Chapter 44:

Audrey and I had discussed moving out to San Francisco over a dozen times in the last year or so. It was on the opposite side of the country, far, far away from where my life was irrevocably altered by Jackie and her final act of rage. We thought we could start fresh out there, build a life together. 

“You really took me to San Francisco?” I said in awe, now back to a foot tall in Audrey’s lap.

“Really. I did. And now that college is behind us, I’ll be taking baby where he wants to go a lot more often,” she said while gently patting my stomach. I was under her seatbelt, which pressed me hard up against her marshmallowy flesh. 

Our taxi driver was separated from us by a glass partition, which was especially nice because it meant Audrey and I could finally talk privately. As much as I enjoyed being in her pussy and her mouth, it was stimulating to simply converse with my girlfriend and Mommy. 

As soon as we got back to the hotel, I was put to bed. I protested, of course, not realizing how I sounded. 

“Mommy, I don’t want to go to bed! I want to stay up longer with you.”

Understandably, she giggled before shaking her head at me and tucking me into her sock. Yes. Her sock. That was where I slept now. And it was where I preferred to sleep. It was soft, cushiony, and faintly smelled of Audrey. 

“Mommy, please! I’m so excited! I want to stay up! It’s not fair! Why do you get to stay up?!”

“OK, I wasn’t going to say anything, Desmond, but listen to yourself! You sound like a little boy! You know I stay up longer than you because I need to read a book before I go to sleep. Trust me, you won’t be missing anything by going to bed now.”

“But what if I want to watch you read?”

“You can watch from your sock. Now, if I hear one more word out of you, you’ll be drinking store-bought milk tomorrow.”

That threat shut me up. I was practically addicted to Audrey’s milk. The thought of being deprived of it for even a single day was a terrifying prospect. 

“Good night, my itty-bitty boy.”

“Good night,” I said with a yawn, my eyelids already getting heavy.

The next day was full of adventure. Of course, Audrey did most of the work involved. Walking, opening doors, carrying my tiny body in various ways. But whenever I felt useless, she always reassured me by saying something like, “You’re doing your part by just being here with me.” The lovey-dovey stuff never failed to make my heart flutter.

I started my day with a boob in my mouth. She knew that was my favorite way to wake up. Once I was done suckling from her, I asked if she had eaten. It turned out, she had. She’d gorged herself on the continental breakfast in the lobby of our hotel. 

“Please tell me you left some food for other people,” I joked.

“You little twerp! I’m gonna tickle you for that!”

The tickle monster was out and about that morning, and she didn’t stop until I peed myself. But really, it didn’t matter too much because she washed me off in the sink anyway. 

Once I was clean and satiated, Audrey rented a bike and strapped me into my special harness. She wore me on her front. I basically just hung from the outside of her boobs, my legs swinging in the wind as she rode the bike. And her tits were so big and protruded so far from her chest that my feet often grazed the handlebars of the bike.

As we made our way over the Golden Gate Bridge, we got many confused looks from drivers and passersby. A few people did recognize me as the incredible shrinking man from four years earlier. Jackie was amassing an impressive following on social media, which meant my name stayed in the zeitgeist longer than I thought it would. Back in D.C., if I was out and about with Audrey at a foot tall, many people recognized me. They would look at me with pity or compassion or even inspiration. A guy came up to me once and told me how women walked all over him for his whole life. He began working on his self-esteem and confidence after he heard that I was still a productive college student after Jackie permanently shrunk me. 

“Yo, even though your case didn’t go to trial, I know that bitch shrunk you. Fuck her!”

“Yeah, fuck her!” I had shouted back in an unexpected moment of catharsis. 

Apparently, I didn’t have adoring fans like that in San Francisco. The people who recognized me either whispered about me to the person they were with or rudely snapped a picture of me bouncing from Audrey’s chest as we rode past. I was circus freak to them.

“Don’t mind them, little one. This day is about us,” Audrey whispered to me. 

After soaking in the beautiful view of water and the surrounding parks, Audrey rode back into the city where we had a picnic on Crissy Field. We had a great view of the bridge, and we were right by the water. It was just perfect. 

I sat on Audrey’s squishy lap while she ate regular food. Her boobs were a natural umbrella, shielding me from the sun quite effectively. Since she didn’t want to draw any more attention to us, she made me drink her milk out of a bottle. I preferred drinking straight from the source, but I understood why I couldn’t do it in public. I couldn’t even finish half of my bottle, but she put away two sandwiches, an entire bag of chips, and an entire bag of baby carrots. 

As we ate and drank, we just kept marveling at how beautiful our surroundings were. We could see ourselves enjoying it here.

“D.C. is just so gray sometimes. Except during cherry blossom season,” Audrey said from way above. I couldn’t see her face because I was still sitting underneath her boobs in her lap. 

“I wouldn’t know because half the time I’m shoved down in between your boobies.”

“Hehe, ‘boobies,’” she giggled.

“Boobies is a funny word, isn’t it?” I pointed out. “Boobies.”

She and I cracked up like two dumb kids. Then she upped the ante. 

“But you know what’s funnier than boobies?”

“I think I know,” I said.

“OK, say it at the same time in three, two, one.”

“Duty!” we shouted in unison. 

Audrey fell over laughing with me still in her lap. I climbed onto her stomach, feeling the powerful force of her laugh vibrating underneath me. Her laughs were strong enough to knock me down once. But I eventually made it to the mountains that were her boobies, and I still couldn’t even see her face standing at my full height. Before I could climb them, she grabbed me like a doll and whipped me over to her head. Her long brown hair was strewn across the grassy field. Her skin was glowing under the sun and her hazel eyes practically made me melt into bumbling teenager with a crush. But the thing that made me the happiest was her smile. It was so wide, so genuine, so jubilant. 

“I love you, my shrunken little man,” she said. 

“I love you too, Mommy.”

There was a pause, and her smile withered a bit. She was staring past me at something. I instinctively turned my head.

There was a billboard featuring none other than Jackie, the now famous socialite giantess. In bold, huge letters beneath her, it read “10 Feet Janine Fleet: Season One coming soon…”. 

Janine Fleet was the titular character played by Jackie in the new sitcom. And around her on the billboard was her sitcom family. Her mom, dad, sister and brother. 

I’d briefly heard about it, but I generally tried to stay away from news about her. It only made me think about the past, and the past was painful. 

“Can you believe her?” Audrey cried. “First she starts a foundation to help ‘little people,’ after she shrunk you on purpose. Then she starts dating every teen heartthrob, and now she’s playing the giantess girl next door. She’s such a weasel!”

“I know, Audrey. It’s infuriating,” I mumbled, really unable to match her level of anger. I was tired of seeing Jackie all over the place. It was difficult to get steaming mad anymore. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t even have brought it up. Today is about us. Not her.”

I said nothing, grateful that she was changing the subject. She looked away from me, while still holding me in her meaty hand. 

“You know, I’ve never asked you this because I was afraid of how you’d take it, but, if you had the option to be made big again, would you even do it?”

It was a hard question, and definitely not something I expected to hear from Audrey. I’d spent almost four years living my life as a shrunken man. It was normal now. 

“It’s hard sometimes, you know, being this small. But I wouldn’t change a thing. I love being so tiny and weak compared to you. It might sound weird but it’s comforting that you can just shrink me down when I’m feeling bad and put me in your shirt. You can hide me and protect me from the world. I bet a lot of guys would kill for that kind of pampering.”

“Awww, that’s so cute. You’re my little introvert,” Audrey said. 

“Yeah, that’s a good way to describe it, haha!”

“So, if some mad scientist came up to you and said, ‘I can restore you back to your old height, but the catch is, you can never be tiny again,’ what would you do?”

“I’d say thanks but no thanks.”

“Really? You’d stay tiny?” she asked, slightly squeezing my body with her hand.

“Yeah, I think I would. Of course, if that’s what you wanted. If you wanted me to be full sized again, that would change my decision.”

“Well, I hate to break to you, baby, but in that scenario, my man would stay little. I love you at any size, but if I’m being honest, I prefer you at a foot tall.”

“Really?”

“Yup. You were cute when you were five feet tall, but now you’re like a teddy bear that I constantly want to cuddle.”

She brought me to her breasts and hugged me hard while rocking back and forth. 

When she finally brought me back up near her face, she had a weird look. It was as if she was trying to decide whether she should say what she was thinking aloud. 

“What?” I asked, slightly nervous. “What are you thinking?”

“Don’t be mad, OK? What I’m about to say doesn’t mean you’re not enough for me. I’m very happy with our sex life. It’s just that…I was just thinking I wish we got to have normal, ack, that’s not the word. Full-sized…sex.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Des. I wish we could have had even one chance for you to, you know, fill me up with your cock. I mean, when you and Jackie were dating, she kinda told me that you were…big down there.”

“You guys talked about…my dick?!”

“Not really. I mean, I guess so, but it was really just her bragging and trying to twist the knife since she knew I had a huge crush on you.”

“Wow. That’s all I have to say. Wow.”

“Girls talk about sex! That’s surprising to you?!”

“Have you talked about the stuff we do now to your friends?!”

She couldn’t bear to say yes, but it was written on her face. Of course she had. She’d told her girlfriends every intimate detail of our sex life. How she rams me up into her pussy, how she deepthroats my entire body, how she sucks off my pin prick of a dick. 

“Really?!”

“Sorry, Des. You’re gonna just have to accept that all girls talk about sex with their boyfriends. You can’t avoid it, little guy.”

I changed the subject rather abruptly because all of a sudden, a burning question popped into my mind. 

“Hey Audrey. Do you think you’d ever want to be as small as me?”

Rather quickly, she said, “Nope.”

“Wow, that was fast,” I said. “So, you’re not even curious about what it would be like?”

“I mean sure, if I could spend a day at your size just to get a better idea of what you go through, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“We could fuck like a ‘full-sized’ couple for once. Huh? That’s a pretty big plus, right?!”

“Yeah, you know, you’re right! If I could shrink down to your size for one day, I would fuck you like crazy!”

“Too bad that’s impossible,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said, elongating the syllable. “But sweetie, the reality is, one of us has to wear the pants in this relationship.”

“And it’s not going to be me, I guess.”

She must have detected some wistfulness in my voice because she immediately tried to comfort me.

“Listen,” she began while tightening her grip on me and stroking my hair, “Just because I’m the boss of you doesn’t mean you’re not just as important to this relationship as I am. It takes two to tango. And besides, you like that I’m the boss of you. Come on, fess up!”

I sheepishly nodded. 

“Good boy,” she said, lightly patting my head.

I shuddered at her head pats and her use of the term “good boy.” She called me a good boy more often nowadays, knowing the pacifying effect it had on me. She employed it quite often during arguments. I would quarrel with her, and then she would say something along the lines of, “Be a good boy and drop it.” It worked a solid 70% of the time.

Our conversation veered away from the dynamics of our relationship and back to everyday stuff. The shows we were watching together, our friends, our relatives. It was only when Audrey mentioned her young niece that I had another thought about our relationship. 

“You know, I wonder what it would be like if we had kids. Like would they even respect me? Or would they only listen to you? Their big scary mommy?”

“Des, we don’t even know what our kids would be like. And if our kids didn’t listen to you, well, I guess we would have to get creative. Maybe you and I could have an arm-wrestling match and you could fake beat me. You know, really sell it. Then the kids would realize how strong their dad really is.”

“Auds, your hand is literally almost as big as I am,” I said, motioning with my head down to the fact that I was literally in her grasp. “I don’t even think 5-year-olds are that stupid. We could just do a push up contest, couldn’t we? I could actually win at that fair and square.”

“Hey! You know doing pushups hurts my boobs, that’s not fair!”

“Oh, please! You’re just saying that because you can’t even do a pushup,” I teased. 

Eager to prove me wrong apparently, she scowled at me. I knew what was coming. A command. After holding me in her sprawling hand for the past half hour, she put me down on the grass.

“Lay down. Face up.”

I dove onto the ground and got in position. She went up on her hands and feet, with her boobs directly above me. 

“You tell me if this is a pushup or not. OK, little man?”

“Yes, Mommy,” I muttered, reverting to our ongoing maternal roleplay.

She lowered her body slow and steady. She only had to go down an inch or so before her breasts touched me. Another inch and she was mashing me into the grass and soft soil below. Another inch brought a new level of crushing pressure. And she kept going down until I was a pancake. Now, I hoped I was wrong and that she could do a pushup. Because if she couldn’t, I would stay trapped underneath tons of boob flesh.

Sure enough, I was only crushed underneath her breasts for a moment. She did a push up. Then, to really rub it in my face (literally), she did another. And another. And another. And another until I got aroused and creamed myself. So not only was I proven wrong, she also made me look like an insignificant weakling who couldn’t hold his cum. 

“Uh oh, did baby make a mess in his pants?” she teased when she noticed the stain. 

Unable to open my mouth out of embarrassment, I nodded. It was like we were first dating again. The fact that she was able to make my face red hot with humiliation was so exhilarating. I knew I wanted to spend my life with Audrey. 

And don’t get me wrong, I’d definitely thought about proposing to her in the last few months. But I didn’t know if that was what she wanted. We were just out of college and sure, we were madly in love with one another, but what if I fucked everything up by changing things. Changing the labels. What if getting engaged was the curse that unraveled us? I felt like I couldn’t risk it because I needed Audrey more than she needed me. 

Or so I thought.

“I need you in me baby. Let’s go back to the hotel room for a quickie!” she said a little too loud. 

“Audrey! There are kids around!”

“Does it look like I care?”

In her sudden onset whirlwind of sexual arousal, she shrunk me down to three inches, shoved me down her shirt, and began maniacally pedaling back to our hotel. This happened every so often where she’d be consumed by her libido. And I could always tell when she was about to snap. She would stare wordlessly at me for several seconds with wide, wide eyes. Her nose would twitch ever so slightly. And the third tell-tale sign of a horny attack: licking her lips. Oh, whenever she ran the tip of her tongue around the outline of her mouth, I knew. I knew she about to strike. 

All three of these crucial tells happened at the park, and I knew I was in for something extra special. 

When we finally got back to the hotel, she threw off her T-shirt and unclasped her bra in a matter of seconds. I was buried deep in between her tits, stuck like glue onto her because of all the sweat. So, it didn’t matter when her boobs fell down a bit with their weight after her bra came off, I was fixed to her skin. Caked on. I was a part of her. 

Until she pried me off with her finger and smushed my three-inch-tall body into a new part of her. Her lips. Her gorgeous, soft, yet intimidating lips. Really, there wasn’t a part of her that wasn’t intimidating to me at my size. Her lip gloss tasted like raspberry, and soon enough, I looked more like a stick of lip gloss than a human man. 

“Oops, sorry!” she giggled, before nonchalantly tossing me into her mouth to suck all the raspberry off me. 

She spit me out into her hand, then kissed me once more. Moments after being licked dry, I was drowning in lip gloss again. 

“Gosh, you just cannot get a break, can you?” she said, laughing at my predicament. “How about you and I take a shower together, huh? I’m pretty sweaty from the bike ride.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I said, a cocktail of boob sweat and lip gloss seeping into my mouth as soon as I opened it.

Once we were in the shower together, it didn’t take long for Audrey to have her way with me. She got me soaking wet under the water, and unlike on the plane, she mercifully thrusted me into her pussy feet first. She grew me back to a foot tall, so only my legs disappeared inside her instead of my whole body. 

I had a hell of a view as she fucked herself. As her hips bucked with every thrust, I could tell they were more than triple the width of my entire body: even now, at my full size. Her belly was similarly huge compared to me. If I hugged her at the stomach, there was no chance I could hug her and get my arms around to her back. And forget it, if I tried to hug her at her hips, my arms wouldn’t even reach her thighs. 

But the things that occupied the lion’s share of my attention was of course her heaving, pendulous boobs. She was facing the showerhead which meant the water was hitting her breasts and spraying down onto me below. Her boobs looked amazing dry, but wet? They were divine orbs of pure beauty. I was particularly entranced by the way water droplets kept forming on the tips of her puffed up nipples; and how they dripped down once they got too big. I was getting painfully hard just taking in the sight before me.

After pummeling her vulva and clitoris with me as her human dildo for a minute or so, I could hear that she was already getting close. Her slow moans were turning into ecstatic squeals. I’d previously kept my legs straight and relatively still, but I knew exactly how to melt her by now. 

I kicked my legs. Flailing randomly inside her so she wouldn’t know what to expect next. She literally held her breath for a few seconds she was so surprised and aroused. But when she regained the ability to verbalize, she let out several loud oohs.

“Desmond, oh! Don’t…stop!”

I began scissor kicking and that sent her into a sexy frenzy. She was so titillated and distracted that she’d stopped thrusting me into her. Her trembling hands held me relatively still as I thrashed my legs about in her pussy. 

“Desmond! Desmond! OHHHHHH!”

And climax. I was covered in her juices until the water dripping from her breasts washed it all away just seconds later.

And once more, she took mercy on me by not immediately fucking herself again. Normally, one orgasm wasn’t enough for Audrey. It was usually at least three to keep her insane horniness at bay. I guess my legs really did the trick. 

Instead, she brought me up to her face, my feet hanging approximately level with her chin. My body was only slightly taller than her head in this position. But her glistening hair was easily taller than my entire body. In my current position, being dangled by my arms in front of Audrey’s face, my cock was level with her nose. So she got me all good and boned up by rubbing my cock on it. She even briefly stuck it up her nostril as a joke. But it was a perfect fit, she and I realized. And it surprisingly felt really good. It almost felt like vaginal sex used to feel to me since Audrey meticulously tweezed her nose hair. It was smooth inside, like a pussy.

We both looked at each other, amazed that we hadn’t discovered this earlier. The sex act I was about to perform unfolded wordlessly, yet perfectly. Audrey automatically leaned her head backward, exposing me to the soothing spray of the hot water, but also allowing me to lay on her face. I now had the leverage to thrust my tiny cock into her nose. And thrust I did. I closed my eyes and pretended I was just barely big enough to fuck Audrey’s pussy. I dreamed I was 3 and a half feet tall. My dick was bigger, and Audrey’s nostril was her pussy. And I went to town. 

The combination of the searing hot water, the fantasy in my head, and the astonishingly intense sensations that came with fucking her nostril drove me to orgasm in less than 30 seconds. I collapsed into the wet skin of her face and just laid there, blissful and happy. 

A hand soon pressed me into her face as she tilted her head back down to normal. Gravity had my cock naturally slip out from her nose as she held my body close to her. 

“How was that, little guy? You look pretty happy, hehe!”

“It was…fantastic,” I breathed, staring straight into the swirling greens and browns of her eyes. 

“Oh boy, you already sort of have a fetish for my socks after sleeping in them for so long. Now you’re gonna have a damn nose fetish!”

“I’m…fine with it,” I struggled to get out, still coming down from the high of one of the best orgasms I’d ever had. 

“Hehehe! Well, I bet you still wanna get littler. Am I right?”

“Oh…please make me tiny!”

“Oh, just you wait,” she cooed, “I’ll make you an inch tall for some nipple play. But before that, I hope you’re OK with going back in my pussy, Mr. Nosey! You enjoyed that a little too much to get off scot free!”

“Yessss…Mommy.”

“Headfirst this time,” she added with a smirk and a naughty bite of the lip.

“Yes Mommy,” I repeated in total acquiescence.

Once we finally stopped fucking and actually freshened up, we headed to Twin Peaks, a staple attraction in San Francisco. By the time we got there, the sun was just peeking over the horizon, about to set. The scene before Audrey and I was gaspingly gorgeous. The sky was awash in deep purples, calming oranges, and hypnotizing reds. The city was already alight in anticipation for nightfall. 

I sat next to Audrey, her ass, adorned in jean shorts, rising high above my head. I briefly thought about where my head would fall on her if I was still five feet tall. I guessed at her shoulder. But surprisingly, I wasn’t sad. I was actually happy that her butt was taller than my entire body. Her being so much bigger than me was now a source of comfort, not a source of embarrassment. It felt right that she towered over me, carried me everywhere, and surrounded me with her giantess body.  

Still, as right as it felt for her to be hundreds of times my size, it was hard not to get a little humiliated when she stood up to remind me I wasn’t even close to as tall as her kneecap.

“Hey Des?”

“Yeah?” I asked, keeping my eyes ahead at the sunset. 

“Do you want to move here?”

Blunt as always. And I loved her for it. 

“I don’t know, shouldn’t we make that decision together?”

She lifted me onto her boobs so she could see my face. She was wearing a black low cut top with no bra, which was a typical design choice for her these days. She said bras hurt her breasts if she wore them too long. And of course, her breasts grew multiple cup sizes over the years, largely because she produces milk for me. 

“Nah, why don’t you choose? I’m fine with living anywhere. Just as long as I’m with you.”

We smiled at each other, each of us grinning for both similar and different reasons I imagine. Perhaps she was smiling because romance was in the air. I certainly was. Perhaps her happiness was due to the gorgeous San Francisco breeze floating through her thick brown waves of hair. Perhaps we were both smiling about how she’d given me the power to choose where we live together. I was overjoyed that I was being trusted to guide our lives for once. I was so used to her carrying the reins, and perhaps she knew that I needed to be reminded that I could carry the reins too.

Either way, her twinkling grin gave me the courage to say what I wanted to say.

“Yeah, let’s live here,” I said, punctuating my proclamation by slapping the top of her boob. She appreciated it because she responded by rubbing my head, something I’d grown to love. 

“In that case, there’s something important I want to ask you. I’ve wanted to for a while.”

“What’s that?” I asked, turning toward her face. 

She took a deep, deep breath and said, “Desmond Tracey. Will you marry me?”

“What? I—”

“It’s a yes or no, dingbat.”

“Uhhmm, I mean, of course, yes! I’ll marry you, but aren’t I supposed to do that? Ask you to marry me? I mean, I feel guilty.”

“Oh my god, no! Don’t feel guilty!”

“But I’m a man. I’m supposed to surprise you. I’m supposed to do some grand gesture. Isn’t that what every girl dreams of?”

“I gotta tell you, Desmond. I abandoned all those dreams of Prince Charming coming and sweeping me off my feet as soon as I fell in love with you, which was like three days after I met you on that bus by the way. My new dream was to cuddle you and make you feel safe and be your Princess Charming.”

I burst out laughing at ‘Princess Charming’.

“Hey shut it! I know it’s corny, but I’m speaking from the heart!”

“I know you are. And I’m sorry for throwing cold water on this. I can’t believe it! We’re getting married!” I sprang up and kissed her. With two of her giant fingers, she pressed my head into her lips. 

When our kiss broke, the nagging guilt still hadn’t faded away. 

“Are you sure you’re not disappointed that I didn’t propose to you?” I asked. 

“No, not at all. I kinda like taking the lead. It’s different, for sure, but it just feels right. Almost like it was meant to be. What with me being the big one ‘n all. Do you know what I mean?”

“More than you know,” I said, reaching up to kiss her again. This time we held our smooch for a little longer. And for me, this was the first time that I was consciously kissing not my girlfriend, but my fiancé. 

“So, since you’re ‘taking the lead’ so to speak,” I said after we paused making out, “Am I gonna have to take your last name?”

She giggled at that idea and came back saying, “No. You don’t have to. But I’m not gonna lie, it would be really hot if you did.”

I sort of agreed with her, but I still had too much pride to let her know that. We’d revisit fine details like our last names later. And I still hadn’t fully dropped my commitment to the old dynamics of getting engaged.  

“Audrey, I know I’m harping at this point. But I can really plan a whole proposal if you want me to. I’ll surprise you! Really, I will!”

“Nope. You don’t have to do any of that. And besides, it was better for me to propose because of…this,” she said, suddenly lifting a small ring box in front of me. She opened it and inside were two beautiful gold engagement rings. 

Wanting to at least have somewhat of an active role in this proposal, I rushed toward the box, grabbed one of the rings (it required both arms for me to carry it) and go to put it on her finger. She quickly got the hint and put her ring finger in front of me so I could slip it on. 

“A gentleman at any size,” she remarked. 

In return, she put my ring over my head and around my neck. It wasn’t too heavy, but it acted more like a thick necklace for me than a ring. Peering down at me, she was aware of my predicament. 

“I wasn’t sure how to remedy this, but before we actually tie the knot, I’ll figure out how you can wear it properly.”

I looked down at my ring/necklace and gawked at how weighty and premium it felt. These were serious engagement rings. I thought of the cost, but I didn’t want to bog down the moment. 

“Audrey, these rings are beautiful! How did you get them?”

I hadn’t looked up at her for several moments, but I now noticed that she was getting filled up. She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. 

“I didn’t buy them. These are my parents’ engagement rings.”

“Oh, my love,” I trailed off as she gently sobbed. I reached up on my tippy toes and hugged her chin.

She gained her composure after a minute or so, but not before soaking me with her crying eyes. 

“Mom wanted me to have the rings. It causes her too much pain to wear hers anymore, it makes her think of Dad. So, you’re gonna carry on the family tradition and wear his ring.”

I panicked briefly at the awesome responsibility I’d been given. I’d never met Audrey’s dad, but I’d heard stories. Great stories. He worked in an office but put on a firefighter’s helmet every weekend and served his community valiantly. He saved countless lives. The thought that I had to live up to her dad was a frightening one, but my troubles were my own. I’d work my way through them. What was more important was being there for his daughter, even if I wasn’t a buff guy who could run into a burning building and rescue people. No 18-year-old girl should have to deal with losing their father, but she had to.

“It’s an honor to wear his ring, Audrey.”

She wiped her eyes again and with a slightly choked up voice said, “Thank you. You really don’t know how much that means to me. And sorry the ring doesn’t fit. He had big fingers.”

“And I guess I’m pretty little.”

We both shared an unexpected laugh. 

“To your dad,” I said.

“To Dad,” she said, echoing my cheers. 

We embraced each other and watched the sun go down, capping what was the most important day of my life thus far.