Maximus Nineteen: Wounded Heart

I thought it'd be fun to guest star one of my Sims from another of my stories because I didn't feel like making a new Sim for the part. If you're a fan of
The Compound, you'll recognize him straight away. Enjoy!

~ Late Knight Simmer ~

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I woke up early in the morning to find that Dustin's side of the bed hadn't been unmade. I wondered where he had decided to fall asleep. Not feeling in the mood to change out of my pajamas, I slipped on a pair of flip flops and walked to the small coffee shop that was close to our house.

As I was waiting in line to get some of my favorite tea, I ended up buying a horrible tabloid magazine because I saw my face on the cover, with the words "ball and chain" printed cruelly across my waist. I came home, sat at my dining room table with the magazine and opened to the little blurb about me.

My lifeless eyes and expressionless face stared back at me. Why on earth do I look so dead? Why can't I just be happy? What is wrong with me? Tears fall from my eyes when I read the text. This town really is full of vultures. I look at Soleil and how beautiful she is in that dress. She always has a glow of happiness around her. I'm knocked out of my thoughts by some shuffling sounds from the hallway, and realize Dustin must be awake now. I don't know which room he slept in, but it wasn't our bedroom.

Dustin comes into the kitchen, not wearing anything except a pair of sweatpants. I remember those sweatpants, he wore them around our hotel room when we were on our honeymoon. My eyes travel from his ass to his well toned torso, then to his strong arms as he makes himself a cup of coffee. I'm so lost in the definition of his muscles that his voice makes me jump.

"What? My body's the only thing that you want?"

Dustin scoffs as he stirs his coffee and adds the steamed milk to the mug. Surprisingly, he comes over to the dining room and sits at the table with me.

"Why are you reading that crap? You know the gossip magazines are just full of bullshit, right?"

"I saw my face on the cover, how could I not?"

"Ah, right. Everything's always about you."

Dustin drinks his coffee and stares at the table. I'm still not sure why he didn't just leave the room. It would have been so much easier if he had. I reach across the table and put my hand on Dustin's arm. He doesn't pull away, but he also doesn't put his hand on mine, which he used to automatically do.

"Oh, so now you want to hold me? After you told me I was nothing yesterday?"

"Come to church with me, Dustin. It's Sunday, it'll be good for you."

Dustin scowls and takes another swig of his coffee.

"Right, it'll be good for me because I'm in such a heathen-filled career. That's what you mean by "good for you," isn't it?"

He pulls his arm away and gets up out of his chair, promptly leaving the room.

"Dustin!"

I don't think that he'll come back, but he spins around quickly and shouts.

"WHAT?!"

"Come to church. We can start fresh, it's a new week."

"I have filming today, so I can't make it to both church and work."

"When do you have to be at work?"

"Noon."

"Church is at nine, it'll be over at ten. You'll have plenty of time."

"Ugh. FINE!"

Dustin and I arrive at the church five minutes early. We stand in front of the sanctuary and he crosses his arms, waiting for something.

"Well, aren't you going to go in? You're the one who wants to be here, not me."

"Are you coming?"

"Yes, just go in already."

I try to calm him down by putting my arm around him. As I raise my hand up to touch his face, he turns his head quickly and rolls his eyes.

"Dustin, thank you for finally coming with me to church."

For a split second, I see a flicker of the old Dustin in his eyes as he gives me a small nod before we go into the sanctuary. Dustin goes back to being sarcastic and stand offish as we sit down, pulling away from me when I put my hand on his thigh. I smile weakly at my friend Robert, who is sitting in a pew opposite from me, and wonder how I'm ever going to fix my marriage.

---

"Hi Soleil! Good morning, good morning! How's my favorite girl today?"

"Pretty good. I slept well last night, if you know what I mean."

"Oh girl! You are dirty! Do we need to wash your mouth out with soap? No, no I'm just kidding, baby, I love it, I love your dirty mind."

Antoine, the platinum blonde, brightly blue eyed hairdresser at my modeling agency never fails to make me laugh. Even if I am tired and droopy, his mile a minute dialogue always brightens up my day.

"Baby, how is your tasty man doing? Mm-mm, if he played for my team I would scoop him up in a heartbeat!"

"He's good. He's been able to take a break for a bit, his movie premiere was yesterday, and his tv show doesn't start filming for another month so he's been spending time with Patrick."

"I saw! Ugh, you and him in that, oh what's it called, Celeb Today, you and him looked so drool-worthy together! I love you guys."

Antoine leans my head in the sink and starts washing my hair. He squirts some shampoo into his hand and when he puts it in my hair, it instantly relaxes me.

"Mm, that's nice, Antoine."

"Tea tree oil shampoo, baby. It's minty and soothing. Big and beautiful, that's your hair for this shoot today. Have you worked with Absolon before?"

"No, I think this will be the first time."

"Ooh, you are in for a treat, he is gorgeous, and oh so sweet. All right, baby, now for makeup. Shouldn't take long, and then you can girl talk with Absolon till Dijon is ready for you."

Antoine puts the finishing touches on my makeup and gives me a hug before ushering me into wardrobe. I have two outfits to model today, one solo, and one with Absolon. When I've got my outfit on, I walk into the photo shooting area to meet Absolon. Antoine was not kidding when he said Absolon was gorgeous. He is really well built and has tons of muscle definition. I walk over to him and say hi. He smiles at me and we make some small talk while Dijon, the photographer, gets everything ready.

The first part of my shoot is supposed to have a scary theme to it, so Dijon has put up a spooky tree background in dark purples and blacks. This is for a small article about me that will be in Vogue's fall edition. I tried some poses where I laid down, but the dress laid weird on me.

"Mm-mm Soleil! That was a hot pose! Showing some skin, baby!"

"I don't know, this dress lays weird, Dijon, is it going to work?"

"Oh, don't you worry about that, babe. That's my job. You just continue looking gorgeous."

After I finish the shoot with the dress, I am supposed to do a very intimate shoot with Absolon for a perfume ad that's going to go on a billboard. I'm excited because I've never been on a billboard before.

"Okay, you two. Now what I want for this is for you guys to look like you are in love, so really close together, gazing into each other's eyes, almost kissing, that kind of thing."

"Ooh, perfect, perfect! This is hot, you two! Temperature in the room has risen about a billion degrees! All right, that's it for today! We are done!"

---

Patrick and I are sitting in a restaurant waiting for Dustin, who had called and said he wanted to hang out before work.

"Daddy, I'm hungry. Is Dustin coming soon?"

"Yeah, be patient, okay? Oh look, he's here now. Let's go get some food."

Dustin comes in the door looking aggravated. I wave at him and then all three of us  go over to look at the menu.

"Wow, looking so preppy today Dustin. What event called for that? Or is that just wardrobe?"

"Nah, I'm preppy with clothes from my own closet. Helena made me go to church with her."

"Aww dude, I'm sorry. Has she apologized yet?"

"Ha. What do you think? She hasn't even mentioned anything about what happened. I found her reading some gossip magazine and crying, so I thought, oh maybe she does feel bad for treating me like a piece of shit last night, but it turns out she was crying because she didn't like what the gossip magazine said about her. I mean, seriously? Can you believe that? She even had the nerve to tell me church would be good for me. Like I need some cleansing or some shit."

"Daddy? Can I get hot dogs and mac and cheese?"

"Um, Patrick, pick one. You don't need to eat two entrees."

"But Daddy, I'm hungry!"

"Patrick, stop. I will buy you a dessert and one entree, okay?"

"Oh. Okay."

Patrick leans against me, I think as an apology for whining, and I smile at Dustin. We get our food and sit down at one of the booths.

"Little guy's having a bad day too, huh?"

"Yeah he gets fussy when he's hungry, and then he thinks he needs to eat a crap ton of food when he just really needs to get dessert."

"Soleil doesn't crack down on you for feeding Patrick dessert?"

"Nah, a lot of times we go out for dessert as a family. Man, what are you going to do with Helena?"

"I don't know. I'm definitely not changing careers. This puts the baby thing on hold for sure, though. I am not having a baby with her until we fix this. I don't want a baby growing up with parents fighting all the time. She just hurt me so bad with those words, Max. Like how could she wish that I would fail? I mean, I thought she loved me, but she really doesn't act like it. What's even worse is this morning she pissed me off more by acting like nothing was wrong, like she didn't even know that she basically told me I'm not important because the things I want don't matter. I thought relationships were about give and take, but so far, Helena just keeps taking from me."

"She is really oblivious about how her words sound to people. I don't know why, but it's like she doesn't hear things the same way or something."

"It's because she thinks she's right all the time, about everything. She's mentioned church to me many times before today, I think she feels like I need to be helped or something. It just sucks when my own wife doesn't think I'm worth anything."

"Uncle Dustin? I think you're the best uncle in the whole wide world because you're so cool. I wanted a movie poster of you and Daddy bought one. You're hanging on the wall in my room! Daddy said I can't watch your movie because I'm not old enough, but when I am old enough, I'm totally going to watch it."

Dustin smiled for the first time today when Patrick said those things to him. I'm in awe of him for having the knack to say the exact right thing at the right time. I've always known he was very detail-oriented and could pick up on people's emotions, even if they were trying to fake it. My heart felt warm and I'm sure Dustin's did as well from Patrick's genuine kindness.

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Random outtake of Max being a good friend - I really liked the picture considering all the shit Dustin's been through, but the chapter was over, so here it is! Haha.