Make it Work, 2006

Remar, summer, 2006

Susie knew that she would have to say something soon. She wouldn't be able to hide her secret very long before it became painfully obvious. She sighed and stared at the TV, half wishing that it would instruct her on how to approach the subject. Anthony knew that there was something on Susie's mind, he wasn't dumb and could read her fairly well.

"Tell me, Susie," he demanding, placing his book aside.

Where would she start? It started so innocently, she went to work as usual to lead the simweekly simjazzer class at the gym. Local celebrities would come in all the time, but when street dancing superstar Mister Infinity walked in. Susie knew that she only had one chance. She had been working on some moves of her own outside of work and considered busting them out for Mister Infinity, but then again she could just lead the SimJazzer class as usual since that was what she was paid for.

She decided to bust her moves out for him which needless to say impressed him. His words still rang in her ears "Dang! You got some pretty sweet moves and excellent body control. What are you doing leading a silly SimJazzer class? You and me, we're taking this on the road."

By taking this on the road, he meant that she would be joining him for his international tour, a full simyear of dancing with one of the greatest street dancers in the nation. She couldn't turn that down.

"We have to break up," she concluded, playing with her hands to avoid looking at Anthony.

"What?"

"I can't marry you," she sighed.

Anthony stood still for a moment fighting for control of his emotions. This woman was slowly tearing his heart into pieces with her refusal to see that they were perfect for each other. It was almost as if she was deliberately trying to sabatoge their relationship. Thankfully for Susie, Anthony had seen it all before. After his parents divorced, he watched his mother push man after man away. He would listen to her talking with friends about how she didn't deserve this guy or that guy, how they would eventually just leave anyway because what man would want to become involved with a single mother. He would hear her cry alone at night or scream heated words of disdain into the phone.

"Give me one good reason why you can't marry me." he growled.

"We will not work out," she stammered. "Your job, your dream is here. You finally have what you've been working so hard for, and now I have an opportunity to have what I've been working so hard for, but...but it's not here. It's not here with you."

"That's not a reason for us not to get married."

"What are you going to do? Follow me from city to city on this tour? Or the next tour, perhaps?"

"No, of course not. But, we can make it work, baby, please, we can make it work."

"How can we make it work? We'll be in two different locations, how can that work?"

"We'll just have to postpone the wedding until things with your career are a bit more stable and then we'll just work harder at our relationship. Long distance relationships can work."

Susie wanted to believe him, she really did. But she knew that he was an attractive man and already women gave him that look as if they could swallow him whole. However, Susie was more afraid of what she would do while away from him. Those porno worthy thoughts still plagued her and she worried that she would give in if she wasn't around him constantly. How could she deny herself if Anthony was on the other side of the world and probably wouldn't find out...what if he did find out? She didn't want to go through that guilt. She already was hiding guilt from him with the whole Walli situation.

"At least try, Susie." Anthony pleaded. "Let's try for this simyear...if it's meant to be, we'll work, if not..."

Susie looked into Anthony's eyes, his unshed tears matched her own tear filled eyes. "Alright...we'll try."

---

"You know, most couples pick a star to look at when they're apart. Just knowing that your partner is looking at the same star as you makes the distance seem so much smaller."

"So, are we going to pick a star...or a cloud?" Susie teased.

"I'm going to miss seeing your smile every simday," Anthony whispered holding her close.

"But we'll talk every simnight, and email."

"And you'll take a ton of photos."

"I will, I promise."

"I love you,"

"I love you too."

"Let's go home, let me remind you again of how much I love you."

"Again?" Susie teased.

"Unless you rather take another walk,"

"No...I rather you remind me, again and again and again."

---

Susie & Walli/Walt