"Happy birthday sweetheart." Jim said placing a white chocolate raspberry cake onto the table in front of her, a white with pink bordered "3" and "0" candle flickered atop it's surface. The words "Happy Birthday Erica" were expertly applied on it's surface in silver icing.
"Thank you hun..." She said trying to sound happy as she blew out the candles but he could see a hint of sadness tainting her otherwise perfect smile.
Jim had to admit even now at 30 years old, she was still extremely captivating, no doubt about it. Sure she had put on some weight since they had met, but it didn't make him love her any less. He felt quite blessed that he had found someone as amazing as her to share his life with.
Erica had gently waving honey blonde hair that cascaded down to the middle of her back, a cute upturned nose, eyes as blue as the pacific ocean and just as beautiful and ripe pouty lips.
But Erica felt the exact opposite way about her beauty. She saw herself as simply fat, dumpy and unattractive. Jim just wished there was a way he could help her. He knew it was something that bothered her on a daily basis and had even offered to help her work out, but due to her very demanding job, her continued increase in weight only seemed to be inevitable.
When they had first gotten together, he wasn't sure if going out with someone so much younger than him was such a good idea, but she had proven him wrong at every turn showing her maturity.
He had seen pictures of her from when she was in high school and thanked his lucky stars that they hadn't gone to Garfield High School at the same time because he most likely wouldn't have had the guts to ask her out.
Back then she probably weighed no more than 120 pounds and was quite athletic which fit her 5'5 frame quite well. She had been the prom queen, had a perfect GPA, was cheer captain and also voted most likely to succeed by her peers.
But now...
Now she was slightly plump weighing close to if not a bit over 180 pounds but most of it had gone to her ass and breasts. She had DD cup breasts with an abdomen that gently sloped outwards into a mild dome and her hips, thighs and ass had spread at an exponential rate since she had been promoted to a comfy desk job.
Needless to say, they had been complete opposites back in their teens. Jim was tall at 6'0 but was fairly pudgy back in the day and considered to be a bit of a nerd and social shut in. He had been fitted with all of the accoutrements befitting of a dork. Glasses, braces, lack luster attire, acne and excess weight. He hadn't even gone to his prom after Julia Lewis had shut him down and she wasn't even in the popular clique.
But since then, he had truly come out of his shell. He had opened up his own restaurant at the age of 28 that was incredibly successful, shed a great deal of weight, and at 40 he could say with confidence that he had never been in better shape. However, grey hairs and wrinkles were beginning to catch up to him.
Jim brought his attention back to his beautiful wife of 5 years. He knew this one was going to be hard for her. Hitting the big 3-0 and all. She had put on a good 50 or 60 pounds since they had met a little over 8 years ago and her steady increase in weight only seemed to speed up once she had gotten promoted to VP of sales at her software company. She weighed herself and scrutinized her form on a daily basis seemingly becoming less and less happy with the way she looked.
So Jim made a point to pull out all of the stops for this special day; making her favorite cake from scratch (the positive to being a restaurateur and well trained chef), getting a reservation to their favorite hole in the wall restaurant where they had first met, and getting her earrings that she kept eyeing whenever they'd go to the mall. They were a cool three thousand dollars, but between the two of their incomes, it was just a drop in the bucket for them.
Next he produced a boquet of a dozen long stem red roses along with a small box covered in lavender colored wrapping paper with an intricate white ribbon encircling the outside surface of the box.
She smiled softly at him and began opening the package to reveal diamond encrusted white gold hooped earrings from Tiffany & Co.
"Awwwww baaaaabe. These are just what I wanted! Thank you hun!" She gushed giving him a loving hug and kiss, slipping the earrings into her pierced ears.
"You should wear them tonight when we go to our favorite restaurant."
Erica's eyes lit up. "You mean we're going to Giuseppe's???"
They both loved that place. It was where they had met after all.
***8 years ago***
Back then, Jim had been the head chef and spotted the 22 year old blonde when she had walked in with her parents and fiance at the time. It was a slow night, so he could focus mainly on them.
He was immediately entranced by her beauty. She hadn't even said a word to him, let alone looked his way and he was already head over heels for her.
As a half an hour had passed, it was as if fate had smiled upon them. The blonde had just so happened to catch a glimpse at her fiance's phone as it began ringing with the name "Stephanie" spreading across the screen.
Erica had swiftly swept the phone up into her own grasp before her fiance could react.
"I thought you said you were done with her, and that you had blocked her number?!?!"
"I...I...I did!!! I don't know how she got through!!"
Erica was unconvinced. She answered the phone while staring at her fiance. "What do you want home wrecker?!"
..."Oh is that right???" She said, her voice cracking and shaking with rage.
"Oh well that's great! You can have him because Steve and I are through!!"
Erica hung up and smacked him in the face.
"Well... guess who got herself knocked up?" She said while staring dead eyed at her ex. "I hope you want to be a dad because she said she thinks you're the father and that she's keeping it."
His face drained of all color as he slowly got up and stumbled out of the establishment.
Both of her parents held her tight as she began crying her eyes out.
"I don't get it... he threw away 5 years of our relationship for some skank at his work... I really thought we were going to go all the way... I really thought he was the one..."
Jim tried to think of something that would possibly cheer her up. As quickly as he could, he fixed up a personal sized white chocolate buttercream cake with raspberry filling. Decorated the top with fresh raspberries and personally delivered it to her table.
"We didn't order this..." The father spoke up.
"It's on the house."
Erica just turned her head to look at him with an expressionless face as if studying him and then her eyes wandered to the cake before her.
Erica took a small delicate bite, a look of ease washed over her as her tears dried up and her sniffles ceased. A gentle smile tickled her lips. One that could've been easily missed had Jim not been studying the girl's beautiful face.
"This is delicious... possibly one of the best cakes I've ever tasted. Thank you..." She said with the faint smile still splayed across her face.
"No need to thank me. I did it just to see if I could bring your smile back."
Erica's dormant smile returned and then grew as she blushed.
The father and mother both nodded to him as if silently thanking him.
The trio silently left after paying their bill with a very handsome tip. Jim thought that was going to be the last time he was ever going to see the blonde haired beauty.
But a week later she walked in through Giuseppe's main doors and immediately approached him to thank him. He returned the favor by cooking her a meal. She asked him what time he took his lunch at.
Then another week later she stopped by again and asked what time he got off.
Then three weeks after that they started dating.
Initially they, along with both their sets of parents thought it was crazy dating each other with such a large age gap but it quickly became clear that this was more than just lust or infatuation. This was love...
***Present***
Both Erica and Jim smiled at the heart warming memory.
"You should go get changed. There's something waiting on the bed for you..."
Erica smiled at him and kissed him before heading back towards the bedroom.
She gasped when she saw the beautiful dress that rested on their bed.
It was an expensive looking low cut skater style black lace dress.
The only problem... it was a size 12... She knew she was on the cusp of being a 14...
She slid it on immediately feeling some resistance as it reached her wide hips. She hopped up and down a few times feeling relief as the resistance slightly waned as it slid up the rest of the way. She adjusted the dress still feeling a very confining pressure as it hugged every inch of her body.
The dress showed off her generous cleavage and the bottom hem hovered at least 3 inches above her knees to give a healthy view at her curvy thighs.
As she was able to get the thin straps over her shoulder, she had one last thing left to do. She reached around her back trying to get the zipper up the middle of her back only getting it to budge a few inches.
"Ummm honey?? Do you think you could help me with this?" He heard his wife's smooth feminine voice travel down the hall towards him.
"Sure thing honey!"
He came into the room seeing her fighting with the zipper. He quickly approached her and struggled to zip it up the rest of the way but finally managed to get it done after a few strong tugs.
"There you go babe." He said kissing her bare shoulder.
"Thanks..." She said hanging her head low. A few quiet sniffles escaped her lips.
"What's the matter Erica?"
"I'm not only getting older... I'm getting fatter too... you do realize I've gone up 8 dress sizes since we first started dating right? I was even a size 4 back in high school... I'm a size 14 now..."
Jim sighed. He knew he was fighting a losing battle but still tried to make the best of it.
"But sweetheart... I think you look gorgeous. You don't need a scale to tell you that."
Erica sighed but then she smiled as her eyes shifted up to look at her husband. "I know... I'm sorry... I'm just a bit sad that I've now officially left my twenties behind. In fact, I'd give anything to be 18 and thin again... Even experience it for just one day..." Her eyes were tearing up again.
Jim internally wished that there was something he could do... He felt a wave of emotion wash over him as his own insecurities came to the forefront of his mind.
Jim sighed looking down at the ground, his eyes watering a bit. "I know hun... honestly, sometimes I wish I was as young as you... Sometimes I feel like I'm holding you back... I mean, you want to have children, your OWN children and so far we've been unsuccessful... It's my fault... If you were with a younger guy, it could be a possibility..."
Erica's soft hand caressed the side of his cleanly shaven face and then kissed him slowly. "Don't you ever think that way Jim. Ever... I will always love you... whether I have your children or not."
Jim smiled as his hand cupped her cheek, his thumb sliding up and down her soft skin. "I know... Well hey, enough of this mushy stuff huh? Let's just try not to think too much about what's bothering us hun and just enjoy the rest of tonight okay?"
She smiled as she nuzzled her face into his open palm. "Okay."
After a bit more consoling, the couple drove out to the city where their favorite restaurant was located in a bit of a dingier part of town. The restaurant had no parking lot of it's own so they had to park a few blocks down in front of an empty store front.
Back when Jim had been working at Giuseppe's, this part of town had been a bit livelier, but the economy and city for that matter had fallen on hard times since then.
Dinner went without a hitch. The food was impeccable as always. After a few bottles of wine it didn't really matter to either of them anymore. They had spent a solid 2 hours at dinner and it was getting close to 10PM. They were both pretty intoxicated and horny and decided to leave the car parked over night and try to find a nice hotel to stay at.
"Maybe we should get an uber?" Erica slurred out.
Jim smirked and looked up at the completely clear night sky. "Naaah, it's a beautiful night hun! Besides, I think there's a few decent hotels down this street."
"Okay hun... Whatever you say."
No sooner had Jim commented on the weather, the skies became clouded, the wind began to howl, thunder and lightning boomed and cracked, and rain began to fall in sheets as thick as lead.
Jim pulled his jacket off and placed it on his wife's shoulders as tthey began to quickly speed walk down a hopeful side street finding no hotels to speak of.
"You think maybe we should call an uber now??" Erica asked aloud.
Jim checked his phone seeing the battery icon in the upper right hand corner flashing an ominous red with a 1% in the middle before the screen completely went dark.
"Nope... I'm afraid not... my phone is completely dead. I knew I should've charged my phone earlier..."
Erica shrugged looking around for any place to duck into.
The only possible saving grace being a single sign that remained lit with an old faded red "OPEN" sign hanging in the doorway.
"Ye Olde Antique Shoppe"
"You think they're open this late?" Erica asked aloud.
"Well it wouldn't hurt to try..." Jim said already heading inside the store being somewhat surprised when he felt the door actually open under his movements. He let his wife enter first.
An older man in his late 60's was posted up behind the main counter. He had a grey handlebar moustache above his warm, comforting smile and gave a certain aire of wisdom. He was wearing an old fashioned suit, bowler hat and a dark crimson bowtie with matching pocket square. "Welcome into my shop lovebirds. My name is Winston." He said extending his hand.
Jim approached the man and shook his hand. "This is my wife Erica and my names Jim."
"Is there anything in particular that you two are looking for?"
"No... we were just trying to get out of the rain to be honest. Hope you don't mind..." Jim stated while slowly walking around looking at random trinkets that sat inside and atop the counters all around the store.
"No of course not! It looks like it's coming down out there like cats and dogs! I definitely can't fault you for looking for a place to dry off and my shop is one of the only places around that is open."
"So what are you doing open so late? You must not get that much business at this time of the night." Erica questioned.
"Well... I'm not so interested in a high number of clientele. In fact, having a lower number of customers helps me personally cater to those that do seek me and my services out. Like you two for example."
Erica and Jim looked at each other thinking the same thing. That this old man had a few screws loose.
"Now I know what you're thinking, but truth be told, the only people that do find my store are ones that need my sort of help."
"What kind of help do you think you could offer us?" Jim asked genuinely curious as to what his answer would be."
"Well... something tells me that your problems are related to the sands of time..."
Jim and Erica's eyes enlarged. How did he know?!?"
"You Erica... something tells me you turned a significant age today..."
Erica was dumbfounded. "Yeah... I turned 30..."
"And you want to know what it'd feel like to be a teenager again. Or more specifically 18."
Winston continued on without letting them respond. "And you Jim, you would give anything to be the same age as your wife. I believe I have just the thing that can help the two of you achieve that goal. Just hang tight. I'll be right back." He walked into a room in the back.
He knew way too much about them to question him. They just stood there in curious silence.
The old man re-entered the main floor carrying an intricately carved wooden box that was roughly the same size as a shoe box.
Winston set it down upon the glass cabinet before them and slowly opened the box to reveal 2 intricate bronze and iron colored watches with exposed gearing that appeared to be antiques. However a small rectangle LED looking screen sat centered towards the bottom of the watches face.
"Wow... These are beautiful!! But two watches? Why are there two?" Erica asked.
"Well one for you and one for your husband of course!"
"So what do these do exactly?"
"Well... they turn back the hands of time to a desired destination. They warp reality to smoothly intertwine your two timelines together into one."
"C'mon... these can't truly do that... These kinds of things only exist in science fiction!" Erica said doubting the man's claims.
"I assure you... these do exactly what I'm explaining. Each of you will attach one of these watches to your wrist, rotate the main knob to a specific age that you desire that will be displayed here." He said pointing to the small screen in the watches face. "And then while you are touching each other, one of you must imagine a specific time in your past that you'd wish to teleport to and press the red buttons simultaneously. "
"Couldn't the watches just alter our age and we could be done with it?" Erica asked the man.
Winston shook his head in a negative fashion. "I'm afraid it's not that easy... You see, you need to travel back to a time when the two of you would like to be together to alter and solidify your new reality."
"Well... I always wondered what it'd be like to go to my high school prom with you instead of my slime of a boyfriend at the time..." Erica said turning to her husband.
Jim knew exactly who she was talking about... the same guy who had cheated on her. The same guy who had taken her virginity.
"Once you're finished enjoying your special night, all you have to do is press the red button on each of your watches simultaneously and you will be teleported back to my store. Once you are back here, I can finalize your desired age with your watches."
"What if we have any issues?" Jim asked.
"Just simply call out my name, and I will appear. However, I will only be visible to the two of you."
Winston's face grew serious. "That reminds me and I can't stress this enough. Whatever you do, do not, I repeat DO NOT lose your watch or damage it in any way. That means no dropping them, getting them overly wet or smashing them. It could lead to unseen issues..."
"Okay..." Erica looked up at Jim longingly. "What do you think? Do you want to try them out?" Erica asked her husband excitedly.
"I'm not sure about this..." Jim said obviously nervous.
"Oh come on! This could be an amazing opportunity for us! To have the life we always dreamed of!"
Jim paused for a moment. He did want his wife to be happy. "Okay... let's do it..."