Chapter 1
"What's she like then?" Fi's question is directed at her friend, Ellie, but her eyes are fixed on her husband, Martin, as he performs odd jobs in the garden. Well, at least he's supposed to be being useful but in reality it looks as if he's doing a good job of looking busy but not getting much done. He seems to be spending most of his time checking his phone. At least that makes sense now.
"I don't really know, Fi" returns Ellie, trying to manage her friend's bruised self-esteem. "I suppose it..."
"Is she younger?" Fi cuts her off, "Slimmer?". The question is pointed, her disdain for his motives laying itself bare. Her eyes fixed on the continuing show of ineffectiveness outside.
"I think she is, yeah. But this isn't about her..." Ellie continues before being stopped in her tracks again.
"Why, Els?" Fi turns to look at her friend standing behind her in the kitchen, the forgotten coffee in her hand now cool. "Why? What's wrong with..this?" gesturing to the length and breadth of her body, her bright hazel eyes and bemused expression begging for an answer.
45 years old with a moderately successful career, two kids (away at university) and a comfortable, tastefully decorated (by her) 1970s detached house, Fi lived an outwardly comfortable life. Her gesture had been directed at a person of about 5 foot 8, a brunette crop matched to an attractive face that held those bright eyes and belied her increasing age. The lines outside her eyes spoke of a life enjoyed (with her friends, anyhow). She was right to beg the question, though, as Martin was certainly punching above his weight: she carried her Rubenesque proportions lightly. Too much wine and cheese had left her with a BMI that was probably too high, but she was rightly proud of her full, toned thighs, shapely hips and imposing chest. She still drew lingering eyes from men - including younger ones - and women alike.
"You're more woman than he could ever handle, Fi." reassured Ellie, adding resignedly "I can't explain why men do these things, but they do".
But Martin? Fi returned her gaze to the bespectacled figure in the garden who by now had taken a seat and was back engaged with his device. That bloody phone. Martin. Martin with his phone. Martin with his geeky friends. With his depthless, absent-minded conversation. With his love of comedy (English, middle-class and white). Martin with his t-shirts and ill-fitting jeans. Martin the father who had...at least been there, she supposed. She didn't doubt he loved their kids, but he wasn't the - possibly idealised - father figure that she'd wanted their children to have.
She simmered at the temerity of his behaviour. The opportunities she could herself have taken! Martin. Martin with his limp dick. She'd put it down to lack of libido, or maybe his prostate. But this news brought those comforting thoughts into question. Martin. With his receding hairline and his new little paunch, probably from his love of real ale or whatever he called it.
Some of it did make sense though. There was the younger woman from work whom he had mentioned a couple of times. Fi had wondered why he'd felt the need to crowbar in the fact that she was in a relationship into a story where that really wasn't a relevant detail. From how he'd described her she also sounded a bit like the science presenter on the TV that he clearly fancied. That would be it. It all made sense.
Martin with his skinny wrists, arms and legs. Her eyes narrowed and jaw stiffened as her eyes continued to bore into him. "I could snap him like a twig." she thought, "And maybe I will".
Chapter 2
Fi didn't raise it with Martin right away. Ellie had been pushed out the door after requesting perhaps too much reassurance that Fi "was going to be OK" (don't lay it on too thickly, Els) and Fi continued outwardly as if nothing was amiss. She made dinner for them both with the meat she had brought back home from the farm shop she managed (she, as always, had the larger portion). Inside though, her anger festered away and she plotted how she would exact what had now become her vengeance.
She didn't talk to friends about it (although certainly more than just Ellie knew by now). Her hurt centred around the absolute cheek of the man - centring around her perceptions of his physical inferiority to her. She'd long known - and been many times told - that she was more attractive than him. Now she added to that a growing contempt for his physical weaknesses. As they'd go about their business she began sizing him up.
She would engineer little 'accidents' and tests. A bump from her shapely hip as she passed would send him clattering into the cupboards (she pretended not to notice but afforded herself a little grin as she walked away). She maybe shouldn't have done it as often as she did though, that was a bit cruel.
She'd notice how he would roll towards her side of the bed due to the greater depression on her side of the mattress, pulled into her orbit. She didn't know either of their weights specifically, but imagined she by now had 30-odd pounds on him at least, despite giving away a couple of inches in height.
She noted with a predatory satisfaction how, when standing behind him in the kitchen and taking his hands to show him how to correctly slice an onion, her form enveloped his as she did so.
She scrolled through photos of them on her phone, and comparisons from this perspective served merely to confirm her thoughts yet further.
She was surprised how easily she not only was able to snatch his phone off him, but how simple it was to fend off his suspiciously fraught attempts to get it back (he only relented after she tucked it into her bra to keep it out of reach). Two years of circuit training had probably served her well here, even if it hadn't shed the weight she'd hoped.
In all, she was assessing him with the instinct of a lion attuned to singling out the weak from the pack before attacking. And she had planned her attack.
Chapter 3
Several nights later, Fi slipped into bed first, adorning a red silk negligee that clung softly to her shapely form beneath. The delicate fabric accentuated her curves, highlighting her confident femininity. She lay there, a blend of anticipation and impatience, waiting for Martin to join her. He spent ages in the bathroom (on his phone, presumably - ugh! that filthy phone), but he eventually arrived. She lay facing him as he approached the bed, fiddling with a new smartwatch as he approached. She drew the blanket back to welcome him in and invitingly patted the bed with a smile. This threw him a little as it was not normal behaviour. Still, he obliged. She extended her thigh towards him so that it lay perpendicular to her body and invited him to lie on it with a friendly "c'mere". This was something redolent of the earlier days in their relationship, before the nighttime apathies had set in.
Again he dutifully did as he was asked. The small of his back met the soft inner of Fi's right thigh and he felt it pillow out pleasingly as he let it take his full weight. Once fully down the thigh covered most of his lower back. Outwardly she wore an unflinching, inviting smile but deep inside Fi buzzed excitedly. The trap was set, her unsuspecting prey now caught within her web, igniting an eager anticipation within her.