TS4- Heart & Soul 2.5: Deadlock

Chapter 2.5

Keegan glared daggers at Mariela and she glared daggers right back at him.  She wasn’t going to let him push her into this.

“Mariela, be reasonable.  Sascha is almost two.  Gabe told me Avery’s pregnant again.  You knew I wanted at least three kids when you married me.  What is your problem?” he ended with a growl and looked like he was about to punch something.

“It’s my body, my choice Keegan,” she said simply, “we’ll have to pick up this argument when I get home.  I’m running late to meet the girls for lunch,” with that, she headed for the door.

Keegan snorted.  “Run off to meet your friends then.”

That stopped her in her tracks.  She spun around to face him.  “Family, Keegan.  Your family I might add, get over it!”

Friends had always been a touchy subject between them since when he’d proposed the first… three times she had used her friends as an excuse to put him off.  Since she’d married and had Sascha she never heard from any of them anymore anyway.

She sat down at the table with Keegan’s sister and sisters-in-law with a sigh of relief.  Glad to be away from a rambunctious toddler and the house for a bit.

Somehow the topic of children got brought up.  Instantly she felt on guard.  But no one asked her why she and Keegan hadn’t had another yet and she relaxed.

Keeley said, “I’m just too set in my ways for a baby.  They take too much effort.  I’d rather veg out in the mansion watching television or go fishing.”

Misty pouted, “I wouldn’t mind another child but our house is so small there really isn’t room and Isaac isn’t very enthusiastic about the prospect.  I think it will just be Liza for us.”

“If Kyler was around more it might happen,” added Fallon, “but he’s always on a book tour or working on another book.  It just wouldn’t be fair to a child to have an absent father.”

They all looked at Mariela expectantly and she cleared her throat and shifted in her seat.  “We’re, discussing it,” she muttered and looked around for the waiter.  She needed another drink.

Thankfully the conversation shifted to less stressful topics and she relaxed once more.  They finished their lunch and made plans to meet again in a week.

Instead of heading home Mariela found herself at her parent’s doorstep.  She had no idea why she was even there and thought about leaving when her mother hollered from inside to come in.

Sitting down with her parents it all spilled out.  How Keegan wanted another baby.  How they kept arguing about it. How everyone else had valid reasons not to have a baby but she really couldn’t think of one and didn’t know why she was being stubborn about it.  To her surprise, her parents laughed.

Just as she was starting to get angry her mother sighed, “simmer down girl, I know that look, there’s no need to lose your temper.”

It looked as if both her parents were fighting to keep a straight face but they had stopped laughing, “the thing is hun, if we told you to do something when you were growing up, you would dig your heels in,” her mother said.

With a nod her father added, “when you were little it was cute, you would ball your little fists up and stick out your little lip,” he laughed then added, “but as you got older it lost it’s cuteness.”

“You were a pain in the behind, you were,” her mother added, “things might have been different if you had brothers or sisters but since you grew up alone you became set in your ways.”

Mariela rolled her eyes and sighed, “what does my childhood have to do with Keegan pressuring me into having more kids?” she asked.

“Everything,” they both said at once then looked at each other and laughed some more.

“If you think about it you’ll most likely find that you really want another baby just as badly as your man does hun,” her mother said in a soothing voice, “the problem is that he went to you asking for it instead of letting you make the decision first.”

They talked for a bit longer and then she said her goodbyes.  Am I really that bad?

When she got home and saw Keegan her stomach started doing flip flops.  She loved that man so much.  He had this dark and dangerous air about him but at the same time, he was kind and caring.  He had some crazy mood swings at times, which she did her best to act like she didn’t notice, but she loved him even more for all his flaws.

They locked eyes from across the room and it took her a moment before she could speak, “let’s do it,” she said with a nod.

The look of shock and then pleasure that passed over his face was worth getting over her uncertainty.  He’d won. This time.

Chapter 2.6

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Chapter notes:

I was originally planning to write this chapter from Keegan’s perspective but I was totally stuck on the first conversation. I didn’t know where to go from there.  Then I thought it might be interesting to get into Mariela’s head a bit.

I know having several sims in a chapter confuses everyone but I thought that the lunch was the perfect opportunity to explain why none of the Holt spares will have any more kids and the part with her parents gave some background on Mariela.