Shaye's Sims 2: All The Wrong Places

For Nicole Simski,

life has been a struggle and love, a battlefield.

It happens to a lot of us.

We become so desperate for love that we're willing to accept people

and situations that are unhealthy, negative and toxic.

Sooner or later, they devastate our lives.

We fear being alone so much that we're willing to be with anyone

who gives us a second glance and the more we search for true love,

the more it alludes us.

And this would be the case with Nicole.

I call it, "Looking for love in all the wrong places".

But that was then and this is NOW.

The future is looking a lot brighter for Nicole these days.

Unfortunately she had to hit rock bottom in order for her life to take a much needed upswing and it was when she finally decided to quit looking for love through others that she found a way to love herself.

As soon as Nicole took a job in the Nursing Biz, life took off at warp speed.

Next thing she knew, Ally, Alex and Ariel were off to college,

she reached the top of the Nursing field and life was cool, calm and collected.

Of course she still shared her home with Godiva,

her ultra vain, spoiled rotten, annoying-as-heck room mate.

But there were some redeeming moments now and then

where Nicole was served up opportunity to laugh when life would give

Godiva a swift kick in the keester.

Or when Godiva had to humiliate herself with dumb costumes for her job,

which for some reason never seemed bother Godiva

as much as it would someone else, (Godiva is one ODD duck!!)

And moving right along,...

Just like life can be, as soon as our dark clouds move on and that much needed sunshine of contentment and happiness begins to brighten our lives, we discover those dismal clouds have settled in over the life of someone we love.

This is exactly what happened with Nicole.

As soon as everything was going well in her life, someone she loved ended up on her doorstep carrying a heavy load of troubles - and it was her twin brother, Nick.

She was stunned when she first saw him.

He'd changed his looks drastically but what shocked her the most is how his personality had changed. She knew it went real deep with her brother when their mother, Ruby died suddenly but she had no idea how deep until she saw how troubled he was. He'd cut himself off from the world and had pushed away his wife, Sammy and all his kids.

Nicole did her best to be there for him and spent hours talking and encouraging him to get some professional help but it was like talking to a brick wall - seemed like he was perfectly content to live a miserable life.

Godiva even stepped in and tried to cheer Nick up,

flirting and quite brazenly throwing herself at him,

(Godiva has a boyfriend, but that doesn't stop her from playing the field)

Nick turned her down flat!

As a matter of fact he reacted to her advances by being quite cruel,

calling her names and telling her she'd be the LAST Sim on earth

he'd ever want to woo-hoo with!

He was so awful towards Godiva that even Nicole felt sorry for her.

She might be a tacky flirt but she didn't deserve to be treated that way by Nick.

Nicole was relieved to know that her brother wasn't fooling around behind his wife's back and she knew that he still loved Sammy and kids but it wasn't stopping him from falling deeper and deeper into a seedy lifestyle of not caring about anyone or anything.

When he finally told her that he'd lost his job she knew his problems were very serious. Most days he would show up in the afternoon, sit in front of the TV, not talk to anyone then he'd wolf down his food, watch more TV and then crash out in Alex's old room.

Godiva steered clear of him cause he was so rude towards her and Nicole did her best to look the other way. He'd made her promise to not call Sammy and she kept that promise, (even though a day didn't go by that she wanted to). After all, there was a time not long ago that she hid out from everyone herself.

She could only hang on to the hope that Nick would come around and see the light the same way she did and go back to his wife and kids soon.

And the beat goes on,.....

When winter arrived Nicole found herself working tons of overtime and as it turned out, Godiva was now working long hours too as she had advanced up the ladder in the Show Biz industry. Nick wasn't coming around as much as he had been, which worried Nicole at first but then she found out that he'd started hanging out over his daughter, Linnie's place. Her and Linnie kept in touch and from what Linnie told Nicole, Nick was exactly the same as he'd been hanging out at her place - same shit, different day.

She was glad that Nick wasn't coming over as much -

Nicole loved winter and with the holidays coming, it put her in a great mood and she didn't want her brother and all his troubles to bring her down!

Winter also brought with it the dreaded "flu season" and Nicole found herself working even more hours as she covered for her, (very big), nursing fleet that had one or more of her nurses calling in sick with the flu on a daily basis. But the strange thing is, the more she worked the happier she felt.

Funny how when Nicole first entered the Simski house so long ago she thought she'd be happiest in the Slacker biz when in actuality, the opposite is true.

Nicole even volunteered to work over Christmas.

All her kids had plans to be elsewhere and couldn't make it to her place on Christmas so she figured she'd work, allowing one of her nurses to have time with family on the holiday.

Nicole was learning the miracle about giving -

that it really is better to give than receive. Besides, all her kids were coming over on New Years so it wasn't as big of a sacrifice as it might look on the outside.

When the first snow arrived right before Christmas Nicole felt like she did when she was a little kid. She HAD to get out there and make a snowman!

And without any kind of coat too!

She ended up with a happy surprise when out of the blue her son, Dominic, stopped by.

Dominic didn't want to wait till New Years to celebrate Christmas

with his mom so he decided to surprise her and show up

for a little early celebration -

helping her build a snowman was a perfect start!

Nicole was ecstatic to see him!

Back inside the house Dominic whipped up his infamous chocolate eclairs

that just happen to be Nicole's favorite!

And then they exchanged gifts.

But of course the best Christmas gift for Nicole

was having Dominic back in her life.

They'd spent way too long being estranged from one another.

Nicole told herself she'd NEVER allow that to happen again.

Not with Dominic or any of her kids!

And they posed for a special Mother/Son photo

to help keep the memory of their perfect Christmas visit.

It was after the New Year that Nicole got the BEST gift ever

and it was from her oddball roomie, Godiva.

Godiva and her mobster thug boyfriend, Johnny Thugg, arrived home

after a 3-day weekend in Vegas and announced not only were

they now very married, but they would also be moving out!!

Nicole was thrilled!!!

In the meantime, Godiva and Johnny

welcomed a brand new noo-boo into the house.

And they named him Johnny Junior,

JJ for short.

Married life seemed to be exactly what Godiva needed to take life seriously.

Having little JJ changed her, (for the better), and even brought out the soft side in tough thugster, Johnny.

Godiva and Johnny are good parents.

Both enjoy spending their spare time taking turns caring for little JJ.

As soon as JJ toddlered up, Godiva and Johnny packed up and moved.

Nicole was at work when they left and when she came home to an empty house she couldn't help but do a little Happy Dance to have the house all to herself.

Funny thing is, she actually ended up missing Godiva.

Didn't take long for them to start talking on the phone

and plans were made to get together soon.

Then something happened right out of nowhere,

something that Nicole wasn't expecting at all -

she met the man of her dreams!!

This is Corbet Wolfgang.

Nicole met him on the job -

he works as an accountant and came in to help work on the books for her company's year end audit and to prepare a budget for the new year.

In order to get the finances all figured out she and Corbet ended up working some long nights together.

Long story, short -

they fell in love on their last night of working together.

They'd braved one of Pleasantview's worst snow storms to go out for a bite to eat after getting the books squared away. And nothing puts a couple more in the mood to fall in love than battling a treacherous snow storm followed by mile high banana splits!

Corbet is a very quiet, rather shy, serious-minded Sim.

He'd had the same trouble Nicole had -

just couldn't seem to find a woman to settle down with.

Kind of a loner, with no family, Corbet spent most of his time working.

He's a Knowledge Sim.

The last thing he expected was to fall in love like he did -

but that's exactly what happened and the timing couldn't have been better.

Neither him or Nicole are young anymore and their "elderhood" is boldly marching to the horizon. Corbet hadn't had children yet, something he'd always hoped for but was beginning to think would never happen.

Falling in love with Nicole brought that dream back to life!!

Didn't take long for him to move in with Nicole.

And Corbet popped the question

on their first night together in the house!

Nicole didn't hesitate for even a second -

her answer was YES!

Corbet met all of Nicole's kids and they approved of the new man in their mother's life. And when they announced they had plans to get married out of town

with just a Justice Of The Peace they were a little disappointed but it was what Nicole and Corbet wanted and they just wanted to see their mom happy.

Wasn't long after they were married

that they began work on starting a family!

It didn't take long for this to happen!!