goodbye love

February 1981 (narrated by Ansel)

Ansel Martin is 46, Gala Martin is 43, Cheri Martin is 16, Genivee Martin is 12 (Eliot Martin is 19, Hamilton Martin is 2)

My son Eliot is always over. His sisters are happy but I'm not pleased with it at all. He always comes over at hours where I'm sure he's supposed to work and just makes his mother take care of his son Hamilton. His girlfriend is pregnant for the second time now and with twins, and she should be giving birth any second now but he'd much rather spend his day playing Don't Wake the Llama with Cheri and Genivee.

Gala is way too happy to see her grandson and doesn't care if she has to feed him or potty train him. I think she has an even worse relationship with Eliot than I have but she loves Hamilton so much I'm sure she wants to steal him from Eliot and Desiree.

Whenever I try to tell him his mother would be happy if he and Desiree would move in with us so his children will have a better future he starts yelling at me about how he's old enough to take good care of his own children and we don't have any right to tell him that.

It's fine by me, I just did this for Gala because I'm trying to make her happy lately. We're in a horrible financial position already, we don't need more mouths to feed. It's ironic how I'm an accountant but I'm nearly in debt myself. Cheri will graduate high school in 2 years and I'm sure she'll want to go to college but we barely have enough for an associate's degree and Cheri is an ambitious young lady, I'm sure she'll want more than that. Not to mention Genivee, who may be lazy but is very wise and will probably want to go to college as well. Thankfully she's a few years behind.

I have noticed Cheri hasn't been herself lately and I asked Gala if she knows what's the matter. After a lecture of how I don't understand women she told me Cheri slept with her boyfriend and then he dumped her. I hope this won't affect Cheri in the long run because she definitely seems to have a better chance in a good future than her siblings but honestly, I'm really glad her boyfriend dumped her. He always seemed like a scumbag that would leave my daughter pregnant and alone, I would never want that to my favorite daughter.

I tried to tell her that boyfriends come and go and her old boyfriend wasn't good enough for her anyway and she actually seemed fine when I told her that but Gala told me not to meddle and that I don't understand how she feels. I love Gala more than anything but she's never pleased.

As I said before, I knew Gala wasn't really pleased, but one day when I tried to hold her and she rejected me I was really surprised. I asked her what was the matter and she told me she thinks our relationship is ruined and we should go to couples counsling and see if we could work it out. I really don't want to do that and I told her maybe we should go on a night out and relax a little but she insisted. Couples counsling is for couples who are about to divorce, and I'm giving Gala everything I can, I can't see why would she want to divorce. I was about to cry when she told me that.

To my disappointment she booked us a meeting with a therapist in Etude Dur in two weeks and told me it'd probably be best if I sleep on the couch for now. She told me she wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping in the same bed with me and she wasn't even kind enough to lend me a blanket. For the past couple of nights I've been sleeping on the couch in the TV room, freezing as it's winter right now.

This has lead to a few uncomfortable situations like my own daughter, Genivee, walking in on me changing on a Saturday morning when she was about to watch TV. I felt so ashamed at that moment, Gala has made me desperate.

On that day, I realized I had to make a decision, lose Gala or lose my dignity. I took a walk around the neighborhood and decided Gala took enough of my dignity that there's no way to save it and I will sacrifice anything to the love of my life. After all, this is just a phase, right?

notes:

• Title is Goodbye Love from RENT.
• Andy is much more attracted to Ninon so I didn't see any reason for him to stay with Cheri seeing he got his 2 woohoos now.
• The Martins are one of the extremely poor families in VT. They're still renting and it's taking up all their funds. Once Genivee will go to college though they'll be able to possibly buy a small house.
• That is, if they are still together. I don't know why but all of a sudden Gala's relationship with Ansel went to the negatives even though his stayed in a positive. He rolled a few wants for Gala but she didn't roll any to him but divorce is a long process and we'll see if they even do it. I'll send them to Narcisse for couples counseling and hope they can work it out.
• Ansel really does everything for Gala. His wants were stuff like 'give Gala a massage' while hers were general fortune wants and some wants for her grandson and Cheri.
• I have no idea why Ansel was naked. Perhaps he was hoping for a makeup woohoo with Gala?
• I'm liking Hamilton more and more every time I see him in my game. He's one of the two only born in game sims so far because I had to create Eliot and Desiree in separate households and I didn't like him at first. I wanted him to be blonde like his grandpa Dix :P