walk of shame on new year’s morning

January 2088. Melissa Fortney is 20. Hudson Lawrence is 28.

previously: Melissa is weird, but in a cute way // Hudson is just weird

*briefly NSFW

Melissa has been intrigued by sex since she was thirteen years old and it was all any of her older friends could talk about. Who was having it, who wasn’t having it, who dreamed of having it. Until she met Hudson, she just assumed all men simply wanted it as quickly and easily as possible. Angelo Shaw wanted it before he’d even entered puberty. The Parisian boys she studied with in her second year of uni wanted it and weren’t bashful about letting her know. Even her first, sweet, gentle boyfriend, Elijah, wanted it (for sure!) before they parted ways for college. 

And Melissa—if it wasn’t unbecoming to say of a young lady—really wanted it, too. 

But Hudson Lawrence was a mystery. Where other women had grown impatient with this gentlemanly lumberjack, Melissa was undeterred.

They had their first date last week. He took her to Desert Bloom Park for some night fishing, which she thought sounded very romantic. However, when it came time to experience his “impressive rod,” it turned out he did in fact mean an actual fishing pole. A great fishing pole, no doubt. But Melissa had her sights set on a little more. 

She tried to let him know her intentions, which he seemed to appreciate. But he still remained very polite and chaste anyway. He grilled dinner for her. He took her walking under the stars, chatting about their mutual interests, of which they had plenty. 

It was… nice. 

Then he returned her safely to her dorm instead of inviting her back to his place.

“Would you like to come in for coffee?” she asked. 

“No, thank you,” he said. “I’m not too keen on coffee this late at night.” 

She didn’t actually mean coffee, but okay. 

Then, to kill the mood further (had there been any mood to kill), her classmate, Calvin, walked past them, growling, “Mmm, girl, get some of that for me.” Wink, wink.

And Melissa giggled nervously because, sure, Calvin, she would love to get enough of this hunky lumberjack for the both of them. However, that offer wasn’t on the table.

Not tonight, at least. Although Hudson promised to call again.

She didn’t want to give up. Hudson felt like a mission to her, besides being tall and strong and incredibly handsome. There was something about this man she felt only she could reach.  

But so far, all she’d get was a kiss goodnight, as delicate and chaste as a butterfly’s kiss on her skin. As in, lacking oomph.

It’s always the quiet ones, her friends would tease about her when they found out she actually liked, wanted, and lusted for sex. It brought her back to eighth grade, the lunch table with a Summer Phoenix. If Summer talked about sex, it was as normal as the sun rising and falling each day. But when Melissa talked about sex, it was, Ooh, kinky weird bug girl Melissa. 

She didn’t let it get her down. She learned how to be visible, how to assert herself. Maybe not all of the quiet ones could do that.

So Melissa understood what it was like to be painfully shy on the outside and a raging inferno of lust on the inside. 

Or, well, she couldn’t assume Hudson actually had a raging inferno of lust on the inside, either. But if he even had a tiny spark of lust, a glimmer, a glow, she wondered if she could find it. Maybe she could speak to this man in a way that nobody else could.

So, after a pleasant evening on their second date, New Year’s Eve, that was what she would do.   

Back to his place, this time. She was patient and slow. And if Hudson Lawrence had any hidden secret buttons, she found them all.

She’d once been called the bug whisperer. Now, perhaps, she was a fishy lumberjack whisperer. 


Score one for Melissa. She had achieved her mission. And it was worth all the effort. It was incredible.


Hudson was in such good spirits afterwards that he made breakfast for them. It was six in the morning. They hadn’t slept a wink all night, but they were both hungry.


But then the conversation went sour.

He wasn’t really interested in video games—not simulations, not first-person shooters, not RPG’s, not even retro games—not any video games at all. He didn’t really read much, and he especially didn’t keep up with Oscar-nominated films. He didn’t get her jokes, sadly. He actually wasn’t much of a jokester at all. He was bored that all she wanted to talk about was aesthetics—what? is plaid an aesthetic?—and Paris and gap years and the Great American Novel. And he thought she liked camping?

“Well, sure, I’d love to go backpacking through Spain. Not that I’m opposed to regular camping. That’s fine, too.”

“Regular camping?” Yeah, he meant more like hunting in the mountains. Perhaps they didn’t like the same kind of camping.


And no, he didn’t know about whatever video game was going to debut at GeekCon next week, and he probably wouldn’t enjoy meeting all of her friends to watch the loud, hectic, noisy presentation. 

“You met my friends,” she said. “You seemed to think they were fine.”

“They were a little intense,” he said. “But nice kids.” 

“Kids?” She glared a little. “Oh-kay. Well, how about Alien Con then? This summer?”

“Alien what?” Hudson was baffled. It was just that she suddenly seemed so very twenty years old. Maybe his sister was right. “I think I’m too old for aliens,” he said. 

“Did you just call me immature?”

Whoa. Time out. To think, after everything, that this little romantic experiment might fail on simple mismatched interests.

They were tired. They both needed to just sleep.

“Let me drive you home,” he said. 

“Nah, it’s okay,” she said. “You’re tired. I’m just gonna call an Uber.”



Back at the dorms, Melissa walked into the dining room wearing the clothes she partied in last night. Her friends were all in pajamas, nursing their hangovers with breakfast and coffee. 

“Hey, Melissa! How was it?”

Surely they noticed the heavy expression on her face, a train wreck of anticipation, then pleasure, then confusing disappointment.  

“Oh, boy,” she said. “Pour me one of those coffees? It’s a long story.”


“Are you going to see him again?” Sarah asked.

Melissa thought about this. “I don’t know. Maybe. If he wants to. Probably.” 

—

gameplay notes: this poor man has the most unfortunate combination of traits. They’re all fitting though, so I won’t change them. And actually, the unflirty is the least troublesome of the bunch. Loner is much stronger of a nuisance. He’s just always been so awkward and reclusive, especially when meeting new people. 

But he’s taken a liking to Melissa, for whatever reason, and he hasn’t yet turned down any of her flirts. They breezed straight past any awkward phase. And the unflirty doesn’t actually prevent him from getting plenty flirty, either. In public even! He was quite fond of that hands kiss at the NYE party. So, what does the unflirty trait even do, exactly? lol! 

Melissa doesn’t have the romantic trait, but I wonder if she should. She was very forward on their first date, and near constantly flirty. Our quiet little bug girl has grown into a bit of a closet nympho, lol! I’m not surprised, to be honest, remembering all the fervid daydreams she had of Beau Jackson when she was thirteen. Girl was thirsty! If I did give her the romantic trait, I don’t know if that would kill things between her and Hudson, considering his unflirty. But she’s in that 18-21 year old range, which in my gameplay means her traits and aspirations are allowed to be a little fluid. 

But these two have high attraction and okay/good chemistry. What appeared to be excellent chemistry at first, because they do have a lot of common interests, they have a lot of differences too. He’s very serious and she has a bit of a silly side. He’s very mature, and she’s kind of childish. A serious/silly combo is a tricky one to navigate. 

And the age gap. Well. Funny enough, after what Cora said, I am starting to feel like the difference between 20 and 28 is actually more of a challenge than 31 and 46. Cora would be pleased to know that she’s right. 

But Melissa isn’t giving up yet. Her last whim before she went home was to ask him to be her boyfriend, lol!

Whew boy, these sims!