Chapter 4: I'm Not the One

"Your sister gave me the evil eye when I came in," Hawke tells Nina as he joins her in her hot tub. Nina Caliente is his boss, and known for her hard partying lifestyle. Hawke figures it's more than high time he was let in on the action.

"I've been seeing Thornton Wolff lately, and Dina is hoping I'll marry him and get out of her house. Her lech husband keeps giving me the eye. So, she doesn't like that I'm bringing home other guys."

Thornton Wolff, Hawke thinks, that name keeps coming up. He and Thornton have shared quite a few women. "I didn't figure you for the marrying type," he says, "Are you actually considering it, or is Dina just projecting on you?"

Nina sighs and cuddles up next to him, "Maybe," she says, "He's handsome and rich, and great in bed. I could do worse. But you didn't come here to talk about my other romantic interests, did you?"

The couple get on to taking care of the business Hawke was invited over for. Hawke's mind was not completely on the task, however, as he was thinking about his sister, and her wish to have Thornton for herself. Hawke is willing to do a lot for Eleanor, but he's not going to be able to lure every other girl that Wolff dates away from him. Unlike Leliana, Nina won't feel the need to break up with Thornton to carry on with Hawke, anyway.

Maybe he needs to help his sister another way. This Thornton guy obviously gets around, and even if Eleanor managed to get a ring on him, she'd be constantly fending off other women. Hawke doesn't want to see his sister in that position, and decides the best thing for her is to help her nip it in the bud.

Despite his distraction, Nina seems satisfied with his performance, and asks Hawke if he'd like to visit her bedroom next. "I've got to motor, actually," Hawke declines her invitation, "The sitter has to go early and I need to watch my niece until my sister gets home."

"You have a niece?" Nina asks, surprised.

Hawke nods, "Yeah, but that's a secret. You can't tell anyone. Especially not Thornton. My sister dates him sometimes, and he doesn't know."

"Is Thornton the father?" Nina asks.

"Oh, no, but I shouldn't say who it is," Hawke says. Nina pleads and Hawke feigns reluctance, and then finally spills the information, "Emilio Cyr."

"The captain of the Llamas? I've tried to get his attention a thousand times!" Nina exclaims, her eyes slitted in jealousy. Hawke takes his leave, knowing that Nina will never keep this information to herself. And when Thornton finds out, he'll break it off with Eleanor for sure. She'll be broken hearted for awhile, but she'll be better off in the end, Hawke reasons.

"We need to talk," Emilio says, "About us."

Eleanor sits down beside him. "There really isn't much of an 'us' to talk about," she says, hoping she can break it to him gently.

"I know, that's why need to talk about it. When I think about you and me together, I can't see any way it will work, Princess. I know I'm not the guy you want, and, well, the girl I want is gone. But we keep ending up in bed together. Which would be fine, if we didn't have Amelia. Pretty soon she'll be old enough to be confused by what we're doing. So before that happens, we have to either stop altogether, or commit to each other. I'm willing to give it a go, if you want. But if not, no more sex. Ever."

"You're a great guy," Eleanor says, "You're a wonderful father. But you're right, you're not the man for me, and I know I'm not the woman for you." Somehow, putting and end to their non-relationship is harder on her than she imagined, and for a moment, she's tempted to take it back, and ask him to give it a try. But she steels herself, knowing that they'd inevitably clash. All they have in common is sexual chemistry, and that's no foundation for a relationship. "Phoenix would want you to move on," Eleanor says, "She wouldn't want you to waste your life waiting on her, when you know it's not going to happen. So, let it go, and find yourself the right girl, and be happy."

Hawke went to Ink and Dye Co. for another tattoo. The hired a new tattoo artist, apparently, a hot red head, and Hawke approaches her right away, explaining to her what he wants done.

"That sounds awesome," the red head says, "But I don't work here. I'm a customer. My name is Ruby. Ruby Broke."

"Hawke," he introduces himself, "So, uh, where do you work?" he asks, her clothing suggesting what kind of business she might be in.

"Not what you're thinking," Ruby laughs, "I'm a cop."

Hawke blushes at his mistake, which works in his favor, as Ruby tells him how cute he is when he blushes.

After a bit if flirting, Ruby invites Hawke up to her place. His phone picks a really inopportune moment to chime in.

"Are you going to get that?" Ruby asks.

"I'm busy," Hawke says, throwing the cell, and the last of his clothing, aside. He has a sinking feeling the call is from is from Leliana.

Eleanor has a date with Thornton at the Lincoln Hotel Lounge.

"I've heard a rumor, that you have a child," Thornton launches right into it. This relationship isn't going any further until he gets some answers.

"I do, yes," Eleanor answers truthfully. She's managed to keep the secret this long, but now that it's out denying it would be futile.

"So you lied to me when I asked if you wanted children," Thornton accuses.

"It wasn't a lie. I didn't want children. But, I made a mistake, and I ended up with a child."

Thornton mulls this over, "You didn't tell anyone."

"Business is hard for women," Eleanor says with a shrug, "If I let on that I had baby at home, I'd get passed up for promotions. You know how it is, it would be assumed that I'd be taking time off, not focusing on the job. So, yeah, I hid the truth, and I've proved myself." And she gotten several promotions, she's currently division manager, the position Thornton held when she first met him.

"I understand why you hid it from Doo Peas," Thornton says, "It's none of their business. But you continued to date me without telling me. How can we have a serious relationship if you hide things from me?"

Eleanor looks him hard in the face, "I've been to your place once, and we made love once. This is our first actual date. And all the while you've been dating other women. If you want a serious relationship with me, you'll have to put more effort into it."

"Touche," Thornton says, smiling into his drink. When he came here tonight, he'd been planning to break this off. But Eleanor is proving herself to be exactly the kind of woman he wants. Confident, not afraid to stand up to him. Even if she comes with the baggage of a child, she could be well worth his time. "And if I wanted a serious relationship?"

"Are we negotiating?" Eleanor laughs, "All right, here are my terms. You give up other women. I'm not interested in sharing. I don't want to be involved with your daughter, and I don't want you involved with mine. Our relationship is separate from our family lives."

Thornton is almost taken aback by her directness. Maybe he got too used to Morgana's sentimentality during their brief marriage. "And what about the father of your child. Emilio Cyr, the big sports star?" he asks, unable to hide the jealousy. When Nina told him that detail, he had a hard time reining in his rage at the competition.

"I'm not with Emilio," Eleanor says, "But he'd probably hurt you if you betrayed me."

Thornton finds himself smiling again. His mind has been made up. "I have a room here," he says.

"That was quite an assumption," she laughs, "Taking a room before the date even started."

"I never assume anything," Thornton says, "But I plan for every contingency."

Eleanor leans back into the bed with him, the same bed where she'd made love to Emilio and conceived his child. As Thornton reaches over to pull off her top, she puts Emilio out of her mind. She's worked hard to get where she is now, and she's not looking back.

"How did it go?" Hawke asks gently, grabbing a bowl of cereal for his breakfast. He heard her coming in late last night, later than he came in himself.

"Great," Eleanor says, "We got some issues out in the open, and have decided to take the relationship up a level."

Hawke tries to stop his jaw from hitting the floor. He'd expected Eleanor to be crying about losing Thornton, but his gossiping to Nina apparently had the opposite effect.

"I'll be going out with him tonight. Tell the sitter I'll be late," Eleanor says as she heads out the door for work.

Rio asked Hawke to visit him before work, so he dropped by his friend's apartment.

"Nina's been bragging all over the place about how she hooked up with you," Rio says, "Poor Leliana has been a mess."

Hawke sighs, he really hadn't wanted to hurt Leliana. He only got back with her to clear the way for Eleanor to get Thornton. His only consolation is that Thornton would have inevitably broken Leliana's heart as badly as he has. "I feel really bad about that. I guess I should talk to her." He'd been avoiding her and ignoring her calls for days.

"And say what? Lie to her again?" Rio says, suddenly angry. "She's a great girl and she deserves better than that. If you aren't going to do right by her, let her go."

"I guess I should," Hawke admits, "I really didn't want it to be that way.  I just...I can't help being who I am."

"An asshole?" Rio rolls his eyes.

"Hey! I'm your friend!"

Rio laughs, "Yeah, you are. So, as a friend, I'm going to be straight with you. Leliana was crying on my shoulder about you, and we kind of...hooked up. So, if you aren't interested in keeping her, I'm going to ask her out. Are we cool?"

There is brief moment where Hawke considers punching Rio in the face. But he quickly realizes how well this situation works to his advantage. He was more than done with Leliana, and now he can avoid the guilt of ending it, and his friend gets a girlfriend out of the deal. "I think you two will be great together," Hawke says with a smile.


______________________________________________
Challenge Notes:
So this chapter would have gone completely differently if not for SP.
SP constantly has Thornton poaching Hawke's prospects. So, while Hawke was on his way to achieve woohoo with a third Sim in a third location with Nina, I get this 'Thornton and Nina are in a steady relationship' pop up. Luckily for Hawke, this doesn't stop Nina from getting busy with him in the hot tub. And it gave me an idea for how I was going to end things with Thornton and Eleanor.
Then I get Eleanor out with Thornton, where he helpfully decided to talk about baby bottles, and I was planning to have him end things with Eleanor because of it. Then, during the date, I get this pop up announcing that Thornton and Nina have broken up. At the same time Elle rolls a wish to woohoo with Thornton. So, the whole thing goes in another direction.
SP also hooked Rio and Leliana up. They are actually married now. Rio and Leliana Archer. Which I love because, in Dragon Age, while you can set Leli up as a DW rogue, she comes primed for the archery branch, and the one weapon you can acquire in the game that is restricted to her use is a longbow. I always use Leli for ranged combat, so to me, she is an archer. And now she is one in name. :D
As for Emilio, I had his personal SP settings to not allow him to get into relationships. In part to keep him around for Eleanor, but also for the story, because he's not over Phoenix. He was vulnerable enough to hook up with Eleanor in certain moments, but he wouldn't be out there looking for dates. I decided that now would be his turning point, and I changed his SP seting to allow him to romance. SP has had him flirting with Nina Caliente and Meadow Thayer (now a YA)

Hawke is one woohoo away from achieving his LTW. Eleanor is just a few promotions away from hers. And I still need to get one more child. I finally have plans for that, and that story will start next chapter.