Chapter 3

Steve’s subconscious hunch turned out to be far more accurate than he would have ever believed. As he had watched Melissa walk away from him, with her big ass swinging alluringly in her skin-tight jeans, Steve hadn’t been able to avoid thinking that his days of being taller than his stepmother were numbered. In the past few days, he had inexplicably shrunk 5 whole inches, and the more he shrank, the bigger her body looked to him. Even though he had nothing to base his worries on, Steve felt like Melissa was “gaining” on him, and that she would very soon surpass him in height.

‘Because she’s already got me in size,’ he thought, watching her ass bounce up and down, and her hips swivel back and forth, side to side, with each step. Her legs, hips, and ass seemed to fill out every square inch of those jeans. And her breasts…Steve had definitely been noticing them more often. Was it just because he had gotten so much smaller? Or was it perhaps…that Melissa was getting…

No, he wouldn’t think about it. It couldn’t be. She had taken the same vitamin he had, right? And even though she had administered it to him for the purpose of checking on gender-distinct reactions to the pill, certainly it wouldn’t follow that it would make men smaller and women…bigger!? Right!?

A few seconds later, Steve realized that he had been staring at Melissa’s retreating ass with his mouth slightly open, and he slammed his jaw shut, blinking his eyes and shaking his head.

‘Damn it Steve!’ he said to himself, ‘Get it together! She just looks bigger because you’re smaller — that’s it. That’s all. You’re ok — you’re in good hands. Just…go relax. Get your mind off all this craziness.’

For the next several hours, Steve did just that, lounging on the couch as he played video games. Melissa was working in her office in the adjacent room, and she popped in every now and then to check on him.

“Oho! Wow!” she exclaimed one time, startling Steve as she stood directly behind the sofa, “That was a nice shot!”

“Heheh, uh…thanks!” he chuckled, settling back in to continue his “Halo” match. “I’ve gotten so much better at this game recently, so…haha, yeah…”

“So this game takes place in the future?” asked Melissa, bending down next to Steve as she leaned against the sofa. Steve became suddenly aware of her large breasts hanging down the sofa cushions directly to his right. He felt a pink flush rush up into his face. He couldn’t help it; he glanced to the side and saw that his stepmother’s rack was on full display, hanging down low and heavy in her white top. And…were…were her nipples hard!? Steve felt a sudden lurch in his crotch as he felt himself getting hard too.

“Uhhhh…uh yeah, yeah, in the future,” he stammered, turning back to the screen. “In the, um…the 26th century. See, a way, way long time ago, there was this powerful race in the galaxy called the Forerunners, and they fought against these alien parasites called the Flood, and, umm…heheh, well, it’s a long story…anyway, haha, science fiction, you know?”

“Huh, I’ve always thought science fiction was kinda cool,” murmured Melissa at his side, “You know, Star Wars and stuff like that.”

“Mhmm,” said Steve, trying to focus on the game. But the presence of his stepmother’s breasts close to his head was a major distraction. It was nothing, though, compared to what happened next. Since he was distracted, Steve had just been shot by an enemy player, causing Melissa to react.

“Awwww no!” she cried, laughing at the same time, “He got you!” In her excitement, Melissa had jostled her body, and her left breast was now smushed up directly against his cheek. Steve’s eyes widened and shot downward, directly at the large nipple that was poking conspicuously through the white fabric of her top. The moment seared itself on his mind: the fresh, fruity smell of her organic body wash, the soft fabric against his cheek, and the immense, weighty push of her voluminous breast flesh directly into her cheek, splaying out under his chin and on top of his forehead. And her nipple…there wasn’t any question now. It was rock-hard, and far, far bigger than Steve would have expected. It looked like it was about to poke straight through her top.

In this moment, Steve was grateful that his pants were baggier now that he was smaller — his spontaneous erection had only gotten harder, and his heart had started pounding in his chest.

“Hey I thought you were good at this game!” laughed Melissa, apparently oblivious as she kept staring at the TV. “I’m not distracting you, am I?”

“Uhhhh…” was all Steve could manage, and the silence that followed caused Melissa to look down. Her eyes likewise grew wide, and her mouth opened up in an entertained, apologetic smile.

“Oh my god I totally am,” she exhaled, her flesh starting to jiggle with her laughter. She didn’t back up immediately, though. Instead, she just kept standing there, in her leaning position, with her tit smushed up against Steve’s face. She was enjoying what she saw as the silliness of the situation, but she also seemed to be a bit puzzled, like she was searching for something.

“I didn’t…huh, gosh, I didn’t even realize I was that…in your face,” she muttered, finally backing up off Steve and straightening herself up. She brought her hands up to her breasts and cupped them, bouncing them up and down for herself, like she was testing them for size. Steve couldn’t help but watch, slightly mesmerized by the bountiful breast flesh that was suddenly abundantly obvious. Had she changed her top!? Surely they hadn’t always looked that big!

“Hmmm…” Melissa muttered to herself, letting her breasts fall back in place, as they jiggled for long seconds afterward, “Interesting.”

Without saying any more, she simply turned and walked away, back to her office, deep in thought. Steve turned back to his game, resisting the temptation to continue ogling his stepmother’s ass as she walked away. It too looked larger. Steve found himself wondering if maybe Melissa was screwing with him — had she gone and changed into something smaller, so that her body would look bigger in her clothes? He quickly dismissed this thought, however. It wasn’t in character for his stepmother to be so devious. She was too scatterbrained to do something like that. And anyway, hadn’t she just accidentally planted her tit in his face without realizing it? Yes…yes, she was far more of a klutz than a schemer.

‘Then why does she look bigger?’ Steve asked himself. An unsettling thought had risen up in his mind. Maybe Melissa had accidentally bumped into him with her breast because she HAD gotten bigger…and wasn’t used to the changes yet. And the way she had bounced her tits up and down, staring at them with that puzzled, curious expression…

‘Quit it!’ he exclaimed to himself, getting back into the game. ‘Just…just calm down. You got a little smaller. That’s why she looks bigger. That’s all.’

Even still, later on that evening, Steve purposefully ate an early dinner, before Melissa could finish up in her office, and retreated to his room. He had felt increasingly uncomfortable with how fixated he had become on his stepmother’s body, to the point where he felt like he just needed to get a good night’s sleep and clear his head.

“You sure you’re alright Steve?” Melissa had asked him anxiously through his closed bedroom door. “No new symptoms I hope? Come on now, I know you were hiding the other ones from me, but it’s really important that you —”

“No! No, Melissa, really,” Steve had insisted, perhaps with a little too much energy, “I’m fine. Anything I’m feeling now is just, I think, uh…you know, mentally tired from everything that’s been going on.”

“Mental exhaustion?” Melissa asked through the door. “So that’s a new symptom then.”

“What? No! Wait…” protested Steve. “It’s not like…a symptom, Melissa…I think it’s just, like, a natural reaction! I mean, I just shrunk by a few inches! It’s been a little rough processing all this.”

“Ok, ok, yes…of course that makes sense,” Melissa replied, softening her tone a little. There was a little pause. Steve knew that she was still standing there.

“So did you measure yourself tonight?” Melissa asked bluntly.

“I…no, no I didn’t,” Steve sighed. “Look…can I just maybe get some sleep and do it in the morning? I’m kinda getting tired of all this stuff. Can I just take a little break from it all?”

Another pause. On the other end of the door, Melissa was inclined to be firm on this point. She needed to collect empirical data for the multivitamin trial, after all. But she heard the stress in her stepson’s voice. Looking down at her own chest, she couldn’t help but break into a little smile…a knowing smile. She had just measured herself. And she badly wanted to compare with him. But even in her excitement, Melissa understood that now was not a good time to press the point. She would give him time; she would wait. But the morning couldn’t come soon enough.

“Alright Steve, yes,” she said soothingly through the door. “That sounds fine. You get some good rest now, ok?”

“Ok…thanks,” he responded, relaxing back into his pillow with a relieved sigh. A moment later, he heard the weighty slide of Melissa’s flesh against the door as she turned around; the retreating clack of her steps indicated that she was walking away. Had she just been…leaning her breasts into his bedroom door as she spoke with him!? The memory of feeling her soft tit flesh pressing into his face roared back into his mind, and her nipple…god it had been so hard…pressing through her top…

Steve briefly considered masturbating to the thought, but he was able to resist. She may have been his stepmother, so they weren’t technically related, but it was still just too weird in his head. He would do what he had said he would do: get some good sleep, and start the next day fresh.

‘And who knows?’ he thought to himself optimistically as he got under his covers, ‘Maybe I won’t have gotten any smaller. Maybe the shrinking’s already all over.’ A little voice in the back of his mind assured him that it wasn’t all over…and that it was in fact just beginning. But Steve managed to ignore this voice, and passed relatively quickly into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Steve could tell, from the heat of the sun’s rays against his cheek, that he had slept in yet again. He lay in bed for a few moments with his eyes still closed, trying to remember what he had been dreaming. It hadn’t been entirely pleasant…but it hadn’t been a true nightmare either. Something warm and sweet-smelling had been smothering him; it had been difficult to breathe and this had caused him to panic initially…but after a while, the loving persistence of this force around him had set him at ease, even if it was smothering him and holding him prisoner.

‘Ugh, did I just dream about Melissa being a giantess?’ he thought to himself a little wearily. But he shook his head, chuckling a little to himself, as he sat up in bed and pivoted his feet down towards the floor. He had made a point to sleep naked, so that he wouldn’t wake up to the same nasty discovery of his pajamas being oversized, but even though he was nude, he could tell that he had shrunk more during the night. With a sickening jolt, he realized that his feet weren’t even touching the floor as they hung off the edge of the bed. Panicking, he tried to scoot his butt forward on the bed, but upon realizing that he was already on the edge, he only just managed to catch himself before he went plunging down onto the floor.

‘Shit…’ he thought desperately, getting down and mechanically pulling on some warm-up pants. He didn’t even want to look at himself in the mirror right now. ‘Shit shit shittttt….!’

A moment later he had thrown on a t-shirt to go with his warm-ups, and he didn’t even need to take a step to realize that things had now truly taken a turn for the worse. Everything was so baggy that he could hardly even make out the shape of his arms and legs anymore. These were clothes that had been designed with someone 5’8-6’0 in mind, and it was plainly obvious now that Steve was much shorter and smaller than this. But how much shorter and smaller…well, Steve knew that it was inevitable that Melissa was going to insist on measuring him now. She had been asking about it the night before, but had relented as soon as he had complained about it. But now that she was about to see him like this…Steve winced to himself, thinking about what her reaction would be. His mind didn’t even align on any specific reaction — it didn’t matter. Whether she was shocked, horrified, entertained, worried, or some strange combination of all four, all possible reactions seemed bad.

Steve briefly considered holing-up in his room for the rest of the day, just to avoid interacting with Melissa, but he knew that this tactic wouldn’t work. She may have been a little clumsy and scatterbrained, but whenever she set her mind to something, there was no dissuading her. He knew that he had been lucky to avoid a measurement the night before — she had let him off the hook. There was no way she was going to do that again. First and foremost, Melissa was a scientist, a researcher, and she needed her empirical data for the trial she was conducting.

Realizing that there was no way out of this debacle, Steve’s shoulders slumped as he stood there in the middle of his bedroom. His slouching stature made him feel even smaller; he felt like he just wanted to melt straight into the floor and never again emerge. But right then, he experienced a rallying little burst of energy.

‘Hey!’ he told himself encouragingly, ‘This isn’t actually so bad — it’s not like I feel sick or anything! I’m just shorter! And who knows, maybe Melissa and her team will be able to find some sort of a way to reverse whatever this is. I mean hell, if they could make a drug to shrink me, surely they could just somehow re-route it to grow me back, right!?’

His little pep talk to himself had a positive effect, and a few moments later, Steve was walking out of his bedroom, walking as confidently as he could toward the kitchen, to grab an early breakfast. He was trying as hard as he could to pretend like everything was normal, but his face was flushed, and his heart was thumping away nervously in his chest the whole way to the kitchen.

Staring around anxiously once he got there, Steve breathed a little sigh of something like relief; Melissa wasn’t there. She must have been working away busily in her office. Steve quickly went to the fridge to fetch himself some yogurt, feeling excited about the prospect of having a few more “down” hours to himself to play video games without having to worry about getting measured. Right after he closed the fridge and turned around, though, he stopped dead in his tracks. Melissa was standing there in the kitchen doorway, her hip cocked, with one hand high up on the wall, striking what could only be called a “sexy” pose, as she stared down wide-eyed at her stepson.

“Well!” she exclaimed impressively, straightening up all the way as she crossed her arms in front of her noticeably-larger chest. “NOW it all becomes clear why you didn’t want me to measure you last night!”

“I…I…it wasn’t that!” stammered Steve. His instinct was to back away from Melissa, but somehow, something else made his legs do the opposite, and he stumbled forward a little towards her. With each step, she seemed bigger and bigger in his vision. And it wasn’t just her size — Steve saw, with an uncomfortable surge of strange hormonal feelings, that Melissa wasn’t dressed like she usually was. She had always worn skin-tight jeans, but the ones she was wearing now seemed to fit her better, showing off the true curves of her hips and ass. Steve gawked at her — there was no way she had looked that curvy and…and thick the day before!

But it was Melissa’s top that was really catching his eye — she normally wore a loose-fitting white blouse, but now she was wearing a tight black top, one that proudly displayed the sheer size and weight of her delectable rack. Once again, Steve found himself utterly at a loss for words, except to declare to himself, in no uncertain terms, that there was no WAY that her breasts had been that big yesterday. His mind didn’t yet have the capacity to take in the obvious reality, but the truth was crystal clear regardless: Melissa had grown. Not only had she gotten taller, but she had also gotten more voluptuous as well.

Steve felt himself starting to breathe heavier and heavier as his stepmother began walking toward him. He grabbed onto a nearby chair to steady himself as her visage grew and grew in his vision, until the two of them were standing about 6 feet apart. As she had approached, Melissa’s eyes had gotten wider and wider. She had been keeping her ears perked up for the sounds of her stepson waking up, and when she had heard him rummaging around, she had taken up a position in the back of the hallway, so that when he came out of his room and walked towards the kitchen, she would be able to quietly tiptoe behind him, without him noticing.

Melissa had expected him to be smaller, but nothing had prepared her for how dramatic it looked in real life. And just as Steve had felt some strange urging to approach his stepmother, Melissa likewise began striding slowly up to her stepson, the breath in her chest becoming more and more excited the closer she got. When she stopped dead in front of him, she was close enough to get a good look at the comparison between them, and she had to look him up and down several times, taking it all in, before she could start wrapping her mind around the astounding reality. The top of Steve’s head only came up to her eyes…her eyes!! Even just the day before, Steve had been taller than her, albeit it by not much, but now there wasn’t any question that it was Melissa who was taller.

Blinking up into Melissa’s astonished face, Steve felt his mouth slacken and fall open. With a desperate instinct to somehow dodge the truth, he shot his eyes downward, hoping beyond hope that maybe she was wearing some kind of heels…that she was playing some kind of practical joke on him. But the quick glance downward only showed him the warm white shapes of her bare feet, with her toes twisting and flexing in earnest excitement at what was happening.

“Steve…” breathed Melissa in a low, shocked voice, like she was trying to catch her breath, “H-How…how do you feel?”

“I…feel ok,” he croaked, still staring at her feet. This didn’t seem real — any of it.

“Are you sure?” she asked quickly, stepping forward once more so that only a couple feet separated them. Steve realized that he was staring forward straight into Melissa’s neck; he had to actually look up a little to stare at the bottom of her chin. He could see her cheeks twitching slightly…whether in a smile or something else, he couldn’t really tell.

“Y-yeah,” he said, nodding, finally mustering up the courage to look up at her fully in the eyes. There was an amazed and careful expression etched into her face. Steve had never seen Melissa look like that before. One one hand, it was the enraptured look of a scientist who had seen something completely new, and who was just taking it all in. On the other hand, though, there was something caring and tender in Melissa’s eyes, a kind of carefulness that seemed to suggest that she was holding herself back. But from what!?

“Ok…” Melissa murmured, half to him, and half to herself, “Ok…so we’ll just…we’ll just get this out and measure you right now, obviously.”

She quickly unfurled the tape measure that she had been holding, which indicated to Steve that she had been waiting for this moment all along. It had just taken her a few seconds to compose herself in front of him, after seeing how much he had shrunk. But of course, he wasn’t the only one whose size was changing.

“You’re…bigger…” Steve managed to mutter, as Melissa let the tape measure drop all the way to the floor.

“Shhh, yes I know,” she replied quickly. She was focusing on pulling the tape measure taut now. “No talking while I do the measurement…let’s see…ok now step on the tip of the tape with your foot. Yeah…yeah right there like that…ok now hold it tight, stand up straight…I mean straight, Steve, all the way, shoulders back…there we go…ok…alright…aaaand…wow.”

She stopped and blinked rapidly at the measurement.

“What!?” demanded Steve, coughing a little after he had spoken. His mouth had gone totally dry. “What’s it say!?”

“It says you’re 5’4,” Melissa responded immediately, her voice soft and contemplative, like she was testing the reality of the measurement by speaking it aloud. Steve stared forward into her throat, and saw her swallow a couple times. Unconsciously, he tried to do the same, but since his throat was so dry, he had to clear it a couple times before he could manage.

“Five…four!?” he gasped, his eyes watering up a bit from the exertion and the shock, “That…that c-can’t be possible.”

Silently, Melissa held down the tape measure and showed him the number. There it was: her manicured thumb was right on the 64-inch marker. Steve’s mind did a strange somersault and thought briefly that 64 inches meant he was 5’6, but then he remembered his basic math and felt himself deflating.

“And you’re smaller too, Steve,” added Melissa matter-of-factly. The next thing he knew, she had wrapped the tape measure around his hips, and then his waist, and then his chest, logging the measurements. His chest was 35 inches, his hips were 31, and his waist was a mere 28. Steve stood on helplessly as Melissa methodically measured him, and he heard her mutter each number under her breath as she whipped out her phone and typed out the measurements.

“Awwww, only 28 inches,” she murmured down to him, her voice soft, pensive, and almost sad, as she typed down the final measurement of his waist.

“Wh-who…who are you texting that to!?” Steve asked, trying to somehow distract from himself.

“My research team,” replied Melissa, pressing the “send” button, and with a little “gloop!” electronic sound, she put her phone away so that she could devote all her attention to him. She blinked down at him slowly, breathing in deeply through her nostrils, before her mouth twitched into something like a smile. Steve again found himself at a loss — he wanted so badly to be mad at his stepmother…to be furious with her. And yet all he could muster up was a kind of petty, halfhearted protest. The fact was that she just looked too sexy for him to be upset with her. The way her curvy body seemed like it was stuffed into her clothes — particularly her big breasts and the large, rotund protrusion of her fat ass behind her — it was all Steve could do to prevent himself from getting an erection right then and there.

“This…this is a disaster, Melissa!” exclaimed Steve indignantly. He wanted to stamp his foot, but he knew that doing so would have made him seem even smaller and more juvenile than he already looked. “Look at me!!”

“Mmmmm, yessss, I am looking at you,” agreed Melissa, nodding her head enthusiastically as she looked him vey obviously up and down, up and down. Steve felt immensely uncomfortable under her gaze, and yet, at the same time, the closer she looked at him, the more turned-on he became. There was something deeply playful about her gaze, which was also profoundly humiliating. It was like she was staring him down like she would a little child.

“And look at meeeeee,” Melissa intoned, suddenly throwing her hair back sexily as she pivoted her thickened hips to strike a pose. For a second she looked every bit the part, but then her bare foot slipped a little on the smooth kitchen floor and she stumbled backward, having to shoot her hands out in an instinctive panic to keep herself from falling flat on her back. If Steve’s situation hadn’t been more serious, he would have immediately burst out laughing. As it was, Melissa had no problem laughing at herself, and her hearty laughter only served to further accentuate the extra curves and size on her own body, which was sent jiggling and quivering by her mirth.

“Hahahahaha, uhhhhh, ok, ok, I…hahahahaha, I guess I haven’t quite gotten used to the stature yet!” she laughed. “I already had a tough time moving around without walking into walls and doors and losing my balance, but now that I’m 5’8, I have to focus even harder!”

“Y-you’re…5’8!?” asked Steve in a low, incredulous voice.

“Mmhm!” nodded Melissa excitedly. “Well…I was last night, at least. I actually haven’t measured myself this morning. Been waiting to measure you first…just so I could compare! And let me tell you, Steve, you did not disappoint!”

“Melissa,” began Steve weakly, as she stepped on the tape measure herself and began to pull it taut, right at the top of her head, “Melissa…what’s going on?? Please…please tell me that you and your…your team…that you guys know what’s going on!?”

“Well,” muttered Melissa, all business now as she measured her own height carefully, “I’ve gotta be honest with you Steve…we don’t…quite know what’s going on…just yet, but…aha! Look at that! 5’9! Grew an era inch during the night! Can you believe it!?”

“N-not really,” Steve managed to say. Melissa held down the measuring tape to him, grinning, and he saw that her thumb was right on the “69-inch” marker. He blinked and rubbed his eyes; it certainly didn’t help that the last thing he had seen before he had closed his eyes was Melissa’s stacked tits, all stuffed up into that ridiculously tight black top. That long, tight line of her cleavage…god it looked so good…he wanted to put his hands in there put his face in —

But what on earth was he thinking!? This was Melissa he was thinking about! His awkward, nerdy stepmother! He rubbed his eyes some more and opened them, but was then immediately treated to the abrupt and arresting sight of his stepmother’s fat ass, with the tape measure now wrapped around her thick hips. She was doing some kind of a slow, languorous dance as she measured herself. Did she know he was watching!? Did she even care?? Or was all of this for his benefit!? Steve had no idea, and none of the options made him feel reassured in his own ability to control himself.

“Mrrrrghhhh, oh wooowwwwww,” purred Melissa, gyrating herself back around sexily as she continued twerking slowly with the measuring tape around her hips. “I’ve got a 44-inch ass now, Steve….oooooh baby, whaddya think of that, huh?”

At the word “that,” Melissa had given her left butt cheek an almighty smack, sending incredible ripples of voluminous female flesh quivering out in all directions. Steve’s eyes bugged out, and he had to make a point to turn away and begin chastising her, just to distract himself from the onrush of lustful thoughts.

“Ok…OK Melissa, god!” he burst out, shaking his head as he stared hard at the paper towel holder on the counter. “I GET it, ok? You’re bigger…I’m smaller. That’s…that’s pretty clear now. But you…y-you and your team don’t know…uh…what’s…what’s going on?”

“I mean…we’ve got some leads,” Melissa replied with a dose of humor. She was cupping her big breasts now, which had to be at least DD’s, and she was bobbing them up and down, up and down, like they were fun toys that she only now was getting the chance to play with. She quickly noticed that Steve’s eyes had been drawn to them, and so she responded by bobbing them up and down faster, all the while staring down at him with big, wide eyes, as her smile expanded playfully.

“But as far as conclusions, nothing yet,” she finished. “Mmmm, say Steve, you like these? You like em’, huh? A bit bigger than when you saw them last, right?”

“I…l-look, Melissa,” stuttered Steve. He was now getting quite red in the face, and he managed to peel his eyes away from Melissa’s chest and stare very hard at the fruit bowl on the counter. “I…I’m getting kind of uncomfortable here, ok?”

“Awww,” he heard her coo down at him. He felt her body approaching his, and a moment later, he felt the luscious, firm volume of her hip rubbing up against his elbow. He started backing away, but quickly found that she had backed him straight up into the counter. His eyes darted upward, and he saw that his stepmother was now grinning down at him flirtatiously as she approached him slowly, her bare feet on the kitchen floor. Steve was again struck by how hot she looked, and how imposing, but a second after, she stumbled forward again, having almost lost her balance once more. All of a sudden, Melissa’s body was pressing straight into his, crushing him lightly in between her and the counter. He felt her thick, wide hips right around the top part of his stomach, and Steve immediately saw how much wider she was than him — her hips extended out on either side of his body…by several inches on both sides. And all that flesh was shaking in self-deprecating, mirthful laughter. But Steve couldn’t even see her face now — he was staring straight forward into her collarbone.

“Hahahaha oh my GOD!” Melissa cried, taking big breaths in between her laughter. “I'm SUCH a klutz!! Oh jeeez, hahahaha…ok…ok…whew!”

A few seconds passed by; Melissa had stopped laughing, but her body was still pressed hard into Steve’s. The time continued to pass by, and with each passing second, the situation became more and more inappropriate. Steve could feel himself getting harder and harder, and he was about to finally say something when Melissa finally pushed herself off him, reeling a bit before striking another sexy pose with her hands in her hips. This time, she nailed it without trouble.

“So Steve,” she declared, looking down on him with something like amusement…or was it hunger?! “I think you and I should do some body comparisons.”

“B-body comparisons!?” he stammered, his cock twitching in his pants.

“Mmhm!” nodded Melissa enthusiastically. “You know…for research.”