The Apple of My Eye

I never thought I’d ever have children. Heck, I never even thought I’d actually fall in love with someone. I thought I’d be quite content with just being on my own for the rest of my life.

As a teen, I was the socially awkward boy who always had a crush on the beautiful popular girl, but I never had the guts to tell her that. I always compared myself to other boys and thought to myself  “I could never compete with that”. As a result, I spent my teenage years alone as the only boy who’s never had his first kiss.

Then I met Anna. We bumped into each other in college – no, we literally bumped into each other and our handbooks flew all over the place. It was so embarrassing! I helped her to pick up her books and the first thing I noticed when I looked up again, was her beautiful blue eyes – it was those blue eyes that stole my heart and kept it forever.

We got to know each other during the next few months and fell in love. I never knew it was possible to love another person this much. We got engaged after graduating college and tied the knot exactly a year after that.

Nine months after our honeymoon, Anna gave birth to the most gorgeous little girl. We named her Annie, after Anna. As soon as I layed my eyes on her, I fell in love for the second time – but this was a different kind of love. The kind of love where you just want to protect and love this tiny human being with every ounce of your being. I was filled with joy and couldn’t believe I helped to create this.

Then, I looked at Anna again. Her heart stopped and so did mine. Suddenly, I lost every bit of joy I had and my tears of happiness turned into tears of grief. Anna died due to complications from childbirth.

I was left trying to raise our daughter all on my own. There were times when I thought I couldn’t do this anymore and wanted to give up on everything, but I had to stay strong for Annie – she needed me…and I needed her just as much.

Little Annie had a fondness for apples ever since she’s been able to eat them. Therefore, I nicknamed her Annie Apples. She likes red apples the most, because they’re as red as her hair. She looks just like her mom – I can’t see any resemblance between me and her. People often assume I adopted her and sometimes I get strange looks when she’s with me in public.

My life would have been so empty without her. I’m so protective over her, because I’m really afraid of losing her, too. I’m too scared to leave her with strangers, so she stays with my mom every day when I have to go to work.

My heart melts at the things she says and does. We have a thing where we always have some apples and applejuice while watching all her favourite cartoons at home. She already says that when she grows up, she’s going to grow her own apples and call her business “Annie’s Apples”. I didn’t think a one and a half year old could be this ambitious, but it makes me happy and very proud to call myself her father.

One day, I told her: “Apples are delicious and they’re my favourite, too. But sweet little Annie, you’ll always be the apple of my eye”.

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Author’s Notes:  I have decided to participate in the Monthly SimLit Short Story Challenge this month, organized by LisaBee, EA Game Changer for The Sims 4 and fellow SimLit writer. The theme for this month is “Apple(s)”.

I kindly invite you to please read all the stories entered for this challenge at the end of the month and vote for your top three choices in both categories (Novice and Veteran), meaning you will have a total of six votes. Any vote that doesn’t contain three votes in each category will be thrown out, so please vote for three Novice stories and three Veteran stories!

Credits:

The lots featured in this story were created by the following talented builders on The Sims 4 Gallery:

• sashraf1 – ♥️Ruby♥️ 19k Base Starter 
• TheSimSupply – Quirky Home
• Simforfun – Willow Creek High School
• itasan2 – Newcrest University(NoCC)