3.28 Expectations

Meanwhile….

Shanni worked harder at her new job than she’d ever worked at anything in her life.

Beau Andrews, the veteran stylist, took her under his wing. He was kind to her about her mistakes, but there were a lot of them.

Malika Williams wasn’t terribly thrilled with her new fun in the sun look.

But at least she was polite, which was more than could be said of Jamie Jolina-Alvi.

(A styled Sim exits the styler in the last outfit designed for her. I keep forgetting this and doing swimwear last because it’s last on the list. So my “after” shots are almost always in swimsuits! Argh!)

Shanni was terrified of damaging the salon’s business, but Beau told her not to worry. The salon was getting pretty popular and high-profile, and she wasn’t the only stylist there. That really meant that he kicked ass at his job, and he didn’t figure her screwups would damage his reputation. Besides, he was giving customers a trainee discount for her services, so they could take what they got and be happy with it.

Beau might seem a bit cocky, but he did know his stuff. A few days after Shanni started work, Governor Tori Kimura showed up to get a new look for her upcoming campaign.

She turned the whole thing into a little pre-campaign stop, complete with some prepared remarks.

Shanni was probably not going to vote for her.

Beau was so smooth about the whole thing, and Tori was delighted with the results. The salon was going to be in the news for sure.

And afterward, he passed out from stress, which left Shanni a little nervous about what she was getting herself into.

Looking to unwind, she walked to the park on her break and ran into Jake Roland. After what seemed like a nice chat, he abruptly ran off on her.

Jake and Mortimer were making a pattern, Shanni thought bitterly. She must have “Mankiller” written on her forehead or something.

But Jake called her the next day to apologize. He’d been paged for work. He was a social worker, and there was an incident with one of his kids. To make it up to her, he proposed a date at the art museum. Shanni’s low self esteem surged immediately, and she happily accepted.

Things sort of progressed from there.

Absolutely everyone loved Jake.

Dad must have congratulated her on her taste in men a dozen times. Adjo and Fabian made “guy time” for him whenever he dropped by.

(I can’t capture, this, but this is a traffic-jam of maleness when Jake walks through the door. Adjo, Lance, and Fabian (off-screen) all mobbed him autonomously with a stack of social wishes.)

After they’d been dating a little while, Shanni invited him to stay the night. He was very appreciative.

Then he slept chastely by her side, leaving Shanni to wonder what exactly was going on in their relationship.

He even got up before she did and did all the dirty dishes from the night before.

No wonder her family wanted her to keep him.

“You’re an amazing woman,” Jake gushed as she was getting ready for work. “And I’m so glad you appreciate that I want to wait for marriage before getting too intimate.”

“Um, what?” Shanni said. “Did we talk about this?”

“We did!” Jake said. “I’m, um, sure we did! Didn’t we?”

It didn’t take long for Shanni to realize what a terrible mistake she’d made. She was out to find men to have fun with. Jake wanted all the unfun parts as soon as possible; he was shopping for a wife and mother of his children. Talk about an encyclopedia of Things Shanni Sample Wasn’t Ready For.

She had to cut him loose before it got worse. She felt like an ass.

She had to get out of there before the oppressive air of ex-boyfriendness suffocated her. And Jake needed to get his stuff and leave with dignity.

Zahra gave her a rueful smile as she dashed out the door.

New rule: Check expectations BEFORE asking the guy to stay the night.

(Heh. So the story here is that I was testing out the “Moar Interactions” mod, and I instructed both of them to go to bed. I thought this was going to get them to both relax in bed so that I could access the on-bed interactions like Woohoo! Instead, it sent them both to sleep. Whoops. I looked up Jake, and he’s Family Oriented, along with Frugal and Neat, so this seemed like a good in-game explanation.)

0 thoughts on “3.28 Expectations

  1. Whoa, so Jake really wasn't the right guy for Shanni. Although he was pretty cute. (And I had to think about Mortimer running off the second I saw that picture, too!)I am curious to see who she will find now…and if her family likes him as much as they liked Jake.
    Really great chapter!

  2. Thanks!

    There will be more Zahra and Fabian, but I just have too many plot threads running in this family, and I needed to catch everyone else up to the present.

    I am totally writing too much detail, but I can't help it. The characters have really jumped out for me. Then again, with a baby and a job, I'm only able to play a few hours a week, so I'm only about halfway through Charles' teen stage.

Leave a Reply