The Big Cruise Ship

The Big Cruise Ship: Chapter One - Setting Sail P.O.V Sarah

A note to the reader: This story is realistic gainer fiction. If you're looking to jump right into more indulgent feeding, I suggest starting with chapter 3. Thanks for reading!!!

I was so angry!  I ragefully sucked down a pina colada. It was in a cartoonishly large novelty glass from the cruise ship I had boarded - just a few hours ago. That was how I chose to deal with the hot rage from the fight I had with my boyfriend before I departed -  with an enormous pina colada.

"Don't get too fat on this cruise, Sarah." That was what he said to me. I had been working my whole life to take a world cruise. To be fair, I have always struggled to keep my weight down and I LOVE to eat. And yes, I had thought ahead and packed some new clothes that were one size up. I mean who wouldn't put on a couple of pounds towards the end of a 180-day cruise. But this is my dream and all he could think about was if I was going to get too fat?

I thought I'd be looking at the sea while we cruised away on my first night. Not replaying his words over and over again, so loudly that I didn't notice the volume of my slurping as I tried to get at the last of the Pina Colada with my straw.

"Looks like you're going to need another one of those."  I heard someone say.

 I turned towards the voice and saw a woman, a stranger. She gestured at the glass with her eyes and slid over a couple of stools so that she was right next to me. 

"Nobody should look as angry as you do. Not on night one of the cruise of a lifetime." I tried to argue with her. To tell her that I shouldn't even be drinking this one because my whole life savings went into the ticket that got me here.

"It's on me." She smiled. "I'm Ellie." She said and extended her hand.

She bought me another Pina Colada and I told her what my boyfriend said. There was something so easy about talking to her. This was her fifth world cruise and three of those have been on this boat, so when she said "Follow me," I did.

We walked through the ship for what felt like forever. When we arrived at the destination, I shook my head. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. A dessert buffet, more extravagant than anything I had ever seen. I knew that the food was included, but seeing this spread, I immediately felt like the price of my ticket was worth it for this alone.

"If you let that boyfriend of yours ruin your first night, you'll regret it." 

She handed me a plate. I grabbed some chocolate covered strawberries and a delectable little cream puff.

"Just, one cream puff?" She asked. 

I laughed at the absurdity of it. She was right, who takes just one tiny cream puff? I added two more to my plate.

"Now you're on vacation!" She said to me. 

 We sat down at a table and I popped one of the bite-size pastries in my mouth. The pina colada had loosened my inhibitions enough that when it made it past my lips – the pastry so flaky and the cream so tasty that I actually moaned a little. A smile cracked across my new friend's face.

"I'll be right back."

She returned with two plates. One had a croissant and a few more of those cream puffs. She put that one down in front of herself. In front of me, she put down a plate that had the most decadent looking slice of cake. White cake, white icing, with some kind of gorgeous jam in between the layers. It like looking at a work of art...a ridiculously huge work of art. There was no way I would be able to eat all of it.

"You HAVE to try this." She said, handing me a fork. "It's incredible. I used to dream about this cake for months after the cruise was over." She tore a thin layer away from the croissant on her plate and put it in her mouth while she watched me load my fork with cake. She was right, it was incredible. Light and sweet without being too sweet. She was telling me about the boat and her last cruise - that had a  hilarious story about almost getting arrested in France. When she finished telling her tale, I looked down to find that the entire cake slice was gone. I considered licking the dregs of leftover icing right off the plate. But I stopped myself when I saw that she still had three-quarters of her croissant left. A tiny burp escaped my lips. I covered my mouth, embarrassed.

"Good," she said - a surprising reply to my equally surprising belch. "You made a little room to finish these."

She moved the cream puffs from her plate to mine. Were there somehow more than there were when she sat down?

"I couldn't possibly," I told her.

"Of course you can. That voice in your head... the one telling you that you can't. It isn't yours. If you're paying attention. You'll see that you want this." She pushed the plate closer to me. "Let yourself be happy, Sarah." She playfully narrowed her eyes. "I dare you."

Was she right? Do I really want this? I picked up one cream puff and let it melt in my mouth. Yes. Yes, I did want this. So, I ate another and then another and another until they were all gone. I smiled at her and she winked at me.

"I'll walk you back to your room." She said. 

Full of all that dessert, I had a hard time finding my "sea legs." I could feel the waistband of my pants pressing lightly against my belly... or was it that my belly was pressing against my waistband. As we walked through the levels of the ship, I marveled at how full I felt, but without the judgmental looks from my boyfriend (who regularly watched what I ate - like some kind of evil food accountant), I realized that there was something exciting about the feeling of fullness. I said goodnight to my new friend. Ellie suggested that we meet for breakfast the next morning.

"Greatest buffet on the planet," she told me.

After we said goodnight, I took off my shirt and pants and laid on the bed. I looked at my belly like I was just getting acquainted with it. I ran my fingers along the outline of my protruding tummy- stopping to feel the tiny indentations from the waistband of my jeans. What surprised me was that my stomach was somehow simultaneously soft and hard from the late-night drink and dessert binge. Maybe not a binge. But I had never indulged like that before and I liked it. The taste of the food in my mouth, the freedom to take a bite, then another bite, and another, and another. I liked the tightness that stretched across my belly and the encouragement of my new friend – that I should enjoy myself. I liked all of it. 

 'All of it,' I thought as I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My little pooch of a belly peeking out. Maybe that will be the theme for this cruise, I mused.

All of it.