Once they were done eating, they left the restaurant and headed back to work. It surprised Nick how much Miss Williams was able to eat, she even ordered a big slice of pie for dessert. Maybe she had always eaten this way, and he didn´t notice because he used to eat a lot more. But still, he was sure she ate that much the last time they were there. But what could he say, he couldn´t say that he thought he ate too much, that´ll be offensive.

He just looked thru the window of the car while she drove them back, he was thinking about what to do next. For sure, he was going to go clothes shopping as soon as his shift was over, but, he couldn´t stop thinking about his shrinking. Will the clothes that fitted today still fit by next week? Was it a good idea to buy new clothes? What was the point if sooner or later they´ll be as baggy as the one´s he was wearing?

But he knew he needed clothes, at least a shirt or two and a pair of pants, and some shoes; it didn´t matter if they were a little tight, he´ll shrink into them in no time. He hated to know it, but the only thing for sure was that tomorrow, he´ll be shorter than today. He wasn´t even sure if he was the same height as he was in the morning.

“Everything ok Nick? You seem to be a little too thoughtful, is anything bothering you?” Miss Williams said as she was driving, not taking her eyes off the road. “Don´t tell me you wanted a dessert too, I asked you twice and you said no” she said joking.

“N-no, it´s not that” Nick replied, “It´s nothing actually, I was just looking at the stores around here” he lied.

“Come on… “ she continued “don´t lie to me Nick, I know a sad face when I see one, what´s the matter honey? You can trust me” she said with a soft tone.

“It´s nothing, don´t worry, it´s something unimportant” he said, trying to hide how hurt he really was, not wanting to expose how desperately he needed to unburden himself. He knew this wasn´t the time.

“Find… “ she said, “don´t tell me if you don´t want to… but I´ll tell you one thing, it´s not healthy to keep those things for yourself, I understand if you don´t want to tell me now, or never. But make sure to tell someone, it´ll be good for you, trust me.” she talked about it as if she knew a lot about how he was feeling. Maybe she had been in the same place he was; of course, she didn´t shrank, but everyone has their own problems.

“Ok” he continued, he was not going to tell her, but he knew that she will listen. It was not that he didn´t trust her, but there was something growing inside him, something that sooner or later, was going to explode; he just didn´t want her to see him so vulnerable. “M-mi… Rachel?” he added.

“Yes?” she said.

“Thank you” he knew he could count on her, and he needed to show her that he appreciated the gesture.

“You´re welcome” she said as if she knew that he valued her advice. She didn´t mind if he didn´t tole her. She could tell he was under a lot of stress and he needed to deal with it on his own way.

Finally, they were back in their office, they entered thru the parking lot from behind so he didn´t saw Sam on his way in. They worked for a while and then Miss Williams had a request.

“Nick, honey, can you be a dear and bring me some coffee, I feel a little tired” he was her assistant so bringing coffee was part of the package.

“Sure, I´ll be back in a sec” he replied heading to the coffee machine in the end of the hall.

He arrived and grabbed a cup, he placed it on the machine and waited for it to fill up. While he was doing so, two women arrived to where he was, they were chatting about whatever they were going to do on the weekend and then one of them said:

“Hey kid, I don´t think you should drink coffee, does your mommy let you?” she said.

The cup was full, so he turned and told them: “I´m not a kid, I work here” he said very offended, those women where not very tall, maybe around 5´4” or 5´6”, but from his point of view, they were really tall.

“Sorry, my bad… “ the lady said in a non-apologetic way, “it´s just that you´re so short, I thought you were just a child.”

“Well, I´m not, I´m a 25-year-old man” he said frowning at her.

“Ok, I don´t need to know your age, but find. Just finish here and head back to work, we also need to drink coffee, so bye bye little tatter tot” she said, the other lady made a gesture as if she had overdone it. However, they were both looking at him from above.

“Find… “ he half-yelled “enjoy your stupid coffee” he said as he stepped out of their sight.

Nick was furious, what a nerve that lady had, she just insulted him because he was small; that wouldn´t have happened if he was still the 6´2” men he was. But now, he wasn´t even five feet tall, no one will take him seriously. He was just a puny-sized men, who´ll get even smaller as time passed.

He took a deep breath and let go of it, this´ll be one of those small battles he needed to lose, and he needed to let go of it. It hurt him but, he needed to forget this; ignore people who, from now on, will treat him as if his opinion didn´t mattered, as if he had no word to say. He just sucked it in and returned to his office with his boss, at least she still treats him like a person.

 He opened the door and said: “I´m back” with a fake smile.

“Well, hello, I thought you were not coming back” she said from her desk.

“Haha, I wouldn´t do that, I can´t just leave, besides, my stuff it´s still here” he continued.

“Well, I guess you´re right… “ she said with a smile, “by any chance, did you bring some cookies or a donut maybe?” she asked.

“I… no, I thought you only wanted coffee, I forgot about it, I guess” he wasn´t expecting her to be hungry, given the fact that she has had lunch less than two hours ago.

“It´s ok, I guess I can wait until Dinner” she said, but she really wanted something sweet, something to eat.

The day went by as usual form there, and at 5 o´clock, he was logging out and grabbing his things. As always, Miss Williams seemed to be a little sad to watch him leave; it was Friday, which means she won´t see him until Monday. She wanted to go with him, but she still had things to do; she couldn´t just leave, although, she could, nothing stopped her, but she couldn´t. “See you on Monday” she said, Nick just echoed her and waved in goodbye, smiling.

Nick took a cab and went downtown, he had a thing in mind, buy clothes that fit him. Right now, it seemed as if he was wearing something he used to wear before loosing weight which, in some way, was the case. He knew he was lighter now, smaller and more self-conscious.

He entered a random store and just took a look before completely coming in. The store was huge, he was sure he will find some clothes to fit him, and some more to fit him in the future. He hated to admit it, but now he needed to buy clothes having on thing in mind, that maybe they´ll fit loose by tomorrow.

“Hello, is there anything I can help you with?” a sales woman from the store said as she approached to him, she seemed to be around his age, only that she was about a foot taller than him.

“Oh, well, I´m looking for something to wear to work… “ he said “as you may see, these doesn´t fit very well” he said pointing at his actual attire.

“No problem, we´ll find something that fits, just follow me, ok?” the girl seemed nice, but she had to be, if she wanted to sell.

He followed her to a corner of the store, where you could find the men´s formal clothes. She searched for some clothes after asking him what colors he liked. Then, she came back with at least five shirts, the tag said they were extra small. He entered the fitting room and just tried them on. He hated the fact that they were a little loose on him, he returned and asked the girl for smaller clothes, in a polite way of course.

When she came back, she was holding smaller shirts, the only thing was that when he grabbed them, the tag said, size 10. “What the fuck?” he thought, “this aren´t even adult´s clothes” he wanted to be swallowed by the earth at that moment. But he had to try them on, and they fit, a little tighter that he would have liked them; if he was going to shrink more, he needed clothes to fit by then.

He returned, picked two of them to keep and asked the lady for a pair of pants and other shirt, a smaller one; which of course was for when he was smaller. He tried everything and then headed to the shoes section. The lady accompanied him all the while, he grabbed a pair of black shoes, and tried them, size 3 shoes, but by this time, he wasn´t surprised.

He was ready to go, and when they both headed to pay for the clothes, the lady made a question, something that insulted Nick, but he couldn´t say he didn´t saw it coming.

“So, is your mom or dad coming to pay for this?” she said it in an attentive way, not meaning to offend him, but he just clenched his teeth and said:

“No, they´re not coming, you want me to tell you why? Because I´m the adult, actually, how old do you think I am?” he asked, trying to make his point.

“Oh, I´m sorry, haha, I thought you were just… never mind” she said cutting herself off.

He just looked at her and took out his wallet. The lady packed the clothes and when she hand him the bag she said: “Come back soon” he just said ok, but he had no intentions on coming back, he just left the store with a huge bag of clothes and a huge grin on his face. Now, he needed to get back home, he wasn´t sure what time it was, but it was already dark outside.

He saw a bus, so he decided to take it to get home as soon as possible, maybe Maddy will make him forget about all this shitty day. He sat and took his phone out of his pocket to check on the time, but his eye brows rose in surprise as soon as he turn it on; he saw that some texts and missed calls from Maddy, and by some I mean a lot. It turns out that his phone was still on silent mode, he does so to avoid distractions as work, but he forgot to rise the volume when he left.

His mind was completely focused on other things, he didn´t have time to check on his phone; if he had, then there won´t be so much calls or messages from Maddy, 29 calls and 5 messages to be precise. He checked some of the messages to see what was going on, they said:

Maddy 4:51:

“Nick, I just called to check on what you´ll like for dinner” the first message said, nothing urgent, just a regular question. Then, things started to get a little more serious.

Maddy 5:32:

“Honey, I called your boss and she told me that you left work at 5 o´clock as usual, if there´s too much traffic please let me know, it´s been half an hour already. XOXO”

Maddy 5:49:

“Ok, I´m starting to get a little worried, I´ve been calling you and you´re not picking up, as soon as you see this message, please call me back. I´ll cook pasta by the way.”

Maddy 6:14:

“Enough! I´ve called you at least a dozen times, I just want to know if you´re ok, please Nick, I´m worried. Call me back. PLEASE”

Maddy 6:48:

“It´s been almost two hours! Please Nick, I´m afraid something happened to you, you haven´t answer yet. Honey, I´m not mad, I promise, but please please please answer. I´m sick worried.”

That was the last message on his phone, now, it was 7:23; he knew he must call her now, so he started to dial her number, but as soon as he did, his phone rang. It was Maddy, he wasted no time and answered the phone.

“Hello” he said, he had a knot on his throat, he knew Maddy could get a little worried whenever she didn´t knew where he was, normally she had called him three or four times, but never before thirty times. This was serious and he felt bad.

“Oh my god, Nick, thank god. Are you ok? Did something happen?” she said between tears, he could hear how worried she had been, “I´ve been trying to reach you for the last two hours.” His heart sank on his chest, he felt guilty, it was his fault that she was feeling that way.

“Honey, listen, I´m ok, don´t worry… it´s just that… “ he hated to admit it but, he fucked up, “I… I forgot to check on my phone, and it was… I… I´m sorry, it´s all my fault” he caused her this, the only thing he could think of now was that he was the one responsible for this.

“Nick! I´ve been worried this whole time, and you´re telling me that you forgot to check your phone?” she was mad now, her tone changed from a teary one to a more drastic one.

“S-sorry, it´s just that, I was shopping some clothes, and I forgot to… “, “What?!” she yelled thru the speaker of his phone.

“You were buying fucking clothes, that´s why you didn´t answer?” she was enraged now, “Didn´t I told you we´ll do that next… forget it, just make sure to arrive here FAST” she said with a stern tone.

It was his fault, he had made her worried for no reason at all, and it was true, she was supposed to go with him to buy clothes; he just wanted to go by himself, to have the freedom to, at least, do that on his own. He just replied: “S-sure, I´ll be there in no time… I´m sorry honey” he said.

“Oh no! I´ll show you what it feels to be sorry, just wait until you come home.” She said and then hung up, leaving him in the bus with a nervous look on his face. He wasn´t sure what was going to happen; she had just panicked for nothing and now, all that stress she had was going to be focused on something else. On him.

He knew Maddy was a loving person, but her other side, the woman she turned into when she was mad, it was something he didn´t wanted to face. The only thing she had done was care for him, and he couldn´t even answer a phone, or text back. He knew all of this was his fault, he decided to go alone to a place and didn’t tell her about it. He wasn´t going to complaint, he deserved it. Whatever she had in mind, he deserved it.

After he was dropped on the bus stop, he walked down to his apartment building and entered the building. He was wondering what´ll happen when he entered, was Maddy going to be sitting on the couch waiting for him? Was she going to be standing by the door? A lot of ideas crossed his mind, but there was one thing he ignored; what will she do?

They have had fights before, they loved each other but sometimes they had their differences; today, it was one of those days. Of course, in the past he had been the one towering over her, but now, now she was the one that´ll be looking at him from above. That´s what he didn´t like, he was sure she was going to be mad, and he wasn´t sure if he was going to be able to take it. He had been carrying a lot of stress lately, and he ignored how he was going to handle this.

After a lot of steps, he was now facing his apartment’s door, he turned the knob and entered the room. There was no sign of Maddy, he felt a little relieved. There was a delicious aroma coming from the kitchen, so he decided to drop his things by the door and go see. There were two plates served on the table, full of pasta and some meatballs. They seemed to be cold now, most likely she had served them a while ago, maybe an hour or so. He felt a little sad, they could be eating next to each other just like any other day, but he messed up. “I should´ve called, or texted, whatever it was, for sure it was better than saying nothing” he thought to himself.

Out of a sudden, a large shadow began to loom over him from behind, he froze right there. “Well, well, look who´s here” it was Maddy stepping into the kitchen.

“Maddy, hi… l-listen, I´m…” he was about to apologize to her, but she just rose one of her eyebrows and put her hands on her hips, she had a furious look on her face.

“What? You´re sorry? I know, but that just doesn´t work” she said, “Do you have any idea how worried I was? I had no sign of you for over two hours, how do you think that makes me feel?” she said with a resentful look on her face. “I was about to call the police, I didn´t know what else to do” she said concerned.

Nick just lowered his head and stared at the floor, just grabbing his hands. “Look at me when I´m talking to you!” she said from above. Nick rose his head, frightened, it wasn´t only the fact that she was mad, she was huge. He wasn´t sure if she had been this tall in the morning, but now, now she was towering over him more than ever before. He could only see her face above her boobs, and she was fuming.

Nick´s lip began to quiver, then, she just rose one hand and pointing at him she said: “I don´t care if the world´s falling apart, I don´t care if you´re on a meeting, if you´re going somewhere, you have to call me first. From now on, when I call you, you´re going to answer, and if you don´t do so, I´m taking your phone away. Why would you need it if you clearly don´t know how to use it.”

Was she serious? Nick knew she was mad, but was she really going to take his phone? She couldn´t do so, he was a grown man and she had no right to do it. He frown at her for a second, but then she leaned down at him, frowning her eyebrows, pressing her lips together and taking a deep breath. He felt intimidated, so his expression turned into a more repentant one.

She stood up and said “Am I being clear?” then she crossed her arms under her boobs.

“Y-yes honey” Nick said sadly.

“Good, and the next time you´re planning on going somewhere by yourself, you call me first; then I´ll decide if you can or cannot go, understood?” she said rising her tone at him.

He wasn´t sure if he listen correctly, did she just said he needed her permission to go anywhere from now on? He just nodded and said: “Ok, I-I will”

“Now go take a shower and then we can eat dinner” she said still mad.

He did as he was told and went into the shower, after picking up the bag on new clothes he bought of course, he had a set of pajamas he was planning on using. He shut the bathrooms door behind him and just sat on the border of the tub. He had his hands on his knees and was looking straight at the floor, then, a drop fell into the bath´s mat, followed by another. Nick´s eyes were filled with tears, although he wasn´t weeping, he was just teary.

He was reflecting, now everyone around him was being so overbearing at him. They didn´t seem to be giving him the respect he deserved. But who could blame them, he was not the man he used to be.

“Fuck this!” he thought, “Fuck this whole shrinking shit, why can´t everything just be the way it was” he just looked up at the ceiling; like expecting an answer, an answer he won´t get.