Tom had finally figured out what was wrong.

At first, he thought he’d just lost some weight. He’d realized one day that at some point, without giving it much thought, he’d started to cinch his belt one notch tighter than he had before. He wasn’t exactly complaining that he’d slimmed down a bit, but it seemed odd that he’d dropped the weight without making any changes to his routine. He’d been spending a little more quality time in the bedroom with Lily lately, but surely that wasn’t enough to explain it.

He would’ve just shrugged it off, except that he kept noticing other strange things too. He felt clumsier than usual, for one thing. Three times in the past week, he’d spilled his drink after misjudging the glass’ weight, and he kept tripping over the front step to the house. Yesterday, he’d had to readjust the mirrors in his car, even though Lily hadn’t driven it.

And now, today, while he was rifling through his closet to pick out a tie, it finally dawned on him that he was looking up at the underside of the top shelf. At 6’3”, his line of sight had always let him just barely see the topside of it, but today, he couldn’t do that without rising up onto his toes.

“Hey, Lily, could you come in here?”

“Just a sec!” He heard some light noise from downstairs, followed by a faint creaking on the steps before his wife appeared in the bedroom doorway.

Tom wasn’t just tall; he was big all over. He’d played football in high school, and his body still held on to a lot of the bulk he’d put on back in those days, though he’d traded in some muscle for love handles. Lily couldn’t be more different in that regard, standing only 4’9” with a rail-thin body. Tom outweighed her delicate 80-pound frame by nearly triple, and stood almost exactly 18 inches taller than her.

…Well, he was no longer so sure about that second part.

“What’s up, Tom?”

Now that she was here, Tom felt self-conscious about his question. She cocked her head curiously as he hesitated to speak.

“Lily, do I look… shorter, to you?”

Lily blinked, clearly not expecting this to be what was on her husband’s mind.

“It’s just that… I used to be able to see over the top of this shelf, and I just noticed that I can’t now.”

Lily stifled a small laugh. “Um… no, I can’t say you look any shorter.”

Tom had always loved Lily. They had dated through most of high school, but broke up after they were accepted at separate universities. Tom had dated around a bit, but never found anyone he enjoyed being with as much as her. They reconnected in their senior year, and he’d been thrilled to learn that Lily felt the same way. They got back together immediately after graduating, and got married only a few months later. Seven years on, he was still completely crazy about her.

If anything, his feelings had only gotten stronger. Especially lately; as Lily entered the room, sunlight from the window dancing through her vibrant red hair, Tom was completely mesmerized. There was just… something about her lately. He couldn’t really say what it was, but he could barely keep his hands off of her, and luckily, she seemed to feel the same way about him. For the past few weeks, he kept catching himself getting distracted at work, daydreaming about her slim, lithe body, her fiery head of hair, and her gorgeous emerald eyes. As she approached him now, he nearly forgot about why he’d called her up here in the first place…

…And then he suddenly remembered, turning his attention back to the shelf. Lily came up next to him, looking the same direction, as though the shelf itself might hold some clue.

“Maybe… you’re thinking of times when you’ve been wearing shoes?” she offered.

Tom shook his head. “I don’t really wear shoes upstairs.”

Lily leaned against his side, head resting on his lower chest. He instinctively wrapped an arm around her. “Well… you are gonna be 30 this year, hon. Sometimes people shrink a little as they age, especially tall people.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” 

“I mean, for what it’s worth, I’m changing as I get older too. I’m actually putting on a little weight for the first time since, like, the fourth grade.”

“Wait, really?” Tom looked his wife up and down, but she shrugged and shook her head.

“Just a couple pounds, not enough that anyone would notice. My point is just that, y’know, people don’t stay the same forever. Maybe you did get a little shorter, but I mean, who cares, right?”

“Yeah…” Tom replied, still looking at the shelf, thinking. Lily broke into a wry smile.

“I get it. You care,” she said, her words dripping with teasing accusation. “You care a lot. I never knew this about you.”

“What? No. Knew what about me?”

“I just never realized that you were one of those guys who obsessed over his height.”

Tom let go of Lily to turn toward her. “Whoa, I don’t know about obsessed, it just seemed a little weird—”

“Tom,” Lily interrupted. She stepped toward him again, wrapping her arms as best she could around his midsection, craning her neck all the way back and resting her chin on his chest to maintain eye contact. He draped his thick arms over her shoulders, feeling a warmth in his heart as he looked into her eyes. “Your very loving, very devoted wife got up early today to make you breakfast, and you’re letting it get cold while you fuss over whether you’re only six-foot-two-and-a-quarter now. That sounds at least a little obsessed to me.”

“I, that’s—” Tom stammered through a few more false starts while Lily just patiently smiled up at him. Eventually, he stopped, smiling back at her as he nodded in defeat.

“I guess this is kind of a dumb thing to complain about, huh? Especially to you.”

Lily shrugged, her smile breaking into a full grin. “Maybe a little. But I am a patient, sensitive partner who is always willing to listen to my husband share his feelings.” She affected an overly proper tone as she spoke, as though she were quoting relationship advice. Tom laughed, and she rose and fell with the motion of his gut, pinned as she was against it.

The two stared at each other silently for a moment. Tom’s hands slid down Lily’s waist, and her grin widened as he squeezed her butt. He briefly thought about calling in sick and taking her back to bed, but thought better of it; after all, he’d just pulled that move last week.

And besides, she’d mentioned that breakfast was getting cold. All of a sudden, he snapped into motion. Lily shrieked, first in surprise and then in laughter, as Tom hoisted her up and threw her over his shoulder. She playfully punched at his back as he carried her down to the kitchen table.

* * *

Lily was starting to run out of patience.

It had only been a few days later that Tom started going on about his height again. Something about having to fix the mirrors in his car; to be honest, Lily may not have paid as much attention as she should have. She felt bad that Tom was so anxious, but at the same time, the whole thing just felt a bit silly to her. She’d known Tom since high school and he’d really never been the “fragile male ego” type; apparently, she’d just never seen one of his buttons get pressed. If he really had gotten a little shorter, it was completely imperceptible to her, but it seemed to be the only thing he could think about.

Lily felt guilty that she was struggling to find much empathy for her husband’s anxieties. Tom was a huge sweetheart, and she’d never known him to be anything but a kind and loving husband. He was generous, thoughtful, and always put her needs first. That’s part of why this whole thing with his height was so bizarre; despite her best efforts to be sympathetic, she couldn’t help but see it as a bit vain and self-obsessed, words she’d usually never use to describe him. She never would have guessed that something so inconsequential could have done such a number on his psyche.

It was especially frustrating because recently, Lily just couldn’t seem to get enough of Tom’s body. There was just… something about him, lately. He’d always been attractive, big and broad and brawny, with coffee-brown eyes and hair, but in the past month or so she’d started picking up on something extra, something she couldn’t really place, but which made her want him more than ever before. He seemed to feel the same way about her, and they’d been having a great time together… until Tom started stressing out about his height. For one reason or another, that seemed to be the only thing that could take his mind off of her.

She didn’t mean to be dismissive, but this was driving her nuts. She’d be halfway through undressing him, when suddenly all he could think about was how his shirt seemed baggier than it used to be. She would desperately try to recover the momentum, and sometimes she was able to refocus his attention, but just as often there was no getting him back, and he’d go to bed moping while she went to bed unsatisfied. 

She was trying her best to be patient with him, but she was really getting tired of hearing about how he had to stretch a little further to reach something that she’d need a stepladder for. Maybe she was being a bit selfish herself, but Tom just wasn’t paying her the kind of attention he usually did, both in the bedroom and out. Eventually, she realized that no matter how many times she tried to gently assure him that his height was nothing to worry about, he wasn’t going to let it go. So, to try and set his mind at ease, she called their doctor to schedule an appointment, and scheduled her own yearly physical at the same time.

In fairness to Tom, the doctor was a little concerned about his height loss; Lily was right about it being a natural part of getting older, but it usually didn’t set in until middle age. And even then, Tom had lost a full two inches. Unless this had started years ago and Tom was only just now noticing, that was a lot faster than expected, and might suggest some kind of problem with his spine. Still, without any other symptoms, the doctor’s only advice was to do some daily back exercises and continue to monitor the situation.

That had been it for Tom’s appointment, but Lily’s was a little more eventful than she’d expected.

It started when the nurse weighed her at 91 pounds. Lily balked; she knew she’d been putting on a little weight lately, but more than ten pounds? She ran her hands down her body, but it felt just as slim and slight as ever. Where was the weight going?

Maybe all of Tom’s fretting had put the subject in her head, but she decided to ask the nurse to check her height. The nurse shrugged and gestured to the chart next to the scale. He marked Lily at 59 inches tall.

Lily inhaled sharply through her nose. She’d been 4’9” since grade school, and now, she was 4’11”.

The surge of exhilaration she felt took her by surprise, and she struggled not to show it outwardly, breaking into a grin for a split second before forcing her face back into a neutral expression. 4’11”! She repeated the number to herself in her head over and over as the nurse scribbled some notes in her chart.

She realized that she definitely couldn’t let Tom know how excited this made her; it would probably just make him more anxious, and besides, she might sound like a bit of a hypocrite, with how much she’d been trying to downplay his height loss.

Was she being a hypocrite?... No. No! Tom had always been huge, and he still was huge. But Lily… her entire life, Lily had been the smallest person in any room she walked into. That was 30 years of short jokes, 30 years of patronizing condescension, and 30 years of people singling her out to pick on because of how small and frail she was. Bullies in high school used to grab her and lift her up onto the top of the lockers, where she couldn’t get down until someone (usually Tom) showed up to help her. And then in college, she had not one, not two, but three IDs confiscated by bouncers who refused to believe that someone as small as her could really be 21. Even as an adult, she was talked down to everywhere she went, and if she ever complained about it, people would have the gall to try and tell her that she was just imagining things.

No, this was completely different from Tom’s bruised ego. She had every right to be excited. To be sure, 4’11” was still tiny, but maybe those extra inches would give her some reprieve from all the little indignities and inconveniences she’d endured throughout her life. And besides… maybe it was still on-going! Maybe her body was deciding to make up for lost time, and she was finally hitting her teenage growth spurt 15 years late! Okay, probably not… but maybe she at least had a shot of reaching five feet even!

The rest of the appointment went quickly. The doctor noted her height increase, but didn’t pay it much mind; growth spurts at Lily’s age were extremely rare, but not unheard of, and much like Tom’s shrinking, it wasn’t anything to worry about in isolation.

On the drive home, Lily stared out the passenger window, doing her best to mask her excitement. Tom cleared his throat, eager to fill the silence.

“So, your appointment go okay?”

“Hm?” Lily turned to look at Tom. “Oh, yeah. Nothing to report, really… Well. Actually, um… there was one thing. It uh, it turns out that I’ve actually gotten a little taller!”

“You… you got taller?”

Lily shrugged, realizing her mistake and hoping now to play it off. “Yeah, I… I grew two inches, apparently. It’s not a big deal, the doctor said it happens sometimes.” Why did I even say anything?

“Two inches…” Tom repeated. They drove in silence for several minutes, Lily shifting awkwardly in her seat. She looked over at Tom a few times, but he seemed to be deep in concentration.

“You know…” he finally said. “I uh. I’ve lost two inches. And you… you said you’ve gotten two inches taller?”

Lily furrowed her brow. “Oh, huh. Yeah. I… hadn’t even thought about that.” She hadn’t. That was a little odd.

More silence. Tom seemed like he wanted to say something but was holding it back.

“I mean, it’s just a coincidence, right?” Lily finally offered.

“Right, no, obviously, of course!” Tom had responded a little too quickly.

“I mean, there’s no way they could be related. Your spine and my pituitary gland don’t have anything to do with each other.”

“Right, right…” Tom replied, trailing off as he retreated back into his thoughts. Lily’s shoulders slumped; she’d hoped this doctor’s visit would put him at ease, and instead it was starting to look like it just made things worse.

She decided to try and force a change of subject. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. We had to get up early to make it to the doctor’s office. I dunno about you, but I wouldn’t have minded staying in bed a little longer. What do you say, when we get home, we… make up for lost time?” She placed a hand on his thigh.

“I dunno, Lily.”

“Oh come on, Tom! You took the day off work for this appointment, so we have the entire afternoon to ourselves. Wouldn’t it be a shame to let it go to waste?”

He didn’t answer right away. She leaned toward him, slid her hand around to his inner thigh, and slowly crept upward. She leaned even further, fighting her seatbelt to get as close to his ear as she could.

“I’ll let you do anything you want with me,” she whispered in a low, breathy voice. Tom’s chest expanded as he inhaled, and Lily grinned as she felt him stiffen through his pants.

That was all the convincing he needed.

Lily kept her hand right where it was the rest of the ride, occasionally giving Tom a small squeeze to remind him of what he had in store when they got home. As they pulled into the driveway, she had barely stepped out of the car before Tom scooped her up in his arms. He kissed her passionately as he carried her, stopping only briefly to get the front door open. He took her upstairs, and Lily laughed as he literally tossed her onto the bed. She had just enough time to get her top off before he descended upon her. A moan of pleasure escaped her lips as he wrapped a hand around each of her wrists, pinning her to the mattress as he planted kisses across her neck and chest. Lily loved the feeling of being held down like this. She squirmed and struggled against his grip, not to try and get free, but to feel just how impossible it would be to escape. Tom’s powerful arms completely overwhelmed her own, and she was unable to budge them even a single inch as his mouth slowly worked its way down her torso.

She tilted her head back and closed her eyes, enjoying the iron vice of his hands and the soft warmth of his lips and tongue. 

And then she opened her eyes again, a thought flashing through her mind. It was a thought she'd never had before: the thought that it was too bad that she never got a turn holding him down.