What I am about to tell you is a true story, from the bottom of my heart. If you’ve ever wondered of my fascination for taller women, of these times when we’ve sat at a bar during a company outing, only to remark as I could not help but prevent turning my head at a woman giving the slightest hint of being taller than the average man, simply know that it is because of Amanda.

I first met her on our very last year at university. I went out with a group of like-minded friends, their friends, and the acquaintances of the friends of their friends. Suffice to say it felt like everyone was there. Even as I sat at the bar of the local pub we had decided to go to, I still felt pushed by the mass of people occupying the center of the room, dancing through flashing lights and rhythmic music. The place was packed. With me was another student, an acquaintance I barely knew, but had decided to get to know better. As we spoke, someone else joined us. I saw her first then, when she placed her glass, filled with strong liquor, on the bar table. Never had I seen such long hands and fingers. My gaze followed the thin arms up and up, craning my head to look past the woman’s elongated neck and finally meeting Amanda’s gaze.

You should have seen her: pale of skin, dark eyes, strongly defined facial features, long and straight shining hair, dark as coal. I was bewitched by her beauty. She asked us if she could hang around with us, bored of mingling with the others. She casually mentioned how a guy wouldn’t stop grabbing her ass. She left him alone to fend off an ex-girlfriend of his, annoyed at his antics. Amanda and I hit it off quickly. After a while, probably feeling slightly like a third wheel, my student acquaintance politely left us to our own devices. We were still speaking late into the night, up to a point where half the crowd had left. By that point, we were on familiar terms. My heart had been captured.

The entire week that followed, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I have to be honest with you: before I met her, I wasn’t really into taller women. I preferred them down to my chest, a good head above. With Amanda, though, it was the very first time I was able to feel how it could be with the positions reversed. She was by far way more than a head above me. When we stood side by side, before saying our goodbyes, I noticed how my eyesight had to carefully navigate around her breasts. Not that they were disproportionate or anything, quite the contrary even. No, just simply that my eyes were almost level with the bottom of her chest. That night, I remember dreaming of her. A simple, physical dream where we laid in bed, and her being able to fully encompass my curled body like one would a child. 

I felt then what it was to feel protected. A feeling I would forever seek, to this day. It took a few weeks before I saw her again. Summer was getting on, after all, and a lot of our acquaintances had already splintered for their vacations or other miscellaneous activities. It was while walking in the middle of downtown, a few streets over from here, that I spotted Amanda in a crowd. Quite easily, in fact. You see: she had grown. The difference was minimal, but it was enough for me to notice: the bottom of her chest wasn’t eye level anymore, but very slightly upward of my eyesight. She had gained a few centimeters, assuredly.

When I saw her that time, wearing a white summer dress, flowing in the wind, my heart jumped with joy. As she walked towards me, a new feature of her displayed to my attention: her feet, as disproportionately long as her hands were, completely adorned with beautifully dark blue straps of what must have been designer sandals. Every part of her felt stretched. The warm feeling of coming back to a lost long home filled me.

When Amanda reached me, I began to extend my hand, ready to do a handshake. But instead, she bent down, and fully embraced me, leaving no room for misunderstanding at the joy she felt of seeing me again. She told me how she had lost my contacts, which I had previously left for her on a piece of paper. Only then did I realize I had never taken hers. Destiny had put us back on the same path! I can’t describe to you how strange it is to feel walking by her side. We spent the afternoon together, erring here and there from shops to coffee like one is to do at that age. She might have been thin and lanky, but her height, coupled with her long flowing hair, took up so much space you wouldn’t believe. People stared at her, certainly, but they also parted to the sides as if she was a bull about to run over them. Her steps had definite weight to them. I couldn’t stop stealing a glance at her feet, her long legs, her thin thighs, the dance of her arms cutting through the wind, her bare collarbone, her piercing gaze and adorable, if not slightly devious, natural smile. It was official: I was becoming obsessed with her. Every part of her body seared on my third eye. 

Rapidly, though, as we spoke, it became apparent that the gorgeous exterior barely hid an equally impressive interior. Her mind was sharp, incisive. She would correct others the moment something wrong was said, but with a tone so kind and with words of honey that the faulted party almost always apologized and thanked her for her observations. She was wise with a heart, floating from a person in need to the next. During one such conversation with her, at a common friend’s house later in the summer, still only in public gatherings, she was able to help me with a philosophical conundrum. A dear acquaintance of mine was in need of mental help with a problem I could not solve. I spoke with Amanda for a long while, and her logic was well tempered. She gave me the solution in the most effortless way. It’s at that moment I fell in love with her, not just in body, but in mind. 

That same night, while consoling my distressed self, Amanda placed her left hand on my left shoulder, her right hand on my own and took it in her palm. She assured me everything would be alright. The light in her eyes was all I needed, before breaking down in tears over her kindness. I’ll always remember how she kindly pressed my head against her bosoms. It almost felt like a regal blessing.

So yes, you might say Amanda left me with a powerful first impression during that summer. Even though we both became very busy in our respective lives, we kept in touch. Every time I saw her, I noticed how she was slightly different, slightly taller, slightly bigger. There was a turning point around the next winter: Amanda called me, asking me if I could help her with some groceries. Confused, I asked her for more details. But all she said was to bring them to her place. This would be the first time I saw her house. I arrived with the ingredients she asked me to bring. Amanda was already outside, on her porch, sitting on a clearly too small of a chair.

You know, how when something gradually changes, you can notice it here and there, but there comes a point where the accumulation of those changes hit you at once? That’s what it was for me at that point. Amanda was a giant. There was no way around it. It was the word to use. The chest which ten months ago was level with my eyesight was now above my head. Her navel was now my new comrade in gaze. Her body had to bend in two to enter her house. Her feet were almost always bare, and her vestments had simplified to repurposed draperies. It was during that night, as we prepared dinner, that I asked her about this condition of hers. Amanda revealed to me that her body was stuck in a perpetual puberty. She would never stop growing until the day heaven claims her. We spoke in length about what it entailed. The entire time, I couldn’t help but want to be there for her.

For the first time in a long while, I saw Amanda open up more about herself. Only then did I notice her constant empathy was in a way her mind projecting about what she wanted others to do for her. On that day, I vowed to be there for her always.

That night, Amanda and I slept in her king-sized bed, my body lost in the covers, while her arms and legs overflowed the bed like an overgrown tree. She laughed about it. That’s what I admired from her. That night, we consumed our love, and I lost myself in her.

We fell asleep, with her body covering mine like one would a child. I dreamed of the future, a vague impression of me holding Amanda’s leg like one would a tree trunk, as I sat on a foot of hers larger than my body. Amanda walked the fields, and I rode her. Fantasies.

I will always remember Amanda.