The delicate place

Round 32: April 2035 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Lila Sitko and Sophie Gottlieb are both 22.
(James is 60, Camilla and Connor are both 22, Elspeth is 21 and Grace and Everett are both 5)

Narrated by Lila Sitko

Sophie and I have been living together for a few months now and I think we've established a pretty stable routine. I sweep the floors, make the beds, take out the trash, do the dishes and any other chore that involves cleaning and Sophie sits on the couch and watches TV.

The only thing she really does to contribute to the household is cook. She'll do that any time, because she adores it.

She cooks pretty damn well too, so I forgive her for her almost complete lack of domesticity. I haven't eaten so well since I was living at home and Grandpa was doing all the cooking.

Home is the only place Sophie can express herself creatively with her food right now, because she's stuck working fast food.

She's the manager, which is something, I guess. But Sophie says all that means is she's the one in charge of getting her teenage employees to stop goofing off. The difference between her pay and their pay is hardly worth the extra responsibility and workload.

In contrast, I really love my job. I have authority over no one but that will come one day. I'm prepared to work for it.

In the meantime, my boss isn't so bad. He's a little stuffy but he's Connor's dad, so I knew what to expect.

I'm the only young woman around here but I have a lot of co-workers around my age.

It's a good place to work and I can see myself here for a long time.

I'm still glad I'm not settling into a new job and dealing with two 5-year-olds, like Camilla. She's working insane hours and then comes home to Grace and Everett, who don't really care that she's exhausted. Charlie's good but there's only so much he can do. He works full time as well.

I get off at 4 every day, so I offered to take the kids for a night and let Camilla and Charlie go out or just hang out together kid-free at home.

Camilla was only too happy to take me up on it.

I probably don't offer as much as I should. Grace and Everett are good kids but I find it tiring taking care of them even just for a few hours.

They were on their best behaviour though, which was nice. I made them some French toast and we did a breakfast-for-dinner thing.

They spent most of the evening talking about the new puppy and kitten they're getting. I'm pretty sure Camilla and Charlie don't know anything about this puppy and kitten and the twins are just hoping that talking about it enough will make it so.

I was babysitting on my own that night, because Sophie was out on one of her many dates.

That night, it was Seth. Sophie and Seth have been casually dating since last year.

Sophie really likes him but it's never been exclusive.

They're at a point now though, where Seth wants to get serious with Sophie and she's just not ready to settle down.

She's getting a little freaked out by it and I don't know how long she'll keep seeing him.

A guy Sophie flirted with a little last year lives in our apartment building and they've picked up where they left off.

They've been out several times, as well as hung out at his apartment.

Freddie seems like a better match for her, in terms of what they want out of a relationship, so maybe it'll be better for both of them.

Both of them want to keep things casual for now. But Freddie doesn't seem to be doing much for Sophie, otherwise.

I asked her about him the other night and she didn't seem enthusiastic at all.

As bad a match as they are, Sophie is much more attracted to Seth than to Freddie, at least physically. When she's with Freddie, she's usually thinking about Seth.

Lately when Sophie goes out, I've been inviting Elspeth over to keep me company. Elspeth has been hanging out with us as a group again but I think one-on-one time is what we really needed to reconnect.

When I first found out Josh had kissed Elspeth, I didn't think I'd ever want to see her again. But before that, we were best friends and I ended up missing that way more than I thought I would. I've always been able to say things to Elspeth that I can't say to Sophie and Camilla. Bitchy things, mostly but I just need to vent sometimes. Elspeth is the same.

We kept it pretty light for a while - just chit chat - but we've started to talk about more serious things lately. I'm the only one Elspeth has talked to about Chris, who she recently broke up with.

She's ready to move past him at this point but he's running around campus, flaunting his 600 girlfriends in her face. It's making it harder.

I've been confiding in Elspeth again as well. She was the first one I told about Connor. It felt so weird to admit it out loud. I've never looked at Connor as anything more than a friend before.

But recently, I'm thinking about him in more of a romantic light. I have no idea how to approach Connor about it, or he's feeling the same way.

Connor is not exactly a demonstrative kind of guy. Elspeth knows that all too well - they used to date a little in high school. So it's definitely going to be something I have to bring up myself.

I think it may be worth taking that risk though. He's so different from Josh and I feel like our friendship could be end up being the basis of something really great. We have so much more in common than I would have assumed before I really got to know him.

He's often not a big talker but once we get going, we can talk for hours, which we've been doing a lot lately.

Connor's brother got married a few months ago, and Connor has been living with him and his wife since then. He's really ready to move out but can't quite afford it yet, so he's just spending as little time at home as possible. I'm not complaining. It's been nice to spend so much time with him.

I know Sophie would be happy if I just went for it with Connor. She's sick of seeing me on the couch every night, instead of being out on the town.

I'm getting kind of sick of that myself, so I decided to go for it and ask Connor out.

I thought I'd dropped a few hints before that but Connor looked a little confused or maybe just surprised.

Once he figured it out, I got more of the reaction I was hoping for.

It was a little strange to be with him in a romantic situation, after being friends for years.

There were a few awkward silences at times but I tried not to let them deter me. I was expecting a little stiltedness.

Even before our food arrived though, we were both a little more relaxed. It didn't take too long to start feeling more at ease.

It turns out that Connor had been feeling the same way about me as I was about him, for the last few months or so. He was relieved that I took it out of his hands by asking him out myself.

We ended up having a really great time together.

We'd made plans to do it again before we even left the restaurant.

I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye after dinner, so I invited Connor back to the apartment.

We didn't go any further than making out on the couch for a while but that was nice. It had been a long time since I'd been with a guy!

We probably would have continued a little longer, had Sophie not arrived home and interrupted.

Connor took that as his cue to leave. We said goodbye outside, even though I'm sure Sophie was listening at the door.

It wasn't exactly necessary. I was always planning on filling her in as soon as Connor left. I knew Sophie would be excited for me that it went so well.

I'm really not the gushy type, so I'm really surprised that I can hardly stop thinking about Connor. I'm trying not to get my hopes up on the basis of one date but it feels really promising so far.

Outtakes:

Because my sense of humour often overlaps with that of a 12-year-old boy, I found this hilarious.

But Lila's reaction? Priceless! Although it seemed oddly prudish of Lila, given they'd just made out at the time!

Notes:

• Title is from The Delicate Place by Spoon.
• Lila was still very keen to continue her bonding with Elspeth this session, which was cute. So they got to have a girls' night and spill their guts. Because what else are girlfriends for, right? Anyway, Elspeth is moving into this flat next year. It's three storeys and there's a (very large!) bedroom for Elspeth on the third floor.
• When Sophie is out with Seth, she rolls romantic wants for him and he does the same for her. He also rolls engagement and marriage wants and Sophie is definitely not up for that. She doesn't seem to be up for poor Freddie at all. When she went on her date with him, she did not roll a single romantic want for him, though she did roll several wants to kiss and flirt with Seth. I don't think either guy is the right one for Sophie but she's young and she has time to find him.
• Okay, Connor and Lila: prepare for some major babble! I think I said in the college updates last year that I'd saved some romance stuff for this gang that didn't fit in last year. But it didn't quite go the way I was planning. When they were still at the dorms, Connor was rolling romantic wants for Sophie. I don't see them together, at least not long-term, but I was going to see if they wanted to have a little fling or something. I teleported him in though and there was zero interest, on either side. So okay...I guess Connor had a brief crush on Sophie and he's over it now.
• Connor and Lila had a generic social want (talk, play, something like that), so I let them fulfill it with each other. As soon as they'd done that, their panels filled with romantic wants for each other, including specifically wanting to go out on a date with each other. I couldn't say no to that, could I? ;) I can more easily picture Lila and Connor together than Connor and Sophie!
• I was not expecting them to be so into each other though! They're only two bolts (not a particularly high two bolts either - the attraction score is 75) but they're crazy about each other. They want to flirt and kiss all the time, even when they're not on a date. Connor is Knowledge/Popularity and Lila is Fortune/Knowledge, so this is quite unusual, at least in my experience. And it's unusual for Connor full stop! He so rarely rolls romantic wants at all. He doesn't even roll those stupid "Fall In Love With My Ex" wants that all Sims roll, even though he has two exes he could roll them for.