Melt your heart

Round 32: July 2036 (Winter)

last update/next update

Charlie Benton is 24, Camilla Sitko is 23 and Grace and Everett are both 6.
(Olivia is 39, Susannah is 26 and Zac is 2)

Narrated by Camilla Sitko

Charlie and I put every bit of money we’d saved up into getting this unit but it’s really been worth it.

Ideally, we’d be living in a house but this place is bigger than any house we can currently afford. That should change next year, when Charlie turns 25 and gets access to his trust fund.

But maybe we’ll stay put here for a while anyway. We’re happy and the kids are happy and it’s all we need for now.

I really like our neighbour, Susannah. We both became mothers rather unexpectedly, so we bonded over that to begin with. We get along really well and we're often in and out of each other's units.

It feels strange to be the more experienced mother but I’ve been able to give Susannah the odd tidbit of advice in the time we’ve known each other.

Her son Zac is only two, so Susannah is still dealing with all the toddler stuff, which feels like it was so long ago with Grace and Everett.

Zac is a good kid but it’s just a tough age. Susannah is doing it on her own too, for the most part. Zac stays with his dad a couple of nights a week but it’s mostly on Susannah’s shoulders.

Her ex recently started dating someone and I’m trying to convince Susannah she should get back out there too.

She's a bit daunted by the idea of dating with a kid. She and Zac are a package deal; she needs whoever she's with to love her and her son.

She’s also kind of shy and would be nervous about dating again regardless of the circumstances. I wish I knew someone I could introduce her too. All the men I know are partnered up right now.

We finally got a cat for Grace and Everett this year. They’ve been bugging us for a pet for ages, so we picked Wanda out at a shelter.

The twins adore her and she seems to at least tolerate them.

They’re very good at paying attention to her and making sure she gets fed.

They even clean out the kitty litter. I’m very proud of them.

Charlie is very particular about tidiness, so he has the kids pretty well-trained. I work from 7 to 6 and cleaning is the last thing I want to do when I get home.

I’m now Olivia’s assistant, so I’m earning twice what I did as an intern. I have a more involved role now, along with the pay bump and I’m really enjoying it.

The hours are crazy but it’s worth it. I get such a buzz being backstage at a fashion show. I can’t imagine what I’ll feel like when it’s my own designs the models are wearing.

I was the one who always had the after-school shift when we were living on campus but Charlie works shorter hours than I do now, so he is home with the kids after school more often than I am.

I miss it in some ways. I love hearing all their little stories about school, even if Everett does still tend to embellish his tales a little!

But the kids usually have a ton to tell me when I get home anyway. It is really nice to walk in and have the kids’ homework and dinner ready to eat.

I’m always so ravenous after work. Who wouldn’t be, after 11 hours?

It doesn’t leave a lot of time for romance though. Charlie and I haven’t been on a date in a few months now. We’re usually too exhausted. Once we get the kids to bed, we’re just about ready for bed ourselves.

Last Friday night, I arrived home from work to an unusually quiet house. When the place is that quiet, it usually means the kids are doing something they shouldn’t!

I was worried, until Charlie came explained that Grace and Everett were with his parents and we had the place completely to ourselves.

Charlie’s parents are always offering to take the kids for a night but we rarely take them up on it. The prospect of a whole evening on our own was so exciting though!

Charlie made dinner for us. He does that almost every night but just the two of us sharing a meal doesn’t happen very often.

We even had champagne, because Charlie said it was a “special occasion”.

I started to suspect what Charlie was up to then…

…so I wasn’t totally surprised when I saw the ring box.

But that didn’t make it any less thrilling. When I came home from work, I definitely wasn’t expecting to get engaged after dinner!

Then again, I never expected to still be with Charlie after 8 years or that I would have two children by now.

My life really hasn’t gone the way I imagined it would when we first started dating but I can’t wait to take this next step with Charlie.

Notes:

• Title is from Melt Your Heart by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins.
• Poor Charlie is now back on the night shift! More money but crappier hours. As for Camilla, I think the hours for the Fashion career are uniformly awful, all the way to the upper levels (Olivia's hours still suck), so she's in this for the long haul now.
• But yay, WEDDING! LOL, you guys know I love a wedding. I'm not totally set on the date yet but I'm thinking round about April next year. I will have it set for sure by the time I put up next round's play schedule.
• Charlie actually rolled the want to get engaged to Camilla while she was still pregnant. This was amazing to me, because she was still a teen and he was a YA at the time. I've never seen engagement/marriage wants for teen-adult couples, even with the adult wants hack (although I still have to try that independent teen trick). And also, he didn't roll the want while he was on a date with Camilla - he just rolled it out of the blue. I always take that as a special sign, so I figured that Charlie was serious about Camilla from then on. He had a few hiccups along the way but his heart was always in the right place.
• I actually had a few extra scenes planned out for this with Camilla and her friends but it was already getting long. ;) I think I'll write one of them into the actual wedding post.