Round 29: April 2029 (Autumn)
When I found out Betsy had died, I didn't really expect to feel the way I do right now. I loved her but we never had that really close sisterly bond that a lot of other women have with their sisters.
I'm struggling more than I thought I would without her. I keep trying to go back to my old tricks to perk myself up and they're not really working. I had my sister-in-law give me a new haircut! That worked for about an hour.
I've done a lot of shopping. Clothes, shoes, cosmetics, all those sorts of things. All that did was start a fight with Emil.
He was angry that I'd "wasted" money. We're supposed to be saving for Nathan's law school tuition, which we'll need to pay in a couple of years and will be somewhere in the region of $16,000. But I can afford a few dresses. We're not destitute.
I haven't had a good night's sleep in a couple of months now. I barely even feel like myself any more.
I somehow managed to get myself promoted amidst all this, not that I've actually been able to finish anything within working hours. My mind keeps wandering back to Betsy and it's taking me twice as long to do anything.
It was at work where I met Amar. We were both waiting for the elevator to leave one afternoon. I could tell he was trying to get my attention but I decided to try to ignore him.
I happened to glance at him and that's all Amar needed. He decided it was open season.
He started working his charm and I was won over.
Even 20 years ago, Amar wouldn't have been my type. And yet I still found myself checking into a hotel with him.
We ended up on the bed and we got as far as kissing.
I just couldn't go through with it though. I've slept with other men before, even while I've been married, but this seemed wrong.
It's been so long since Emil or I have been with anybody else. Once Hope and Nathan were old enough to figure out what might be going on, that fizzled out. We never discussed monogamy, we just fell into it. So I actually found myself feeling guilty even being in the same room with Amar.
I almost felt sorry for Amar, after my sudden change of heart but I was hardly going to sleep with him just to prevent his ego from being bruised.
And besides, any sympathy I might have had for him evaporated when he started whining after we got dressed. I can't bear whining.
Later at home, I kept playing it over and over again in my head. Emil kept looking at me, wondering why I was so quiet. I told him I was fine but I don't think he believed me.
We had Nathan and Hope over the next day and even Nathan was wondering if something was wrong.
It was a nice distraction having Nathan and Hope over for dinner though.
With all the bickering they did, it was just like having them back home again!
After the kids left and we were getting ready for bed, Emil asked again what was wrong. And again. I knew he wasn't going to let up, so I had to give in.
I told him about Amar first, from meeting him near the elevators and all the way up to what happened in the hotel room.
I guess I must have known that Emil wouldn't be happy to hear about what could have happened with Amar, seeing I hesitated to tell him. But I was still surprised.
I don't think I'd ever seen Emil jealous before. He knows nothing happened with Amar and me, but he just hated the idea of me being with somebody else.
Emil wants us to make an agreement to be monogamous from now on. He figures that we've been headed that way for some time anyway and this Amar thing is a good catalyst to start talking about what we both really want.
I'm a bit worried I won't be able to stick to it. It was easier when Hope and Nathan were at home, because there really wasn't that much opportunity. With them gone, I have much more time on my hands. That thing with Amar could just as easily gone the other way. What if I'm not suddenly overtaken by guilt the next time?Extra:
Continuing my family photo series, this time with one of Emil and his enormous clan (you can click to enlarge it, as you can do with every picture on this blog, by the way). This one damn near killed me but after I finished, the other ones were a total breeze! Notes:
- Title is from Enough by Waikiki, which I cannot find on YouTube or on Grooveshark. :\ This is a common problem with Australian music.
- Anna is Romance/Pleasure, but she rolled a lot of family wants this round - Talk to Relative, Play With Relative, etc. That fits in with her calling Hope and Nathan so much when I was playing the college kids. But it's unusual for her, in general, so I think she's missing Betsy. Of course, Anna also has the fear of a baby, so she's still Anna. ;)
- Anyway, I have a lot to say about this whole Emil/Anna/Amar thing, so please bear with me! I'm going to break this up with bullet points, just to make it a little easier to read.
- First of all, Anna was the Sim who rolled the "You deserve better" ROS this round. When I rolled that ROS, I was annoyed. I knew Anna did not have higher chemistry with anyone, so I was a bit stumped as to how to write it in. I considered ignoring it but if I'm going to ignore the ROS, especially once I've posted them, what's the point?
- So along comes Amar. Anna has 3 bolts with Amar, though it's a lower 3 bolts than she has with Emil. Amar flirted with her autonomously and she was receptive, so I got them a hotel room.
- And this is where Anna started acting strangely. She'd accepted his flirts and I was able to have them "Kiss" on the bed but that was it. No other kissing, no romantic hugging and definitely no woohoo! And they were already friends, so very weird behaviour for a Romance Sim like Anna.
- When I took Anna to the office building to shoot some more scenes with Amar during this session, I had to turn debugsocial on because she wasn't even accepting his flirts any more! I even checked her ACR token, to see if I'd maybe set her to "no cheating". Nope. ACR says she's free to cheat if she wants. She's chosen this for herself. So I guess, in a way, she is fulfilling the requirements of the ROS to pursue a relationship with the Sim with the highest chemistry, and that just happens to be her husband.
- Wants-wise, this actually makes a lot of sense for Anna and Emil. Anna hasn't rolled specific romantic wants for anyone but Emil in a long time, though she still rolls the multiple woohoo/make out wants occasionally. Emil doesn't even roll those any more, which is why he's much more keen on the official monogamy thing than Anna is. For those curious, the last time Emil was with another woman was here. I couldn't even find Anna's last time with another man but it was probably around the same time.
- As for Amar, well, now you know he's not above lying by omission to preserve his pride (he never actually said he slept with Anna, nor did I).
- Phew! I don't think I can quite express how very relieved I am that this ROS is over with! I originally had the Collins scheduled in November, because I was dreading this one so much. I'm very glad I moved them up though, because I think they fit in better here.
Ah that was really interesting and I like how you wrote it (I know you said you were nervous about writing it). :)
ReplyDeleteThat is really weird the way she was acting, but it worked out perfectly story-wise. Glad to see Emil is "claiming his woman" after all these years lol. And yes, Amar really did omit some details when he was telling the guys about Anna. If only they knew how heartbroken and embarrassed he looked being rejected lol.
It's sad that she's having trouble figuring out how to deal with her sister's sudden death. Shopping sprees, getting into bed with hot younger men. If only I could deal with some of my problems that way LOL.
I really liked this family portrait and I forgot to say I really like the one in your last update, too.
Again, great update!
Wow, Carla!
ReplyDeleteGreat family portrait! You have outdone yourself. I love the poses.
Dani, thanks! Yes, I was super nervous about writing this. That manifests itself in procrastination for me, so it ended up taking forever. I started writing in the morning and finished late at night, because I kept taking "breaks".
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the wants all worked out story-wise. It makes sense to me that Emil and Anna might both want to settle down a little now that they're older and the accidental monogamy they've been living in for the past several years is probably pretty comfortable for them. Amar was a bit of a jolt to both of them.
I don't think Amar will be sharing that part of the story any time soon! Lucky Jacob and Dominic aren't the types to go spreading stories like that around, or it might come back to bite Amar in the ass.
If Anna had ever learnt to talk things over with people, she'd probably find she could cope better. She's never been comfortable with that sort of thing though but maybe she'll take steps towards that now, at least with Emil.
Thanks for the compliments on the family portraits - I'm kind of just glad they're over with!
snarkysims, hello, nice to see you around again!
Thank you! The posing can be a bit time-consuming but I have never felt like I've wasted the time at the end of it. It's nice to have a bunch of posed pictures of my Sims, as well as the more candid ones I use in the blog.
Wow, I'm glad Anna and Emil had the talk-I guess I somehow missed when they were not monogamous :p
ReplyDeleteAmar didn't say he had slept with Anna but he sure hinted that way! If only Jacob and Dominic knew, lol.
ReplyDeleteI was kind of surprised to see Emil go all jealous but on the other hand neither of them have had other interests for years so it would be natural for him to assume that's how it's going to be.
I like the family portrait a lot. I'm kind of tempted to do those too but I think I might be too lazy and impatient to pull it through.
Poor Anna, losing your sister, even if you aren't officially close, still has to be difficult. I think the whole Amar thing fits in way better here then it would later. Kind of a mini-my-sister-died-crap crisis.
ReplyDeleteFunny that Emil had such a fit over it, though I'm sure that it felt nice to Anna, to have him feel strongly about it/her.
Apple Valley, well, it had been a really long time since either Anna or Emil had wanted to be with anybody else. So I'm not surprised - Nathan and Hope were kind of taking over the story while they were living at home.
ReplyDeleteSari, ha, yes! I'm sure Amar intended for Jacob and Dominic to assume he'd slept with Anna. Not that either of them were too impressed.
I would think that now that Anna and Emil have raised two kids together, they're a little more bonded than they were when they decided on this whole open marriage thing. And Emil's got that Family secondary, so settling down was likely something he always wanted eventually. And here it is now, at 57.
And thanks. I picked a day to do them where I was really bored but didn't have the energy to think too much about writing or anything like that. I'm happy I did them though, because I really love how they've turned out (bar one, but I'll show that one when I get to that family).
Maisie, absolutely! It's still a loss and Betsy and Anna were at the very least fond of each other. I imagine Betsy's not really thinking or acting the way she normally would right now, so the Amar thing made some sort of sense.
Emil being jealous is a new experience for Anna and new for him too! But it probably pleased Anna, on some level even though she felt guilt over the Amar thing going even as far as it did.
I was very surprised to see the actual story! Amar, you dog! Haha, it's kinda cute that he'd lie to save his pride. And he whined to her. Smooth man! What a character he is.
ReplyDeleteBut wow, Anna holding back! I like the way you write it in as guilt. It certainly seems that way, and it makes sense. After so many years together, with the kids, I can see how they'd fall into a monogamous routine very easily and without realizing it.
Holy cow! That huge family picture must have taken you forever! I'm not sure I would have the patience to set that all up.
ReplyDeleteNice to see that Anna and Amar hadn't done what we all thought they did. Amar is a very typical guy leading people's thoughts in that direction. Neat how it all worked out for your ROS!
Lunar, LOL, yes, I almost felt sorry for Amar. He looked like a little puppy dog. He'd better not let that get out!
ReplyDeleteI was incredibly glad that Anna rejected Amar because it really made writing this a lot easier, even though I was still worried about it. It fits in much better with what kind of people Anna and Emil are these days, than if she'd gone through with it. Under normal circumstances (as in not grieving), I think Anna would probably find that kind of thing undignified now, apart from the guilt thing.
gallowaytownship, well, that one took me the longest! I didn't time myself because I didn't want to be reminded of how much time I could have been spending cleaning the house or whatever, lol!
Amar's not all talk but now we know he was in this case! He has his pride and he didn't want his friends to know he'd been rejected. In his undies! That probably takes humiliation to another level!
That's sneaky, giving that kind of picture in the previous update, and now letting us know it wasn't what we all expected! :) But you're righ Amar nor you actually said he slept with Anna, it was what we all made of it I gues! I love the way you wrote about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually glad that Anna didn't sleep with Amar, he's way too young for her.
I like the way you told the story, that she just couldn't go through with it because of guilt, but in the end Anna's nature kicks in again, when she's not sure she can stick to just one guy.
What a great family portrait!!! I love those (all of them to be exact), but this one is really great!
Tanja, yes, the pictures in Amar's update were a little misleading. ;) Now you know the full story.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone involved is glad Anna didn't sleep with Amar, actually, except Amar himself. He was quite dejected about the whole thing and he's rolling flirt wants for Anna now. Well, that's going to happen!
Anna's stuck to one guy for the last ten years or so but the pressure's on, now that she's actually expected too. Might not be too hard though, if she's going to keep rejecting everyone like she did with Amar!
And thank you - I have a ton more of those family portraits to show you over this round.
I get it though (not that I've ever been 51, lol!) but it must be flattering to be hit on by a younger man, like Amar even who could hit on just about anyone, lol!
ReplyDeleteI love how you tied in the ROS with this though, especially since it kind of negated itself. But you made it work in the end!
Laura, I'm sure that was at least part of it for Anna. I don't think any guys have hit on her in a while (except Emil, lol), so a 28 year-old would be quite the event.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks! It's hard when the ROS is kind of made void by what's already going on in the game but it seems to work better for the story if I try to tie it in some way.
Well, the ROS (at least the one I have) says something along the lines of "If the sim with the highest relationship is your spouse, then they're lucky." So really, Anna needn't have cheated on anybody to fulfill this ROS, since I'm assuming they still have the highest (or one of the highest) attraction scores in Sullivan. But that wouldn't have been nearly as interesting. :)
ReplyDeleteThis tied up a lot of loose ends. I really envy your storytelling skills sometimes.
Fini, yep, that's the same ROS I use. But like you said, it's more interesting this way. I always feel like I'm copping out a bit if I completely ignore an ROS, so I like to try to write it in.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the compliment and for reading!