Random Simming: Lemming 4: The Right Thing

J and Blaze become better friends while Monique and I make good use of the telescope.

     "Hey, J, can I talk to you a sec?" Zoe asks while he sits with my children. I'm inside getting ready for work, but The Maker doesn't feel like switching point-of-views. So, we're staying with me.
     "Sure, babe. What's up?" he asks back, and she has a seat at the remaining chair at the table.
     Justin looks at her belly and gives J a lopsided grin.

     "Well, do you remember when Justin and Jenny were babies and we had such a good time caring for them?" Zoe asks.
     J smiles, remembering. "Yes, except Jenny could make the messiest diapers. I didn't think little girls were supposed to be like that." He looks over at my daughter and winks playfully.
     "Hey!" Jenny exclaims, giggling.
     "I'm pregnant," Zoe blurts out.

     Jenny's giggling stops abruptly. Honestly, I can't believe Zoe chose to break the news in front of my kids, but maybe she's not thinking clearly with her pregnancy hormones.
     "J's gonna be a daddy," Justin says in a playfully sassy voice. J merely sits there in silent shock, eyes wide.
     "A bay- a bay-" J stutters. "M- You... A bay-"
     "Baby!" Justin finishes for him.

Zoe gets up, turning her face away from everyone. "I'll just let the news sink in for a little while." She goes to take a shower, and I think I hear her sniffing like she's crying.

     The two of them hardly speak for days, and I worry that Zoe plans on moving out. I saw some apartment guide books in the trash. J shocks everyone when he suddenly gets down on one knee after supper.
     "What do you think you're doing?" Zoe asks, her voice stiff.
     "The right thing," J answers. "I got you pregnant. Will you marry me?"

     "You propose to me like that?!" she shrieks, and the ring makes a tinging sound as it clatters across the tiles, flying out of J's hands after she angrily swats it away.
     "Um, Zoe, I thought-"
     "Stop trying to think!" she snaps and storms off in the direction of her room. We hear a door slam a few seconds later. J gets up to try and find the ring. Then he heads in the direction of her room.
     "I wouldn't do that," Gavin recommends. "If it were me, I'd let her cool off for a while."
     J turns and looks down at our roomie like he knows he's right. Then, muttering to himself, he exits the house to, I guess, let off some steam.

     The two of them have a strained relationship after that, but slowly, after a month things start to improve.
      I think about how J proposed. Yes, it was a bad way to do it, but he had a point. I think he loves her; he got her pregnant; he wants to marry her.
      What kind of man does that make me?

      I find Monique outside playing a game, and I feel like I'm really looking at her for the first time in a while. She's gotten a bit heavier after having the kids, staying at home to paint a lot, and eating her good cooking. Dam-, she looks hot.
      "Monique, how do you feel about us?" I ask outright, knowing that beating around the bush is a waste of time with her.
      "I think we have some good times and have great kids," she answers simply like she's trying to figure out why I would ask a question like that.
      "But... ever thought about us having... more?" Just say it already! "Maybe even getting married someday? It wouldn't be that much of a difference with how things are right now."
     "It's a big difference, Mitchell. I don't know if I can handle that kind of commitment."
     My eyebrows come together. "So, what you're saying is that you might leave me and the kids someday?"
     A crazed expression enters her eyes. "Don't pull that sh*t with me! I'm not listening to this!" She storms away, and I jump into the pool to cool off.

The subject of marriage isn't brought up again for months, and Zoe gets bigger.
J gets more and more anxious, but he does a good job at hiding it from her. He becomes her personal slave when she's not at work, and he begs her to take her maternity leave.

     "He's kicking!" she exclaims and gets up from the chess table where they'd been sitting. She reaches for J's hand and puts it on her belly.
     "That's a good, strong kick there, lil' guy," J says. They'd taken to calling the unborn child a 'he.' "Just like his daddy." He pauses. "It won't be long now."
     "Feels like it'll never end," Zoe corrects him, and he looks up at her.

Their romantic relationship recovers, and I have high hopes for J when he asks again.

...Which he does... with some sappy lines that Monique would hate. Zoe eats them up. Then she says yes.

They decide to get married tomorrow, and since it's sims, it happens.

"J, it's okay. You want this, remember?" Zoe gently says to his worried expression once they get to the wedding arch. His fear of commitment isn't helping him today.

Later, he told me that it was only because it's Zoe that he wanted it. He wanted her for his wife; he wanted them to be a traditional family.

It was an award-winning wedding party. The only sour note for me was that Blaze came. Monique kept him at a distance.

     After the wedding, they decide to start looking for a house of their own.

     A few days later, Monique catches me before I can go and make some breakfast. "I wanted to talk to you."
     "What is it?" I ask. Her eyebrows crinkle on her face as her eyes look worriedly at me. My heart rate increases as I dread what she has to say.
     "I've been thinking about what you said."
     "Which time?" I ask, wondering what she means.
     "Shut up and let me say this," she snaps. I hush, and she lets out a huff. "I can't handle getting married right now, but, I can... at least... be your girlfriend. Would you be my official boyfriend, Mitchell?"
     I feel like I'm back in high school, but I also know how hard this is for her.

"Yes, of course I will," I answer instead of telling her about my high school thoughts. I tightly hold onto her when she hugs me. She doesn't hold me as strongly as I do her, but I tell myself not to mind.

As it turns out, J and Zoe's baby is a boy, and they name him Adam. It's a bittersweet day when they move into their own little, two-bedroom house.

With Monique, I feel like we're a family. I feel like she will one day be ready to settle down. I'm patient...