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Is it ok if I go ahead and name and assign the genders of the two children? I wasn't sure if you were going to bring that up in another round or not. If so, just tell me and I'll change it. Oh and I put them down as DD and not DSD because I figured eventually in this situation, Sarah would probably adopt them after marriage and they would call her Mom anyway.

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DW: Sarah Ellen Bryer
DH: Ian Willis Fischer

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DD: Elizabeth Catarina "Lizzie"
DD: Gabrielle Lucinda

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Sarah met Ian when he brought his two daughters Elizabeth "Lizzie" and Gabrielle into the studio she worked at to get their pictures taken. They hit it off immediately but she noticed the wedding ring on his finger. When he asked her out for coffee she politely declined assuming he was a married man trying to go behind his wife's back.

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It was three months later before they would meet again. Ian brought Gabrielle back to get her pictures done for her birthday. Sarah made the mistake of asking little Gabrielle if she thought her "Mommy" would like the costume hat she was wearing for the picture. Gabrielle replied in a eerily cheery voice that "Mommy had passed away". Sarah felt bad about accidentally bringing it up and Ian told her not to worry, Gabrielle was just a few months old when her mother was killed in an apartment fire, she had no memory of her. Sarah thought it was her second chance when Ian again asked her out for coffee. She replied she hated coffee but there was a Chucky Cheese down the street and if he wanted to take Gabrielle with them, she could go for some pizza for lunch. He agreed and thought it was a charming idea.

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Over lunch they talked about their lives, Ian's work as an accountant, Sarah's as a photographer. what brought them to NYC, what plans they had for the future, and of course the pink elephant in the room, Ian's deceased wife. He confessed that he had yet to take off his wedding ring out of fear of forgetting her memory. Sarah felt deeply saddened for Ian and his two daughters. In truth, at first she felt Ian too bland and boring for her usual taste but something about him struck with her and she felt she needed to help him piece his life back together.

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Over the next several months, they got increasingly closer but only as friends. It was important for both of them to take it slowly. Sarah not only bonded with Ian but his two daughters Lizzie and Gabrielle as well. It took them 16 months before Ian officially "made a move" on Sarah. Both adjusted nicely into their newfounded relationship. Ian had taken off his wedding ring 7 months into the friendship and when he finally proposed to Sarah 3 years after they met, she felt as though she were no longer resting in the shadow of the deceased wife and mother of this family she had come to call her own.

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Yes I realize the story is rather "Lifetime: A movie for women!" but I just went with it anyway. Cheesy, yeah but if it works then it works.

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Go on, be evil and get lazy.

This message was edited 11/20/2005, 2:42 PM