#sims story

You know what? I’m glad he has her to keep him straight lol. Don’t stall for your mama’s dinner, dude! You told Bryce you were going to try.

I was admiring the Winterfest tree when his voice startled me.

“Kid-free weekend, huh?”

My instinct was to hug him, but I didn’t. I figured a contactless friendship would be good for now. “They live with me now, so Ali has them on weekends.”

He nodded. “They’re so big.”

“Too big.” I was aware we didn’t have much time as I didn’t want to take him away from his duties for too long, so I got on with my agenda. “So, how’ve you been? What have you been up to?”

He had a bashful-looking grin as he turned his gaze to the ground. “Well… Ok, I’m just gonna tell you the whole story instead of trying to be vague and brief.”

I got nervous and excited about this story he considered hiding from me.

“So, I came to your house, right?”

I nodded.

“That was the end of…kinda like an…awakening I had. I was in a funk before. Felt stuck, you know? I was bored at work and my life wasn’t going anywhere… When I realized what I’d done to you, I knew I needed a fresh start because I was holding onto to something I should have let go of long time ago. So I moved.”

I gasped.

How had I not noticed he wasn’t living across the street anymore? Maybe that was a good thing and meant my attention was where it needed to be.

“I don’t have a family, and that house was much too big for me. Plus, my parents died there… But I realized I was staying for you, and I figured maybe not seeing you every day would help me let go of the past and move forward with whatever comes next. It would probably help both of us.”

I nodded slowly as I processed everything. It was still so wild to me he had all these pinned up feelings our whole friendship. Well, I guess I did too, but he was in much worse shape than me. Denial is a beast. How did I never see it?

“I got a new job too,” he said.

“Oh nice! What are you doing now?”

“I’m a lab technician at this scientific research company.”

My head jerked back in disbelief. “Science?? I’ve never known you to like science.”

He chuckled. “I’m trying new things, ok? Besides, I think it will suit me. It’s a sterile environment, so at least my urges to clean will come in handy.”

“Ha! I didn’t think of that! So true. Good for you, Dwayne. I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. Oh! Where did you move to?”

“Newcrest.”

“Cool. I hear it’s nice over there.”

“It is. I’m liking it.”

“Kinda sucks, though. Who’s gonna tell me about Willow Creek’s crazy laws now?”

“Ohhhh snap. You’re right. Well, you’re a long-time resident now. I guess you’re supposed to know the law. But you can call me when you change your hair again. Can’t have you getting arrested and stuff.”

I missed that playful banter. I suppose it didn’t matter where he lived since we didn’t hang out that much anyway. Maybe now that I’ve got myself together and have my weekends free, we could see each other more often. Or not? I needed to be alone when I worked on myself, so maybe he did too. But Dwayne was always straightforward. If hanging out with me was going to be a problem, he’d let me know, right?

My mind drifted as I did the rest of the chores. The previous night’s conversation echoed in my head, for some reason. Gemma called Diamond’s sentiments baby fever. I knew what that was, of course. But as much as I talked about having children in my younger days, I honestly could not recall ever having it. Maybe I did once when I met Darius. Is that weird? Having children was less a biological urge and more a goal I focused on with laser-like precision. When I accomplished it, I was good. My second child came sooner than I planned, but I definitely wanted more than one. But my babies are almost grown now, so whether or not I had the fever was pointless. Still, it made me wonder. How did I not have it more often? What did that say about me?

Later, I did some candle business stuff like reordering dyes, replying to messages, and re-listing items that hadn’t sold. Dwayne came to mind. It’s so weird how random our brains were sometimes. Although I wasn’t ready, it was kinda nice to see him the other day. How was he? What had he been up to? Did he have a girlfriend yet? No, of course he didn’t. He wasn’t like Laurant and would never leave the door open for me while being with someone else. I kept thinking I should call him…just to chat and catch up. But that thought made me nervous. This friendship still conflicted my feelings. On the one hand, I wanted to rekindle our friendship because I missed my best friend. But on the other hand, even if friendship was all we ever had, my association with him might still offend others. So I suppose the question then became, would I let others’ opinions govern what I did or did not do? For the moment, my curiosity got the better of me, and I had to talk to him.

I took out my phone and thought of what to say. My fingers typed and deleted so many sentences. Why was I so nervous?? It’s not like I was asking him out on a date. I’d done much bolder things in my past. The Winter Festival was happening in the park, and I figured he’d be volunteering again like last time. I could ask and tell him I’d be there if he wanted to hang for a minute. Yeah. Good plan. Though showing up without my kids might be sus, but whatever! This was Dwayne, not some rando I just met. I didn’t have to perform for him.

And just like that, the source of Rodney’s concern for his mother as well as past behavior became clear to Bryce. He probably doesn’t realize it, but Rodney has issues with his father he hasn’t reconciled yet.

Also, while we appreciate how valiantly he wishes to protect his mother, wanting her to remain single forever is NOT the way to do it, sir. Just like she had to heal and grow from that experience, he does too.

Bryce always comes through with the knowledge for our scrappy friend. I, for one, am I’m glad he’s finally listening.

We all changed clothes and brought our mats out to the upstairs balcony that never got used, and Luca lead us through an easy routine he had learned from SimTube. I think we all felt a little better afterward but not 100%. What we needed was relaxation and mindless activity. I rarely allowed eating in the living room, but the season premiere of Peach is the New Black was about to start, so I told the kids we could watch it while we ate. That was a pleasant change of pace. Alessia started clowning Luca again, so I knew she was all better.

I had gotten heavily invested in the episode and tuned them out. But I heard Luca say something to me, so I tuned back in.

“Why are you looking like that?” he asked.

“Because you smell like cowplant breath,” Alessia said.

That one was kinda funny, as my dear boy was quite ripe.

In the morning, I awoke a brand new sim! Between the yoga and chill time with my babies, I was walking on sunshine and Spin, Snap, Swayed my way out of bed. I was so energized and full of life, nothing could kill my spirit. Good thing too, because I had the type of morning that could bring back those tense feelings. It began with Luca telling me the toilet had broken.

As I was fixing it, Less came in complaining about her stomach hurting and claiming she needed another day off from school. Heh, I may have created a monster with that vacation day. It was cool, though. I allowed her to dupe me before, but not that time. I gave her some medicine and sent her to get dressed. But then the most amazing, magical thing happened! As I finished repairing the toilet, BOTH children came to help me clean up!

When I say I have the best kids on earth!!

Time grew short, and all of us needed to get dressed. But it occurred to me they wouldn’t come home that night and would be at Ali’s for the weekend, so I got my hugs and kisses. I told them I loved them and I’d miss them a LOT.

Thursday was not our day. Not one of us came home happy. I’ll start with me. First of all, the adoption person didn’t show last night. We waited for them until about 9:30 before they called and told us they weren’t coming. Something had happened at the adoption center around the time I made our request, and they had already canceled all pending adoptions. I supposed ours got lost in translation. Needless, Alessia and I were pretty bummed.

Second, my CEO is also a jerk and didn’t appreciate anything I did for him. Some kind of way,Iwas nominated to be in charge of getting him a gift from the office. All the regional managers knew him way better than I did, but noooo. They wanted the new girl to do it. I got him a gift card because one could never go wrong with gift cards. Or so I thought. I realized work wasn’t always fun, and sometimes difficult things make way for great things. But I shouldn’t be miserable all the time. Literally everything I’ve done at this job has blown up in my face! I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to do it anymore. One of my coworkers said I just needed a vacation, but I wasn’t so sure that would help. I had never enjoyed my time there, so maybe it was time to call it quits. But that was a much bigger decision than I could make during my lunch break. I needed a plan. Quitting without another job lined up felt irresponsible, even though I would be just fine financially. But was another job what I needed? I made almost as much money per week making candles super part time as I brought home from work. Imagine what I could do with more time to dedicate to my business! When I was less emotional, I planned to think about it more seriously.

Luca had brought a friend from school home, but they weren’t having a good time from what I saw. I wasn’t sure if they had argued, but whatever the problem, I blamed the boy. I’d never seen my sweet son’s face wrinkled like that ever! But I also had a plummy day and couldn’t bring myself to ask what was the matter. The boy went home shortly after I arrived, anyway.

I retreated to my room in attempts to gather myself and be a bit friendlier to my children, but it was futile. My problem was deeper than just a bad day. It was more like a crisis. I hadn’t seen Alessia yet, so I went to her room to say hello and found Luca instead, doing homework at her desk. My kids were so weird. They each had their own room with a desk to do their work, yet they preferred the other one’s room.

He was in a slightly better state than earlier, but still not the even-keeled boy I was used to. I asked him where was his sister, but he appeared startled by my tone. I apologized for it and said I didn’t have the best day. He replied saying he and Alessia had rough days too, though he didn’t go into any detail.

“Maybe we should all do yoga together,” he said.

He was really into this yoga thing! I was both surprised and proud. Some adults, including myself, didn’t figure out what made them emotionally mindful until well into adulthood. But my brilliant son already knew what did it for him. That was such a proud mom’s moment. I only wish I were less irritable to enjoy it.

No one was more shocked than I about how well the kids took my news. If I had known there would be no tears or yelling, maybe I could have let them go to school and talk after dinner. Either way, I was glad it had gone well and took full advantage of my free afternoon by taking care of as many chores as I could before someone called my name. I was sitting at the computer getting ready to pay bills when my eyes fell on the picture of Luca and Alessia on the beach. They were so little! That was such a good night. Not only was it the first weekend we spent together, but also the beginning of my journey toward my best self.

Alessia interrupted my nostalgia with a cheeky grin plastered on her face.

“Uh oh,” I said. “You look like a cowplant about to put out cake.” And I was the sucker about to eat it.

“I know what our thing should be,” she said.

“Oh! Let’s hear it.”

“We’re supposed to get a dog. It can be yours and mine.”

I snickered at the idea of sharing joint custody with my daughter, but hey, if that’s how she wanted to connect with me, I was more than willing to accept those terms. “Just so you know, I didn’t forget! There’s just been a lot going on. But, yeah! We can do that. You wanna pick some out right now?”

She gasped. “Can we really??”

“Why not? We were going to do it anyway, right?”

She pulled up a chair, grinning from ear to ear, more excited about this task than I’d ever seen her before. Even more than the prospect of pancakes for breakfast. I immediately looked for Cleveland, the dog I had previously decided to adopt if given the chance, but he wasn’t there. I was happy he’d been adopted, but disappointed I wasn’t the one to do it. Some puppies I saw, however, were still available. Alessia and I selected three dogs to meet. I got lucky with Shiloh, and we were instant BFFs, but I wanted to make sure we didn’t get stuck with a dog we didn’t click with. Dogs had personalities just like we did, and like sims, sometimes our personalities just don’t mesh.

We made our selection and waited for the confirmation email before we officially got excited about meeting our potential new family member. In the living room, we waited for the adoption representative to arrive, and I told Alessia about the day I met Shiloh. It was Winterfest morning, and I used to wake up early just like she did. I heard Mommy talking to someone in the kitchen, so I went to see who it was and walked in on her finalizing the adoption process. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Mommy had been so adamant about not getting a dog, yet a cute little puppy sat right there in my kitchen. That was one of the happiest days of my life.

Luca finally came downstairs, dressed and ready for the day at 6pm. He said he’d been doing yoga since waking up from his nap. That made me smile. I was so happy to help him find an interest!

A half an hour passed by, and the adoption rep still hadn’t showed, and I got antsy. I casually paced the room to mask my joy. It had been so long since I had a fur baby to love. I kept my cool, but internally I was 1000 times more excited than Alessia could ever be. Dogs were my first love. I didn’t want anything else. Then I grew up and added babies to the short list of things I needed to feel complete. In just a few short moments, I’d have both. Could life get any better?