Predicament

 Dan and I were in a very tough spot. We were totally broke!  Luckily, I got hired for a new job starting on Monday. The job would give us some breathing room.  The problem was that the required uniform was black pants and a white shirt. I had two pairs of black pants and one white shirt, but I had gained so much weight that I was afraid they’d be too tight on me. 

“My first few days on the job are going to be hard with super tight clothes until I get my first check,” I told Dan. Dan looked at me with some doubt in his eyes. He poked my navel and said, “Are you sure you can even still fit in those?”  

I shrugged. Dan then said, “Why don’t you try them on before Monday?  That way we have time to get you bigger clothes if they don’t fit. You’ve really gained a lot of weight, I’m not sure those old clothes will still work.”  He put his finger back in my navel and did his favorite little tease move- jiggling my belly up and down. 

So I went to my closet and got out one of the pairs of black pants. I stood in the closet defeated as I tried and tried to button them, but they didn’t even come close to fitting around me. I put my hand at the end of my big belly and said, “Woah. I’m fatter around the middle than I thought I was.”  

Dan stroked my hair in sympathy. I then tried on the second pair, but they were worse!  My belly was so huge! There was no way I was getting the two ends of those pants to reach around it!  

I asked Dan, “Should I try the white shirt?” He smirked and said, “I don’t know babe, it doesn’t seem like anything buttons around you anymore.”  He tickled me for emphasis. I tried it on anyway. I was able to barely button it around my breasts, but when it came to my big old belly, the two ends of the shirt wouldn’t even reach around me. 

“What am I going to do?” I asked Dan in defeat. “I can’t take that job unless I have the required clothing, and we’re so broke we can’t afford to buy new stuff!” 

“Well,” Dan said. I’ve got about $3 in my bank account. How much is in yours?”

I checked my bank account, and almost wanted to cry. I only had a dollar fifty. Dan said, “go look in the jar of change, there must be another couple dollars there.”

I said, “That’s not enough for new clothes.”  

He replied, “The thrift store down the street has a dollar rack. Maybe we can find black pants and a white shirt on there.  There’s always different stuff on it and no guarantees, but we can try.”  

I agreed, and we headed to the thrift store. Just like Dan predicted, there were appropriate black pants and a white shirt for only a dollar each. They were a lot bigger than the old ones in my closet. It was worth a shot, so I tried them on.  It was a very tight squeeze, but I was at least able to button the pants underneath the fattest part of my belly and let it hang out a little bit.  The shirt was a little snug, but it at least fit around me enough to hide the part of my belly that had to hang out. Dan went up and paid for them with the last $3 he had. As we walked home, I told him, “The way I have to wear these pants makes my belly push up more and jiggle when I walk more.”  He giggled and tickled my navel again.  “Those clothes are pretty snug, but they’ll do until we can afford new ones that fit properly, ok?  Your first check, I promise we can go to a real store and get clothes big enough for your poor bulging belly.” 

I snickered in embarrassment.  “I think things are starting to look up.”