Her Body of Muscle: Winter vs the Nanobots

Part 1: Chapter 1

Winter Barting felt hollow. Twenty-six years old and replaced. Showing up at the courthouse seemed like the right thing to do, but had it mattered? Her husband had taken everything. Sinking into the courthouse steps, Winter sat head in hands while oblivious suited lawyers rushed around her. Winter was just a shell of a soul, a carcass stuffed with foggy, pounding, rejection and confusion...

—-

Winter met Philip when they were both seventeen. He was the shy nerdy bench warming athlete, too timid and bashful to be remembered as much more than another "what-was-that-guy's-name?" Winter had been the one to see him for a special paradigm challenging talent. Quietly an intellectual herself, Winter knew what it was like to disguise ones' talents.

Much of her childhood was spent deploying her intelligence not so much in achievement, but rather in self-censoring; instinctively looking to others needs before her own. Her genuine quiet kindness was poisoned by her natural beauty.  Winter's humility interpreted more as aloof hubris than insecure selflessness.

Winter had been betrayed with a timelessly beautiful five foot nine inches of natural athleticism. "Once in a generation talent with no ambition." She had heard more than one coach bemoan to her parents. But competition betrayed her desire to see others succeed and worse, her body didn't make friends easily. Instead, the ease with which she mastered difficult physical skills seemed to intimidate and alienate others. So, she had given up soccer and volleyball, her passions, in favor of cheerleading early in high school. It was far harder to intimidate with a pom-pom than when you could outsprint the star college-bound running back.

Long, dark, straight as rain hair became increasingly cemented into a ponytail to hide its captivating sheen. Like the rest of her unfair complexion, she hid its' beauty from others, disguising her hair's rich, almost red, sunlight capturing essence, attempting to avoid notice. While other girls pampered and spent fortunes trying to impress, Winter went out of her way to do the opposite.

As childhood passed into adolescence, she instinctually found herself hiding behind self-doubt and introversion; driven by a crushingly hallow desire to fit in. Cheerleading proved a Sisyphean challenge. Winter's own body forsaking success cheering from the sidelines. An impossibly narrow waist helped, but broad shoulders and large defined calves exploding above tapered ankles, contradicted the popular stick-skinny high school ideal.

Still, her explosive skill and poise made up for the difference.  At least it could have helped had it not been for her unusually endowed chest. As a senior in high school, she even considered a reduction simply because of the weight. While other girls pushed and exaggerated what little they had, Winter hid under baggy T-shirts, sweaters and layers of tight sports bras.

When it came to Phil, she felt like she could melt into his own awkwardness. With Phil, Winter felt an undeniable bond. He was the quiet, brilliant underperforming athlete. What Winter lacked in drive, Phil dwarfed with his unquenchable ambitions, his boyish, even childish looks disguising his genius. Winter, the curvaceous natural athlete, found refuge in his dogmatic faithfulness; in his conviction that forgettable adolescence would give way to world changing accomplishment.

They were married at eighteen and moved to San Francisco the weekend of graduation leaving high school and all the echoing hallways and shadowed memories behind. While Winter attended classes at the University of Cal Berkeley, Phil quit university after the first week. Instead, he was going to focus on creating his own technology firm.

"This will change everything Winter, you'll see, trust me." After all, he claimed, his tech was built on silicon efficiencies that didn't even exist yet.

"Sounds good!" Winter encouraged. She had placed her faith in Phil years ago. She couldn't help fawning and doting over her brilliant husband. Still, his intense focus on his work sometimes left her feeling alienated. Increasingly, Winter tried to rejuvenate the past passion she remembered they once had for one another. In an attempt to find commonality, and despite the extra course load, she enrolled and studied programming, hoping for a shared language with her young husband. Maybe he would let her in.

But as their first year of marriage dragged on, all overtures were dismissed. Phil was just too tired. While youthful exuberance held them together at first, years of trial and financial hardship started to take a toll on their marriage.

Winter had gone out of her way for Phil, waking early to prepare breakfast, traveling to and from school by bus, in a rush, to get food on the table for dinner.  Making their disheveled bed in the evenings just in time to sleep in it again. So focused was her husband, he rarely bothered with a "thank you."

In their early twenties, Winter often tried, without success, to grab his attention. Despite her eighteen-year-old easy zero waist having given way to softness, and the weight of her breasts had rounded her shoulders, Winter's appeal remained undeniable. Further, any suggestion from Phil she dutifully implemented.

Years before he had shared his adoration for a smooth hairless body. Like with everything else, Winter had bent over backwards to comply. From that day forward, she had gone to tremendous lengths to shave and always keep her body flawlessly smooth. She retained most of her schoolgirl athleticism, but her figure became softer and smoother over the years. Perhaps that was why even when Winter nakedly changed in front of his computer screen, she couldn't get Phil's attention.

Not even her large nipples, sitting proudly on her firm and massive breasts – youthful and hard from the wet cold of a shower – were alluring enough to pull his eyes from coding. By all accounts Winter was increasing convinced Phil had lost all interest in her.  Was it the weight she'd gained since high school?

As the years passed, Winter's home cooking gave way to fast food pick-ups. Her graduation from Berkeley was a deflating nonevent that faded into a numbing nine-to-five job at a small financial firm. All day Phil sat "programming" as Winter braved traffic and thankless work hours trying to provide for the two of them. Date nights, as rare as they had been before, became Budweiser and Netflix binging, provided Phil could make the time. Winter's tall statuesque frame had surrendered much of its' curves as she found her optimism fading from time to time into lonely depression.

Winter had given everything to her husband; not just her best years, but taken care of his every whim. All the cooking, laundry, bed making, bill paying, kept the house spotless... and for what? She couldn't even get him to lift his eyes up half the time, let alone touch her.

It didn't help that increasingly she would get home after a long day of work to cover their mounting bills to a startled Phil, slamming his laptop shut as she opened the front door. They had always had that rare understanding. Trust that could conquer any concern.

Slowly a nagging sensation was budding.

Could Phil be hiding something...