4.02 Bright City Lights - Dark Secrets

Tamara's fears continued to chew away at her.

They continued to snuggle, smooch, and hold hands.

They fooled around in empty class rooms

 They stargazed.

They went to parties and bars. They still hadn't shared a bed.

Johnathan took Tam to a bar called -Tribal- to celebrate finishing their exams

 Johnathan was friends with the staff of Tribal and convinced the barmaid to let him in behind the bar for a while. It was early, although they expected to be slammed later when all the exams were over for the day.

Angel had taught him the basics of mixology when he was in Elba, so John began making drinks to show Evelyn and Tim that he had some idea of what he was doing. "Ooh, that's pretty, can I have one?", Tamara asked while John was putting the finishing touches on a tray of 'Big Mistakes'.

"I didn't think you drank?", asked John gently. "I don't, but I still want one!" Tamara smiled back. John placed one glass in front of Tamara, before offering one to Eveleyn, and one to Tim. The only other customer in the bar sat down, and cooed "Big Mistake? I'll take one."

"One simoleon. It's happy hour.", Evelyn said. The customer, who was used to paying three simoleons for a Mistake happily gave John a shiny coin for the drink, after taking a sip, she dropped another, smaller coin, into the empty tip jar.   

"Hey handsome, how about a Spline Reticulator?", the customer asked. John thought for a moment, "Sure thing, one Spline Reticulator coming up.", John replied. He grabbed four clean glasses and some ingredients and set to work.

"Damn, that's the best Reticulator I've ever had!", the only customer stated, and trickled some more coins into the tip jar after paying for her drink. "Hey hotshot, can you make Kneecappers?", Tim asked from the other side of the bar.

"I know what goes in them, but I'm not sure on how much of what.", John replied honestly. Tim waved John over as he began pulling ingredients out of a cupboard. "When the students hit, this will be what a large percentage of them will order first up."

While John was busy with Tim, the girl at the bar leaned over to Tam to make conversation. "That's one damn fine fairy, I wish I had one of those at home!", she grinned. Tam tried her best to keep a level voice. "I do have one just like that at home, in fact, it is that one!", Tam whispered back, applying one of the fake smiles that her mother had made her practice for hours on end.

"Lucky you!", the girl stated, not bothering to whisper, "Anyway, I've got quite a few more bars to hit before the nights out, have a good night!", and left.

The bar didn't stay customer-less for long. A few minutes later a wave of students rolled into the bar, and Evelyn dropped a recipe book in front of John. "Stay for three or four hours? It's going to be hectic, and having a third will be a real help.", Evelyn pleaded.

Tamara nodded affirmative at John, and he agreed to assist Evelyn and Tim for the night. When they got home after the bar had closed, John was a little tipsy, and Tamara was a lot.

Tamara had sampled at least one of every different drink that John had made at Tribal earlier, and now she had a list of other things she wanted to try. They fumbled with each others clothes, dropping to the rug, not even making it to a bed. The temperature inside the room raised more than just a few degrees.
 

"Whats wrong with me John? Why won't you sleep with me? Don't you love me?", Tamara demanded after all her efforts to make love with John had failed. "What? Yes I do love you Nerd. With all my heart and soul. I'm old fashioned, I don't believe we should sleep together until after we are married, and I had secretly planned on proposing after we graduated!". Tamara sat in shock. That was the one possibility that she had never thought of.

"I have a secret too, and you might not even want to marry me when you hear it.", Tamara confessed. "I have a baby daughter, two years ago, when my family went to Simserland on holiday, I was at a party, there was alchohol and drugs, and even though I didn't touch any, I woke up pregnant with a hangover."

"My parents were so ashamed and embarrassed that my mother put photos of herself on Simstagram with a pillow up her shirt, claiming that the baby was hers!", Tamara cried. "I miss my little Emily! I want my baby back!", despite Tamara's best efforts not to seem week and fragile, she was unable to hold back the flood of tears.

"I was sure your dark secret was that you kicked puppies or strangled kittens, or maybe even that you had voted for the 'Submit to Nature' party, in the Elba election. This is not that dark, I can fix this.", John told Tamara firnly as her took her in his arms and held her tight.

Tamara exited the graduation ceremony just as John finished up a phone call. "We graduated, both of us top of the class!", she shouted gleefully as she threw herself into his arms. "Are you surprised?", asked Johnathan. "I'm not surprised I'm top of the class, but I'm surprised you passed at all dumb ass!", Tam quipped playfully. 

"Well, we need to pack immediately, I have more surprises in store for you, starting with Tamara Goodstone, will you marry me?". "Yes, yes, YES!", Tamara squealed joyfully.

"Bridgeport? Are we going to visit your parents?" Tamara asked sleepily from the passengers seat. "No, and stop asking for hints, you know you can't weasel any clues out of me.", John smiled.

"You actually found us an apartment in Bridgeport? Seriously?", Tam inquired, suddenly wide awake.
John smiled back at his fiance, "No, I found us a penthouse in Bridgeport. Surprise!"

 Tamara investigated every square inch of the abode like a child in a candy store for the first time.

"So this is ours if we want it?", Tamara double checked. John repeated "Three month lease, with the option to renew for six, twelve, eighteen, and a buy in any time option."

"The views are amazing, if only the sun were out!", Tamara gushed. "I have one more surprise for you," John informed Tamara, "The Jettstar family lawyers have contacted your families lawyers, and we can pick up Emily on the weekend."

"By the Maker! How is that possible, how did you? so fast..Thank you. I.. I don't deserve you!", Tamara stuttered as her emotions boiled over and tears of joy slipped down her cheeks.

"Yes, yes you do.", John grinned.

Authors note:

I don't know how long John and Tam will stay in Bridgeport, the penthouse is tiny, and I haven't worked out how to fit a cot in yet. Also my two sims and guests have a habit of vanishing through the bathroom floor and ending up stuck in the neighbors apartment. There is very little room to add lots, but I may try building a house near the ocean, as I haven't played with houseboats yet.

Tam and Johns stay at Uni went smoothly, despite the fact that they were doing all the cooking and cleaning for everyone, with Tam missing only one class for the semester. (My fault). I think i picked two semesters, but both completed their degrees in one.

John's occupation should be apparent from this chapter, and Tams, well, not so much. I slipped in a very subtle and obscure hint in the last chapter, and I do mean very.

The lag is not as bad as I anticipated, although I have been getting long freezes when I switch from Tam to John, although when I dumped Johns inventory on Tam, it reversed. (I brought all of the WA relics and treasures, potions and some other junk that had been collected as family heirlooms for this or future generations.)

I am imposing my own hoarder personality on my sims :P

The university session was played through in one very long session, because I number all of the images in the order I tend to use them on blogger before even getting on the internet all images in this chapter start with 4-01- instead of 4-02- . I may be the only person in the entire universe that this is relevant to, but the information is out there now...