Survival Mode Patar 2003

Patar, summer, 2003
Tobi and Li are 31; Ping, Aaron and Simora are 4; Matt is 1 SimLonic month

Summer was understandably busy in the Sweeny household. They recently welcomed thier fourth child, Matt and with three toddlers and an infant Tobi and Li were surviving on the barest amount of sleep. The lack of sleep meant that Li often wrapped her growing hair into a tiny bun at the back of her head and allowed a few tendrils to casually hang loose. After a few simdays of the new look, she decided that she liked the casually hairstyle.

Li took advantage of her maternity leave by catching up on reading and doing a few architectual sketches. Her job with the SUN News was going well, her readership was increasing and her boss said that she showed potentional. Unfortunately, there were no empty slots which meant no promotions...at least for a while. She was doing much better with designing a few buildings for the hood council. She missed her first love. Designing buildings and homes gave her such energy. Something that she didn't have a lot of recently with four children. Would she have chosen this life? She's not sure. She perfers the life of a career woman. The kind of life that requires a cute downtown apartment with views of the city, designer furniture and martinis, a great job where she was on the fast track to the top and a cute guy to share it with. Kids were optional, but life gave her four. It's no secret that she bore her children to please Tobi. Don't take it any other way, she loves them now that they're here, but four is a bit much.

Thankfully the hood council called her back for a special project. Her position as Archives/Technology Director was recently demoted to a contract commissioned position and she was paid based on the jobs she did. Thankfully the special project of compling all the blogs into one easy-to-read format would keep her busy for a few simyears and the additional pay was very welcomed, especially with four young mouths to feed. There wasn't money left over for designer furniture and fancy dinners in the city. Most times she ate the standard overdone porkchop with gummy mashed potatoes.

Most of her maternity leave simdays were spent caring for Matt and playing with the triplets. The small family fell into a routine fairly quickly. After waking up and letting the triplets out of thier cribs for some playtime and cereal bits served on the floor, Li and Tobi managed to stuff a few frozen pasteries in thier mouth before Tobi had to leave for work. By that time, Matt was screaming and needed a bottle and bath. After lunch, the sacred hour of naptime approached.

Li would put the triplets down first and sit Matt in his bouncer next to her computer. By the time the machine booted up, Matt was asleep and Li was able to either work on her special project with the hood council, submit an article or two to STAR magazine or work on her novel. It was about a sim, much like Li, that lived downtown in a loft apartment with views of the city and a great job at an architectual firm designing award winning buildings. The herorine strived to make it to the top and hosted lots of dinners and entertained many sims from international ports of call in her quest. If only Li's life was as such.

She is hoping for a publishing contract from Pennelson Publishing, so she invites Jolie Dawson, published author, and Sandra Jones, a freelance author, over for cake. The two women explain that the publishing business is finicky, like the weather. One day the editors love you, your agent raves about you and the public is buying your books like crazy. The next day, your editor refuses to take your calls and the line for the restroom is longer than your line at the bookstore signing.

Sandra leaves fairly quickly in order to catch the ferry, but Jolie stays and chats with Li some more.

"You look strange? Are you ok?"

"I've been a bit nausated lately and so tired."

Li raised her brows. "How do you feel about the pregnancy?"

Jolie laughed. "Honestly? At first I thought, how could I be pregnant? We tried for simyears before deciding to adopt the girls. Then the test came back positive and we're having twins! Can you believe such luck!"

Li gave her a look. "Believe me I can. If it wasn't for that night at the train station, little Matt wouldn't be here."

"It's funny how life can upset your well laid plans." Jolie thought. "Sometimes, I wish there was something to just make it all make sense."

"Well, it doesn't so what you need right now is a big fluffly pillow to the face!" Li screamed before slamming the sofa pillow on her friend. The women played a short game of pillow fight before collasping on the sofa in a fit of giggles.

"I haven't done that since I was a teen."

"Me either."

At that moment, Tobi arrives home from work, ending the short lived pillow fight. Jolie leaves quickly afterwards.

"How was work?" Li asks, embracing her husband in a kiss.

"Absolutely wonderful, guess what happened."

"You solved the case of the missing billboard?"

"No."

"Umm, you caught the sim stealing our newspaper?"

"No! I got a raise!"

"A raise! That's wonderful!"

Tobi was glad that Li was excited about the raise. The extra money would help them, especially since the townhome was getting very crowded. Four children, two adults and two official bedrooms (one large attic/gameroom) wasn't the greatest place to live. He was beginning to look for other housing. Ginger was right, the Plains had more space for the money, but he had found a fairly large townhome in the Metro...the rent was steep, but with four official bedrooms, three full baths and plenty of yard space, it was perfect. The icing on the cake was that it was close to the parks and within walking distance of many great amenities.

It was time for the triplet's bath, so Li tossed Matt into the air.

"You're going to play with daddy for a little while, yes you are," she cooed to her youngest.

Tobi watched as Matt was placed in his bouncer next too him. He was in the process of paying bills and doing more real estate research when his chat window popped up.

Gingersnap: Hi

TSween: Hi, how are you?

Gingersnap: Great! I miss chatting with you. How is the little one?

TSween: He's doing fine. I miss chatting with you too.

Gingersnap: I'm coming to Apple Valley to register some papers at the courthouse, do you think I can spend the night until the morning ferry?

TSween: Sure! See you soon!

Li came down after bathtime to collect Matt.

"Ginger is coming to spend the night until the morning ferry. I'm going to stay up until she arrives."

"Ok," she said. The woman had stayed the night before and vice versa. "I'm going to put Matt to bed and then get some sleep." She replied before grabbing the infant and a nearby book.

"I love you," Tobi said kissing her goodnight.

"I love you, too."

Twenty minutes later, Ginger stood in the living room. "Thank you again for letting me stay the night.

She collasped on the sofa and words poured from her mouth. "I'm so tired, this pregnancy has drained me. Not to mention having Breckin around. He's a very active toddler, always rushing off to the toilet! The twins keep bringing thier little friends over and I just can't handle four kids running around the house. I think I've sent them off to play in the field so many times! I expected cravings but gosh, these pregnancy hormones just make me want to woohoo all the time and Grex won't even cuddle with me anymore! This baby must be huge! I'm getting fat all over, not just baby belly."

"No you're not."

"Yes, I am." She stood up. "I'm getting fat all over! Look!"

"Ginger, you're absolutely beautiful." Tobi gushed.

"Really?" Ginger whispered. "You're not saying that as my friend?"

"I'm saying that as a man." Tobi said pulling her to him. "You are radiantly beautiful. I don't know why Grex hasn't told you that lately, but you are beautiful."

The two friends stared at each other, the feelings that had remained dormant since high school stirred to life within them. They don't recall who made the first move, but somehow thier lips found each other. That old attraction roared to life, burning brightly.

What happened next was very much wanted, since they were sixteen simyears old. Before the fateful flood pulled them in opposite directions, before marriage and children forced them to bury thier love. They couldn't deny the changes that life had given them, but for tonight, they were the same giddy teenagers that held thier breath whenever the other was in the room. Tonight, they were more than friends, they were lovers.

---

So they finally rolled romantic wants for each other. Tobi started by gushing over her during thier simple chat, then wants for flirting moved to wants for kissing which lead to wants for other actions. Thanks to ACR these actions were quickly accepted since the duo were best friends anyway-make that BFFs.

For those keeping track: Grex (Ginger's husband) cheated on her with Jolie and now Ginger is cheating on Grex. I don't know what will come of Ginger and Tobi's affair since it wasn't an ACR induced affair, but they both rolled wants for the affair.