3.48 Juggling

She left me without words, and I laid there, breathless, unable to move, and seeing stars. I never felt anything like that before. I didn’t know it was even possible to feel that good. Yasmine, however, did not feel as good and crawled off of me with the most exasperated sigh, and I understood why she was so upset me earlier; I didn’t last long enough. I thought she may have wanted me to leave, but to my surprise and delight, she wanted me to stay so we could do it again. I couldn’t upset her a third time and hoped to be better. Neither of us had dinner, so we ate and watched TV for a little while. Well…the TV was on. I had replays of her breasts bouncing above me, playing in my head on repeat. When she gave me that look, I was ready, heh. The second time was better, thank the Watcher. The third time, she was the one seeing stars.

In the morning, I got up around my normal time, found my clothes, and got dressed. She did everything short of chaining me to the bed to get me to stay, but I needed to get back home to process the night and prepare for dinner with another woman. I didn’t say that to her, of course. I told her I had Harvestfest plans and thanked her for a fun night. She didn’t give up easily, but eventually she let me go.

On the way home, I was in a fog, replaying the entire night from the pier all the way to Sixam. How was I supposed to have dinner with Chi Chi and her family with that experience on the brain? Would I even be able to stay present? At home, I found Dad sitting in front of the TV, as always. That was the first time I considered him and hoped he had recently woken up and wasn’t sitting there all night worrying about me. I didn’t exactly have time to give him a heads up.

“Hey, Dad.”

“I see you’re alright,” he said.

“Yeah. I’m good. Sorry I didn’t call.”

“No worries. After a certain hour, I figured you were, uh…entangled.”

Was I ever!

“It happened so fast.”

He chuckled.

“It’s like that sometimes. So…are you okay? Did you enjoy yourself?”

I plopped next to him, yawning and rubbing my eyes.

“I’m so tired.”

Dad grinned at me.

“A very fun night, then.”

I snorted.

“Yeah.”

Despite how amazing it was, I still could not shake how Yasmine treated me. She embarrassed me, not once, but twice in one night. No matter what her expectations were of me, she didn’t have to behave like a child and treat me like an idiot. I hated to think about it, but she wasn’t really a nice sim.

“So…” Dad began, again. “This girl… Is this just fun, or are you taking things to the next level?”

“Just fun.”

He patted me on the back.

“This is a huge step. I’m proud of you for getting out of your own way.”

Dad had a way of making awkward conversations feel like everyday small talk, but how was I supposed to respond to that? Saying “thanks” felt weird, so I changed the subject and prepared for my exit.

“Have you spoken to Eleanor? Chi Chi didn’t say when dinner was.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Alright. I’ll find out. I’m gonna take a nap.”

“Good idea,” he said. “Hey, Luca?”

“Yeah?”

“I know we made it hard for you to trust yourself and others, but I want you to enjoy this time of your life. You’ll never be this carefree again, and it would be a shame for you to miss out because of something that’s not even related to you. You understand?”

“Yes, Dad.”

How did he know? I never told him why I wasn’t dating, and the most I ever said was that things were complicated. Then again, he was a very smart dude. And maybe I wasn’t as mysterious as I thought. Either way, I appreciated him saying that. If he believed in me, I was one step closer to letting this thing go.