New Developments in the City

July 2033 - San Myshuno, New York
Lloyd family: Nancy is 44, Matthew is 20, Sasha is 15

Her mom is home from the work trips she's been taking and Sasha loves spending these moments alone with her mom. A time to kind of have some girl talk, something she definitely can't do with her stepmom Kayla. And so they go out to lunch one afternoon and Sasha tells her mom all about Kengo Hayashi.

"But sometimes I don't know what to say when we're talking," Sasha groaned. "I get all tongue tied easily and I think I come across as a bit insane to him with things I do talk about. My brain doesn't want to work right. Why was I born this way?" She drops her head and groans again.

"You're not insane and your brain works perfectly," Nancy assures her daughter. "It's awkward when you like someone and aren't sure if they like you back." She gives Sasha a confident grin. "I went through that myself at your age. I still go through that even now! This dating game isn't always easy."

"So what do you think I should do? Should I ask him out? Would that be too weird?"

"Not in this world," Nancy assures her. "Girls don't have to wait for the boys to take the reins in moving to the next step. Show what a bold, confident, modern day woman you are and move ahead 

They finish their lunch and Nancy feels the urge to hug her daughter tight. It's fun to have these girl-to-girl talks with her daughter who is growing up too fast. "It'll all work out," Nancy says. "Trust me."

***

Sasha is still nervous, but she tries to listen to her mom's advice. Kengo has a small side job of performances at a local restaurant. Well, outside of the restaurant. The adult performers take the stage inside, but Kengo serves as the outside performer to get the attention of the walkbys. Between songs he is expected to encourage people to dine in at the fancy restaurant in front of him.

Sasha has been to see him perform several times now. She always tells him how good he is and that he can take the big stage one day and get famous. Maybe a music producer will walk by and hear him sing and sign him onto the record label right away.

Kengo laughs at her compliments, but he doesn't deny the possibility of it all coming true.

Tonight Sasha tells herself to be brave and take her mom's advice. Nothing will ever happen if one of them doesn't move forward.

"So," she says, trying to sound casual, "do you want to, like, go out one night? I mean officially, not just hanging out. Um, we could see a movie maybe? And go out to eat?"

Her heart pounds loud in her ears as she speaks and it seems like a lifetime before Kengo nods. "Yeah," he says. "I'd like that."

***

Ian couldn't believe it when he got a text from Hailee Beltran. She told him that she was coming to San Myshuno to explore the city for a few days and could he maybe serve as her tour guide? They had exchanged numbers before the end of this last semester, just to keep up with each other as friends, they had both said. But Matthew was thrilled when he actually received a text from her and he agreed right away to show her around.

So they go out to lunch after visiting a few museums and the harbor. Hailee seems to have fallen in love with San Myshuno. She lives in Evergreen Harbor, Mississippi, and this is her first trip to this big city.

"It is amazing here," Hailee says as they look out at the city below them. "My hometown is nothing like this. I think I could spend my days here."

They continue their tour of the city. Matthew knows he won't be able to show her everything in just one day, and so he hopes that maybe she'll want to meet up again tomorrow to see more.

"There's a place I really want to show you," Matthew says later that afternoon. "It's a landscape I love to look at."

"Is it a local beach or something?" Hailee asks, trying to sound as if she thinks he's just some other young guy she's met at school.

"There's water, but I wouldn't really call it a beach," he tells her.

The view he wants to give her is at a small park, along the edge of a pond. There are swans that swim here and fish in the water in front of them. But what he really wants to show here is the scene beyond the pond. The city rising up in the background, the tall towers reaching into the sky. It's the scene he knows well from his time living here and its one that he enjoys seeing when he can.

"This is so different than everything I've always known," Hailee says. "I wouldn't get tired of seeing this."

"I can always show you around any time," Matthew says. "I'll show you all the secret spots around the city that the tourists don't know about."

"Would I be welcome there?" she asks. "No one would throw me out for being a tourist, right?"

"You're with me," Matthew says, "so you're not really a tourist. You can stay here as long as you want."

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Nancy lives in a house I tossed her into when I was creating all my Sims for this game. I haven't actually played her, but I wanted Sasha to have some time with her mom and I wanted to show a little more about what might be developing between her and Kengo without having to wait a long time for Ian and Kayla's house to come back on the rotation schedule. I also wanted to show some movement ahead in things for Matthew and Hailee. I may do this again for storylines when needed. Some of the developments in relationships or events can't wait a year or more on my schedule to develop into the next steps. So I had Sasha spend time with her mom since it's been one real life year since we've seen Nancy and before that we had only seen her one other time in 2019!

I actually don't have a bio written for Nancy right now, but I have her working as an investigative journalist in the writer career. Because we don't see her often I have it arranged in my story that she does a lot of travels for her articles to gain all of the information needed. That's why Sasha and Matthew are usually seen at Ian's apartment instead.