Derek pressed his back against the bedroom door that had been slammed in his face no more than a few moments ago. He'd apologized to Analise too many times over the phone and she deserved to hear this one in person.
On the far side of the door, Derek could hear Analise opening and slamming drawers. He really hadn't wanted to do this, really he didn't. If only that asshole, Frye, had kept his mouth shut.
"Why'd you have to take that damn promotion?" Analise shouted from beyond the doorway. Her breath began to come in sobbing huffs.
"I took it because I want to marry you," Derek replied, "That promotion allowed me to by you your engagement ring with a single paycheck."
"Three months," she cried out between huffs, "We haven't had a date in three months because you took that stupid promotion. Nine times, nine times you've canceled on me and all because of that stupid job."
"It's not the job this time." And for once it wasn't. His mother had called his office to find out if Derek was still coming to his parents' anniversary party. Bernard Frye had answered Derek's phone on the third ring. "I'm sorry but Frye-"
"FRYE?" Huuuuuuuff!
"Frye told my mother I was trying to keep Thursday clear, for a special occasion," Derek explained, "She thought it was for her anniversary party. She's already moved it up."
"YOUR MOTHER????" Derek winced as he heard Analise take in another deep sob. Derek's mother had never approved of his dating Analise, the main reason being that Analise had put herself through college as a burlesque queen. A fact that Derek's mother made his fiance aware of every chance she got.
He heard Analise huff twice more before he heard the sound of something hollow being filled with air.
"Good," Derek said as he heard the sound of the filling balloon, "She had one left." Whenever he had to call Analise to cancel, he would hear her start to sob and huff over the phone's speaker. Then, after a moment, he would hear her start to blow up a balloon, and she had some big ones. He would ask her how big it was and she would tell him. Then Analise would huff and sob as she listed off the dates he had canceled on on her. And as she blew into her balloon he would list the reasons, and the rewards that had come with them. And it would continue on until the balloon could take no more.
-"How big?" Derek asked, but this time the reply was a little different.
"I don't- huuuff- know," she replied.
"You don't know?"
"No- huuuff... huuuff- I don't- huuuff."
Derek listened as the balloon grew on the other side of the door. She didn't know... that was very odd. As he thought on that for a moment, he spied the plastic packages in the living room trash. They were the bags Analise's balloons had been packaged in. Derek pulled one of the plastic scraps from the bin and looked it over. "Fustretch party balloon, three foot round, Color: cherry red."
"That was the first one- huuuff." Analise had heard him through the door. "When you canceled on me for- huuff- the first time after you took that promotion."
"I didn't know they wanted me to work that night," Derek replied, "Frye told me at the last minute. Fustretch party balloon, three foot round. Color: powder blue."
"Huuuff- Our dinner reservations at La Stanza," Analise returned.
"I'll take some responsibility for that one," said Derek, "I stayed late to catch up on a few things so we wouldn't be interrupted. As I was finishing up, the boss cornered me and started complementing me on my hard work. The next thing I know, I'm in the back of his limo, headed for a restaurant where the food costs as much as a compact car."
He heard Analise huff twice more.
"He wouldn't take no for an answer," Derek continued, "I would have crawled through the men's room window if it'd had one." He sighed as he picked another scrap of plastic out of the bin. "Gummitex two-foot long airship, Color: Pink."
"The clothes shopping trip on your last day off," she answered.
"Frye's little fib about a budget meeting," he explained.
And so it went on for about a quarter of an hour, Derek would take a discarded wrapper from the bin and read it and Analise would tell him the reason that balloon was used. From the agate patterned worker that soothed her when he been forced to bow out on her first home cooked meal, to the seven-foot doll she'd used when he missed her birthday party. And finally...
"Galatex, eighty inch- wow- eighty inch round, color: lilac."
"You said you were going to take me with you! Huuuuuuuuuuuuff" Analise replied.
"The business trip." Derek winced at the memory. The office was sending his whole department to the capital to over see a merger with a small company. As the new department head, Derek decided to get a perk or two out of the trip and make it a working vacation for himself and Analise. He'd arranged two four bedroom suites for the rest of the department at a local three star hotel, and a private room for just the two of them. After the reservations were made, he'd booked the plane tickets and everything was set. Or so he thought.
He was checking the luggage in the trunk of his car when a taxi suddenly stopped next to his car. Before Derek could ask what was going on, he was pulled inside the shuttle and his bags were loaded in the back. Flunkie Frye attempted to extend their budget by booking an earlier, and cheaper flight. Derek hadn't had the chance to tell Analise until the plane had landed at the airport.
"I waited for three hours- Huuuuff- before you called," Analise cried. Derek thought he could hear the sound of stretching rubber. Her balloon sounded like it was getting full. "How big?"
"I don't know," Analise replied as she huffed twice more. "But- huuuff- big!"
Derek turned his head and listened to the door. Analise's huffing became slower and longer each time. The stretching sound of rubber began to grow deeper. He sighed rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"This doesn't have to be a total loss," Derek called to his beloved, "I don't have to work tomorrow. We can sleep in, order some take out, bottle of wine..."
"Huuuufff..." The sound of growth continued to deepen.
"Start with a nice hot bath?" Derek offered, "Bath salts and your scented candles? Little massage?"
"Huuuufff..."
"I'll even tie off that balloon so you can finish it off later." Derek put a hand on the door handle and turned it.
As the door swung open, Derek's jaw dropped at the sight that greeted him. A curved expanse of smooth carnation skin stood before and towered over him. It wasn't round, more like the shape of a donut or an inner tube without the hole in the middle. More like a smooth bulge that filled the room from wall to wall. It was a sort of a carnation pink with a smooth supple texture. Derek tried to remember just how big Analise's bedroom was to determine just how big this balloon was. And just how had she blown the thing up on her own.
It was then that he heard something from above the huge expanse that made him realise what he was looking at. Just what it was he was pressing up against...
"But Derek... I'm all- Huuufff- out of balloons..."
Analise huffed once more and billowed out towards him brushing against his body. There wasn't much room left.
"Huuuufff!"