Tight, Part 2, 2007

Lovar, spring, 2007

Ray and Lydia Wilsonoff are 38, Alia Shae Wilsonoff is 3. Bill Carr is 23, Emma Carr is 22, Jacob Carr is 1. Sara Booth is 38, Krissy Thorn is 23, Ming Wuu is a junior, Lainey Lorde, S'Ahmisa Warwick and Verde Herendez are sophmores.

After aimlessly walking, Lydia found herself at the administration building for the hood.

"Lydia, how are you?" Fiona greeted her as she entered the building.

"Things could be better."

"What's wrong?"

"I was denied another job. This is the third one."

"You should chat with our financial director, I bet she can help you." Fiona recommended opening the door and partically pushing the woman into the small office.

"Can I help-oh, hello Lydia, how are you?"

"I'm doing ok, S'Ahmisa, how are you?"

"I'm well, what can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for the financial director."

"You're looking at her."

"Really? Wow, I didn't know."

"Don't worry, I just got this position. What seems to be the issue?"

"Do you have any insights about employment? I'm hitting deadends here."

"Really? Let me see your resume." S'Ahmisa quickly looked over the piece of paper. "Have you thought about fire fighting?"

"Fire fighting, no."

"We're looking at expanding our local fire fighting team due to a rash of unusual fires this past simyear. I think you'd be a great addition."

"Really? You think I could be a firefighter?"

S'Ahmisa regarded the woman and smiled. "I think you'd be perfect, I can already see you as a firefighter."

---

"So I have an interview with your dad next week, also your...I guess she would be your cousin?"

"Who?"

"Rebecca Wilsonoff."

"Oh, yea you could say that we're cousins. Very distant, but still cousins. Are you excited?"

"I am, if I get the job, it would beat serving coffee at The Drip and testing legwarmers."

It wasn't that The Drip was a bad job, Ming was able to see Benjamin during her breaks, but...well, she wanted something that was closer to what she had in mind once she graduated.

"I suppose you're right. Instead of serving coffee at The Drip, you'll be managing the books for The Drip and CupaJava."

"That would be nice...Ugh, I'm starving."

"Me too, let's shower and grab Krissy for dinner."

"I wonder where she is."

"You know she's in The Drip, probably working on her fifth cup of coffee and preparing her fall lessons."

S'Ahmisa was right, Ming found Krissy about to get her third refill in The Drip, the coffee shop under their apartment.

"Put the coffee down, we're going to eat dinner at Mr. Cho's, are you coming?"

Krissy would never turn down Mr. Cho's asian bistro. It wasn't quite like the food in Kimikura, but it came close.

"I can't believe that in a few months you'll be off for Kimikura for the semester."

"I know, I'm excited to return there and see how things have changed."

"It hasn't changed that much, a few temples are undergoing repairs, but otherwise it's the same that it was hundreds of simyears ago."

"Yea...it will be just you two in the apartment for a while."

"I know...I should totally get your room while you're gone."

"No way, Ming. If you did, you wouldn't give me my room back."

"But your view is amazing, you can see Lady Starr's butt from your window."

"And that's all you can see unless you tilt your neck up and squat on the floor in the corner, then you can see her boob."

---

After working a few hours at the bakery, Ray returned home before Lydia to relieve his father from watching Alia Shae.

He was pleasantly surprised to see not only his father, but his mother and younger sister as well.

"How did the interview go?"

"Like artwork, it was perfect. I got the job."

"Of course you did,"

"How about you? How was Ana Rayne's doctor appointment?"

"It was encouraging, her heart is still healing and we might be able to postpone her next round of surgeries for another six simlonic months to maybe even a simyear."

"That's great!"

"It is, well it's getting late and we should be going. I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok."

"Daddy got a job today," he explained to the little girl after his family left.

In response she chewed her musical toy

before grinning at him.

"You want a story?"

"Story!" she yelled in excitement before running to grab a book off the shelf.

---

"Wow, what a story?" Sara said after the women placed their drink orders.

"I know, so fire fighting. Can you imagine?"

"I sure can. I don't know why you applied for the columnist job anyway. You were always the active one in high school.You would have been bored to tears sitting at a desk all day."

"You seem to like it."

"I like fashion, remember?"

"Of course, I just thought you'd have your own boutique by now or working with A.Pentragnani or some other famous designer."

"Yea, well...life happens. Sometimes our choices produce some...unusual consequences. But my theory is that we can choose to live our lives in one of two ways. We can either live our life coming from a fearful place or we can live our life coming from a loving place. I'm chosing the loving place."

"I know what you mean," Lydia said thinking back to three simyears ago when she discovered that not only had her husband slept with a teenager, but that the teenager was pregnant with her husband's child. She had hated Ray for so long after that. In fact when Alia Shae turned one, Lydia was ready to sign divorce papers and call it quits. It was only after a long talk with her sister did she rethink things.

If you don't forgive him, that bitterness is going to eat away at you and eventually spill over into other areas of your life, making you one bitter and unbearable woman. He made a mistake, every sim makes mistakes.

Maxine was right, but just because you forgive a sim doesn't mean that the hurt disappears or the fact that your husband has another child go away. It's still there and left up to the family to deal with the messy consequences of past actions.

"Listen, it's getting late. I know you need to get home to that little girl of yours, but we have to hang out again soon, ok?"

"Of course, it's nice knowing another familar face in the hood."

"How was everything?" Ray asked as Lydia entered the apartment.

"It was ok, I didn't get the columnist job," she yelled from the bedroom as she changed into sweatpants to prepare for her nightly jog.

"I'm sorry, babe."

"It's ok. I talked with S'Ahmisa today and she offered me a spot in the fire department. I need to pass the fire prevention test before I can offically start, though."

"That's wonderful."

"Night night, Alia Shae." Lydia whispered tucking her daughter in.

"Night, mommy."

"Be safe," Ray whispered as she turned to leave. He wondered when the icy wall bewteen them would disappear and be replaced with the slice of sunshine they experience early in their marriage...before Erline.

Lydia's jog wasn't that long and Ray was finishing cleaning the kitchen when she arrived sweaty and sticky. "I'm hopping in the shower," she whispered as not to wake Alia Shae whose crib was in the living area.

"How was your jog?" Ray whispered.

"It was ok, I passed by a bunch of houses for sale in the Plains."

Ray sighed. He wanted one day to move his family to a nicer place with a yard and he knew that Lydia wanted to have another child, but finances were tight.

"Maybe we can walk by them tomorrow morning with Alia Shae?" Ray suggested.

"I wasn't saying that we should buy one, I just noticed them for sale."

"I know, but it is something we should think about for the future...especially since we want Alia Shae will be a big sister soon."

"Really?"

"Yes...I mean...if you still want to that is."

He held his breath as he waited for her answer. He could see the emotions on her face as she silently thought about the issue of having another child. He knew that if she said no, then that meant that she didn't view him as anything more than the father of her child. He wasn't her lover or devoted husband, he was merely the father of their child, worthy of respect for that position, but not worthy of her love. She merely loved him as the father of her daughter, but wasn't in love with him and didn't want to share another child  with him. But if she said yes...

"Of course," Lydia whispered as Ray wrapped his arm around his wife. "I would love to have another child."

---

Ray's Relationship with Erline Part 1, Part 2, Birth of Emilene