bad girlfriend (B&S intermission book 5.5), part 2 of 7

December 2088. Lou Corelli is 29, Jamie Pendleton is 30, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo Graham are 9.








“Jess asked me what I’m doing with my place today,” Jamie said. Lou didn’t pause her typing to answer, “Why do you have to do anything with it?”

Jamie let out a small sigh. You will never get a proposal from this woman, she thought, and it was probably why she kept holding onto that apartment. “Since I’m hardly there. She wants to know if I want to rent it out to them. Like, officially.”

“Them? As in, they’re moving in together?”



Jamie shrugged. “It’s not so surprising. They’ve been dating over a year now.”

“Dating.” Lou snickered. “Remember all the months they made us keep it a secret? Ian-fucking-Thompson? It’s just so weird. We’ve known him since we were kids.”

“We’ve known each other since we were kids. How is it different?”

bad girlfriend (B&S intermission book 5.5), part 1 of 7

19 years ago // 14 years ago // Lou, Maria.  

It was the spring of 2068, the year Maria was six and Lou was nine, the year they both decided they would drag their over-sized stuffie everywhere. Even, to their parents dismay, all the way to North Carolina on the family’s spring break trip to the Smokey Mountains.

Neither of them knew a lot about love that year, but they knew they loved Pixel. Lou hugged it enthusiastically, then kissed its furry head.

Maria was confused. “Did you just kiss a bear? Are you gonna marry him?”

“Pixel is a girl, and she’s not a bear,” Lou said.

“What is she then?”

“I don’t know, maybe a goat. Or a monster. She has a tree growing out of her head.”

Maria pursed her lips. “I don’t think you can marry a monster.”

“Duh, you can’t marry a goat, either!” Lou shrugged. “Then maybe I won’t marry anybody.”

boxes and squares #5.6: fuck you, thank you

November 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Jordan Graham is 28, Felix and Milo are 9, Maria Boone is 26.

Colette wouldn’t find them a better dad, because dating sucked and she was bad at it. That was what she tried to tell herself, anyway. But, if she really wanted to be honest, she wouldn’t find them a better dad because they adored him to the ends of the earth, and he was coming home, and there was nothing more these boys wanted in the world.

For two days, he wouldn’t answer her phone calls or texts. But at some point he answered the boys, and they filled her in on the news. She didn’t have any way of knowing for how long they knew before her. “Dad is coming home!”

She would never win against that, because their adoration wasn’t up to her. She thought she should have been mad about it, and yet, there was also some relief in losing that battle. It took too long to realize that maybe she never should have been trying to win in the first place.

boxes and squares #5.2: come down from the clouds (1/2)

November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo are 9, Lou Corelli is 29, Dom is 58, Judith is 54.

previously: a freeloading loser // that money is not for spending on your boyfriend // this beach is for dancing

Go ahead and live this fairytale for just a little bit longer.

You could almost fool yourself that it could last forever, like you can just forget that fairytales aren’t real.

boxes and squares #4.5: home is wherever you are, part 3

October 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Lou Corelli is 29. Stephanie Nova is 28.

previously: Is anyone else going to grad school or to climb mountains that I should know about? Maria?

Maria felt tender and deflated about her sister’s underwhelming reaction to her news, and she didn’t know what to do about that, so she just took her sorry butt to work. For the last time, perhaps. If she was going to move her whole life into her boyfriend’s camper in a few days’ time, quitting this job was a necessary first step.

She had been so excited to tell Lou. But maybe that was dumb—Lou was always going to be Lou, too practical and grounded and allergic to joy. But if not Lou, Maria wondered who else would possibly be happy for her and this huge moment in her life?

Not her parents, for sure. Not her boss. Not her co-workers.

Thankfully, Maria could delay any more announcements until the end of their shift. It was all hands on deck tonight. Tonight was the reason she could only visit Jordan for twenty-four hours, so that she could make it back to help with this big lunch catering order they had due on Tuesday morning. And didn’t that feel silly now, knowing that she was going to quit and run straight back to him? If she didn’t have JoJo to come back for, she might have just blown them all off.




But, no, she couldn’t do that to Stephanie. Stephanie was a sweetheart and she didn’t deserve to lose the sous chef she’d poured so much energy and knowledge into. If Maria had learned anything at all about cooking, she’d learned it from Stephanie.

When Maria came here two years ago, it was just a lowly kitchen job. It was just something to fill her time and pad her budget as a widowed single mom. Who could have guessed that the people she met here would change her whole life so much?

boxes and squares #4.5: home is wherever you are, part 2

October 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Felix and Milo are 9, Colette Marin is 31, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Lou Corelli is 29.



With Maria on the train and dashing back to her daughter, Jordan had a date to keep of his own. He told the boys he’d be a little late for their usual 4:00 chat.

“Hey guys, I’m here now.” In the background of their image, the normally sterile counters were cluttered with pans and bowls. “Oh, hey, did your mom cook?”



“She tried to make mac and cheese,” Milo said. “But the water kept bubbling over and she almost burnt the kitchen down, so she got really mad and dumped it all down the sink. But then it clogged the drain, and now she has to call a plumber. You should have seen the veins in her head.”

“Oh, no. So what did you eat for dinner?”

“Pizza again,” Milo said. “It’s okay, we like pizza.”

“Ok. Well, sorry I was late. I had a visit from a friend. She just got on the train.”

“Was it Maria?”

boxes and squares #4.2: then have some faith

October 2088. Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Lou Corelli is 29, Jordan Graham is 28, Milo is 9. 

previously: Jordan is the neighborhood dad // the retired pond swans are Maria’s spirit animals

The community arts center in Evergreen Harbor was a popular destination in the neighborhood, but Maria had never found the time to go. There was always some excuse to claim for why she was too busy. She worked four days a week, and she obviously had Johanna to care for all on her own. Nobody could claim that she wasn’t busy. But her sister suggested that she should experiment with some new hobbies and try to find something more than work and motherhood (and pining over her man) to do with herself. 

So they went to the arts center one morning. There was a children’s program for Johanna, and Maria browsed through some of the adult offerings.



She really had high hopes for the wine-making class. Wine was delightful, and Maria had Italian heritage and culinary inclinations. Surely this should be a good fit!

But then she remembered that she was also squeamish. Somehow she never thought very deeply about how wine was made. But now, flat on her ass in a barrel of sloppy fruit, she didn’t think she’d ever see wine the same way again.



She finished making the bottle. It was terrible—her butt was in it, after all—but at least she could say that she tried something new.

boxes and squares #3: what dreams?

October 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Lou Corelli is 29.

Soundtrack: “Dreams” by The Cranberries

previously: what happened after Stephanie’s wedding // meet Lou

* briefly NSFW 😇

Before he headed out into the wilderness, while still in San Sequoia, Jordan stopped into a tattoo parlor in a quiet suburban shopping strip. Colette was never a fan of his only tattoo and forbade him from getting more. Why did he ever let her decide that for him? They weren’t married, and half the time they hardly liked each other.

Now, they weren’t together at all anymore and he wasn’t asking permission.

He wasn’t asking Maria, either, to be honest, though her opinion he absolutely cared about. This journey for him meant not letting women control his life anymore, and that had to include Maria, as well.

So, with a sizable chunk of his travel fund and a couple of ibuprofen, he settled in to commit vision to flesh. And he said a small prayer that Maria wouldn’t mind this one on him, because it wasn’t exactly small.



His travels would next take him up the coast and into the Cascade Mountains where he looked forward to being truly off-grid and out of cell reception for a few days.

Now it was time to go get lost and see what epiphanies he might find.

Lou

December 2088 — age 29

Eloise Mallory Corelli, “Lou”

story tag

simblr tag

born: April 5, 2059 — Aries

infant trait: calm

toddler trait: independent

child aspiration: whiz kid, mental

aspiration 1: knowledge, renaissance sim (65%)

aspiration 2: location, perfectly pristine (10%)

aspiration 3: love, romantic explorer (0%)

traits: analytical, stone-hearted, gym bunny, goofball, neat, responsible, quick learner, jester, sage

talent/weakness:

MBTI: ISTJ

religion: born Catholic, non-practicing

politics: moderate/conservative leaning // foundation for less mischief

loves: apples, lemon ice cream, fresh fallen snow, libraries, the smell of old books, Wikipedia

hates: being too needed, people who don’t just say what they mean

education:
- Lakes High School, class of 2077

- Britechester University, History, 2081

- Magnolia Graduate College, JD Law, 2084

career:

- prosecutor, adept attorney (law level 6)

career history:

- none listed

skilled at:

- logic 8, writing 6, research & debate 6, charisma 5, fitness 4, mischief 2

wanted to be when he/she was a child: 

orientation: lesbian

IFS: probably 0

romance: 

- single

romantic history:

- Jamie Pendleton, together December 2074, on and off, ended January 2089

parents: Judith and Dominic Corelli

siblings: Maria Boone and Leo Corelli

children: none

grandchildren: none 

friendships: Maria (sister/BFF), Laney Thompson

enemies: 

DNA: skin shade: light peach (FECFB3) // hair: chestnut brown // eyes: dark brown // adult height: 5’7”

weight: - 62

fitness: + 21

health history: 

legal history: 

extras: 

OC questionnaire