An Uncertain Heart - Chapter Two (24-3)

[Ilessthan3TheSims]

Yeah, biting the bullet and starting a misc. story. It's been a while since I was properly active around here, commenting-wise, but I've still been reading on the forum all this time. So much talent, that I couldn't possibly live up to. Anyway, here I go.

Chapters
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two

[Ilessthan3TheSims]

Prologue

Winter holidays with the family. Perfect.
Oh, please, do not get me wrong, I don't appreciate it when people who are practically strangers
turn up at my very new front door. But it is okay, because I LOVE my soon-to-be-mother-in-law, and
her ex, who is rather fond of complimenting . . . me.

"My boy is a lucky boy to land a girl with such incredible assets."
Cringy.
What am I, a fish? Also, if his "lucky boy" used the same kind of charm to "land" me, well, . . . let's
just say I wouldn't be here, heaving a sigh of relief as I wave his bickering parents goodbye.
Oh, and about LOVING my dear mother-in-law-to-be?

That was a lie. A HUGE whopper of a fib. I hold a deep, if stereotypical, dislike for her. I'm sure
the sentiment is fairly mutual.

"Sweetie, have you ever considered a career in something more, well, stable? You won't get
anywhere in music."
Oh, thanks Brenda. I feel good about myself. By the way, your roots are showing. 

As you can guess, I am not sorry to see the back of either of my in-laws.
Oh and me plotting to poison them with jelly beans is just a rumour . . .

 . . .You have no proof.

Safely back inside, Hank wrapped me into a hug and gave me a kiss.

"Ordeal is over baby," he whispered into my hair. "Wanna celebrate?"
But somehow, even with this delight rushing through me after getting rid of Brenda and Freddie,
I can't muster up any enthusiasm for what's on Hank's mind. I mean, yeah, it's been a week but . . .

I'm getting this nasty inkling that to Hank I'll become a temporary fling in a string of meaningless
romances. Too much doubt and confusion flickered over his handsome face this past week, watching
his divorced parents tumultuous relationship.
  Before I can reply though, the doorbell rings. I break away from our embrace.
"Now what?" I mutter.
I open the door.
Oh. My. Watcher.
"It's you," I stammer.
"Hiii!" Oh save my poor ears. "It's meeee!"

[Swirl-Girl]

Oooh, I like this! I can't wait to find out who it is!

[Anna33]

Posion of Jellybeans. You have no proof

I love the Wan Goddard family, how intriguing, In laws. 

[RaiaDraconis]

This ought to be interesting. I feel bad for Pauline for having to deal with such surly almost-inlaws.

[Louise56]

Great story! Looking forward to more.

[Audren]

I like the makeovers you gave to Hank and Pauline. I wonder who's at the door. 

[Ilessthan3TheSims]

Oooh, I like this! I can't wait to find out who it is!

Thank you. You're about to find out.

Posion of Jellybeans. You have no proof

I love the Wan Goddard family, how intriguing, In laws. 

Yes how ridiculous, poison by Jelly beans

This ought to be interesting. I feel bad for Pauline for having to deal with such surly almost-inlaws.

Thanks you. You are one of my favourite writers on the forum here, so I almost feel more nervous as well as delighted knowing you are reading   

Great story! Looking forward to more.

Thank you Louise I hope you enjoy it!

I like the makeovers you gave to Hank and Pauline. I wonder who's at the door. 

Thank you I have to admit I had almost as much fun making over the characters as I did writing.
You're about to see, and I don't think anyone would've expected ...them 

Chapter One

I try to regain composure.
"Abbie? Wha - what are you doing here?"

"For your wedding silly! Now, where's my hug?"
I resist the urge to poke my fingers into my ears and protect them from the high-pitched excitement.

"My wedding isn't for another six months, Abbie, like, not until the middle of summer!" I remind
her nervously.
"And I am here to help you!" she informs me earnestly. "I know, what would you do without me!"
!!!
"Oh Abbie, it's honestly fine, everything is under control. I mean thank you so much, but, really,
I don't need help." I smile hopefully.

"Don't be silly, LeeLee, I will make your big day magical! You are the bride, you have enough
to worry about without getting stressed over your FANTASTIC wedding!"
"I-I-" I don't know what to say. As sick as I am of unwelcome visitors, Abigail really is a sweetheart,
 much preferable to our previous guests. And - oh my watcher.

"Abigail, um, just how long are you planning to stay?"
"You know, just as long as it takes to help you! Which will probably take all the way to the
wedding - but don't worry, I am very organised! Besides, I want to see the famous Sunset Valley!
I know that you are new here too, but that just means we can explore together!"

"Oh." Abbie's hugs are kinda tight. I notice something else on her left.

"Is that . . . is that a CAT?" I choke out.
"Yes, yes, that Missy, my familiar. She's an absolute pet," she giggles, "oops, I mean, a treasure.
Don't worry, she's potty-trained! Now where is this hunky fiancé of yours, that I have heard
NOTHING about, may I add? You should call more!"
"Well," I say awkwardly, "You're always all over the place, Abbie. Um anyways -"
"You can always reach me, LeeLee! I'm always here!"
"Yeah okay, umm look, Hank isn't going to like this, I mean he's allergic to cats and we just got
rid of - "

"AAHT-CHOO!"
Crap.
"Baby, what's going on? Who was at . . . Oh. Hey." Hank flashes Abbie his winning smile. Ok, no, his
FLIRTY smile. Excuse me?
Abbie beams and sticks out her right hand.

"Hii! Ooh, you must be Hank Goddard!" she squeals. "I have heard WAY too little about you!" She
winks at me playfully.
The winning, flirty smile wavers; I can tell Hank is fighting the desire to cover his ears or muffle
Abbie's voice with his hands. Thank the Watcher Abbie has at least one off-putting trait, or else
she would have trouble from moi.
I kindly rescue my fiancé from over-enthusiastic grinning and handshaking.
"Hank, baby, this is an old friend of mine, Abbie, we went to high school together."

"Abigail Ribbon, plus one!" Abbie thrusts her coal-black cat into our unprepared faces.
"Oh, Watcher!" Hank splutters, pushing him/her/it(??) away.

"Ooops!" Abbie exclaims, instantly contrite. "I'm so sorry! Bad Missy!"
A her, then.
"Me plus cats don't work," coughs Hank, wiping his watery eyes.
Inexplicably, the feline drops down, starts rubbing herself against Hank's legs and purrs loud as can be.
"Oh, Missy," Abbie giggles nervously.

"Ge-"
"Baby, why don't you head to the pet store and buy a pet bed for . . um . . Missy, " I try.
Purr. Purr.
"Oh, no, it's okay, I brought her bed!" Abbie explains brightly.
"How long did you say you were staying?" Hank asks warily.
"Oh, just a little while, don't worry baby, " I say sweetly.
He sighs.
"I'm going to go meet up with some of the guys from work," he grunts.
"Oh, have fun!" Abbie says cheerfully.
He pulls on his jacket and flys past us.
"Wait!" I run after him, hurt at his flippant goodbye.
He swirls around. "What?" he frowns.

"Is . . ." I get a tense, creeping sensation up my spine. "Is . . . is she gonna be there, Hank?"

"Oh, Watcher," he looks at me disgustedly. "I told you, Pauline . . . you know what, forget it,
just go have fun with your friend, nice of you to invite someone just when we get the place back
to ourselves again."

The tears slide slowly down my cheeks. It's freezing, I don't have my jacket on.
There is so much I want to shout at him. How it had been his nosy parents who first turned up
and took over the house, and how NICE it is of him to just take off when somebody from my life,
not his, arrives. Really nice.
 But I can't, and instead I watch him speed away in the Sloppy Jalopy and up the hill towards town.
Oh yeah, and my high school best friend is still on my porch. With her cat. In the snow. Super.
I turn around, putting on my show face.
"Ohmiwatcher you must be so cold, I'm so sorry Abbie, come in!"
I hurry past her into the house, the sudden heat making me realise just how cold I am.
"Oooh! Look at the beautiful tree!" Abbie claps her hands in delight."Better keep Missy away
from it though!"
Almost as if she understands, Missy gives a plaintive meow.
I distract myself by making hot chocolate.

Missy settles herself in the bed Abbie brought and starts snoozing happily.
Abbie and I curl up on the couch.
"Now, Leelee, you must tell me everything about your husband-to-be! What's his favourite colour? Where did ye meet?
 How did he propose?!?"

I take a sip from my mug, and burst into tears.

[Spork-tastic]

 I feel so bad for Pauline! Your story is very relatable, I think everyone runs into an Abbie at some point  !

[Louise56]

Poor Pauline! I hope everything will be ok between them. Abbie is a treat lol.

[MissPlumbBob]

I don't know why Pauline dreads Abbie; I mean, she's so delightful!!! I thought for a second that Abbie might steal Hank, but no dice. Thankfully.

It was rude but predictable for Hank to leave. When will we find out who this "she" is?

[Magz from Oz]

Just caught up with your story.  Great start and a really interesting theme.  I'll be reading. 

Poor Pauline, so much stress all on top of each other.  Hmmm... in-laws, best friend drops in out of the blue and someone else is attracted to her man.  I've a hunch I know who the "she" is who might be at the with the guys from work, but I'll zip up at this point. 

[Ilessthan3TheSims]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Have been feeling rather poorly recently but I hope to be better and have something up by the weekend, fingers crossed!
Thank you all so much for reading, and thank you for your comments, they make me smile . I'll try and address comments individually with my next update, but I think the general consensus is we like Abbie? 

[Ilessthan3TheSims]

I feel so bad for Pauline! Your story is very relatable, I think everyone runs into an Abbie at some point  !

Thank you. Oh yes, Abbie is quite the character!

Poor Pauline! I hope everything will be ok between them. Abbie is a treat lol.

We'll have to sit tight and see. Haha, thank you.

I don't know why Pauline dreads Abbie; I mean, she's so delightful!!! I thought for a second that Abbie might steal Hank, but no dice. Thankfully.

It was rude but predictable for Hank to leave. When will we find out who this "she" is?

Aye, there is no chemistry between them. I think Abbie would be more than he could handle! More than many men could handle.
I'm afraid the she is a little obvious, but we'll have to see whether it really means anything.

Just caught up with your story.  Great start and a really interesting theme.  I'll be reading. 

Poor Pauline, so much stress all on top of each other.  Hmmm... in-laws, best friend drops in out of the blue and someone else is attracted to her man.  I've a hunch I know who the "she" is who might be at the with the guys from work, but I'll zip up at this point. 

Thank you very much *blushes*
Hopefully her best friend can become more of a help than a hindrance! Thank you for zipping, but you shan't have to for much longer:

*Important: Passages written in bold are in the third person, ie not from a story character but observations by me. I hope it isn't confusing.
This chapter is kinda text heavy, I hope you don't mind.

Chapter Two

Falling in love isn't something you do on purpose. There is no magic formula, or special trick; it simply is.
I hadn't intended to meet my soul mate. Not so young. Not so soon. Not on that holiday.That holiday was about freedom and partying, flirting and being stupid. Love is sneaky though. It can take you by surprise, turn your world upside-down and inside out.
 But those deep blue eyes, like the colour of the sea at night. That winning smile. He drew me in, like a bee to flowers.
I guess it was what you'd call a whirlwind romance. One date, and I was his, and he was mine. Four weeks later, I, the commitment-shy girl, had proposed to my love and was moving a place that suited both our tastes.
  Sunset Valley, a pretty, friendly town near the beach and also near beautiful mountains. Hank loves to rock-climb, and I love to fish, and we both love the sand and sea. It was the perfect choice. We were lucky enough to find a sunny cottage from right across the beach. We took out the exorbitant mortgage, and never looked back. It's not like we had to worry about the massive loan; getting jobs had been easy. Hank switched to Sunset Valley Police Station, and I took a step in fulfilling my dream of becoming a rockstar by applying at the local theatre. They accepted, of course.

It was exhilarating, a crazy gamble that had no true loss because we had love. It was an existence of cheesy cinema dates, picnics at the beach and love-filled nights. We worshipped the ground the other walked on.

Winter began to set in, the lakes  froze over, the sand got miserably grey and sludgy. The evenings grew darker. Hank was trying to get more responsibility at work, and began going out with his fellow officers to Varg's. I didn't mind; it gave me more time to practice guitar, something I didn't like doing with anyone else around, even Hank.
  One night, I decided to gussy up and surprise Hank, show the policemen what a hot fiancée he had.

Or rather, policemen and policewoman. That was . . . unmentioned.
Of course, I knew that there were female officers at the station. Well, I was aware of one. Justine Keaton, Hank's boss, happily married(if a known, but harmless, flirt) and about to take maternity leave.
I was not aware of her, that pernicious blonde.
Hank insisted that they were only talking and mere acquaintances. Huh. He had always given me the impression that it was simply a boys-only night. "Going out to Varg's with the guys, babe,". After that night, instead of a cheerful, "Have fun, baby," I would pathetically say: "Is she going to be there, Hank?" He couldn't understand my jealousy. At first he remained reasonably patient, but as time went on he reacted irritably.
  I found out her name, subtly, though Stiles McGraw, my fellow roadie(hey, I am not a hypocrite. Hank is fully aware that I work with members of both genders. The same information about himself, he failed to disclose to me). He's housemates with her, says he doesn't know too much about her, but she is *grin* pretty.
Ack.
 I can't believe this is me, Pauline Wan, letting a man drive her crazy, making her weak. The SAME girl who turned down Richard Somers for Prom!
But I can't imagine my life without Hank. I never used to be able to picture the future with any of my past boyfriends, sure, I couldn't even picture any future for myself of any kind! Whereas with Hank, it's easy, it's natural, it's . . . right. I never was the little girl who believed in the fairytale, but Hank made me start to wonder, and to believe.
  Ugh. Stupid cat just jumped onto my chest. How did she get in here?? Eww, her silly tail is all over my face. Blech. Oh great. She's purring loudly, right next to my head. And going to sleep. Hank LOVES kitty fluff all over his sheets.
I couldn't tell Abbie last night. I just couldn't. Don't get me wrong, I would probably trust Abbie with my life, but she's just so . . happy-go-lucky. Her head is always up in the clouds, everyone in Abbie-land is nice. Oooh. I really wish I lived in that world. Instead I told Abbie that I was a tad bit hormonal, and I just needed sleep. She was over-the-top helpful, suggesting home-remedies, offering pain relief tablets, you name it. I said bed sounded best, she was so apologetic, I had to hide my guilt. She's sleeping in Hanks gym which was temporarily switched to the guest bedroom(If you can call a room with two bunk beds a guest bedroom) when his parents came to stay.
Now THAT was a sleeping arrangement nightmare.
And this nuisance of a cat was left downstairs. How did she end up with me? You think she'd prefer her owner.
So. Yeah. Bottling up.
  I know, I know. Simprah says that's not good for you. Well, too bad, cos it's my only option. Who am I supposed to confide in?   Abbie? Already ruled out. My mother? Haha, good one. The Watcher? I hear that they only talk back in Dynasties. I haven't any close friends here in SV, so my mouth is zipped closed.
  I can't sleep. It's cold, even with this fur ball warmly crushing my chest. I'm used to another person in this bed, to Hank keeping me safe and snug.
I can't stand this. I'm getting up. I'm very sorry, Missy, you were obviously very comfortable making me uncomfortable. At least you didn't scratch. You are possibly one of the least temperamental familiars Abbie has ever had.
  I stumble out the door, my bare feet hopping on the cold floor. Smart plan to have no slippers and dressing gown on. Missy is following me. Whatever.

I creep downstairs in the dark. The Christmas Tree lights send a pleasant glow around the room. I remember Abbie's warning to keep the cat away. Hank is on couch sleeping. He is still in his outdoor things. My heart is sore. A stupid single tear slides down my face. Watcher!! Maybe I was tempting fate with the "hormonal imbalance" story.
  I find a heavy blanket in the staircase closet and drape it across Hank's body.
"Night night baby," I whisper sadly, escaping into the kitchen.
Ok, I'm an idiot! It is FREEZING in here! My bed is best, my bed is best. I scamper back out and up the staircase, Missy on my heels the whole way.
I dive under my covers and soon my pillow is damp. Darn. This time though, Missy gently, affectionately(who knew cats could be?) rubs against my face, and curls up at the end of my bed beside the spot where my toes are under the quilt. She keeps them toasty, and drowsiness comes easier. I start mumbling to her.

"Hank is a good guy, I know he'd never . . ."

*

" '. . . but I love him, oh so much, putty tat' she said, finally drifting off. Who am I, Sylvester?"

"Oh, good girl," the witch says. "Poor LeeLee, if only she would confide in me. I'd be more understanding than she realises."
"The poor girl is troubled," the cat agrees.
"Does she forget all the secrets she has trusted me with before?" Abbie asks regretfully. "I am not impervious to pain nor heartache."
"I know, dear," Missy kisses her mistress's face consolingly.
(What? You've never been kissed by a cat? It's quite ticklish, is all I have to say.)
An idea froms in the young witch's mind.

"I know how we are going to do to save her, Missy! I know what to do."
"I cannot wait to hear."

[Eldridge]

Aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwww, poor Pauline
What an interesting update that you have there, Iless. I'm enjoying it despite what you say text-heavy.

I know, I know. Simprah says that's not good for you.

When I look into this, I can't hold my laugh. Nice, lol.

The Watcher? I hear that they only talk back in Dynasties.

Hahaha... this is a good one.

When I look for this update. I'm still confused and lost at the same times, it's not about the third observation things. I am uncertain about myself, I need to read this over in case that I missing something @_@ Question is appearing on my head, who is that girl who talked to Missy? And I suddenly realized about Abbie. Wow, she is look so different. I don't know if that is her O_O !!! I just glad I just realized that!