It all started with the sudden realization that my boyfriend is hot.

He had plans to play basketball with his friends and invited me along. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a sports guy, more like a faint-at-the-idea-of-working-out guy, but I had to say yes for the holy purpose of not studying.

It’s not weird dating someone who’s just two years older than you but finding yourself surrounded by all of his grown-ass men of friends, out of which the shortest is about a foot taller than you, yes, that is indeed weird. So I’m not all that upset when barely a few minutes of hitting an orange ball later I feel the pinches of unfitness and go straight to sit out – yet I bet that the guys in my team were far more relieved than me that I left.

I spend the next five minutes trying to make peace with my lungs but also laze about looking at Eric play, laugh, and generally look like his gorgeous self. I feel like dying, but deep down I enjoy it. When I was invited to do sports, that's exactly what I had in mind – sightseeing, not running like some kind of fool.

When Eric catches me staring, he puts in a basket for show-off and then approaches me with his best smile on.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

“Yep, my lungs just decided they like me again.”

“Thinking about joining us back on the court?”

“What, no way, I’m comfy here.”

He snorts and does his best baby voice. “Did we get hurt?”

“Nah, I just don’t think this game is cut out for me.”

“Understood. Everything understood, you’re talking to a med student that prefers knitting over biology.” He winks, laughing at his ‘joke’. “Does a ride home sound good?”

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“On what vehicle?” I tease.

“I could carry you.”

“I’d like to see you try. Please don’t.”

He waves a finger at me. “I could. But for now, you’ll have to settle with mere walking. Wait up till I tell the guys we’re leaving.”

“How about no? Let’s not spoil their game, they look like they can’t wait for you to come back.”

“That means you’ll play?”

“I’m spoiling the game by playing. Besides, I’m not having a bad time watching,” I say with a cunning wink. He returns it.

“Then how about I give you something extra for your eyes to feast on?”

He grabs his shirt from the shoulders and takes it off. If I attempt to do that, first of all I’d get stuck and second, I’ll look like a squirming squirrel; but when he does it, the only change is his messy dirty blond hair getting messier, taking him from cute to even cuter.

He kisses me softly and gazes me with pride, as if he knows how fast he made my heart race. “Take as many pictures you like,” he murmurs in my mouth, his lips brushing mine playfully as he speaks. “But don’t spoil your appetite. There’s more in stock for you later.”

He throws his sweaty t-shirt away, and even without looking, he gets it to land on the rest of his stuff – okay, seriously, this can’t seem surreal only to me. If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to aim correctly from a feet’s distance with eyes open.

Eric is aware I am focused on him, that’s what he was striving for. Maybe also turning me on, a little bit.

I’m pretty sure the feeling that I end up with wasn’t in his plans.

Damn.

His well-shaped body, his muscular arms, his toned back and, when his catwalk to the court is over and he gets back to running, I can see every single muscle of his legs working, and a perfect 8-pack that’s most definitely there, not ‘visible if you squint’ like my friend Jo brags about hers…

How did I end up with this guy?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a round tummy since forever and I never gave my looks a second thought. Yes, I am a bit chubby, so what? Even when I was still on flirting point with Eric, I always thought ‘If I’m going to be with this person, he should take me as I am’.

Even so, this new realization hits me like a punch: my little tummy has turned into a belly, and maybe we haven’t had sexual relations yet but that won’t go on for long – and I don’t want it to. And, since the beginning has been made, soon it will be my turn to be seen naked by Eric.

Not like he's not already aware of what I look like, it be dumb to assume that. I was pleasantly surprised by the abs, so I could give him a surprise too.

And when Eric is so confident in his body, when he looks like a goddamn model, the best I can do is look great as well.

I could lose a pound or two, I guess. The idea is repulsive, but Eric is a freaking God underneath his clothes and I want to look a bit confident under mine as well.

I guess I’ll have to stick with that.