Gloomi Sims

“Great! When do I start? What are my hours? What do I wear?” Valerie started shooting out before the woman interrupted her.

“Woah! Slow down,” she said as she giggled. “You can start tomorrow, and from now on, you will work Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday from 9am to 5pm. As for your uniform, we will have it for you tomorrow.”

Valerie was so happy to hear this. She had finally managed to harvest her plants and earn enough money to cover her rent, but now she was flat broke and didn’t know how to cover next month’s rent. “Thank you so much... er... what was you name again? I’m so sorry.”

“You’re fine, I may or may not have mentioned it as I was so nervous earlier. My name is Nadine. Nice to meet you.” she responded kindly.

“Nice to meet you, too, Nadine.”

“So, tell me Ms. Lake, why do you want this job?” the woman asked. She was an employee of the restaurant that Valerie was applying to. For some reason, the manager had her doing the interviews. As far as Valerie knew, she was the only person who had even applied and shown up.

“I think this little pier-side restaurant is just adorable. I have been looking for a job for some time now, and I know that this is the place for me,” Valerie responded. “It’s quirky and near home.”

The woman seemed to mull this over for a bit before responding. “So you have been unemployed for some time, then? Could you tell me more about why? It’s convenient that you live so close, though. I’d expect you to never be late.”

Valerie thought about how to answer her question for a second before the woman blurted out, “I’m sorry! That was probably an inappropriate question. I’ve never done this before. I don’t really care why you haven’t had a job, you seem perfectly fine to me,” she paused as she tried to catch her breath. “You’re hired.”

A couple hours later

“You leaving so soon?” Valerie asked while looking at the ceiling. She was feeling pretty accomplished. He still hadn’t asked for the rent, and he had been pretty skilled. It was a good night.

“Yeah, I don’t stay over. Not my thing,” he muttered while avoiding looking at her. “Maybe I’ll call you or something.”

This made her laugh to herself. “You don’t have to act like this was anything more than a hookup, Stephen. I’ll be here if you want more, but this wasn’t serious. I got what I wanted and you got what you wanted.”

“Right. Well, I’m off,” he said as he opened the door. In the next second, he was out the door and had closed it behind him. Valerie just laid there. After a few moments, she heard Cinnamon paw at the door. After letting her into the room, she went to bed.

When they got to the room, Stephen promptly took control. They were mostly undressed when he pushed her onto the bed. “I told you I was a professional,” he smirked.

“Okay, but who says you get to be on top?” Valerie responded. She then pushed him to the side and climbed onto him. “I like to be the dominant one.”

“I could be down with that,” he said with a bit of excitement in his voice. 

“Excuse me, but who are you? I don’t want to hear about how great Jesus is, and I don’t have the money to buy anything,” Valerie snapped. Now that she knew it wasn’t her landlady, she felt suspicious of the guy at her door.

“Woah, hold on Valerie. You are Valerie, right? Ms. Lake? I’m here on my mom’s behalf. Mrs. Duncan? Your landlady?” he said a bit condescendingly.

Suddenly aware of how quick she was to be hateful, she straightened her posture. “Oh, I didn’t know you were coming. She didn’t say anything about it --or that she had a son.”

“Well, what can I say? I’m only just the biggest disappointment in her life. Anyways... she sent me here to collect the rent,” he said with a charming smile. Something was telling Valerie that this guy had been around. Just like that, Valerie had an idea.

One afternoon, after Valerie had spent a good amount of time outside in the garden, she heard a knock on the door.

“Shit, Cinnamon. Who do you think that is?” she sputtered. No one had ever knocked on her door before. She didn’t really have any friends or family to visit her. “Do you think it’s the landlady? I was really hoping she wouldn’t notice I’m behind on the rent.”

Cinnamon just kept panting away. The house was hot since Valerie couldn’t afford air conditioning and most of the windows were stuck shut. Valerie salvaged a small fan from the local junkyard, but it didn’t rotate all the way, leaving the majority of the house hot.

After a few moments, the person at the door knocked again. Deciding to just roll with it, Valerie walked up to the door. Much to her surprise, however, it was a man and not the landlady.

Valerie found some seeds hidden in a drawer in the kitchen. They weren’t labeled, so who knows what will grow. But she decided she needed to at least try to plant something and see where it would take her.

She watched a few videos on her phone about how to start a garden, and she got to work. Luckily, the small little house came with a rather large backyard. The landlady’s mother must have spent a lot of time outside because it looked a lot nicer outside than it did inside.

Meanwhile, Cinnamon is living her best life. Why should a dog care about money problems? All she cares about is chasing birds and digging holes.