Who feels love

Round 37: June 2046 (Winter)

Brendan Lachance and Caitlin Romilly are 23 and Annabel and Georgina Nott are 22. 
(Lia is 49, Anthony is 29, Mitchell is 27 and Xavier is 25)

Narrated by Annabel Nott

I try to enjoy the freedom I have living away from home, though it’s hard when Mum pops over all the time. 

Georgina gave her a key (why?!), so she just lets herself in. It can be a bit trying but I try to remind myself that she just worries about us.

Her current thing is pestering me about learning to cook. She was horrified when I told her I didn’t know how to turn on the oven.

I do know. I just think it’s funny to freak her out sometimes. 

But it’s true that I don’t know how to cook. Why would I bother learning how to do that, when we have Caitlin around? 

Caitlin is an amazing cook. Anything she makes is much tastier and probably healthier than anything I’d make, so really, Mum should be pleased. 

I thought having three roomies might be a bit much most of the time, it feels like I only have two. 

Brendan works in intelligence and we honestly hardly see the guy. He starts work at 3pm, so he’s usually gone by the time any of us get home and he’s fast asleep when we wake up the next morning. 

His “weekend” is Sunday and Monday, when he usually goes up to visit his girlfriend Aurora at Suffolk. She doesn’t graduate for another 18 months. 

I don’t think I was really so desperate that I needed to be set up with someone but when Caitlin suggested I come along and meet Mitchell’s friend Anthony, I didn’t see the harm in it.

He didn’t call right away but I was keen enough that I got his number through Caitlin, called him myself and asked if he wanted to meet up.

Fortunately, he was into it and we went out on our first date the next night.

Anthony is 7 years older than me, meaning we were never at school together and never even met before, despite both living in Sullivan our entire lives.

Despite that though, we really do have a lot in common. We both have a twin sister - Anthony’s sister taught me while I was at high school.

Our twins are both the high-achieving types and we both felt like our parents (especially our mothers) had higher expectations of us as a result.

Anthony sort of coasted through uni, like I did and had no clue what he wanted to do afterwards, like I still don’t. Anthony is a little bit closer to figuring that out though. He told me his ultimate aim is to actually buy the bar we were drinking in.

It’s a pretty cool place and owning a bar seems like it would be a fun job. Maybe I’ll sort out exactly what I want to do with my life too, a few years down the track!

We had such a great time and the conversation felt so natural. We didn’t make concrete plans to go out again but we agreed that we definitely want to. 

It’s very early days with Anthony but I hadn’t met anyone I was interested in for a long time, so it’s nice to have the possibility of something happening again.

Georgina has been with Xavier for about six months now and she’s sure she’s in love.

It seems quick but I don’t know, maybe she is. It’s not like we haven’t known Xavier and his siblings for our whole lives.

I’m happy for Georgina. She’s always wanted to get married and have a family and if Xavier is the right guy to do that with, then I’m all for it.

He’s a lovely guy. I’d be totally cool with having him as my brother-in-law. 

I like my job at the moment. I walk dogs all day, which is so much fun. 

But the money is terrible and there’s no real prospect of something better paying if I stay. Of everyone in the house, I make the least money by far. 

Money isn’t everything, of course, but I need to be able to support myself one day. 

It was actually Caitlin who found me my new job. She does some careers counselling as part of her job and she saw an ad for a lab tech at a vet clinic. 

I wasn’t sure about it but I applied anyway and I ended up getting it, to my surprise. The pay is twice what I’m making now, so that’ll be nice. 

Still, I’ll miss the freedom and fun I get dog walking. I don’t know that taking bloods and recording test results is going to be much fun. Hopefully the money will make up for it!

Caitlin is job hunting herself at the moment. She’s currently working as a school counsellor but it’s on an itinerant basis. So it’s not stable and it’s not exactly where she wants to be.

Her GPA was not so great that NGOs were champing at the bit to hire her, so she’s just having to bide her time until something crops up. 

She doesn’t seem too worried about it though. She’s been with Mitchell two years now but he’s still taking up the majority of her attention.

I would not be totally stunned if they end up engaged or at least moving in together in the next year or so!

Notes:

• Title is from Who Feels Love by Oasis. 
• I'm hoping Brendan gets a daytime shift at his job with his next promotion! His schedule really clashes with the girls' schedules!
• Caitlin finally found a job in the Social Work career right before I quit out. She has been in counseling psychology in the meantime, which is not what I intended for her. 
• Annabel has zero cooking points, which is quite a feat! I’m not sure she actually does know how to turn on an oven. Is it even possible for Sims to cook one meal without getting to at least a 1 in cooking? I’m kind of fascinated by this. I’m going to see how long I can keep her at zero, lol!
• Annabel is qualified to be a lab tech! She didn’t get into vet school but she does have an undergrad degree in biology, which would be more than enough training. I'm still not sure if I want her to aim for something else or if I'll just keep her in the lower levels of the Veterinarian career (which is where she is now - Lab Tech is Level 2).
• Georgina and Caitlin are being their typical Family sim selves and have rolled marriage wants for their boyfriends. Caitlin also wants a baby. They can both wait a little while for marriage and babies, I think. ;) Well, Georgina will have to, because Xavier isn't quite on board yet anyway!