one day, when revenge is sweet and so simple

September 2083 - Hailey Monif is 38, Hazel is 14. (Berjes Monif and Bradley Guthrie are 38)

* note: Just a little quickie update for you about my Monif girls. I was just in there to give Hailey a little makeover, and all this came out, lol!

I've been snowed-in with the kid this week, and a hubby working from home, which is not very conducive to my writing. Or maybe we can blame it on Leila, she stole what little brain I had left over these past couple days and refuses to let me work on Jodie's story, or anything else at all. Though this mini-update does indirectly have to do with Jodie's story a little anyway... which I hope is coming up very soon, if Leila allows it ;) *

One day, after school, Berjes stops by to see his daughter. He swears he doesn't miss Hailey, but he misses Hazel. He misses every morning when they'd watch cartoons together, their cereal bowls full of sugar and milk. He misses helping her with her science and math homework in the evenings.

"I'm here to see Hazel," he tells his ex-wife as Hazel's school bus pulls up, as if she didn't already know that good and clear.

It fills Hailey's heart with glee, the way he's all twisted out of shape over her nonchalance. She never knew revenge could feel so good, especially when the only revenge she's taken is simply being happy herself.

But she has to admit he's been so sweet with Hazel. He stops by before and after school just to see her. At least, she hopes this is all really just for Hazel.

Though Berjes doesn't care to hear his daughter is actually dating. He still stands by the fact that she's just too young to date, and you'd better believe she doesn't have any boyfriends in the city when she visits... or none that he knows of anyway.

And speaking of boyfriends...

It used to be that Hailey needed Berjes around to fix things around the house, but now she just calls her new "friend" Bradley, who happens to come over that night to fix the computer for her. She's working on her next novel, and she's not handy enough to fix it herself.

"Nice to meet you," Bradley says, but he's only met by a scowl from Berjes.

Hazel says, "Dad, your face is gonna stick like that."

Berjes stays with them for a mid-afternoon sandwich. Hailey almost feels sorry for the poor guy. Everybody wants to know that they're doing better off then their ex, but if Hailey ever needed any sweet revenge for the past fifteen failed years of her life, then the deflated look on his face is plenty.

***

Hailey met Brad in the weeks before her divorce was finalized, but she'd long since grieved her marriage by then. She isn't looking to settle down so soon, if at all, though Brad does ask her about it sometimes. She hasn't gotten that far yet. She's only been divorced for ten months, and even if she has grieved her past, she isn't quite ready to start her future.

Especially when the other half of her past is recurring like a bad dream. Somehow she isn't surprised to see Berjes walking down the street towards them that night, as she and Brad come home from a date. "Wait for me inside," she tells him.

"Hazel is out with her friends," Hailey says, the irritation showing on her brow.

"I can wait," he says.

"No, you can't," she says. "I have company. Go home, Berjes. Hazel is out until ten tonight."

"Why don't you call your girlfriend?" Hailey doesn't intend any hostility in this. She doesn't want to see him alone.

"She's not my girlfriend," Berjes says.

"Well I'm sorry about that," Hailey says.

She apologizes to Brad too when she comes inside. It's embarrassing sometimes, and it's just sad too.

But he understands. "It's okay," he says. "This magazine is kind of interesting anyway."

He and his daughter's mother went through some tough times too in their past.

And the truth of it is, she doesn't know if she loves him, or if they'll be together forever. But she knows she's having more fun now than she's had in a really long time. And that's what's most important to her, before she gets any older and finds that her whole life has been wasted away.

Hazel is pretty good about making her curfew. She's not as good about making C's in algebra. But she's always been a good friend, a loving daughter, and very observant about people and the way things work between them. And when she comes home that night, she's made this observation, "Mom, Bradley isn't really your friend, is he?"

"Of course he is."

"But I mean, are you going to marry him?"

"I don't know yet," Hailey says. "Things are different when you get to be my age, when you've done it all already. I just don't know."

"But I get it," Hazel says. "It's kind of like when Natty and Charlie said they were just friends for like two years, and now they've got their tongues all down each others throats?"

"Maybe," Hailey says. "Maybe it might be kind of like that."

*******

(footnotes: the divorce, part 1, part 2 // Berjes and Jodie.)

She and Bradley aren't officially dating... yet. She wants to be single a while before she settles down again. But they've got a nice plump three-bolts (122), and he's already given her more dream dates than Berjes ever did... (which isn't hard to do, lol!) And yes, he is the one who called her during the divorce proceedings ;)

He's never been married before, but he does have an adorable daughter of his own with an ex-girlfriend. I gave him the daughter in retrospect, because by "befriending" Hailey makes him 38-ish as well, and as a family Sim, I figured he'd want a kid of his own. And by the time Hailey is, if ever, ready to settle down with him, it could be too late. (And she's been rolling baby fears anyway, so I'm guessing she's done at this point in her life.)

Abby is eleven, in the fifth grade at Lake City Elementary, and lives with her mother and step-father in Lake City. I'll have you guys meet her in the school update that's coming up. It figures one of my non-playables would finally give me another born-in-game redhead, lol!

And this is Hazel giving Brad the third-degree about what his intentions are with her mother, lol! She likes him well enough though.

This whole mini-update came about because Hailey needed a little makeover for her new job - she'll start teaching elementary classes at the Lakeside Heights school this fall. She never liked her first job, or her second, and she hasn't even gone into this job yet and already she doesn't want to go to work! I swear this woman has never wanted to go to work a day in her life, lol!

Sorry honey, you're a single mom now, you've gotta work!

Why does this happen sometimes with custom hair, with the white transparent edges??? And then sometimes the hair just is fine. So weird.

But overall, my Monif girls are doing just fine...

Which is more than I can say for Berjes, lol! He's not taking this half as well, and he's still ANGRY at Hailey... (That's a want to "drink Hailey" a la cowplant milk, in the top corner.)

But then I guess, the whole thing with Jodie doesn't help.

Berjes is so cute though, the way he walks by every morning before school, and every afternoon as Hazel is coming home. I suppose it's probably because he's furious at Hailey still, but the timing is just funny, and he never seems to want to kick over the trash can or anything. So maybe part of him is really there just to see Hazel. Which is a long trip since he lives in the city now ;)