11 – New Additions

While Elissa was at work, Darrius found comfort in books. He was a quick learner and found himself acquiring skills rather quickly.

Elissa continued to try to paint masterpieces, and was successful most of the time. She thought it was time to hire an agent so that she could really get her name out there.

She called up an agent, paid the appropriate $150 over the phone and bid farewell to her new agent after she was told that she could negotiate for more money for her paintings.

After grabbing a plate of leftovers, Darrius joined Elissa on the couch. “How are you feeling?”

She looked over at him and sighed. “Honestly, tired…like all the time. I’m so ready to get this baby out of me it’s not even funny.”

Darrius laughed and took a bite of food. “Soon babe. The doctor said that you could be due any day now and then we;ll finally meet our little boy or girl.”

Elissa made to stand. “Yeah, I wish it was sooner than later.” She bent to give Darrius a kiss on the cheek and made her way to the bathroom for a quick shower.

When Elissa stepped out of the shower and was dressed, something didn’t feel quite right. She stood there for a moment wondering what it was and then she felt the first of many sharp pains.

“Darrius, it’s time!” she yelled and held her sides as the pain rippled through her.

Darius came running through the door carrying the hospital bag, ready to take Elissa to the hospital so that they could finally meet their new baby.

When they got to the hospital, Elissa was taken to her room and shortly after that it was time to finally give birth.

“Now breathe steady and give me a great big push,” the doctor instructed. Elissa tried to grab Darrius’ hand but he was nowhere to be found. She frowned at that and pushed with all her might. It took a few more tries and finally….

Elissa gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy. She sat up and stared at the tiny human and couldn’t believe that he was finally here. “Hello,” she welcomed him, holding his tiny fingers. “I’m your mommy.”

When it was time to introduce her baby boy to his new home, Elissa stopped and stared down into his face, more in love with him than anything else in the world.

“Mommy loves you so much and will protect your forever, Johan Goff.

10 – Roommates

The next day at work, Elissa dodged Keon like the plague. He didn’t particularly seek her out, but she just wanted to make sure things didn’t get awkward between them. They’ve never done anything but innocent flirting, and Elissa couldn’t tell if he liked her or not. So, to be on the safe side, she dodged him.

Elissa begin to really put her all into her work, trying to crank out an unlimited supply of masterpieces. However, she had been feeling quite ill, so her masterpiece creations were scarce at best. After eliminating possible causes of sudden sickness like chicken pocks and measles, she concluded that she was indeed…pregnant. How was she going to tell Darrius? Even though they’ve talked nearly every day now, she wasn’t sure how he would take to having a kid. Heck, she hadn’t even taken to the idea yet and she was well on her way to her second trimester. She decided to tell him the next day after work.

Elissa was in a really good mood having received another promotion. She was over the moon excited because now she was able to hire an agent and get her name out there in the painting world. She still had the small feat of telling Darrius she was pregnant and the way she was feeling right now, she couldn’t care less if he wanted nothing to do with her and the baby. Surprisingly, his reaction was the opposite.

“Wait, I’m going to be a dad?”

Elissa nodded her head and watched as Darrius seemed to let the news sink in.

With a half smile he said, “I guess we’re going to be parents.” Then suddenly he pulled her into a warm embrace. “Is there anything you need?”

“No, not right now I don’t.” Elissa thought a moment and then, “I’m really just trying to figure out how I’m going to do things now that there’s a baby coming.”

“What do you mean?” Darius asked.

“Well, I work and some days I come home so tense and tired I don’t have time to do anything else. I guess I’ll just have to work fewer hours. It’ll be awhile until I see my next promotion, but you have to do what you have to do.” Elissa shrugged.

“Let me help you,” Darrius stated almost immediately. “Maybe I can move in and help you with the baby.”

“You’d do that?”

“Yeah,” Darrius nodded. “Why wouldn’t I? You’re carrying my child.” He smiled and placed his hand over Elissa’s belly.

Elissa seemed to think about the idea of Darrius moving in. She wasn’t completely sold on the idea, but she liked that he would be there to help her out with the baby. After a long and careful thought she found herself agreeing to Darrius moving in.

“Great, I’ll go home and start packing.”

After hours and hours of packing and unpacking, Elissa and Darrius finally had Darrius’ toothbrush settled in. Almost immediately Elissa was regretting the decision to have Darrius move in. He had brought in a lot of simoleons to help with the cost of raising a baby, but Elissa didn’t feel right taking his money so easily. Instead, she asked that he put it away into a savings account.

Darrius begin to make himself feel quite at home. His tasks included cleaning up because he was tired of being squeamish every time he walked past the bathroom….

or got a whiff of the spoiled food from the fridge. There was only so much he could take.

Although he made Elissa feel safe – now that a man as living with her – Elissa liked having Darrius around to help repair some of her broken items…especially the tv, as small as it may be. After a tense day at work, Elissa needed the comfort of the television to get her through the night and the next work shift.

She especially liked  cuddling with him at night to watch the newest episodes of the romantic thriller, “Rosebud Hallows.” She was falling more in li-love with him each and every day.

9 – No Apologies

Elissa began the week with a big helping of homemade pancakes…well as homemade as straight from the box could get her.

They turned out pretty good to her surprise and she devoured the meal in less than 20 minutes tops.

On her way to her room to tidy up a bit, she noticed her broken television just sitting there making noise and displaying impenetrable static. She searched google for any handy tips on fixing it and after sifting through numerous pages, she finally found some sound advice and went about fixing her little penguin television set.

Elissa was determined to move up the corporate ladder in her career and knew that that hope lay in her painting skills.

While she was painting she got a call from Darrius. It had been awhile since the last time they talked. Elissa was a bit upset that she hadn’t heard from him, especially when she texted him about her latest promotion and had not heard even a small congrats on his end.

“Can I come see you?” he asked.

Elissa really wanted to say no – was on the brink of saying no – but the part that really liked him spoke before the pissed part could and she was agreeing to seeing him in 15 minutes.

“Hey,” she greeted him, standing back a little to let him into her home. She was glad that she had decided to renovate. She’d hate to imagine what he would have thought of her if he had saw her place before.

Darrius walked in and immediately begin apologizing, blaming it on some lame excuse of being busy.Busy with what, she thought. Last time they talked he revealed that he was in between jobs…basically saying he didn’t have one. There was only so much of it she could take before she went off.

“That’s no excuse to be gone for days, Darrius! I mean, I thought I’d as least hear from you about my promotion, but no, not even yesterday either.”

She was so upset, she had to go sit on the couch before she exploded. Why did she care so much?

Darius followed her to the couch. “Look, there’s no excuse for what I did. Truthfully, I’ve been thinking about you a lot.”

Elissa ears perked up at that. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to find the right words to tell you that I really like you…alot.”

“You do?” she asked, almost melting into him. “I really like you, too. It just bothered me when I hadn’t heard from you.”

Darrius brushed her hair back and Elissa leaned into the palm cupping her chin. “I won’t let it happen again.”

Elissa could feel herself falling…hard! She jumped up from the couch instantly and stared down at Darrius.

“This is moving too fast.”

“Don’t stop it,” Darrius replied. “Let me make it up to you.”

Before she knew it, Darrius’ lips where on hers and Elissa felt her heart stop and the butterflies flutter dangerously low in her stomach. She felt his hands on the back of her neck and then in her hair. Her hands found their way to his face and she held it as he walked her backwards. She didn’t stop until her knees hit something and when she looked back, she saw that they were in her bedroom.

His eyes asked her if she was sure and Elissa answered with a kiss before she pulled him back onto the bed with her.

The sound of her phone buzzing later broke her from her sleep and she sat up to retrieve it. She slid her finger over the screen and read a text: Good luck tomorrow at work!

Elissa sighed, “Oh, Keon.”

8 -Week 2

Friday had came and with it came a promotion. Elissa was more than excited but too tired – again- to celebrate. Keon, her coworker and newfound friend, really wanted to celebrate. He seemed truly excited for her so she decided to take him up on his offer to buy her a drink.

They met up at the bar and immediately sat down for drinks.

“Congrats again, Elissa. You deserved it!” Keon congratulated Elissa after taking a nice long drink. “Your paintings are awesome.”

“Thanks Keon, so are yours.”

They kept talking, sometimes about work and sometimes about other things.

Suddenly one of Elissa’s favorite songs came on. She yanked Keon up from his seat and pulled him to the dance floor.

“Gawd, I love this song!”

Keon chuckled lightly. “What band is this?” he asked over the music.

“The Simstaers,” Elissa replied catching her groove.

The continued to dance and Elissa felt herself get hungry.

“Hey, I’ll be back. I’m going to grab something from the bar. Be back in a second.”

Elissa sat and contemplated the exciting evening she was having with Keon. She was shocked that she had written him off so easily before. He was turning out to be truly amazing and she was having so much fun…the liquor was helping matters a tad bit, too.

Elissa joined Keon on the dance floor once again and they cranked out dance move after dance move. Elissa felt herself get tired and after saying goodbye to Keon and offering to bring him coffee into work in the morning, she left and headed home.

The next day after work, Elissa spent her time renovating her small space into something more…well, spacious. She now had separate rooms for everything and she couldn’t be more happier. This was a perfect way to end her exciting week, she thought.

Week 2

7 -Pay my bills

The week started off rough and didn’t seem to get any better. It seemed that her promotion would be the only highlight of the week. Work was seriously kicking her a**. She felt more tired than ever and was often tense since work required a lot more technical stuff then simply painting masterpieces.

To makes matters worse, she came home to a broken shower. Rather than waste simoleons on a repairman, she googled “How to fix broken showers” and went ahead and gave it a try. It took way longer than expected…she had to keep putting down the wrench to check the steps on google.

Eventually she Eventually she fixed it though…she just left a mess. So she mopped up all the spilled water and tossed out the trash.

To top everything off, she noticed the red flag on her mailbox was up, letting her know she had mail. Darn it! If it’s not one thing, then it’s another. Paying the $245, Elissa was glad she opted out of calling a repairman. She would’ve ended up spending more in this one day on repairs and bill then she would’ve liked.

Once everything was okay, Elissa changed into her pajamas and turned on the television. She watched the news for a bit, perturbed at the latest NAACP scandal that went viral.

Feeling slightly hungry, Elissa finished off the last of her BLT. It was yummy, she surmised easily, and feeling slightly better she decided to paint for awhile.

She ended up painting her very first ever masterpiece. Rather than sell it immediately, Elissa thought she’d bring it in to work the next day to get it appraised. She was sure it was worth maybe 300-400 simoleons, but she wanted to be sure before she sold it to the highest bidder.

After work, Elissa took a shower and contemplated her decision to sell her masterpiece. The Art gallery was offering her $805 simoleons for it, way more than if she sold it to a collector and way more than she had hoped to get for it. She decided she would sell it as soon as she got to work tomorrow. The extra money could help her renovate her home. It was well past time, she was tired of sleeping next to her toilet.

6 – Promotion

The start of the week didn’t go entirely as Elissa had hoped.

She was so close to a promotion, Elissa could literally feel it at her fingertips. However, her boss didn’t think so, so she came home with her measly paycheck.

Obviously she was upset about it. To get her mind off of it though, she decided to do a little renovation…perhaps get a roof over her head.

Not much, but it was a start and gave Elissa some semblance of comfort.

Wanting to create a few paintings to help her chances of a promotion, Elissa discovered the renovations did nothing to alleviate he tenseness she felt. So she sat and watched an episode or two of MasterSim Chef.

She was finally ready to paint and was quite surprised at what she ended up producing. The MonaSimsa. Hey, you get inspiration from anywhere, right?

Just as she started on another painting, she got an alert of a text message. When she checked her phone and saw that the message was from Darrius, butterflies starting fluttering in her belly. Gosh, she had it bad…or was very close to getting there. She sent him a quick reply back to his statement: Can’t wait to see you.

She couldn’t wait to see him either.

She had finally did it…she had earned her second promotion and boy did it feel good. She sent Darrius a text telling him about it and he suggested drinks that tonight to celebrate.

Yawning, she texted back that she would take a raincheck since she was very tired.

Just as Elissa was getting settled and getting ready to go to bed, she received another text message.

“Congrats!”

She smiled and replied: Thanks Keon! See you tomorrow at work.

She snuggled into the pillows and smiled. Keon, the other guy from the bar, wasn’t as bad as she thought. He was pretty…cool…

5 – Week 1

Elissa had the weekend off and since she had completed enough paintings to be considered for a promotion at work, she had wanted to put work as far from her mind as possible. She wanted to get into something…to have some fun at least.

She headed to the museum, just to admire some art, and a young woman tapped her on the shoulder having recognized her from a few days ago.

“Hey, you were painting that realism piece the other day, right?” she asked, extending her hand. “I’m Alice.”

Elissa took her hand and introduced herself. They engaged in light conversation until Alice had to leave to make dinner for her family.

“Hope to see you around here again,” she said before heading out of the museum’s doors.

It was late when Elissa finally left the museum and she headed the the nearest bar for a drink or two. Once seated, a gentleman beside her tapped her on the shoulder.

“Couldn’t help but notice how beautiful you are,” he commented. “I’m Darrius. Can I buy you a drink?”

“Elissa,” she shook his hand. “And of course you can. Sweet and Spicy, please.”

Darius turned to the bartender to order her drink and another guy took a seat beside her.

“Hey, I’m Keon…” He started to talk to her but she felt someone grab her hand and she turned to see Darrius standing up.

“Join me on the dance floor?” he asked smiling and eyeing Keon from over her shoulder.

Elissa smiled. “Sure.”

Darrius pulled Elissa onto the dance floor and they danced and laughed awhile before Keon followed them over.

“Let’s grab a table,” Darrius laughed and lead Elissa over to a vacant table.

They talked a bit more, Elissa finding out a bit about Darrius. He was currently unemployed but was a bit of a goofball. She couldn’t stop laughing the entire time they talked. He was just that funny.

Elissa eyebaleld her watch and saw that it was nearing 4 in the morning. There were still things she needed to do at home.

“Hey Darrius, I need to get going. It was nice talking to you.” She made to stand and Darrius did the same.

“Hey, you want to get coffee or something tomorrow?”

Elissa would love to. She really liked Darrius. “Sure.”

Darrius stepped forward and pulled Elissa into a hug. She almost melted into it. “See you tomorrow then, Elissa.”

As she walked away, Elissa could feel eyes on her and turned back to see Darrius watching her as she left. She felt so giddy inside.

The next day Elissa met up with Darrius at Starbucks. He had just ordered a drink when eh turned around and was faced with a beaming Elissa.

“You made it,” he said and embraced her in a hug. “What can I get you?”

Elissa stared at the menu before settling on a mocha latte.

Darius turned to order the drink and Elissa couldn’t help but notice the look of longing the barista had towards Darrius. Elissa felt the stirrings of jealousy begin to arise and she had to quickly shove them back down. It was way too soon to be getting jealous over a guy…even if he was pretty hot.

Once the order was placed, Darrius lead Elissa to the outdoor seating and they almost immediately jumped into easy conversation. Elissa felt surprised at the ease at which she communicated things with Darrius…like her love of painting and how she hopes to become a famous painter one day. Preferably, before she died.

They talked until late evening and made plans to hang out again soon before Elissa placed a kiss on his cheek and went home to prepare for the upcoming week.

WEEK 1

 

4 – Now watch me Nae Nae

This smile was a definite cover up for how Elissa was really feeling before work.

This was a more accurate depiction of how she really felt…especially after 8 hours at work. Her lack of fun and exciting entertainment left her bereft and she didn’t do as well as she would have liked to at work. She needed….FUN! But where to? It was a little after 5 and Elissa felt that she could use a drink so she headed to a lounge in the next town over.

She made small talk with a couple of the locals, some who were quite the character.

Then when the seat next to her became vacant, an older gentleman took up residence and proceeded to discuss how attracted he was to Elissa. It was flattering at first…Elissa hasn’t had much attention from males as of late, but then it became borderline creepy when he began to discuss children and marriage all within 15 minutes. He threw his wealth around as if that would reel Elissa in for sure…it did quite the opposite.

It was only so much Elissa could take. She downed the rest of her drink, already growing a tad tipsy from the previous drinks she imbibed, and headed over to a small corner where several people sought to entertain themselves.

Feeling the mood, Elissa jumped up onto the small stage and cracked joke after joke about the older gentlemen who talked about his simoleons as if they were his last lifeline. The crowd loved it, but not the older bachelor. He stormed out and Elissa could only chuckle to herself.

After a few more drinks Elissa figure it was time to go home and it was well into the morning when she did so. She looked at her watch and discovered that she had to go into work…like 15 minutes ago! She splashed some water on her drunken face and headed to work.

So in a drunken stupor, Elissa was confronted about her work as a painter. On any other normal day, when Elissa had water for dinner instead of Tequila, she would have quietly taken notes. However, today was not a normal day and Elissa defended her art through drunken, and almost incoherent sentences.

 

Elissa was estactic about her performance gain…even if she was still a bit away from earning her next promotion. To celebrate her hard work, Elissa decided to break out into the popular dance “Nae Nae”.

3 – Every little bit helps

It didn’t take till morning for Elissa to become fully rested. She had woken up some time towards very early morning with a full bladder and nowhere to use the bathroom.

She had just made plans to head somewhere close by to use the bathroom when…

She accidentally let it go. She looked around to make sure noone had witnessed the embracing moment and made plans to head to the gym for a shower now.

After the shower, Elissa felt the slight stirrings of hunger pangs and decided the purchase of her easel would have to wait until her next paycheck. She felt that she needed to invest in a refrigerator. That way, she could eventually work on her cooking and make less expensive meals.

Elissa sat down with her nice bowl of cereal and finished up before heading to the museum to practice painting.

Elissa painted 2 small op arts paintings before she had to go into work…and late again I might add. Only this time she was late by a half hour.

Elissa’s hard work had earned her a promotion so to celebrate she decided to add a couple of things to her home…her house…her empty lot. She only got the essentials since she was running low on cash.

Since she wasn’t quite so tired, she decided to practice painting a little bit. She managed to increase her skill to level 6 and by that time she was starting to get hungry. She sold her paintings and bought a counter and stove so that she could cook something with sustenance.

After a disastrous run in with a skillet of scrambled eggs, Elissa sat down to have a crispy plate of scrambled eggs.

With a satisfied feeling in her stomach, Elissa called it a night.

2 – Hire me please!

Sleeping on a park bench is not ideal for comfortable sleeping arrangements, but Elissa made due with what she could and after a restful night, she managed to be half content. The other half of her really had to pee and was starving.

She didn’t really want to waste any money by buying anything. She was just $18 short of the $500 required for a job application fee, and man did she need a job. After listening to her rumbling stomach for several minutes, she realized that she needed to invest in some food before she passed out from starvation..or worst!

Walking out of the bathroom, she spotted a grill and decided some hotdogs would be the perfect solution to her aching stomach.

Elissa ate all that she could and packed the rest up in her backpack in hopes that later she’d be able to score a used refrigerator at a discount price. Plus, she wanted to head back to the museum to paint a realism piece hoping she’d be able to collect enough cash to apply for a painter’s position.

When Elissa arrived at the museum, she was very tense and didn’t really feel like painting like she initially wanted to. She pulled out her phone and tried to beat her last score she got in Tetris. After playing for a bit, and coming up 70 points short of beating her high score, Elissa tucked her phone away and tried again at painting a large realism piece.

Once completed, Elissa sold the painting and yawned. Woah, she was extremely tired. Happy that she had finally reaching $500, even going a little bit over that total, she applied for the first painter’s job she could find.

With her new job starting in less than 13 hours, Elissa had to figure out how she was going to get some sleep and create the appropriate amount of paintings before she was due in. She had enough to purchase a bed, and understood that it would be just a tad bit better than the park’s bench.

So after returning home, Elissa purchased a double bed and slept soundlessly for several hours.

The smell of her own funk woke Elissa from her sleep. After a couple of unwanted inhalations, Elissa decided the best course of action to remedy this problem was to head to the local gym for a quick shower before she went to practice her painting.

Altering arriving at he museum, Elissa managed to create enough painting to suffice for her first day at work. She glanced at her phone and realized she was 2 hours late for work! No bueno on the first day! She dropped her paintbrush, slid down the bannister, and ran out of the museum’s door like lightening was chasing her.

Elissa had made it through her first day of work and brought home enough money where she could purchase her own Easel. She thought it best she do that in the morning after she got her some much needed shut eye.