SGuthrie/MBendett - December 2007

Marisa Bendett is 34 and Seth Guthrie is 37

WARNING:  Mature themes and language.

Seth's not sure when it hit him exactly or what specifically had set him off.  Maybe it was the fact he was eating alone again, or the fact that it was well after 4 am - again - and Marisa wasn't home.  She gets off at 2 am and he can't understand why she can't just come home.

They've been going through the motions for a long time. Their relationship could be summed up as roomates with 'benefits'.  Except for the fact that he is engaged to this roomate.

The feeling is mutual. They both have an attraction score of only 26.


The sex is great and they have plenty of it when they're together, mainly because there's no tv or stereo in the cramped apartment. 

But when the sex is over, there is this unmistakable feeling of emptiness that both of these Sims feel...and neither one of them can honestly come to terms with it yet.

"You're not attached to that are you?"  Seth nodded towards the rock on Marisa's finger.
She looked down at her hand and looked at him through squinted eyes...she didn't see the joke on his face this time, even though he was smiling.

Usually Marisa could tell if he was joking or not. He'd say things like, "That ring turn your finger green, yet?" Or, "Would you mind if I pawn that to pay our light bill?"

She ignored him and continued to eat her oatmeal.  This particular morning, even though she didn't get in until around 5 am, she made sure she jumped out of bed and brushed her teeth while Seth was making breakfast.  She didn't want to argue with him because she was in no mood to be f***'d with.  She couldn't wait to get back in bed.

See Marisa had gotten completely ripped last night at the Juke Joint on Willow Rd.  (Her underground hideout of choice.)

*Dag, it's supposed to say 406, not 404.  I just noticed the address is wrong.  

Sometimes she would meet the dope man at the door and he would give her something to take the edge off.  She usually gets a free ride, but lately she's been wondering if he's finally gonna ask her to pay up. (Marisa crashes a lot of parties within a given night. Sometimes she takes a 'pick-me-up' to get through them all, leaving her quite antsy at the end of the night.)

She goes around back, into a private room upstairs for some time to herself...actually, the guy doesn't allow any sim up there while she's there.  She never asked him to do that, but he does.  He told her..."Hey, you watch my back and I'll watch yours'.  She knew exactly what he meant.  If any sim can get tickets to the hottest shows or parties or be invited to meet some celebrity from somewhere, it's Marisa.  She's got a relationship with all the licensed ticket brokers in SimCity.  Let's just say scalping tickets can bring in a hefty motherlode if they're sold at the right price, and this guy never misses any good deals. 

So she's doing her thing and after awhile, she starts feeling really mellow.  Maybe mellow is not the best word.  A lot of times, she gets to feeling pretty invincible in these hazy hours of the morning.

It's nothing for her to plop $100 down at the poker table with whoever's willing to go toe-to-toe with her.  Her fiance is struggling financially and Marisa is gambling simoleans away; just for the hell of it.  She's tired of living in Seth's 'pathetic-ness'.  She'd like him to be more ambitious.  She was trying to get him a raise because he would never in a million simyears ask for one himself.  Now, he barely wants to go to work half the time and she doesn't know what happened.  He used to LOVE working at the jail.  So yeah...she's holding out on him.  She makes good simoleans at both her jobs and she's got an inventory that other Sims would kill for.  Ka-ching!

Does Seth know about it?  Hell no.









So Marisa comes here to be her loud, rowdy self.  She talks a lot of shit and can usually win some of her simoleans back by simply blabbing her mouth off. She won $60 bucks back on this game. 

I don't care, it beats being bored to death.  Marisa always rationalizes her actions when those guilt-feelings start to arise.  Last night was her first time meeting Maxsim VanHouten, the bass player for the Jazzmasters. She liked his cool, sexy, demeanor a whole lot.  There's a dark energy around him that she wants to explore.

So when he called the next day after breakfast, she knew Seth was listening...come on how could Seth not hear the change in her tone, the nervous giggle...

She knows she's been pushing it...Seth is a romantic.  He wants a woman that wants to be with him and do things with him.  But Marisa's not really interested in what Seth likes to do.  In fact, neither one of them ever displays Wants towards each other.

You're engaged, but you want to go out on a date with another Sim...okaay.

And so do you?  Wow.  Y'all must be trying to tell me something.

***
After the courtcase with Cunningham vs. Masters, Seth has been a little disenchanted with his job. He cares for Tomika dearly.  Not only is she his boss, but she's a friend.  And it scared him that she might have to go to jail for defending her kid. Fortunately, it didn't turn out that way but he hasn't regained the enthusiasm he used to have about his job.  Almost every simday, he wants to ditch it altogether and stay at home.  But, what would he be staying home for?!

To watch Marisa sleep all day?

Nahhh, he needed to make some changes. He's getting too old for this bullshit.

It must've been in the stars. Something must've been lined up right for him when Emerita Valdes called to ask if he would like to be the Cosmetology Instructor at WilTech College. It would only be part-time; a few nights a week, but he'd have to get Board Certified. Seth jumped at the opportunity. If he could, he would've kissed Emerita through the phone.

You may recall that Seth used to cut hair part-time at Seth's Barbershop before the Great Hurricane destroyed it. He was flattered that Emerita thought so highly of his talents. He still cuts 'Rita and Tomika's hair every now and then, despite being a men's-only barber. The women in The Hills would love to see a female hair dresser move into town, so having Seth train them is the perfect choice.  If he trains them, they will come.  :P

He left for the library right away.

It felt good to get his blood circulating again.

He wasn't expecting that another woman would get his blood circulating again, too.

"Hi, I saw you working so hard up here; I thought I'd come over to say hello. If you need any help with anything just let me know. I'm pretty good at research." The woman with the kind face said.

"Well, I appreciate your offer. My name's Seth and you?" Seth grinned.

"I'm Christy. Christy Stratton. I'll let you get back to it." And she turned to walk away. But, Seth instinctively stopped her.

"I'm a little hungry, would you care to join me downstairs?"  He nervously asked her.

"Sure. I can do that." Christy smiled the most genuine smile Seth had seen in a long time.

When he told her about his job and the depressing nature of it, she did something he'd also not experienced in a long time...she listened.

I've never seen two Sims crush on each other so fast. They are totally liking each other.

No matter what the Total Score says right now, I believe that'll change once they get to know each other better.  The Attraction Score is what got my attention.

***
Back home:

"Marisa, I'm really tired of this...this whole thing...I'm tired of us.  You never come home at night when you're supposed to! You always smell like weed and hard liquor and it makes me want to throw up!  The only time you clean yourself up is when you've got a Council function to attend or a newspaper story to write.  You constantly drag yourself in here like a drugged out whore and crawl into my bed like I want a piece of it."

"You think your cigarettes are a delight to smell?!  Oh yeah your shit don't stink.  I forgot.  What the f*** dude?!"  Marisa retorted.  "I stay out all night because I don't want to come home to this pathetic piece-of-shit place you call a home.  You got no drive to do better for yourself and frankly, I don't want to marry a loser.  Never have, never will. 

Get a life why don'tcha and quit ragging on mine.  You act like you're SimGod's gift to women and you're so totally not...it's not even funny.  Look at you.  You knew what you were getting when you met me.  I wasn't trying to be a fake.  I'm not the kind of woman that can be told what to do.  I do my own thing, dammit."

"Well, I wish you were the type of woman I needed.  I thought you could be, but now I see I was way off base."  Seth sniffed. 

He was seething mad at her put-downs; he's heard them for the last time.  It was time to cut this off. He stomped out of the apartment slamming the door, leaving Marisa sitting there on the couch. She was too stunned by it to notice the distant sound of keys jingling and the creaking sound of a metal gate being forced open in the hallway storage room.

Seth came back in with some cardboard boxes and threw them down in the middle of the floor dramatically.

"To take a quote from you...

Get your shit and get the f*** outta my life!"

He took a deep breath and walked into the kitchen to go through the motions of wiping stuff down with a damp cloth...just to keep from saying anything else to her.

Marisa gathered her things; mostly clothes and of course her candles. He could hear her crying but none of that mattered to him.

She asked him if she could take a moment to check the rental listings in the paper and then she'd leave.

She almost tripped over the rose left outside Seth's door.

Marisa was too numb to even think about it.

Seth felt his heart skip a beat as he placed the rose on his endtable. It seemed like a sign. Maybe now he could get his life together because truth be told...he could do bad all by himself. :P

And as for Marisa...

Well, don't you worry about her. She found a furnished Duplex rental on Willow Road. #408. Right next door to her favorite Jook Joint.

We'll let her get settled in and drop in on her again sometime in 2009.

---
By the time these two broke it off, their Attraction Score had jumped up to 66! They went from a one bolt to a two-bolt for each other overnight!. I have no idea why. Nobody changed anything physically. I figured it was because the both of them realized it was over and they were imagining that they could work it out. You know how people sometimes try to put off 'change' in their lives when it's inevitable. They might fantasize that the situation is not as bad as it really is, or the person is not as bad as they're making them out to be, when they know that's not true.

Marisa has a 3-bolt for Maxsim VanHouten. And Seth has 2-bolts for Christy, but an 85 Attraction Score means to me that she's worth getting to know. We'll see what happens with Seth and Marisa's futures.

Now I don't normally approve of such bad behavior and foul language, but I enjoy letting the *blank* fly when I'm writing for Marisa, so there.  :P