Chapter 3: December 8, 2028- First Date

Cameron and Rory’s chemistry only deepened when she took him home to Shrunken Spokane the night of the speed dating event. He sat inside her ear so they could maintain an audible conversation over the sound of her car’s engine. Keeping him in her ear was her idea, and as soon as she’d said it, she backtracked, saying she was self-conscious about how much earwax she may or may not have had.

“Won’t it be noticeable for you? It must be kind of gross to be in someone’s ear. I only suggested it so we wouldn’t have an awkward, silent ride back.”, she said, furiously cleaning out her ear with a tissue while he sat in her hand.

“Nah, it’s OK. I’m sure it’s clean enough.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“I never in a million years thought I’d ever say this but, I’d love to go inside your ear, Rory.”

She giggled uncontrollably at his eagerness. He got the sense that she hadn’t laughed that hard in a while.

Once he was in her ear, the two wasted no time carrying out a lively tête-à-tête with one another. They talked work, friends, past relationships and even some size politics. Rory was of the belief that men should be equal to women, which at this late stage of the virus was quite progressive of her.

In a few short years, after damn near all men on earth had shrunk, countries around the world began enacting a two-tiered system that placed the former fairer sex squarely in charge of all men and their tiny little butts.

In the US for example, men under a foot tall could no longer hold any federal, state or local public office. And it went further than that, with some women actively kicking men while they were down. Amid her run for the White House, the current female president was fond of blasting out ads with her two-inch-tall husband in a cage dangling from her neck. The tagline was always “men should be seen, not heard.” All of this got Rory surprisingly outraged.

“I mean it’s just crazy that shrunken guys have no one who looks like them legislating on their behalf!” Rory yipped, starting to get worked up. “Us girls were complaining that we had old white men making laws on abortion not even 10 years ago and now that the shoe’s on the other foot, we took all the power for ourselves!”

There was a lull in the conversation. Not because there wasn’t anything Cameron didn’t want to say. Not at all. He was just taken aback at her passion for his rights getting “trampled on” as she had said numerous times and was taking a moment to admire her conviction.

“Oh god, was I too loud? Did I scare you in there? I didn’t mean to get so animated.”

Cameron shifted around in her ear canal to let her know he was still there and in fact OK.

“I know you can’t see my face right now, but I’m actually smiling,” he said.

“Really? So, I didn’t offend you? I hope I’m not being too much of a height knight.”

“I’m not offended at all. And as much as it pains me to admit it, men like me need height knights. The only reason I’m anywhere in life now is because of tall, strong women that rescued me in sticky situations. And more men agree with me than you would think.”

“OK then, I guess I’ll continue fighting for the littlest among us.”

He could hear her grin, which made him smile like an idiot too.

When Rory arrived at Shrunken Spokane, she carried him to the checkpoint, which was staffed by the two overnight female guards, Cindy and Tracy. They were hard sons of bitches. Cindy was ex-Secret Service and Tracy was in the army. He was certain each of them could have kicked his ass nine ways to Sunday even at his old six foot three.

He’d gotten to know them decently well since he moved in, as it was their responsibility to receive him when came back from outside the complex. It was also entirely within their discretion whether they would release him into the custody of a visitor. Currently, Cameron’s mom was the only approved person, which he realized right at that moment, might throw a wrench into his and Rory’s upcoming date.

He, sitting in a crevice of Rory’s right palm, was way too far away to tell her that she ought to make a good impression on Cindy and Tracy. Her hand was level with her bellybutton, and his voice didn’t carry that far. He felt like a teenager again auditioning his new lady friend in front of his parents.

Rory greeted them warmly, and their response was icy.

“What is your name and which tenant are you escorting?” one of them asked. With them being so high up, it was hard to tell which one was asking the questions. Cameron stood up in Rory’s hand, craning his neck at the three female heads way up in the clouds. All he could see were protruding chests, necks and chins.

“I’m Aurora, and I have Cameron here in my hand. I don’t know his last name; I just met him tonight.”

“How did you meet him?”

“At a bar in town. I’m just dropping him off for the night.”

“Did he come with you willingly?”

Rory’s audible gasp suggested she wasn’t ready for that question. Nonetheless, she regained her composure quickly and answered.

“Yes, he came with me willingly.”

“What are your intentions with him going forward?”

Rory’s neck flared with striations, uncomfortable at the pointedness of the women’s questions. Cameron had the impulse to try and jump up and down to get one of the attention of one of the women, but he knew that that was fruitless. Rory was on her own.

“I’m sorry but, isn’t that a little personal? All I’m doing is dropping him off.”

Cameron, having studied the giantesses above him for more than a minute now, believed Tracy was the one to reply.

“And all we’re doing is our job, which is to keep him safe. Shrunken Spokane hasn’t had a single security breach since the community’s inception, and we aren’t about to let that change, ma’am. So, I ask again. What are your intentions with Cameron, who appears to be,” she glared down at him, “a half incher. As you can probably guess, based on his extreme diminutiveness, he’s among our most vulnerable protectees.”

Cameron realized that Tracy didn’t remember him, which didn’t surprise him upon further examination. There were thousands of men who lived in Shrunken Spokane.

“I understand. It’s just that, I’m not really sure what my intentions with him are yet. I just met him. I can tell you that we plan to go out on a date next week.”

“Which day?” Cindy asked.

“Honestly, we haven’t decided on a specific day yet.”

“Decide with him now, and we’ll happily release him into your custody for a date night,” Cindy said.

“I really have to decide right this moment?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison, and Tracy continued, “It’s imperative that we have a record of when particular tinies are being picked up by outsiders, especially outsiders they haven’t known long. As we’ve explained, it’s for their safety.”

With that, Rory’s attention shifted, with her massive snow-white face angling downwards at him. At the same time, she was slowly lifting her hand. Slow enough to tell him that she had experience handling tinies as small as him. That was because quick, sudden movements made shrunken men extremely nauseous.

In his case, it was a bit more serious than a little nausea. If a woman zipped him around in her hand fast enough, his body could experience enough G-force to instantly kill him. His family doctor told him about that harrowing reality at age 24 during his first physical as a half inch tall man.

“Am I correct in assuming you’re not a fighter pilot?” Dr. Vicky Davis had asked him all those years ago. “That’s the only way you’d be able to survive the 9G’s the typical woman is capable of generating on a body as small as yours.”

Rory certainly wasn’t putting him at that kind of risk, though, deep down, he knew she was capable of it. He didn’t know if she knew how fragile he truly was. On a commonsense level she surely had an idea, since she was treating him to a gentle, smooth elevator ride up to her eye so they could chat properly.

Once he was in line with the blue and gray swirls of Rory’s iris, she blinked a few times to wet her eyes. This inadvertently led to him getting thrashed by her formidable lashes. He staggered backwards in her hand, falling onto his butt.

“Oh my god, did I hurt you?! With my…eyelashes?”

He stood back up, this time a safe distance from the living flogs attached to her colossal face. He shot her smile; one she could see clearly for the first time since they met.

“I’m pretty delicate, but I can handle those things.”

“You sure? You dodged them like your life depended on it, hehehe,” she tittered.

“You just…caught me off guard is all.”

“As tiny as men are now, they still have a shocking amount pride,” she retorted with a raised brow.

He heard a snap in the distance. Both Cameron and Rory snapped their heads to the source of the sound, only to find the impatient faces of Cindy and Tracy staring back at them. It seemed that they weren’t going to allow the pair to flirt with one another all night.

“OK, right,” Rory remembered what they needed to do. “Does this Friday at six work for you? How ‘bout the classic dinner and a movie?”

“I thought a goth girl like you would have a more out-of-the-box date idea, but that works for me.”

“Oh, forgive me for not taking your ‘delicate’ little butt to a metal concert for our first date.”

“It’s all good. Maybe that’ll be our sixth date.”

“Wow! That confident we’ll make it to six, are we?”

Cindy and Tracy were silently ordering the two of them to quit their banter with their eyes, and they could feel it. Cameron decided to say goodbye first, not wanting to anger his protectors more than he already had.

“I have a good feeling about this, Rory. That being said, I better go.”

“Yes, OK. See you soon, Cameron. Text me when you’re safe in your apartment. Or, uh, don’t. I don’t know if we’re there yet…”

“I’ll text you, don’t worry.”

Even though her mouth was completely obstructed by the fleshy floor beneath him that was her palm, her smile was written all over her eye. He was still amazed at how expressive they often were on people up close.

Rory went up to the guards and touched her open hand with Tracy’s, giving the tiny man a bridge back to his home.

“Sorry for dilly-dallying with the little guy, ladies. I know you’re both busy holding down this fort,” Rory felt the need to say.

They said nothing, only waiting for Cameron to hustle across Rory’s hand to Tracy’s. He was running at full speed, wanting the awkwardness that hung in the air to dissipate as quickly as possible. And after his 15 second trek across a sweaty, nervous palm into a comparatively bigger, drier one, five impossibly huge digits encircled him like the canopy on a football stadium.

“Thanks for returning him, Aurora. We’ll be expecting you later this week.”

Friday couldn’t come any sooner. Cameron and Rory texted incessantly while they waited to see each other again.

Meanwhile, news of Cameron picking up a hottie at the speed dating event and leaving with her spread quickly. Ironically, they meant Jessy. None of them had seen Rory, and none of them were aware how close he came to being abducted by Jessy. Still shaken up by the events at the bar that night, Cameron put up his guard, withdrew from his friends and felt no need to correct their assumptions about his love life. He instead took comfort in Rory’s attention. Even if it was just in the form of blue text bubbles.

There were so many times throughout the week that he wanted to call her. There were also times he wanted to FaceTime her and show off his apartment. Little did he know, he’d get his wish.

On Friday evening, just as he was getting ready for his date night, there was a resounding thump on his window. He rushed out of the bathroom, not wanting to inconvenience Cindy or Tracy, one of whom were likely outside his apartment waiting to bring him to Rory.

But it wasn’t Cindy, nor was it Tracy. It was Rory herself at his window. Well, mostly her eye and a bit of her nose, which filled his view entirely, but he could tell it was her.

Still in shock, he hurried over to his window to open it for her. She stepped back quite a bit since she initially spotted him inside his humble little abode, giving him a more complete view of her face. And boy was she gothed up.

She was wearing a black choker with little spikes all around. Just seeing the shiny points protruding from her neck was enough to make him shiver.

Butterflies quickly accompanied his trembling when he laid eyes on her gorgeously huge, yet effortless smile. One that easily stretched as long as three of him, if not more. He smiled back, even though he was sure she couldn’t see it from where she was crouched.

This was the first time he was seeing her in broad daylight, and it made quite a difference. The sun’s rays reflected off her brilliantly white skin, making her look almost angelic. That is, if it weren’t for her lips and eyes, both of which were painted black.

Her hair too, was just as black as when they’d first met, though its style was quite different, which made him wonder if she’d gotten it cut just for him. Now, she had bangs curtaining her forehead right down to her eyebrows, whereas before, her hair was much longer and worn down and to the sides. Beyond that, she had a high ponytail that soared high into the sky and then back down into the seemingly endless strands below. She had such voluminous hair and so much of it that he was afraid that if he ever ended up on her head somehow that he would drown in it.

All these observations and more were racing through Cameron’s head as he opened the window to greet his stunning date. She leaned in closer, once again completely cutting off his view of the world and purred a hello. He, on the other hand, remained frozen and silent.

“What’s the matter, nothing to say?” she asked.

“Humanah humanah humanah comes to mind,” he said, staring at the one quadrant of her face he could see from this close up.

Her proceeding laugh sent shockwaves through the building. He’d never experienced an earthquake before, but he was sure that the rumbling sensation radiating through the floor and into his entire body was exactly how one felt.

She eventually noticed how unstable he was on his feet and asked what was wrong.

“Your laugh, Rory. It shook the whole building.”

She started to laugh again, but covered her mouth and did her best to stifle her apparent case of the giggles.

“Really? I hope I didn’t piss off your neighbors,” she said between fits of suppressed laughs.

“Well even if you did, what are they going to do about it?”

She started to laugh again but caught herself. “You little! You need to stop making me laugh until I’m at least a safe distance away from your building, jeez!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll try to dull my dazzling comedic talent for the time being.”

“You better, because if I laugh again, this entire building is coming down with you in it.”

After commenting on how homey and comfortable his apartment looked, Rory offered a hand. Excited and nervous for what was to come, Cameron carefully climbed the windowsill and onto her outstretched fingers.

She waited until he was safely in the middle of her palm before she attempted to engage with him again. When he arrived, he gave her a thumbs up. Upon receiving his signal, Rory sent her face careening toward him like an asteroid, causing him to trip and fall onto his back.

“Did I move too fast? Did I startle you?” she asked once his little voice was in earshot.

“A little bit, yeah. But don’t worry about it.”

“Sorry, I’m still learning. Now, before we go, do you mind if I put you on the ground for a second? I need to put on my special earrings, and I need both hands to do it.”

“Your ‘special’ earrings?”

“You’ll see. Now, do you mind? I’ll be really careful.”

“OK, just…put me in the roped off area.”

Rory dropped her gaze, probably a bit disappointed that Cameron didn’t fully trust her not to take a wrong step and crush him to a pulp. In the end, she seemed to understand and complied with his request.

He enjoyed the way down, getting to see more of her slender, lithe body than ever. He normally didn’t see any woman as slender, given that all of them were exponentially bigger than him now. Rory was the exception. Her daintiness was still apparent despite her obviously superior size. For instance, her clavicles and upper ribs were showing beneath her delightfully thin black shirt. The skintight top, which was extraordinarily low cut, pushed her boobs up and out. He imagined her trying to stuff her tits into it and failing.

Not wanting to spring a full boner right away thinking about her exceptionally large breasts, he focused on her bare legs. He had a prime view of them from the knee down since Rory was still on her haunches. As her hand moved closer to the ground, he watched intently as her legs just kept going. It was almost inconceivable to think that at one point in his life, he was likely taller than her. Now, he was in her hand — the length of a basketball court to him — being placed on the ground next to her, whose legs, heel to knee, were as tall as the Statue of Liberty. And that didn’t even account for the rest of her legs, or the rest of her body, all of which were even longer than the one part of her leg.

She was impossibly gigantic. Just like every other woman but somehow not. Yes, she was huge, but she was friendly and respectful and approachable in a way no woman post-shrinkage had ever been to him. They were refreshing qualities in a woman, and he was amazed at how seriously she took him despite their yawning size gap.

Of course, when Cameron actually touched his feet down to the grassy earth and left the comfort of Rory’s hand, suddenly “approachable” wasn’t the word he’d describe her as. Especially when she stood up. Comparisons to the Statue of Liberty no longer did her justice. She was more akin to the average New York skyscraper or perhaps the Eiffel Tower. And he was akin to the tourist dumbly gazing up at her stunning majesty and beauty. The major difference between her and a skyscraper was she had a tight little ass that wasn’t doing a good job of hiding itself underneath her mini skirt. And instead of having fancy revolving doors, she had feet that were jammed into open-toed black stilettos. Standing about twenty feet from her heels, he could tell that he wasn’t even as tall as platform of her shoe in the front.

It was hard not to feel inadequate in the face of a being so clearly superior to him. As he fell into a trance marveling at the goddess before him, he thought back to their conversation in the car ride home last week about politics. It occurred to him that her rant about how men should be equal to women was fabulously idealistic. And while he appreciated her sentiment, he understood that men simply couldn’t be equal to women anymore. Women had to take the lead for the sake of humanity’s survival, and the law that banned tiny men from holding office was just a recognition of that reality.

He wondered right then, looking on at her pinky toe that dwarfed him and outweighed him ten times over, if Rory thought he or a man as small as him with political ambitions would be as effective of a leader as a woman. Any woman really. Or if she thought he was capable of great things, or even mediocre things.

If she did, maybe she was the perfect woman for him. A natural counterweight to his own skepticism of his human worth.

Before he knew it, her hand was back on the ground, ready to pick him up. She used a come-hither gesture with her pointer finger that he did not ignore.

It was hard to underestimate the length of time it took just to pick Cameron up. Altogether, from him climbing her finger to running into her palm to lifting him in a safe, controlled manner, it easily took 60 seconds. Just so the budding pair could speak to one another.

“So, I know we talked about my disdain for the president’s shrunken man cage ads, so please forgive the irony of what I’m about to propose,” she said.

“I’m listening.”

“Do you see the earrings I’m wearing?” she asked, pulling back her thick black hair to reveal them. They were strange looking. Not at all like earrings he’d ever seen. Instead having a cute little something dangling from them, they had a cage that was attached to the piercing and was situated unusually high. It was right next to the ear canal.

“Yeah, I see them.”

“OK, well, I really enjoyed our conversation in the car, and I thought it might be a little less awkward for us if I found a better alternative than putting you in my ear. That’s where the earrings come in!”

It clicked with him suddenly. He was going inside one of them. So, she could hear him.

“I take it from your expression that you understand where I was planning on putting you?”

“Wow, you can see my face from there? Good eyes. And uh, yeah, I put it together.”

“Are you OK with it? If not, I can put you in my ear again while we’re in the car. Though, I’d rather not.”

He remembered how uncomfortable she was with him being in her ear, so he relented.

“I can go in your earring. It’s no problem.”

“Have any preference on which side?”

“Do one of your ears hear better than the other?”

She giggled, though more reserved this time now that she knew her laughs had the potential to shake a building from its foundation. “Touché, little man.”

After asking for permission, Rory grabbed him by the shirt with shocking precision and lowered him inside the earring cage. She then closed the top, sealing him in with no hope of escape. Realizing he was trapped in an enclosure big enough to hold a dozen men his size was a sobering thought. Even more sobering a thought was that his prison was attached to a human woman’s ear, hundreds of feet of the ground.

Thankfully, he could see out, so it wasn’t claustrophobic in the slightest. It was actually quite the change in perspective. Before she turned her head, he got a glimpse of his apartment building from what was basically her normal vantage point, and boy, did it look a hell of a lot smaller from up there.

“Shout if you’re OK!” she yelled, shaking him from his thoughts.

“I’M OK!”

“Fantastic,” she said as she casually walked through the grassy fields of Shrunken Spokane toward the entrance. “And we’re off, Cameron!”

***

Like Rory said, they were off. And Cameron was along for the whole ride. She graciously tucked her hair behind her ear so he could see everything she could see. For the first time in years, he could actually see out the windshield of a car and watch the road disappear underneath him. He almost cried remembering the freedom of owning and being able to drive a car.

The two arrived at their chosen restaurant right on time for their reservation. They’d picked it because they were one of the few places in town that menus catered to shrunken men as small as him. Still, he was worried there would be a problem since men his size didn’t usually go to restaurants.

They, well really Rory, walked up to the hostess’ desk and told her of their reservation for two.

The lady briefly looked around Rory for another person before understanding the situation and smiling warmly. “I take it you’re accompanying a shrunken man. No worries at all. We have accommodations for men of all sizes. Where is he on you?”

“He’s, uh, in my earring actually,” Rory said, lightly tapping the bars that kept him nice and safe and nice and confined.

“Mind if I say hello? I like to acknowledge all our patrons regardless of their size.”

“Knock yourself out. He’s a half incher so it might be hard to hear him. His name is Cameron.”

The hostess wasted no time in dominating all the available space in front of him and saying a sickeningly sweet hello.

“Nice to meetcha, Cameron! I promise you that we will be on top of your every need, big and small. All you have to do is ask! Or, I guess, get your lady to ask for ya since it’ll be a bit of chore to hear your little voice.”

Cameron, not knowing what to say or do, just gave the beaming lady a thumbs up and hoped she would go away.

Once Rory got to the table, she took off the earring he’d been residing in for the past half hour or so. She gently placed it, with him still inside, on the table and popped the top lid, allowing him to crawl out. A few feet in front of him, he saw a perfectly scaled table and chair. As he approached his seat, he ran his hand along the edge of the table and appreciated his flawless place setting. The plate, the silverware and the glass were even more naturally sized than the ones in his apartment. It turned out the hostess wasn’t kidding when she said this place accommodated men of all sizes.

Upon sitting down, Cameron got his first view of Rory, whose surging feminine form was all encompassing. As in, if he looked all the way left or right, it was impossible for her to not be in view. He imagined what her view of him must have been like. It was probably like looking at a stray M&M or something.

But for him, she was a veritable mountain range that ate up his entire horizon. And she was sitting down. Nonetheless, he didn’t have his handy dandy raised platform like he did at the speed dating event, which meant that his gaze gravitated to her upper midriff instead of, well, her eyes. Her eyes may as well have been on the ceiling because he had to crane his neck that far to see them.

He was so focused on her bigness that he almost didn’t notice that she was rummaging around in her purse underneath the table. Clutched between her fingertips was a miniature stand that held a microphone.

“For me?” he asked, before remembering that she couldn’t hear him at this distance.

As she placed it down in front of him, bending the arm so the mic was directly in front of his mouth, she explained, “I bought off Amazon the other day so we could communicate from a distance. I’m wearing the matching earpiece right now. Say something so we can test it.”

“Testing, testing, does my voice sound squeaky?”

“Phew! Thank God it works! And no, your voice sounds very…masculine. No need to worry.”

“So, you’re telling me I don’t sound like Mickey Mouse?”

“If we’re talking Disney, I gotta say, you sound a whole lot more like Kronk than Mickey Mouse. You know from—”

“The Emperor’s New Groove? Yes, I’m very much familiar.”

After an unexpected three-minute-long Disney tangent fizzled out, Rory and Cameron were left with nothing but themselves and their menus on an incredibly unusual date. The two cycled glances at one other and their menus for quite some time. Eventually, absent a peep from the giant wall of woman before him, Cameron posed the first real question.

“So, I have to know…why me? Why when you could easily pull a dude much bigger did you decide to go out with me?”

Her belly receded inward as she sucked in a huge breath, slightly exposing her some of her ribs. This only reminded Cameron of her slender figure, which was doubly amazing given her quite sizable breasts. She really hit the genetics jackpot.

“You want the real answer or the sugarcoated one?” she asked rather bluntly.

Cameron wasn’t sure he could handle the unvarnished truth this early in the process. “Maybe a mix of both?”

“I’ve been dating guys that are exclusively bigger than you. I think the lowest I’ve gone is to maybe a six incher and the highest was two feet tall. You have to understand, finding bigger men that don’t have an ego problem is nearly impossible. It’s like they think they’re the new upper class because they tower over guys like you. They then seem to forget that I am double their height and would kick their ass without even trying. Not that I want to do that, but wow are some of these dudes full of themselves. I’m not interested in that anymore.”

Cameron could tell she wasn’t done, but their waitress interrupted to take their drink orders. Not wanting to make things difficult for the staff, he ordered a water. Rory got a glass of wine.

“So, as you were saying…”

“Right, yes. I was beyond sick of these mini alpha males not seeing the irony of acting all macho in front of me. I wanted to find someone who was not so up his own ass and someone who wanted to carry on an actual relationship instead of using a date with me to get brownie points or tend to their wounded ego after being shrunken.”

Their drinks came, and Cameron was once again blown away by the unbelievably meticulous lengths this restaurant went to to make sure his experience was as normal as possible. A perfectly sized glass filled with ice cold water was gently set in front of him. Opposite him, of course, a 12-story-tall stemmed glass swirling with more red wine than he could ever hope to drink was rocketed down on Rory’s side of the table.

The two had a cheers from a distance, each taking a sip. He couldn’t help but glance up at the ungodly amount of liquid tumbling from Rory’s glass into her gaping mouth. These were the types of things he’d never get used to.

Even Rory putting her glass back down on the table sent shockwaves through the wood that he definitely felt the full force of. He’d have to get used to that and not get shaken out of his seat every time she took a drink.

“So back to my ego being fully in check,” Cameron said, wanting to get the conversation on track before the waitress came back to get their food orders.

Laughing at his sarcasm, she continued, “Forget about all that ego talk, OK? I’ve been sorta avoiding your question until I got some wine into me. And I, uh, can’t believe I’m about to tell you this, but the real reason I decided to go out with you is because I was jealous seeing you and that Jessy girl chatting it up. I almost never get jealous, let alone jealous of not getting a stranger’s attention.”

“Really?! You were jealous?”

“Sure was. And then to hear that she wasn’t even into you and was planning to use you, God it made me so mad! Believe me, little guy, I wasn’t going into that night hoping to meet anyone. But you changed all that.”

All throughout her tirade about the evil woman pretending to be interested in him and her own growing feelings for him, Rory’s hands slid across the table closer to Cameron. So close in fact that her index fingers were flanking him on both sides. With him in a seated position, her fingers rose far above his head.

Touched by her words, Cameron extended his right arm and rubbed the side of her finger with his hand. From his angle, he couldn’t see her up to her nails nor could he see any of her other fingers besides her pointers. Again, he found himself overwhelmed by her bigness, prompting him to ask another question.

“Can you feel me?”

He craned his neck up and seeing her lips stretch into a smile gave him the answer he was hoping for.

“Of course, I can feel you. It’s nice. It kinda feels like an earthworm or a lady bug’s little feet on my skin.”

Instead of saying something to ruin the moment, he kept rubbing and grinning up at her until she pulled away.

There were lots more conversations after this, most of which were far more low stakes than the opening talk they had about why they were even here. He blamed himself for having the date start that way.

After their orders were taken, a bowl containing what had to be an entire loaf of bread cut into several pieces was set in the middle of them. The server apologized to Cameron, saying they didn’t have any appropriately sized bread portions. Well, more accurately, the waitress conveyed her apologies to Rory, the only one of the two capable of audibly talking back.

“You heard that, I assume?”

“Yep, no bread for me.”

“Uh, not so fast. Don’t pout. I will rip you a little itty-bitty piece.”

“I wasn’t pouting.”

She giggled. “I beg to differ. But I refuse to let you go without this,” she paused to take a massive bite, “delicious,” another bite, “airy,” another bite, “perfect piece of bread.”

Cameron’s cheeks heated up. He was flattered by her over-the-top concern for him. He muttered a sheepish thanks, which she acknowledged with a hair flip and a show-stopping smile. He had been ready to forgo the bread, but inside, he was overjoyed to eat the same food as a big person for the first time in months.

It took at least a dozen tears before she presented him with a suitable piece, and even still, it was a bit big. She’d even drizzled a drop of salted olive oil on his plate so he could have an authentic experience. His mouth watered as he dipped his crustless piece into the green pool on his plate. But biting into it was even better.

Something he’d taken for granted his entire life — Italian bread with olive oil — was now a delicacy.

“Ohhhh,” he said with his mouth full. “This is so good. Haven’t had this in ages. They don’t sell bread like this at the supermarket I’m stuck with. Thank you, Rory.”

“You are very, very welcome. Happy to help.”

Rory’s kindness extended into the main course, where she graciously fed him tiny pieces of her meal from her plate. He got to have wonderfully cooked steak for the first time in years. His mother usually didn’t bother cooking red meat, especially after he shrunk. So, this was a real treat for the little man.

And Rory seemed keenly aware of that. After feeding him what had to be his tenth miniscule piece of her steak, she had something to say.

“Enjoying yourself over there?”

“Oh my god, yes! Sorry if I’m neglecting you over there, it’s just that, this is so so good.”

“Oh, no need to apologize, little guy. This is all part of my master plan.”

He chuckled. “Your master plan?”

“You know what they say, right? The way to man’s heart is through his stomach. And I didn’t even have to cook for you!”

Sensing the mood shifting in a very obvious direction, Cameron came up with his own flirty retort.

“I’m sorry to say little lady, I’m a bit more complex than that. It’s gonna take more to woo me than some steak that’s, mmm, melting in my mouth,” he said amid a bite.

“This ‘little’ lady knows exactly how to woo you. Just you wait.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

She leaned down to get a better view of him, and the two swapped pining glances for a long while. She practically had her chin on the table, and he was seated normally, getting lost in all her individual pillowy black lips and her soothing sapphire eyes.

Eventually her beaming lips broke the silence, “I hope you don’t mind me getting this close. It’s just that I feel like this is the first time I’m getting a really good look at you. You’re so, so small.”

He took this opportunity to stand up and strike a goofy body builder pose. “Do you like what you see?”

Stifling a giggle they both knew could send him careening off the table, she nodded her head yes. He dropped the act quickly, knowing that he had to man up and compliment her in kind before the moment passed.

He got up from around his table and walked closer to her face. Wanting to get an even better view, she’d rested her head on one side, so her eye was level with him. His heart skipped a beat seeing the way she was looking at him.

“Rory, before I lose my nerve,” he said as he walked forward toward her eye, “I just wanna say that I think you are so beautiful. You have such a gorgeous smile, and you have your own unique style that you’re confident in. I find that super attractive. Just don’t come too close to me with that collar of yours, I don’t want to get impaled on one of the spikes.”

“That is so sweet of you to say, Cameron,” she said, though with her vastness, he couldn’t even see her lips moving in his peripheral view. “And I promise, you won’t be anywhere near my choker. If you want, I can take it off if it makes you nervous.”

“It actually does make me nervous, but it’s also kinda hot. I’m having trouble squaring those two things.”

“Really? It sounds like little Cammy might have a submissive streak.”

“Maybe, though it’s probably out of necessity. Being like this,” he gestured to his smallness as he continued to move ever closer to Rory’s eye.

“I have to know, how tall were you before? I want to know because I’m pretty tall for a girl. I’m five foot ten.”

“I was six foot three. We woulda been a hell of a power couple back in the day.”

“Undoubtedly,” she giggled yet again.

Now just inches away from Rory’s eye, he stood almost in a trance watching her pupil study his miniscule body up and down.

“You really are very handsome. I bet you used to get a lot of attention.”

“You know, I’ve been getting that a lot.”

“Don’t get too big of head on those little shoulders.”

“I’ll try, it’s just hard with you complimenting me nonstop.”

Apparently not knowing what to say to that, Rory stayed silent and continued gazing at him. He, on the other hand, couldn’t believe how well this was going. He decided to praise her yet again.

“I appreciate that you have your head down on the table so we can talk a little easier. I hope you’re not embarrassed to be like this. I feel like other people have to be wondering what you’re doing.”

She didn’t hesitate to show her confidence, “If the other people in this place think I’m weird for taking out a tiny man and properly conversing with him, then screw them.”

“Thanks, Rory” he said, crossing his arms and putting his head down, again overwhelmed by how self-assured she was. He didn’t think he had a shred of the courage she had even when he was full-sized.

As much as the two wanted to keep staring at each other, Rory’s belly eventually grumbled. That reminded them that eating was the second reason they were there. Rory picked her head up off the table and Cameron trekked back to his own table to finish his meal.

Soon enough, they polished off their plates and Rory likewise polished off her second glass of wine. Their empty plates and glasses signified to the waitstaff that they were ready for the check, and that was the first thing they argued over.

Cameron, being stuck in a time where men took women out, politely offered to pay. Rory countered that she was the one to really initiate the date, and that she felt she should pay.

It went back and forth for a while until it was Cameron who finally relented and allowed Rory to take care of the entire bill. He was truly afraid that he’d ruined his chances with her, but she seemed delighted to pay for the two of them. Maybe times really had changed while he was exiled on the shelf.

Before he knew it, he was back inside Rory’s earring, and they were on the way to a movie. Not having the faintest clue what was in the big people’s theater, Cameron had no choice but to trust whatever she chose.

At the ticket window, he again offered to pay but to no avail. She reminded him that she was taking him out, in front of the ticket booth attendant no less. The girl was more than a little confused that Rory was seemingly talking to herself, not knowing her companion was housed millimeters away from her ear. And probably even stranger for the attendant, Rory only bought one ticket despite clearly talking to someone. Someone completely invisible.

It turned out Rory wanted to see a horror movie. Specifically, a Christmas-themed slasher. The holidays were fast approaching after all.

“You sure you can handle this?” he teased from inside her earring as she walked to the concession stand.

“What? The movie? Of course, I can. I think? I don’t really see horror movies that much, but I picked this because nothing else looked good.”

“Just promise not to crush me in your hand when there’s a jump scare, OK?”

“I promise, little guy. I promise. Is there anything you want foodwise?”

“For me? I think a kernel of popcorn’ll do.”

She giggled, “Comin’ right up!”

It didn’t take long for Rory to get situated in her seat, which was unusually close to the screen. This, he assumed, was done for his sake because he knew that his tiny eyes wouldn’t be able to see the screen from the back of the theater. While he appreciated it, he was hoping for a bit more privacy, which the higher rows afforded. Honestly, he couldn’t care less about the movie. He cared about getting to know her.

Once he was back in her hand and out of her earring, she took out a cotton ball and placed it next to him.

“It’s for you to rest your head on. I felt bad that you wouldn’t be getting a normal seat,” she told him.

“Don’t feel bad at all, Rory. This is way better than a regular seat.”

“Hehehe, I’m glad! Do you want your popcorn now? I want to get this all out of the way before the previews start. I know they reduced the volume in theaters a couple years back to accommodate tinies, but I still don’t think I’ll be able to hear you when they start playing stuff.”

He thought about it. Any piece of popcorn she gave him would be over half his size if not bigger than his entire body. Either way, he’d be able to nibble on it for the entire runtime of the movie while she went to town on the bucket.

“Sure, I’ll take it now.”

Her hand descended into the popcorn bucket like a crane and out came a single piece, hanging from her fingers. With complete precision, she lowered it right next to Cameron but in a spot that it wouldn’t obstruct his view of the screen.

The coming attractions played for about fifteen minutes before the movie finally began. As the opening credits rolled, Cameron gave a brief glance upward only to see Rory’s eyes glued to the screen.

As the movie’s cast of soon-to-be-murdered characters were being introduced, he started wondering if a movie date with a giantess had been the best idea. The whole point of movie dates back when he was big was to initiate touching and closeness with whichever girl he decided to bring. That wasn’t really possible as far as he could tell. Sure, he could crawl around her hand and try to get her to feel him massaging her, but that didn’t seem the least bit sexy to him. A tiny little man worming around on a girl’s hand. It screamed desperate and pathetic.

So, he opted to actually lie down and watch the movie, while hoping Rory would initiate something. Though those hopes only served to make him realize that he was taking on quite a passive role in all of this. It felt wrong and right at the same time.

He shoved his conflictedness down to the depths of his stomach and attempted to focus on the movie.

It had a bit of a slow start. Several friends were renting a ski house days after December 25th. They began to hear ominous ho ho ho’s from the fireplace. It was dreadfully obvious where the plot was going, but Cameron was having fun watching it. The actresses were nice to look at and the men along with them, all of them above three feet but no taller than four feet, were competent enough actors. As a sidenote, men shorter than three feet were essentially blackballed from Hollywood since most female audiences didn’t want to see leading ladies converse let alone have romantic interactions with men approaching the size of small children.

The first camera shot of an evil Santa with bloodshot eyes came roughly 30 minutes into the movie. He was standing on the snow-covered roof and staring down the chimney with complete disgust. Why? Cameron didn’t care. He’d already decided that the shortest guy was going to get the axe first.

And right he was. The group of friends were playing charades in front of the toasty fireplace, and when it was shortest guy’s turn to do an impression of a basketball player — which got a laugh from the characters and the theater audience including Rory given that in a few short years, the NBA had transitioned into an all-female league — he was unceremoniously dragged through the flames and up the chimney with Santa’s reins.

Cameron laughed, and Rory jumped. It was noticeable, but her hand stayed surprisingly still. Her other hand came down to pet his head, as if to ask him if he was alright. He squeezed her finger pad with as much strength as he could muster to convey that yes, he was just fine.

Things took a turn for the worst when on screen, the shortest man’s smoldering body was dropped back through the chimney and into the fireplace igniting the flames once again. This jump scare was apparently too much for Rory. Her hand spasmed underneath him, throwing Cameron straight into the air. He flailed and thrashed, unable to control his ascent at all. And when he felt himself reach the apex of his flight, he looked down. He realized he was above Rory’s popcorn.

Cameron didn’t exactly breathe a sigh of relief, but he was no longer convinced he was headed toward sudden death. He plummeted down into the sea of salty kernels and made a rough landing. He didn’t sink into mass of popcorn, simply because he was so weightless that he didn’t displace any of the individual pieces.

Before he could regain his bearings, an unbelievably bright light shone in his face. He couldn’t figure out the source because the harsh rays blacked out everything around him. At first, he thought the projector was broken and somehow pointing down at him. A bit of quick thinking dispelled that notion, which only left one other possibility.

Rory was trying to locate him with her phone flashlight. And that hypothesis was confirmed when the other moviegoers began openly complaining to her and telling her to shut off her phone.

“Cameron!” she yelled in a hushed tone. “Are you OK?!”

He jumped up and down waving at her. “I’m fine!”

She didn’t hear him over the movie but saw him moving. Instead of sticking around, she walked out of the theater with him still on top of her popcorn.

Out in the well-lit, quieter hall, Rory lifted a butter-soaked Cameron out of the popcorn and closer to her face so they could converse.

“Are you OK?!” she asked once again.

“Yeah, I’m OK. Really, I am.”

“Are you sure? I feel terrible! I mean, you could have died! I just feel awful!

“It’s OK, Rory. Your body made an involuntary movement. You got scared. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Listen, I know you’re just saying all of that to make me feel better. I’d understand if you never wanted to see me again. I promise, I’ll take you home, and I won’t touch a hair on your head.”

She began crying, which attracted the attention of others. But he didn’t care about that. All he wanted was to convince Rory that they could get past this admittedly pretty fucked up situation they’d both endured. Yes, he could have died, but she would have been the one who would have had to live with the fact that she accidentally killed him.

“Rory, Rory. Listen to me. Did you know that my mom almost dropped me the first month after I shrunk all the way?”

Through sniffles and tears, she said, “No.”

“Well, she did. And if I hadn’t caught myself, I probably would have died. I was mad at her for a couple of days, and she kept profusely apologizing. Eventually, I realized that I needed her, and I forgave her. She never made the same mistake again.

“What I’m trying to say is, I need you Rory. Or just someone in general. I hope it’s you because I like you a lot. I’ve been a hermit for years after I got this small. Moving to Shrunken Spokane was the first conscious step to break free from that. And going out with you was the second. If I wasn’t willing to accept the risks of being with a person as big as you are, I wouldn’t have gone out with you and I would have stayed holed up in the sausage fest that is my building.”

She took a break from crying to let out a laugh at his last comment. She was still holding him up to her teary face.

“I know you’re going to make mistakes sometimes with me. But I want to try being with you anyway. Please forgive yourself, and let’s move on from this. I’m still here. I’m a strong guy. I’m a trooper. I can take anything you throw at me. I will say, you and I are banned from watching horror movies together though.”

Again, she laughed and this time, she decided to hug Cameron to her face. That meant pushing her finger pad into her cheek with him on it.

“I promise, promise, promise, promise that I will be super careful with you from now on. And I want you to tell me when I’m doing something…risky or unnecessary. OK?”

“Yes, I will,” he said with a muffled voice.

“Good,” she said, breaking the hug and lowering her hand so he was in her view again. “So I guess we’re not going back in to finish the movie, huh?”

“Nope,” he said. “And here I was, really looking forward to the climax.”

“Hey! I liked it.”

“Yeah, a little too much, I think,” he said, gesturing down to the butter that was still drenching his clothes.

“Touché, little guy. I really want this date to continue, but if you want me to take you back to your apartment so you can shower and go to bed, I’m fine with that.”

“No!” he yelled, before realizing how desperate he sounded. “You can just run me under some water and dry me off. I want to keep talking.”

“Oh my god, great! I know a great little café down the street that’s open late and serves dynamite Tiramisu. It’ll be perfect for us to just talk.”

“Sounds amazing. Take us there, Rory.”

“Say no more, Cameron.”