Lingering still

Round 33: January 2037 (Summer)

last update/Elspeth's last update/next update

Sophie Gottlieb and Lila Sitko are both 24 and Elspeth Romilly is 23.
(Amelia is 48, Connor and Camilla are both 24 and Oliver is 21)

Narrated by Sophie Gottlieb

I sometimes get a little bored at home if I’m on my own, so I tend to do a lot of cooking to occupy myself.

It’s a lot of fun and as a bonus, I’m improving my skills for when I finally get to work in an actual kitchen, at a restaurant a bit classier than Cluckin’ Bell.

I pretend I’m cooking things for Elspeth and Lila and that’s sort of true. They never need to worry about dinner after work, because I always have something ready. I’m so lazy with cleaning and this is my one contribution to the household.

But in truth, I’m cooking for them but doing a lot of “tasting” at the same time. It’s definitely showing when I look in the mirror too. I just don’t seem to be able to burn off the calories like I once did.

Mum says it’s genetic. The same thing happened to her, although not until she got pregnant with Noah.

I’m just lucky enough to start packing on the pounds before I even get knocked up, I guess. But I’ve thought about it and decided I don’t really care so much. I’d rather be a little pudgy than work out.

Though I did try that a couple of times, with Lila. She goes a couple of evenings a week, after work and she loves it. I thought I might too.

It wasn’t quite as fun as I’d envisioned. The last time we went, the session ended with Lila abandoning her treadmill so she could nag me to take my hands off the rails of mine.

I was so relieved when she ran into Connor and forgot about me.

I ended up sneaking off to get a massage instead. I think that’s the only possible thing you’ll catch me doing at a gym any time soon.

I’m on my feet all day at work, so in my off time, I like to just veg out.

I do love my job though. It’s not at a fantastic restaurant - just a cafe at a bowling alley - but I am finally out of fast food! That alone is thrilling.

I still want to be actually cooking the food, instead of serving it but this pays better than my last job, with better hours. I’ll get there.

Lila and I have been living here for two years but it’s only since Elspeth moved in that we’ve spent any time at all in the back garden. It’s a gorgeous little place and the best part is that our landlord takes care of all the upkeep for us!

We talk about everything but we love swapping dating stories. Elspeth and I are both single, so we have a few. I like to get out there much more often than she does, so I tend to have more!

I’ve definitely dated a few duds since Jack and I broke up but hey, they make for good stories!

Lila sometimes skips our girl talk sessions and makes all-day plans with Connor instead.

Neither of them have had much luck with romance before but this seems to be it for them.

I fully expect Lila will be the first one to move out of our flat. Not soon but it’ll happen.

Then it'll just be me and Elspeth. I’ve grown even closer to Elspeth since she moved in with us. We've always been friends but we've never really confided in each other much.

That's changed lately. Last time we were home without Lila, Elspeth confessed to me that she has “a thing” for Josh.

I don’t know why she couldn’t have developed this “thing” for him when he was available. He’s going out with Veronica now.

I’m trying to encourage her to date other people but she’s going at it quite half-heartedly.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of the guys she’s been on dates with but she always comes home saying there was no spark, or they were boring, or they were dumb, or “not her type”.

I keep telling her sometimes it’s worth it to give someone a chance, even if they’re “not your type”. But I think she’s just decided no one but Josh will do.

The guy I’m dating right now, Oliver, is not my type, normally but we just really clicked, right away.

He approached me in a clothing store, chatted me up and then asked me out.

I was a little wary, because he’s still in college but I decided to give him a shot. He’s only three years younger than me, which isn’t that much of an age gap.

Initially, I didn’t think we’d have anything in common but that hasn’t been a problem at all. I don’t think we’ve ever had any awkward silences, even early on.

He’s even willing to listen to me talk incessantly about food, though he’s definitely not a “foodie” like I am.

Oliver is more into sports but just as a hobby. Career-wise, Oliver wants to join the SCIA, which is also Connor’s eventual plan.

He’s not so serious like Connor though, he’s very easy-going. And he’s very cute too, which is a nice bonus.

Camilla especially is so excited for me. She keeps asking me when I’m going to get “serious” with him.

I guess I’ve been talking about him quite a bit lately!

Oliver is just coming out of a five-year relationship, so we’re not even talking about where this might lead, if anywhere. We’re just enjoying getting to know each other and we’ll worry about the other stuff when we need to.

Extra:
This was an outtake from setting up the last picture. I think it's adorable!

Notes:

• Title is from Lingering Still by She & Him.
• Sophie rolled the "packing on the pounds" ROS this round, so she was knocked down one fitness level to Fat. So far, she seems pretty happy as she is but she's Pleasure/Romance, so she may eventually roll the want to Get Fit. Until she does or until she exercises autonomously, she'll be keeping her curves. ;)
• So a bit about Elspeth's wants. Since the kiss with Josh when they were in college, she's been intermittently rolling "Get Engaged to Josh" wants. I was keeping an eye on it, just to see if she'd roll any other romantic wants or if this was some kind of idle fantasy, maybe. For a while, it was just the engagement want but now the other romantic wants are coming out to play. I think I mentioned in Josh's update that he never really stopped rolling romantic wants for Elspeth, so we'll see what happens between them now, with Veronica in the picture.
• Sophie and Oliver are the new couple I hinted at in my post at N99 yesterday. I teleported him in to see if there was any chemistry with Elspeth but surprise, surprise - she wasn't interested! Sophie though, was very interested and rolled the want to ask him out on a date almost immediately. They're not in love yet, so it's early days at the moment. They have the same attraction score as Connor and Lila (2 bolts, 75 points), so there's a decent grounding there. Not something I was planning but I'm happy Sophie's got a boyfriend again.