Brittany strode through the large doors of the office building out to the busy bustling with throngs of locals and tourists. Much had changed in the past 2 years. Vilecio’s Customer Loyalty Program had proved quite the success. Brittany was easily one of the tallest humans around, but many more like herself; and much more like Courtney now cohabitated on the planet. Capitalism had gone from not only a fiscal hierarchy but also a physical one.

As she walked through the streets, revelry around her, Brittany thought back on her own journey. How far she’d come in the past 10 years.

From a mousey 5ft 4in girl just making her own way at The University of Cincinnati to climbing and clawing her way to top her class, earning her masters, and then conquering the world of business. So many doubters and enemies from her past now hung onto her every word. Quite a few who sought to humiliate her now survived, literally, from the crumbs she left them.

Her heels clacked on the cobblestone streets as she neared her destination. A short ¾ mile walk allowed Brittany to take in the sights – as others simultaneously took in the sight of her. The joy of Mardi Gras filled the air. The Carnival season’s final week was ending and soon the streets would once again be much calmer. For now, Brittany enjoyed the calamity.

Thousands of people filled the streets and sidewalks, but all made seemed to part whenever Brittany needed through.

As she passed a small crowd, Brittany’s ears caught an interesting conversation. She stopped to watch.

“Never had a chance. Dork.” An over 6ft tall brunette towered over a much short, chubby, pale guy. If Brittany had to guess, she would say the girl easily had 1.5ft and 30 pounds of muscle on him. Easily fitter and with a healthy tan. They both were younger, no doubt down in New Orleans to enjoy a small break in their semesters. He wore a plain great sweatshirt with bright yellow Southern Miss emblazoned across. She had on a Maroon University of Southern California hoodie.  

“I. I don’t have that kind of money.” The young guy protested in a nasally pitch.

“No. Duh. I mean. Look at where you go to school.” The girl reached down and poked the sweatshirt which caused the boy to look down which she punished by quickly flicking her finger up and into his nose.

Laughter erupted from 2 other girls, no doubt her friends.

“Can’t believe you honestly thought you had a chance with me. I mean. Just look at us. Two completely different worlds.” She laid it on thick. “Now pay up.” She ordered again; her two friends stepped forward as if to enforce her words.

“Please. I honestly only have enough money for gas back to campus.” The boy cowered under their glare.

The brunette sighed.

“Ok. Well. Let’s do this. In the spirit of Mardi Gras. You can be our jester for the night. Go and fetch our drinks and anything else we need. You know. Keep us entertained.”

This earned laughter from her friends.

“And if not.” The blonde quickly reached down and grabbed the boy’s phone from his hands. “I’ll be sure all your other poor friends know how much of a loser you are.”

He tried to jump and snatch his phone back, but it was no use. Her arm held high. Defeated, the boy simply nodded his head. “Ok.”

“Oh yeah. Little Bitch Boy for Mardi Gras.” One of the other girls spoke up and stood forward high-five her friend. Her valley accent was like nails on chalkboard.

“I got some beads. So, let’s see what you got.” The other girl joined her friends encircling the smaller man.

He screamed in protest as the girls pounced upon him, but it was no use. Seconds later they stood back, and he stood up, now shirtless. His chubby body was on display for the world to see. Beads wrapped around his neck. “Damn. I was hoping they’d be bigger.” The original brunette spoke with a frown on her face.

“We won’t let that ruin a good night. Onwards!” One of her friends grabbed the beads around their ‘jester’s’ neck and yanked him to follow herself and her friends to their next adventure.

The crowd jeered and dispersed. Brittany smiled as she thought about her little ‘jesters’ all in their places under her feet, around her neck, and better her ass cheeks. She thought of them dressed in little clown outfits and chuckled. Might be something she would need to research. Her long legs continued their march. Her perfectly polished black alligator-skin pumps clacked against the cobblestones.

It was an oddly warm February night. Low 60s.

One benefit or detriment, depending on how you looked at it, to being so large was that Brittany’s body constantly ran warm. So cooler weather was always welcome. Though it didn’t stop her from perspiring easily; much to the chagrin of her miniature prisoners.

Brittany arrived outside her destination and stopped. She was to meet Jenn and Margot for dinner to inaugurate Jenn’s venture into the restaurant business. She stared up at the sign and smirked.  “Maison de l'amazone” burned bright with pink Neon into the night sky. Brittany nodded in approval. The building was an old 5 story mansion of a former shipping magnet. Due to the new average height, 2 of the floors had been removed to make it 3 floors internally.

Brittany stepped inside and was immediately greeted by a tall blonde. Still at least 4ft shorter than herself, Brittany could help but admire how great she looked. The woman was dressed sharply in a white shirt with black tie and black pants. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail.

“Ah. Miss Dunham.” The girl spoke with a French accent. “Miss Nolan and Miss Campbell have been awaiting your arrival. Please follow me.”

Brittany followed the tall, but still much smaller woman, through the dining room. Other patrons, some of ‘normal’ heights others much larger stared in awe at Brittany. Those in the know knew who Brittany Dunham was and seeing her in person was practically like seeing a celebrity. She smiled internally as she felt the jealousy and admiration and fear from the restaurant’s patrons.

The maitre d' led Brittany up two flights of stairs to a massive wooden door. A large brass plate on the door read “The Hippolyta Room”. The shorter woman turned a shiny brass doorknob and pushed the door open.

“Miss Nolan. Miss Campbell. Miss Dunham has arrived.” The maitre d' motioned Brittany into the room. Brittany stood giddily before her two best friends as the door was shut behind her. It had been nearly 4 months since all 3 were in the same room.

Jenn had left Vilecio to pursue different passions. The 8ft tall girl had gone on to become a travel blogger, exploring some of the most beautiful locations in the world. Her travels had introduced her to food culture when she decided to train as a chef and desired to open her own restaurant. With mentoring from Margot and Investment from Brittany, Maison de l'amazone was born.

Margot, meanwhile, found herself promoted as the VP of Marketing for Eastern Europe. She had relocated to Budapest. Brittany was so happy to see all 9ft of her in this room.

Brittany threw her hands up in the air and screamed. He feet stamped the ground forcefully – to Courtney and the other living insoles’ disdain.

Jenn and Margot returned the energy.

All three women screamed, hugged, and cried for the next 5 minutes until finally settling down into large leather lounge chairs.

Brittany stared across the room and smiled at Jenn. It been nearly 1.5 years since the two had met in person. The woman whom she considered like a little sister had grown beautifully. Her red hair was cut in a mid-length bob. Her green eyes gleamed. She wore Purple a V-neck T-shirt which showed off her toned arms. Frayed capris hugged her legs and her feet wore plain black flip flops. A typical laid-back Jenn outfit. Brittany couldn’t help but notice Heather Jones’ face between Jenn’s right big and second toe.

“Didn’t lose her?” Brittany asked gleefully as she pointed to Jenn’s foot.

Jenn smiled, “I would never! Greatest gift I ever received. And every time I look at her, I think of you.”

Brittany blushed and then turned her attention to Margot whose brown hair hung just past her shoulders in a loose style. She wore a black shirt, khaki pants, and black ankle sneakers.

Margot already knew what her former direct manager was thinking, “Don’t worry. He’s choking on my toe jam as we speak. Ain’t no way I’m gonna let my ‘big’ bro escape living this down every family holiday.”

“And what about your menagerie?” Jenn asked teasingly, referring to the vast number of people Brittany had acquired in her climb to the top.

“Oh. Here and there. Underfoot. Under seat. Underarm.” Brittany replied with a laugh.

Sure enough, all her ‘friends’ were still around:

Lauren, Hailey, Damien, Roger, and Lyle, all assisted Courtney with ‘supporting’ Brittany. Their minuscule bodies all fit perfectly under her 2ft long soles.

Ben had lived as Brittany’s butt-plug going nearing 3 years. While Regina, as a reward, was on pussy duty.

A place for everyone and everyone in their place.

A knock came at the door, pulling the trio from their conversation.

“Entrer!” Jenn answered in French.

The maitre d' entered holding a silver tray with three fluted champagne glasses. “Drinks for you.” She spoke with her thick accent.

“Merci, Ember.” Jenn replied with her own French and took a glass from the tray. She motioned Ember to go to Brittany and then Margot.

Once the tray was empty of drinks, Ember turned to Jenn and bowed at the waist. She then left the room.

“Fancyyyy.” Brittany noted as she took a sip from her glass and looked at Jenn.

“Isn’t she cute?” Jenn asked, slightly blushing.

“Indeed.” Brittany answered with Margot nodded as well.

“I met her during my first trip through France. She came up to me in a bar one night and we hit it off. She mentioned she had never been with a géante before, so I gladly showed her the benefits.” Jenn said with a wink. “Unfortunately, much like the stereotypes of her male compatriots, she is indeed a lover.” Jenn looked forlornly into her champagne as Brittany and Margot listened intently.

“But she begged. Oh, how she begged for me to give her another chance. And you both know the softy I am…”Jenn took a sip from her glass. “So I offered her a deal. She had just completed hospitality school. I told her if she worked for me for two years, I’d continue to be her géante.”

“And how’s she doing.” Margot asked.

“So far so good. It is cute how much she wants to make me happy. I didn’t even ask for these.” Jenn held up her near empty glass. “And beside. If she doesn’t…” Jenn lifted her shirt to reveal a SMOL device holstered at her side and gave a wink.

“Jenn! I didn’t take you for a packer!” Brittany shouted, sounding both surprised and pleased.

“Oh absolutely. One would think a lot of people would shy away from challenging an 8ft person, regardless of sex, but you still have those idiots who think they can take me. Had to use it twice already since being back stateside. Luckily it was in Texas, so no issues with the law, but it wasn’t fun.” Jenn sat back in her chair with her now empty glass.

“Go on.” Margot leaned in intently.

“I was traveling through East Texas and stopped at a small diner in BFE for some food. Shortly after I arrived, this group of 5 oil workers came in. You know the type, early 20s, ‘tough’ job, more money than they know what to do with. And this was before the Customer Loyalty program and SMOLs were more commonplace so there was a lot less of ‘us’ around.” Jenn motioned to herself, Brittany and Margot.

“Anyways. The biggest of the group, but still a foot and a half shorter than me,” Jenn smirked, “came over to my table and tried to butter me up. Talked about how gorgeous I was and was like a giant angel, blah blah. Now, mind you, he was covered in grease, oil, and sweat and smelled like crap. So I was in no way interested even if his words did find their mark. In no uncertain terms, I told him I wasn’t interested, but he persisted. That’s when he started getting aggressive, started talking about how much he made. Which, by the way Britt, was less than I made as an intern with Vilecio. And then how I was a freak anyways. I wasn’t too scared as I knew I could take him, but with his 4 other friends, I wasn’t as sure.”

Margot and Brittany listened intently.

“Finally. I decided I had enough and decided to leave. That’s when he wanted to try to block my exits every time I moved. I was already thinking of using the SMOL, but didn’t want to frighten the other patrons. He left me no choice. It was like something out of an old western, y’all…” Jenn was obviously reliving the moment in her head. “…I pulled out the SMOL and warned him I would use it if he didn’t move. He dared me. So…boom.” Jenn smiled. “One steaming pile of clothes later, his friends were screaming and shouting. They threatened me as well, but one wave and they stayed back. They could only watch as I dropped their tiny buddy in my cowboy boot, put my foot back in, left a $100 on the table and strolled out of there…”

“BAD. ASS!” Brittany screamed, proud for her ‘sister’.

“Poor guy sweltered under my foot until I had settled down. Unfortunately for him, that took about two days. By the time I was done with him, he was a babbling crying mess. His words were completely incoherent. I had gotten the name of the company he worked for off the truck he and his buddies arrived at the diner in. I also took his work badge. Fortunately for him, they had an office in Abilene. I still remember the look on the receptionist’s face when I came in and handed her his badge and then him. I explained what transpired and left. No clue what happened after that.”

Margot clapped proudly followed by Brittany.

“You mentioned using it twice in Texas?” Brittany asked, eager for another story.

“I’ll save that for another time.” Jenn winked.

“Oh you’re not fun.” Brittany stuck her tongue out at Jenn and then turned to Margot. “I’ve heard of some of your escapades across the ocean. Got SMOL legalized in most of Europe?”

“The fucking Dutch and Swedes and their damn ‘human rights’ laws.” Margot spat. “But yeah, really got most of them to accept this wonderful piece of tech. Poland really took to it. They implemented a social program where all Criminals are given a SMOL conviction and then sent to fellow citizen for ‘rehabilitation’.”

“Oh yeah! I remember. See billboards for that when I was travelling through Gdansk and Warsaw.” Jenn added.

“And it looks like you’ve had your own things going on.” Margot pointed to Brittany’s necklace.

“Oh. Him?” Brittany’s raised her right hand and played with her human necklace like she would with any other piece of jewelry. “Phil LeMois.”

“THE Phil LeMois?” Margot asked in surprise.

“Who?” Jenna sked.

Margot turned to her, “Former Southeast Regional head. Was out of the Atlanta office. Apparently Ole Britty hear had quite the past two years….”

Brittany sighed, “So here’s what happened…”

“If y’all remember that Christmas shortly after I turned 26. Phil had sent me a present congratulating me on leading the New Orleans location and wishing me all the best. Which I thought was nice. However, things only increased from there…”

Margot and Jenn listened intently.

“He was finding more and more excuses to contact me and have remote meetings. Finally, he had me out to Atlanta for an in-person meeting. I still remember it. All 12ft of him, I hadn’t had a man made me feel that petite since my senior year of college, before I started working at Vilecio. And Margot, you know what I’m talking about here, his deep brown eyes and thick hair and jawline and pecs….”

“Okay. Lover girl.” Margot snapped her fingers.

“Anyways. We became a ‘thing’. For about 6 months we were happy, but a meeting with HR changed everything. They informed us that since he was my direct superior, we couldn’t technically ‘date’, but if one of us were to leave the company then there would be no issues. This is where it all started to go downhill. He kept asking me to leave ‘for us’, but I refused. You both know how much I love my job and all the ideas I still have on improving things. We still dated, but the animosity was there. I knew that he was trying to force me out and he knew that I wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t really want his job, I knew I still had growing to do as an individual, but 3 months later after battles here and there, Francesca decided to give me his role and advised him to take a step back….”

“Oh goodness.” Margot was salivating at the juiciness of the story.

“I mean. It wasn’t a huge demotion for him. He was still a 9footer. Only 1 foot shorter than me, but that apparently broke him. I thought this would be the end of it and we could finally move on. I knew the relationship was unsalvageable but figured we could still be fine at work. However, he couldn’t let it go. I watched him sabotage himself. It broke my heart. I tried to protect him, but due to our past, HR would only let me get so involved in decisions…”

Tears formed in Brittany’s eyes. The first time Jenn or Margot saw her feel somewhat sad for another person at Vilecio.

“Each quarter, he fell down the ladder. I remember visiting the Atlanta office and seeing how far he’d gone. Jenn, you remember Kelly?” Brittany asked.

“How could I forget. She was ruthless. I was so scared of her becoming my boss one day.” Jenn shuddered at the though of the Tom Boy from Brooklyn lording over her.

“Well, she’s now the head of our East-Coast B2B Sales. 8ft. Just like Margot.” Brittany spoke matter-of-factly. “That day, I saw just how far Phil had fallen. A 2footer. 1 step above being completely full demotion. Kelly had just completed her morning workout and was catching up on emails when I walked in. I still remember the scene as if it just happened. Her legs we propped up on one of her ottomans and at the end, Phil was sucking on one of her heels. Her toes with New York Yankees logos wiggled so relaxed. I had to maintain professionalism as I spoke to Kelly and congratulated her and told her how proud I was of her. She didn’t know Phil and I’s past, but this didn’t make it any easier. The worst part was when he and I locked eyes briefly. I didn’t feel happy, or sad, I felt nothing. It was truly like he was just another piece of company property to me in that moment.”

Margot nodded in understanding.

“Kelly offered me his services, but I refused. Made up some lies about being in a time crunch. Though I often replay it in my head, I still can’t feel anything for him.” Brittany sighed and then continued, “About a month ago I got word that Phil had been fully demoted after trying to attack Kelly. Rumor has it that she had to sit on him until security arrived. I don’t know if it was out of pity or greed, but I quickly submitted my claim for Phil. I don’t feel any need to punish or put him to work like the others. I feel like he’s gone through enough. Now I just wear him near my heart. A reminder to stay focused on myself and also what may have been.”

Jenn wiped tears from her eyes.

“Oh Britt…” She consoled her former boss.

“New York Yankees?” Margot asked aloud, her mind obviously elsewhere. “I got her Mets tickets for her promotion gift. FUCK.” This served to lighten the mood as Brittany and Jenn both busted into laughter.