, but I'm pretty sure Jeb still sees her as his little girl. He's just not much for those icky feelings that everyone else has, so it's harder for him to convey that

Looking forward to the next one!

Not bad

Well, at least the cat (or all the cats, in this case) is out of the bag now, right? Right?!

This chapter was a straight-up gut punch, and that's absolutely a good thing. Looking at some of the other reviews for the chapter, it looks like pretty much everyone feels really bad for Thomas, which is a testament to how well you're writing has us invested in these characters. And this body blow was set up so well, too, given how it came out of seemingly nowhere (this chapter starts with a very different type of tension, which made how things developed especially blindsiding).

As a reader, I've developed so much empathy for Thomas and Trish, that it's easy to forget that the former's actions are ultimately wrong and that a good portion of what's happening to him now has been earned. That's not to say I think Thomas is a bad guy (I mean, I've been making the opposite case in pretty much every other review for this story so far, after all), but, as Thomas himself acknowledged at the start of the chapter, what he's doing to Melanie is terrible, even if his intent isn't malicious. Not to mention that the ethics of his position are in place for a reason, and he himself was concerned that he had inadvertently groomed Trish to love him (which yet again, I don't think is the case). So I say all of that to say this: it's pretty remarkable to create a character that engages in things that, on a surface level, most people would find despicable, yet present him in a way that makes us not only root for him while he's doing said things but want to root for him even more now in this "all is lost" moment and feel his anguish as he endures the consequences of his actions.

Man, I'm still kind of in awe over how masterfully you've incorporated what I think is one of the deepest fears among those who share our fetish. An invasive government pulled out a harmless post from before he even met Trish and exposed his "unique" tastes to all the right people to ruin his life. I'm pretty sure this is why some people (most notably writers) leave our little community and try to delete every trace that they were ever a part of it. There's a paranoia about being exposed and, more importantly, judged by those around us, people we care about or maybe even just have to deal with day-to-day that we're so sure wouldn't understand what this fetish really is and why it is that we're sucked into it. The way all of those fears became reality for Thomas in the worst way (granted there's more to his downfall than that, but we'll get to that in a minute) so quickly plays into real concerns that your audience likely has fantastically.

I also think that's part of what makes this whole thing hit so hard. It would be one thing if Thomas and Trish were caught in the act or an upset Melanie, after learning the truth, pulled the first threat of this grand unraveling in righteous anger, but to have the intrusive power of the federal government capitalize on something so minor, something that actually isn't morally wrong when Thomas has made so many moral misjudgments helps the audience get behind Thomas even more. Despite everything he's done (even if I don't judge him too harshly for his actions up to this point), he's getting screwed over. Like that's what does him in?! Really?! Not to mention just how hard this innocuous thing the Feds have found out has destroyed him so profoundly. I would think even those who might have been thinking that Thomas had most of this coming would have a hard time not getting behind him after this. 

I'm also really intrigued by just what it is the government is after here. It may be a bit murky at this point, but it seems to me like they've got a plan in place. Agent Grisham immediately identified Thomas as "the one to talk to" about Trish, only for the government to dig as deep as a post on an internet message board made before he even knew Trish. They were clearly going to great lengths to sever the connection Thomas had with her, even if they didn't know exactly what said connection entailed. Then there's the 60 days of house arrest and trumped up criminal charge. It seems to me that they want Trish feeling all alone and in a less than clear mindset. Now what could the U.S. government possibly want with an ever expanding woman?

And while I feel terrible for Thomas, I feel just as bad for Trish, given the above-mentioned torment she's being put through here. And in addition to all that, she now believes that the one person who actually sees her for who she is rather than how big she is thinks of her the same way that everybody else does, only he's into it, which makes him even worse in her eyes. While everyone else is afraid of her, she thinks Thomas was using her like an object for his own perverse pleasure. So her anchor, the one who she could turn to when she needed somebody the most, is not only no longer there, but all of the support he had given her is now tainted. She can't even think back to the good times they had together anymore. She's truly alone in the world now.

With all of that in mind, I can't really blame Trish for being shitty with Thomas and refusing to hear him out. Not only that, but you also have to consider how she was told about Thomas's fetish. The feds, who I again think did this specifically to drive a wedge between the two of them, surely cherrypicked what they shared with her about it, maybe picked out a few select posts to really make Thomas look bad. Not only that, but Jeb and her lawyer aren't exactly his biggest fans anymore, either, so she's been hearing nothing but negative things about Thomas for two months straight, all while she was left starving, sleep-deprived, underclothed, and unable to stand up properly for at least part of her imprisonment. With all that taken into consideration, I think she handled that confrontation with Thomas about as well as could be expected.

Of course, all of that doesn't make her calling him a creep sting any less. That was brutal.

I do wonder what she'll think about the whole thing once she gets a good night's sleep and a proper meal (assuming the government doesn't having anything else immediately up their collective sleeve). Will she regret not hearing Thomas out, or will she double down on those feelings of betrayal and disgust? Will she regret getting physical with Thomas, or will her growing disconnect with the rest of humanity cause her to give in to that darker impulse she felt when she knocked him over or when she wanted to force him in to sex when she was drunk? Will she think back on those times with Thomas and refuse to believe that the love they shared was a lie, or will those outside influences continue to ruin her vision of him? And even if she does regret what happened, will she be too ashamed of herself or scared that he'll view her the same as everyone else now to try and do something about it?

I'm an optimist, and I think they'll work things out and be better for it. Aside from the obvious, out-of-story reasons to suspect as much, such as the knowledge that we're only about, what, a third of the way through the story and the title of the story itself, I do think that all the groundwork you laid out for this relationship in the first nine chapters built a strong enough foundation that Trish will eventually hear Thomas out and take him at his word (now whether this happens sooner or later, I don't know). Hell, I'd argue that something like this needed to happen at some point, as Trish needed to see Thomas as something other than the strong, confident, and damn near perfect man she had built him up to be in her head (all of the things that made her think that are a part of him, of course, but she needs to see him vulnerable and at his weakest as well to truly accept who he is) and Thomas probably needed something to show that Trish wasn't accidentally brainwashed into loving him (two months away and now seeming to hate him is enough to prove that any grooming that he thinks he incidentally did will have been undone). Now, if they end up back together after this moment, it will feel that much more real than it did before, and each can be more confident in the relationship.

Of course, I admit that things could easily go the other way. We could be in for 20-some chapters of Thomas agonizing over love lost and Trish slowly drifting further and further away from humanity, with another meeting between the two down the road being less than fun for our (probably former) resident psychologist. After all, the story's title could be an ironic one. Given the way the story has gone so far, I don't think we'll be going down a path that dark but not knowing for sure keeps things interesting and makes the prospect of a happier ending (or at least more potential happiness on our way to the ending) that much more rewarding if it comes to fruition.

Melanie is in a really interesting spot here. She could be about to fade away into the background (or "off stage" completely) or possibly be about to expand her role in the story once again. I'm really curious about the contents of all those voicemails. Is sweet understanding Melanie unleashing her vengeful anger on the man who betrayed her trust? Is she just looking for understanding about the situation? Is she, despite what Thomas has done to her, still concerned about him? Or is she looking to relieve a different set of emotions on him entirely? I really don't know, especially since we only got a brief glimpse into her reaction to his infidelity.

I could see Melanie piling on to Thomas's problems (not out of spite, necessarily, but maybe a need to unburden herself of those potentially hostile feelings), or I could see her being more understanding of his situation (despite her obvious hurt feelings). We've only had a small window into her personality so far, so a lot is left open to our speculation, but the impression I've had of her so far has been that she's generally an overly nice and understanding person. I couldn't blame her for bucking that trend in this situation, though.

Either way, I have a feeling that she's going to play a fairly significant part in at least the next chapter or two.

If I may offer a tiny bit of constructive criticism here, I think you put together a really good symbolic dream sequence pretty early in the chapter, but then you explained the symbolism of the dream immediately afterward. This isn't a mistake by any means, nor does it hurt the story (I think you flowed the explanation pretty smoothly into the narrative actually), yet I found myself wishing that you would have trusted that you had conveyed the meaning behind the dream clearly enough that such an explanation wasn't necessary. The dream was straight forward with its intent (especially with Trish's last line of dialogue there), but Thomas recognizing the symbolism of the dream as he decided to act on it and end things with Melanie felt (at least to me) that you were concerned that the reader wouldn't fully understand what it was about the dream that sparked this in Thomas.

This is, again, a very small knit to pick, but it's something that I've seen several writers, both within the sphere of this fetish and outside of it, feel the need to do. It might just be a personal preference thing (and if that's how this comes off, I apologize), but, as a reader, I strongly prefer to be left to interpret the meaning behind things on my own.

But yeah, fantastic chapter overall , and way to build anticipation for the release of the next one!

Man... This chapter makes me so Sad :( 

Real nice flow and plot progression. I can understand Thomas's logic in taking a gamble on revealing Trish to the world, but it is a gamble all the same. Depending on how big Trish ends up becoming (thousands of feet tall or greater), I'd wager that there are those within the national security apparatus who would become paranoid and ruled by fear from the mere potential she'd have as a giantess, no matter how gentle she remained or how much restraint she showed in interacting with the outside world.

If she keeps growing to the point where she starts eclipsing skyscrapers, there might be those in the Pentagon, the NSA, the DHS, or some other bureaucracy who might believe she's too dangerous to be allowed to live and resort to an airstrike to take her out (maybe even go nuclear if she enters mile-high territory). Of course, you could end up having saner, more compassionate individuals running Washington in this story who decide not to be ruled by fear of what she's capable of, but that's your call to make in the end.

One point of note would be that if Trish does grow to the point of skyscraper-level height, both food and water would be a tricky thing to provide for someone of such size. The caloric intake would be astronomical by human standards, along with being able to clothe a human of such size. There's also the matter of finding a place to go to the bathroom, unless her metabolism makes it so that she no longer expels solid or liquid waste as she grows larger (in case you need a little "deus ex machina" to alleviate that kind of a concern). Finding a place to wash or shower would also be tricky once she enters Godzilla territory in the size department. She'd have to be using literal lakes to clean herself (unless she ends up outgrowing even those, then she'd have to turn to the ocean).

Anyways, all these concerns aside, I'm really enjoying the plot progression, as well as Thomas's ability to take command and control of the situation, despite him being so much smaller than her by this point. The chemistry between the two of them is really something.

I think it's good that Thomas is concerned that he may have groomed Trish for a relationship, even though I'm pretty sure he's wrong.

The fact that he's so worried about this is one of the many reasons that his actions haven't groomed her into loving him (the extreme guilt he felt the day after is another). He has constantly put a barrier up between them, keeping things professional despite his feelings, with the Patty Hotcakes incident serving as a prime example. The "grooming" was just them talking and getting to know each other (which, again, you've done a great job of showing throughout this story so far).

I'm of the opinion that Trish would be acting a lot differently if her feelings had been the product of grooming or were really an obsession rather than love. For example, mistake number two started with Trish waiting for Thomas to make the first move because she wanted to gauge how strong his feelings for her were. If she was groomed to love him or obsessed with him, she would be desperate for him to love her instead of giving any thought to what he actually wants.

Also, her writing off the initial mistake as a mistake at all and burying her feelings for Thomas's sake isn't something someone conditioned to love (if you can even call that love) would do. She put his wants and needs (i.e. his job) ahead of what she wanted, which, to me, is a sign of legitimate love.

In fact, Thomas initiated the second mistake because Trish was more in control of her feelings than he was of his at that point. The way I read that passage, it seemed as though she would have been content with that one moment she had with him (that's not to say she wouldn't have been bummed about it, but she was willing to accept that when she didn't know that he felt the same way).

Now, I do think her feelings of isolation played a role in the initial formation of their bond, so his concerns about inadvertently taking advantage of her weak mental state early on make sense. But really, that's less about how he treated her and more about how everyone else treated her. The hospital staff acted like she was a monster to be avoided while he acted like she was just any other patient (even though she was anything but in his mind). That's not his fault, and I think they've laid a more legitimate foundation from the friendship they formed after she got over that and got her confidence back.

I also like how patient Trish was with Thomas admitting his love for her. She knew how he felt (he showed her in the woods, even if he refused to say it), and that was enough for her. She was cool with him keeping up the illusion that each time was the last time because she knew he needed that at first. It took his relationship with Melanie to have her break that illusion for him. She knows she's not really the "other" girl, and I'm sure she feels bad for what they're doing behind the poor girl's back.

It was fitting that she used the power pose to extract that confession out of him. I love that she keeps using the confidence he helped her regain "against" him. I knew that confidence would come back to bite him.

And you raised a good point about how Melanie finds out and what she'll do. I've been so busy feeling bad for her that I didn't give much thought to how she could destroy Thomas's life. Now that it looks like Trish and he have decided that he'll end things with Melanie, he'll have to navigate that breakup real carefully.

Oh, and once again, amazing smut. I can't get enough of the blend of her letting him dictate her movements and her taking complete control by the end of things is intoxicating. Also, this allows each of them to give the other exactly what they want (Trish wants a man to lead and Thomas wants to be dominated).

This story is FANTASTIC! It's so well thought through and I really love the psychology content. Little touches like the "Patty Hotcakes" quirk really round out her character and the light femdom and love triangle keeps the tension up so well. Also her Dad being a libertarian cattle millionaire Texan is hilarious.