I talked about the ending of the story a little bit more in my "short story collection" over on GiantessCity, so you can see a bit of a timeline on the story's development there. I think it would be fair to say your comments on the worldbuilding did steer me to address that aspect a little more, but overall most of your predictions were accurate to my outline and I was just holding back from spoilers in responding to reviews. I'm not sure if that's a reflection of your perceptiveness as a reader, my ability to foreshadow things as an author, or simply a manifestation of our common interests. The plan was always for Kate to grow bigger, but I deliberated about what she would do when she became bigger. Ultimately, I landed on a more open-ended conclusion that preserved her character development rather than an abrupt heel turn in which she goes full megalomaniac. While Kate is definitely an egotistical person, she is not a narcissist (who can rely solely upon self-validation) and she craves the attention and adoration of others so she isn't callously cruel to them. I originally had a more spiteful ending in mind, but I ultimately felt the heel turn wasn't justified by the events of the story and Kate's character arc, as she does gradually become more conscientious over the course of the narrative.

Minor tangent/detail: while the troposphere (and Earth's oxygen) ends at 10 miles in altitude, humans typically require assistance breathing at around 10-15k feet in elevation. It is very subtle within the story, but Kate's temporary breathing difficulties are actually psychological, not physical. Realistically, she should have started suffocating well before she even reached the altitude of the aircraft, not that readers should necessarily expect "realism" in mega giantess stories. In other words, she struggles to breathe because she thinks she can't breathe, which is also a common affliction in skydiving and panic attacks. Anyway, her second growth spurt basically renders her immune to asphyxiation, as well as potentially other mortal necessities. It's not explicitly addressed whether she needs food, water, etc. within the story, though, and I decided to leave that ambiguous for the reader. Once I slap a "completed" sticked on my stories, it's up to the reader to create his own headcanon if he wants it to continue. Maybe Kate gets bored and just started destroying things for her own entertainment. Maybe she starves to death. Maybe she actually goes on a conquest of the globe or some kind of world tour. People can make what they want of it.

I actually have read "Growing Closer" and upon my initial reading it was one of my all-time favorite stories in the genre. The early character work, logistics, and story beats are fantastic and I wholeheartedly adore it. When the story was still being released, I was totally hooked on it and looked forward to every new chapter posted on Friday evenings. Unfortunately, I feel like the story eventually "outgrew" its initial premise and it really shows in the latter half of the story. All of the logistics Saltavio set up fell away as the growth was explained to be "destiny" (magic), despite very real early struggles with things like hunger earlier in the story. The courthouse arc was fairly contrived and the first attack on Trish, while an intriguing bit of action that raised the stakes, ends up being retconned by events later in the story. Like, a bomb blows off her arm in the first act, but then she's apparently totally comfortable eating WMDs and standing in (relatively) close proximity to her family as they explode inside her, miraculously leaving her completely unharmed and the explosion entirely contained within her stomach. Not to mention the use of nuclear AND biological weapons is just so stupid that it immensely diminished my immersion, even on my first read. I don't like retcons. It's one thing to introduce a question or an assumption to mislead the reader, but it's entirely another to blatantly contradict prior events in the story. 

I'll refrain from further nitpicking, but suffice it to say I am often frustrated by Saltavio's writing. He creates really interesting characters and his descriptions and dialogue are excellent, but he struggles to stay true to his themes and deliver satisfying endings for me. "Lover's Lagoon" has a similar problem, but it did a much better job than "Growing Closer" and only started to fall apart in the final chapters. None of this is to throw shade, as I know endings are extremely difficult to write and I changed my planned ending for this story twice before finally settling on the one I posted (which still has problems for me). This is just a personal pet peeve of mine with the genre as a whole. Growth causes megalomania in well-adjusted adults, nukes cause growth for no reason, military aircraft strafe giant women as unsafe altitudes, etc.

I have not read "Gigantic," but I'll add a bookmark on my phone. I've got a lot of reading I plan to do during my hiatus, including finishing Rowena (which was a GREAT recommendation, btw). In recent weeks my reading has taken a backseat to my writing as I've worked to wrap up all of the stories I had committed to writing before I go, but I believe an author has to both read and write to stay sharp. Feel free to DM me any other story recommendations, too. 

Not saying you're right or wrong, but I have very mixed feelings about the "giantess grows with nukes" trope. On the one hand: I like growth. On the other hand, it's usually a deus ex machina that isn't really set up at all in the story. I believe the trope is borrowed from a Godzilla fan theory, but now it's become so ubiquitous that people don't even really question it anymore. A lot of size fans are just content to accept "Oh, the giantess got nuked, so she'll grow bigger."  It would be one thing if (like Godzilla) the giantess were established to absorb radiation or energy earlier in the story, but this usually isn't the case.

Tangent aside, I did somewhat foreshadow the ending to avoid the deus ex machina. I think it will be thematically satisfying, but probably won't resolve every one of the story's questions. I like surprises, but I resent lazy writing wherein the author writes himself into a corner and then invents a way out of it. I don't think everything needs to be explained to the reader in exhaustive detail. I don't think the reader needs to understand everything within a story, too. But it's really disappointing when the ending is completely unpredictable due to not being set up at all. For instance, the abrupt reappearance of Ellis is something I was definitely planning from the beginning, which is why I referenced him a few times in later chapters, but he also seems to come out of nowhere. I had a little side story in my head for how it happened, but I decided not to include it in the narrative itself because (1) it would make the big reveal way too obvious and (2) it just didn't fit well with the rest of the story. So Ellis reappears suddenly, but he was always in the background of Kate's mind (along with the reader's). If I had just had Ellis disappear in Chapter 2 and then show up again in Chapter 6 at the climax of the story, it would feel pretty cheap. So she thinks about him from time to time. It's also not like he's "saving the day" or anything, but his existence will affect the ending.

Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing again. I'm planning to have the final chapter out either later this evening or more likely tomorrow afternoon, depending on how quickly I write it and how long I want to sit with it. to contemplate improvements.

I'm glad you like it. I don't want to spoil anything, as I'm hoping to have this story finished in the next few days, so I won't be commenting on future events.
I do anticipate posting a pretty erotic story this week, though, so stay tuned for that. 
In the meantime, you might want to check out my other stories, "The Boob Job" or "Psycho Bitch."
They're not "smut," per se, but they're definitely sensual and involve big girls getting off on their size and strength. 

Glad you're enjoying it. I haven't seen the concept of a "gentle rampage" tackled too often, so I wanted to give it a shot. 
This story is doing a lot of things at once and definitely has a complex character at its heart. Kate is quite a character, as she isn't "mean" but is definitely self-absorbed. She's walking a lot of fine lines and her motivations are shifty because of how excited she is as she explores her new circumstances. She's an ambitious, power-hungry girl who has just been handed a fantasy beyond anything she had never even imagined for herself. She's very much overwhelmed about getting everything she's ever wanted and more all at once, especially in the wake of years of diligence that didn't seem to be paying off. That's how it goes for a lot of people in the media and entertainment industry. Lots of long, hard work and then a sudden breakthrough into the mainstream seemingly coming from out of nowhere. 
Once again, I'm glad you're enjoying the story. There's more to come!