Mary, Just Mary Chapter Seven

Mary managed to get away from her stuffy yacht party and is now slumming it with Babs and Donnie. What new discoveries await her?

Disclaimer: I do not own Late Night, so the cocktails will not look right. I figured I would just post the story anyway instead of waiting a month for the game to go on sale. Use your imagination. And enjoy!

“There they are,” Babs said when we walked inside. I looked in the direction she was pointing and saw John and Becky seated at a table nearby. I wondered if Becky’s mood was going to be polite like it was when I visited her house or foul like it was when I visited Jake’s. The look I saw on her face told me the latter.

“Please tell me that’s not your tractor out there,” Babs said when we reached the table.

“It’s not,” John laughed. “It’s Luke’s. I think he had a few before he got here, thought it would be funny. If I wanted to bring something funny to the bar, I’d ride Trick here.”

“You remember Mary, right?” Babs said. John nodded.

“Of course,” he said. I smiled at him for a second then looked at his wife. She had that same look that told me she was not at all happy to see me here.

 

“Babs, can I talk to you for a second?” she asked.

“Sure, Baby.”
Becky glanced at me, then at Babs. “Alone?” she murmured. Babs gave her a confused look but Becky walked away, and Babs followed her.

“Well, I’m gonna punch in for my night of labor,” Donnie said.

“I’m gonna…order another soda,” John said, staring at the other end of the room where Becky and Babs were talking. I couldn’t help but stare myself.

What is her problem? I thought angrily. She might not be Jake’s lover but she sure does act so rude and—

“Mary? Is that you?”

“Jake!”

I ran to Jake and threw my arms around him, loving how warm and comforting he felt.

"I’m glad I caught you,” Jake said. “I was just about to head out.”

“You’re leaving?” I whined.

“Only for a little while. I’m on plainclothes duty tonight, so I have to make another round in town. I won’t be too long, an hour, tops.”

I pouted. “An hour? That’s too long.”

Jake laughed. “I promise, after I’m done with my rounds, I’ll be all yours.”

He smiled that smile, the one that always made me blush, and gave me another hug before walking away. I stood there wondering what I could do for an hour that would make the time fly by so I could be with Jake again. So he could be all mine. Babs walked back over to me, without Becky. I looked across the room and saw John had started talking to her.

“What was that all about?” I asked.

“Oh, Becky just wanted to talk to me about this and that. Nothing important,” Babs said. Her voice was convincing but I knew she was lying.

“Why is she—“ I started to ask.

“I feel like getting a drink. How about you?” Babs interrupted me.

“Oh. Sure, I’d love a lemon-lime soda, if they have those here,” I said.

“Soda? No, no, Baby, I mean a drink drink.”

“You mean with alcohol? Oh, I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“My parents would never—“

“Baby, your parents aren’t here! You can do whatever you want!”

Before I could decide, Babs took my hand and pulled me over to the bar. Donnie was behind the bar, juggling empty beer bottles.

“What’s your pleasure, ladies?” he asked.

“You know what I want,” Babs said in a sultry voice. Donnie grinned, and he started pulling various bottles and drink glasses to the counter for Babs’s drink.

“What are you getting?” I asked.

“A dry martini. It’s my drink of choice. Everyone has a favorite. We just need to find yours. You said you like lemon-lime?”

“Yes?”

“She should try a daiquiri,” Donnie said. He picked up one of the metallic cup and placed another metallic cup on top of it and shook it hard.

“Great idea!” Babs said. Donnie poured the drink into a glass, and dropped an olive in it. Babs took a sip of the drink.

“Now, for you,” Donnie said to me. He grabbed a different bottle of liquor, one that said Havana Sunset White Rum, a whole lime, and a bag of sugar. He packed in a lot of ice in the metallic cup and shook it just as hard as he mixed Babs’s drink. He took another small glass and poured my drink in it.

“All right, Miss Mary, here is your daiquiri,” Donnie said.

“Mmm, smells like the beach,” I said. I took a sip of it. The taste was wonderful. Tart lime, sweet sugar, and the combination of frigid and warmth, which I assumed was the rum. “Oh, this is delicious!” I exclaimed.

“Ah, I knew you’d like it,” Donnie said.

I slurped it down quickly, which made Donnie and Babs laugh. “May I have another, please?” I asked.

“Hang on,” Babs said. She leaned over the counter and whispered something to Donnie. He burst out laughing.

“You really want to do that to her?” he asked.

“Just get it.”

 

“Do what to who?” I asked.

“Mary, have you ever tried hard liquor?” Babs asked.

“No. This daiquiri was my first alcoholic drink,” I said, pointing to my empty glass.

“Try this,” Babs said. Donnie set two very small glasses on the counter, ones that were filled with clear brown liquid. It didn’t look very tasty.

“Okay…” I said hesitantly.

“The trick is to get it down all at once,” Babs said, taking her glass. “On three?”

I picked up the other glass.

“One…two…three!”

 

I poured the drink in my mouth, and immediately wanted to spit it all back out. It wasn’t tart and sugary and cold and warm like the daiquiri, it practically scorched the inside of my mouth and made my nose burn and my eyes water.

“Ugh! Yech! What was that?” I asked once the awful liquid was down my throat.

“Whiskey. Congratulations, Mary, you just had your first drink of hard liquor!”
“And my last!” I said, setting the small glass down on the counter. “May I please have another daiquiri?”

Donnie made me a second drink.

And a third.

I would have drank the third just as quickly as the first and second, but Babs took me away from the bar, saying I had to “pace myself.” I wasn’t really sure what she meant, because I felt great! All I wanted to do was smile and laugh. Babs and I sat down at the table with our drinks. Babs lightly tapped my shoulder and said she was going to put a few nickels in the jukebox. I nodded at her, and took in the surroundings of the bar. Everything I had heard about bars was that they were dirty, seedy, and full of all sorts of unkempt people. But people were laughing, joking, dancing to the music on the jukebox, having all sorts of fun. Among the crowd, John and Becky were also out on the floor, dancing together.

Hmm…when will Jake be coming back?

Will he dance with me?

I shouldn’t be thinking about that…

I shouldn’t even be here.

What am I doing?

Oh, fiddlesticks! I'm not going to worry about anything tonight!

I listened to Buddy Holly’s words fill the room.

Well, that will be the day when you say goodbye

Yes, that will be the day, when you make me cry

You say you’re gonna leave me, you know it’s a lie

‘Cause that will be the day, when I die

I folded my hands together, staring down at the huge diamond on my finger. Even though I told myself I wouldn't, I let those thoughts trouble me again. Babs sat back down in the chair across from me.

“Penny for your thoughts,” she said, placing her hand on my wrist.

“Hm, I hate this thing sometimes,” I said, picking at my engagement ring.

“Doesn’t fit right?”

“No…it’s doesn’t.”

Well, when Cupid shot his dart

He shot it at your heart

So if we’ll ever part

And I’ll leave you

You say to hold me

And tell me boldly

That some day, well, I’ll be through

“If there’s one thing that should always fit…” Babs looked out at the dance floor towards John and Becky, and looked back at me. She took another drink of her martini. I followed up with a sip of my daiquiri. I watched as Becky twirled in and out of John’s arms, like a flower petal drifting in the wind.  Her eyes were closed and her smile was wide, like she was pretending she was in a dream.   

John pulled her to his side and lightly kissed her. It was like they wanted the whole world to know how they were feeling, a love that was as beautiful as looking into the starry night sky.  Their love was vast, endless, something that they couldn’t touch, but instead it touched them.

A true wedlock...

 “They look so happy,” I said.

“Mhm,” Babs said. “It fits her. It does,” Babs continued. Her voice sounded very heavy.

“What fits her?”

“Becky’s ring. It has been passed along in John’s family for years. It’s been on the fingers of a lot of women for a long time. Sometimes it fit…sometimes…”

Babs took another, longer drink, emptying her glass.

“Sometimes it didn’t,” she finished. Her eyes started to look dark and glassy like the color of the awful whiskey I drank earlier. I waited for Babs to say more about the ring, but she sat silently for a few seconds, then stood up and smiled at me.

“I sure could use another drink,” she said. “How about you?”

The mod every storyteller must have!

I stumbled upon this mod when I was searching for poses the other day, and it has opened the door to a new horizon of sim picture-taking. This mod is is called "One More Slot Please" and it was created by the brilliant granthes.

This mod is available at Mod the Sims, which is a great website if you're looking for CC...any kind of CC. Downloads from Mod the Sims tend to be safe and glitch free, unlike stuff you get from, say The Sims Resource.


Ok...so what does it do?


This item is remarkably simple. It basically functions as a flat surface you can put objects on. The item is colored red and white in buy mode and becomes invisible in live mode.

With this item, I am going to place more objects on the dresser (say, that teddy bear in the corner and the baseball on the nightstand).

Using the hand tool in buy mode, press control+shift, and click on One More Slot Please. A menu of different height adjustments will appear, and you adjust the item until it is the same or about the same height as the item you want to add more objects to.

Place your objects on One More Slot Please, and use the moveobjects cheat to place it within your desired surface. You can add as many One More Slot Please items to that area as you wish.

But keep in mind, these objects will not be usable, as Jake is kindly demonstrating. So if you want to place items on, say, your sim's toilet or fridge, make sure it's only for the purpose of getting a good shot and not gameplay. (Unless you like having hungry sims peeing all over the floor.)

But what really makes this mod shine is that it can turn any surface into a seating area for sims. Using One More Slot Please with Pose Player by cmomoney, I can get Jake to sit on his truck.

Set the pose and the height...

And, ta-da! Jake is now sitting on his truck.
Neat, isn't it?


I hope everyone finds this post useful, and I hope you all have a great time using One More Slot Please and Pose Player. Thanks to granthes and cmomoney for their wonderful mods! Now, if you'll excuse me, I must find out if granthes has accepted my marriage proposal.

Going into air phase,
Cerulee

Mary, Just Mary Chapter Six

Sorry about the LONG wait. Classes have kept me quite busy, and I suffer from ADD when it comes to writing. (I have several of them going at once!) I'll try to be more punctual with future posts!

For the next few days, Mother and Mrs. Fickley worked together making sure everything would be perfect for my wedding, so they didn’t notice at all how down I was feeling. Even though the house was always full of people, I had never felt more alone. On the third, we drove up to Twin Shores, a city about 20 minutes away from Sharon, and to The Wedding Shoppe, where my dress was being held. Louise and Mrs. Swartz came along, and we all tried on our dresses for a final fitting. Mother and Mrs. Fickley each tried on theirs, and Louise tried on her dress and Albert’s cousin’s Penny’s dress; Penny being another of my bridesmaids. I never met her before but apparently she and Louise were the same size. I stood lifeless like a mannequin as my mother and Mrs. Fickley inspected every seam, every button, and every bow on my dress to make sure it was perfect. With every passing second I found it harder and harder to breathe.

“Oh, Miranda, this is every mother’s dream. Can you believe our children will be married in only a few weeks?”

“I couldn’t be prouder of my son. He’ll make a terrific husband.”

“And my daughter will be the perfect wife.”

“Of course she will be.”

“And just think, before long we’ll be grandparents!”

“Oh, I already have everything all planned out for them! They’ll go to the finest boarding schools in England and to Cambridge University for their law degrees! And, if they have any girls, I know this wonderful finishing school in Switzerland…”

 

 

As Mother and Mrs. Fickley were talking, it felt like the podium I stood on was getting taller and taller, and their voices got farther away. My legs felt weak, and my head started spinning. I tried to take a deep breath but my heartbeat was so fast—I grabbed my chest and gasped.

“I can’t do this right now,” I whimpered.

“What’s wrong?” Louise asked.

Before I could answer, my foot slipped, and I collapsed into my mother and Mrs. Fickley’s arms.

“Oh, dear! Mary!” Mother exclaimed.

“Splash some water on her face!” Mrs. Fickley exclaimed.

“Fan her!” Mrs. Swartz added.

“Mary, are you okay?!” Louise asked.

“I knew it was too hot in here! What kind of shop is this, keeping a room so hot it makes poor, delicate girls faint? I must have a word with the manager!” Mrs. Fickley ranted. She stormed to the counter where the alarmed sales clerk stood. Mother set me down on a chair while Mrs. Swartz fanned me with a magazine. I gasped for breath, and soon my frantic heartbeats slowed down to normal. Mrs. Fickley returned and the clerk she was yelling at handed me a glass of water. I poured it down my dry throat, but it tasted bitter and sloshed around in my stomach.

“My poor little girl. She’s just not used to this Southern heat,” Mother said. “Are you all right now, Sweetheart? I hope you don’t feel too sick to go to Victor’s party.”

“Oh, she’ll be fine in a moment. We can’t have her missing this party, it’s for her and Albert!” Mrs. Fickley replied.

It’s just the heat. I told myself. Everything will be fine.

 

I felt sick for the rest of the day, right up until we had to go to the party. I would have asked to go home, but my parents and Mrs. Fickley were insistent. Their chipper voices seemed so far away when they were talking, and even my grand entrance with Albert meant little to nothing to me. Mr. Walker gave a speech of how glad he was to share this happy occasion with the Fickleys and wished Albert and me a lifetime of happiness.

It was a wish hung on a quickly falling star.

Once the formalities were over, the party conversation started. Once the formalities were over, I was invisible.

 

“It was Father’s idea, buying the house in that awful little town. When he was a young man he did like to go hunting, so it made sense to him I suppose. I’d quite honestly sell it, but property values in that area are just terrible,” Albert said.

 

“Daddy, is Mr. Walker going to take the yacht out on the water?” Louise asked.

“No, dear, we don’t want anything from those fireworks falling on it,” Mr. Swartz replied.

“Fireworks? Today’s not the fourth.”

‘They have a show every night this weekend.”

“Ohhh, okay.”

 

“What a lovely dress, Helen.”

“Thank you, dear. I got it from a beautiful shop in Florence.”

 

I leaned against the wall, boring my eyes into the ceiling. My mind was too full to celebrate. This was the life I’ve known for so long, and yet, it no longer felt like it was mine. Everyone else looked happy, why wasn’t I? Staring out into the crowds of people, I imagined the open fields that wrapped around the Miller’s house, and the long stretch of open road that led to Jake’s. I wanted to go back there, to feel the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, the grass on my feet. I wanted to get lost in Riverview County and never have to come back to where I really belonged. Louise started walking up to me, and I floated back down to reality.

“Have you seen Dick?” she asked.

“N-no,” I replied. “I think he’s probably trying to avoid me.”

Louise blushed. “Yes, you’re probably right. He said he was going to take me out on his sailboat before dark.”

“Maybe he went back into town for something,” I said.

“Maybe. Will you help me look for him? I mean, if we see him you don’t have to talk to him or anything, but if you’re not comfortable…”

“It’s all right. I’ll help you,” I said, happy to go somewhere other than the yacht.

 “I have no idea where he could have gone. He promised to take me out on his boat. He promised.”

“Maybe he forgot,” I said, stepping through the sand uncomfortably.

“No, he wouldn’t forget. He promised.”

I followed Louise across the beach as she searched for Richard. My shoes were not at all appropriate for walking in the sand. But taking them off was a big mistake, because when I did, I found out the sand was too hot to walk on.

“Ouch! Ouch!” I yelped as I ran to the shady, grassy playground that was near the beach. Louise was so focused on her search for Richard she didn’t even notice I was gone. I rubbed my feet and walked over to a small building I took to be a public bathroom. The cool cement floor felt much better. The door to the women’s bathroom swung open. A woman wearing a very skimpy bikini and holding a bottle of beer came out, and I recognized her right away.

 

“Babs!” I exclaimed.

“Hey, Baby, good to see you,” she said, leaning up against the wall.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Donnie and I decided to spend the day at the beach. Get a little sun, a little sand, all that jazz. What’s your story?”

“I’m…um…at a party.”

“Ooh, a party. Sounds like fun,” Babs said.

“I guess.”

“Oh? Not fun?”

“I just don’t really feel up to celebrating.”

“Rough day?” Babs asked, taking another sip of beer.

“You have no idea.”

“Well, if you’re not having fun here, why not come with us? Donnie and I are going to the bar he works at, John and Becky will be there too. It will be fun.”

“I don’t know…”

 

“Mary!” I heard Louise call.

“Oh, I have to go, that’s my friend calling for me.”

“She can come too if she wants,” Babs replied.

“No, I—”

 

Louise walked up to where we were standing, and practically froze in place when she saw Babs. I was pretty sure she never saw a woman in a bikini drinking in public before. Babs gave Louise a friendly smile. I tried to bring Louise around. Babs really was a nice person.

“This is Babs. She’s a friend,” I said. “Babs, this is Louise.”

“Nice to meet you,” Babs said.

Louise tried to mask her disgust, but didn’t do a very good job of it. Babs simply took another drink of her beer.

“I can’t find Dick anywhere,” she said to me. Babs chuckled quietly.

“Well, I’m gonna split. Hope you two have fun at your party. Good luck with your search for…Dick.” Babs said, snickering again. I wasn’t sure what was so funny, but Louise looked slightly embarrassed. Babs started walking to the parking lot, and I had this strong urge to follow her. My feet twitched; they wanted to move but my knees wouldn’t bend.

“Ooh, what a horrible, uncouth woman!” Louise muttered. She looked up at me and smiled. “Should we get back to the party then? Maybe Dick is—Mary?”

“Wait! Babs!” I called, running up to her. Louise grabbed my arm.

 

“What are you doing?” Louise asked.

“I…I just got to get out of here,” I said.

“Get out…what?”

“Please don’t say anything,” I darted away as Louise tried to protest, but she could only stammer. I swiftly followed Babs to her blue Coupe that was sitting in the parking lot, and I saw Donnie lounging on the roof of the car drinking his own bottle of beer.

 

“Another rescue?” Donnie asked when we approached.

“You could say that,” Babs replied. She opened the door to the backseat of her car. “Hop in,” she said to me. I smiled and climbed into the backseat.

Turns out I didn’t need Louise to keep my secret this time.

“MARY!” my father’s voice roared from the pier. I looked back and saw him and my mother, Mrs. Fickley, Mr. Swartz, and Mr. Elias all running right towards us.

“Oh, shit!” Donnie exclaimed. He jumped off the car and into the passenger’s seat. The bitter smell of the beer that spilled on his shirt filled the car. Babs turned the key over and over. The engine sputtered and chugged, and just when I thought my father was going to make it in time to yank me out of her car, the engine roared. Babs quickly pulled the car out of the beach parking lot and sped down the road. The polished vehicles of my pursuers followed us like cops chasing after a getaway car in a movie. I was scared but at the same time, very excited.

“Time to give these squares the slip!” Babs said. She suddenly veered onto a dirt road, and the back end of the car swung like a pendulum. The other cars disappeared in a giant cloud of dust, and I knew my father had to be very angry not only about my escape but also that the cars were getting dirty. I found it very hard to care; I was having fun! Babs made a series of turns and roundabouts that made me wonder if we were getting lost, but she seemed to know the roads pretty well. Soon enough, we were back on the paved road that headed to Sharon.

Babs drove down the same road I had traveled on earlier, and stopped at a place I didn’t notice before. It was a run-down building with an old, faded sign that read “Hudson Street Bar.” Dozens of cars were parked in the lot and along the street, even a tractor of all things! As Babs looked around for a place to park, which took a while because there hardly were any, I caught sight of a familiar red truck.

 

“Oh! That’s Jake’s truck!” I exclaimed.

“Is it now?” Babs asked cunningly.

“You knew he was here?”

“I liked to keep track of where the cops are. Helps me stay two steps ahead of ‘em!” Babs said, and she laughed. I didn’t know if she was joking, so I laughed as well. Babs finally found a small empty spot alongside the road and her car rolled to a stop. Donnie and Babs got out of the car, and Babs walked over to the rear of her car, opening the trunk. She pulled out a stylish red dress and slipped it over her head. Donnie also got out of the car, looking me over. He laughed.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“You’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb here,” he chuckled.

“Shh! She’ll be fine,” Babs said.

 

I looked towards the dilapidated building and wondered what kind of world was inside of it. I suspected it was a lot nicer than how it appeared.

Who knew that such a small object could cause so many problems!

The small object I refer to is my flash drive, the little treasure chest where I kept all my precious stories. I LOST it, and I've been going crazy trying to figure out where it is. It's been so long since I've last seen it that it's probably gone for good, unfortunately. So I'll have to try to remember the changes I made on it since my last backup to my hard drive (which is a great argument for getting in the habit of backing up your files frequently!) and I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can!