Relax My Beloved

Round 9 - December 2043

Last Update/ Meadow Next Update/ Ginger Next Update

Ginger Newson is 23, Meadow Thayer is 23, Joss Willis is 2 (Caleb Henderson is 23, Armand Wrightwood is 31)

  Relax my beloved, don't worry for me
Don't shed a tear for me, always be near for me
Be comforted my love, don't bow you head for me
Promise you'll smile for me, don't ever cry for me
You know these walls
They may fall down but I'll still hold on to you
At heights higher
Than you'd imagine me to

Alex Clare

The demise of the world as Ginger knew it began with three simple words:

"I'm getting married."

"What the hell do you mean you're getting married? Married to who? Armand? Are you out of your mind Meadow?" Ginger shouted.

"Oh calm down drama queen! Yes, I'm getting married to Armand. This should really not be a surprise to you Ginger.......I mean we've been dating a while. This is what people do," Meadow said.

"This is insane! How did this even happen?"

"Well I went over to his house for dinner and he was acting strange.......I soon found out why..........."

"Mon chere.........I wanted to do this in a much more romantic way. I wanted to fly you out to France and do this in my home country. But I can't wait. I love you so much, Meadow. You and Joss both. I can't imagine life without you. And this house is lonely as hell when you're not here. I want you to marry me. Please Meadow, make my house a home," Armand said on bended knee.

"Oh Armand............."

"And seriously, what other answer was there other than yes? Do you see this rock on my finger? Like, is this even real life?"

"Can't you just be happy for me?" Meadow asked.

"NO! Meadow, this is kinda quick isn't it? I mean you just opened the store and you're trying to turn a profit with it. Is now really the time to be running off and getting married?" Ginger asked.

Armand had indeed kept his promise and his graduation gift to Ginger had been her own store, aptly named The Meadow. She was able to sell her flower arrangements in downtown LaQuest Beach.

It was a nice sized space and business had been good since its opening a few months ago. Meadow was absolutely loving owning her own business and being able to set her own hours. 

She also enjoyed interacting with customers and helping them pick out the perfect arrangement. It was without a doubt the best gift that she had ever received.

"You aren't going to ruin this for me Ginger," Meadow said.

"I'm not trying to ruin......."

"Yes you are! Look, the shop is doing just fine, mostly thanks to Armand! I love this man and I'm going to marry him. And me and Joss are going to move in with him," Meadow said.

"What! Are you kidding me? So you're just going to saddle me with this apartment like this? We're only in this apartment because YOU wanted it. Now you're going to ride off into the sunset and leave me with it?" Ginger shouted.

"Dammit, Ginger! Why would I do that to you? God, what kind of person do you really think I am? I told Armand that I wouldn't leave until you had made other arrangements. Why are you taking this so personally? This isn't about you! It's about me and Joss. I need your support in this, Ginger. We're getting married in July of next year," Meadow said.

"What? Are you pregnant or something?"

"No! I just.....look, obviously you need some time to process this. I need to head down to the shop for a little. We can talk about this more when I get back.......maybe you will have calmed down by then," Meadow said.

"Whatever............."

Of course, Ginger's next move was to call Caleb to tell him about this nonsense!

"I mean can you believe this? God, why am I even friends with this woman? Please, explain this to me," Ginger said.

"I think it's actually kind of perfect. Like I think it's amazing," Caleb said.

"What?!"

"How can you say that?"

"I have some news of my own to share," Caleb said.

"I can't take anymore surprises, Caleb. Like I just can't."

"It's not bad, I promise. Mayor Brown was so impressed with the job I did on the fair grounds that he has offered me a more involved position. He wants me to help with the day to day things in Camden Park. He's so busy here on the mainland that he wants to delegate some of the responsibilities in Camden out. I'm moving to Camden Park and I want you to move with me," he said.

"Am I being punked?" Ginger asked.

"Ginger........."

"No, seriously, what is going on? You're moving to Camden Park? And you want me to move too? Caleb, my job is here, my family is here," she said.

"I know, Ginger. My family is here too. But this is an amazing opportunity. And you can commute in from Camden to the shop. It's not that far from Jessica's shop. We can make this work. And with Meadow moving out, this is such perfect timing," Caleb said.

"Caleb, this is all happening way too fast. This is just too much. I mean, I know we always planned to move in together..........."
"Exactly! This was going to happen anyway. It's just getting fast tracked. I already told Ricky and Kimberly and they are fine with me moving out. I can't turn this down Ginger. But I also don't want to live away from you again like we did in college," Caleb said.

"I just don't know................"

"Come here..........I know that this is a lot for you to process. I know that. But I also know that this is what I want. I want to take this awesome opportunity that is going to make paying for my master's WAY easier and I want to have my best friend and only love right there with me. We can do this Ginger. We can absolutely do this," Caleb said.

"You know I don't like change. But I want all those things too. And Jessica has been talking about maybe opening a new shop in Camden........"

"We can do this, Ginger," he said.

"I've trusted you with my heart all these years, so I guess I can have a little faith now.........ok, let's do it," she said quietly. 

The next few weeks went by in a blur. It didn't take Caleb long to find a nice little apartment for he and Ginger in Camden and it wasn't long before he was saying his goodbyes to Kimberly and Ricky. It would be weird not living with those guys anymore, but he was super excited to start this chapter of his life with Ginger. 

The apartment was by no means the most expensive in Camden, but he and Ginger would be comfortable there. He was actually looking forward to the peace and quiet that Camden Park offered. And while his parents were nervous about him being so far away, they were so very proud of their son. Ginger would be moving in within the next few months once her current lease was up..............

It also wasn't long before Meadow and little Joss were moving as well.

"Thank Armand for paying up your half of the rent through the end of the lease. That was nice of him," Ginger said.

"I told you I wasn't just going to leave you in the lurch. How excited are you about moving in with Caleb and moving to Camden?" Meadow asked.

"You know me, I'm not a fan of change," Ginger said with a laugh.

"You know it's going to be alright, right? We're both moving ahead in our lives, it's exciting, Ginger."

"Yea, I know."

"I don't know if I ever thanked you.........you know, for helping me out. I know it was totally unexpected and I know that you could have just turned me away. But you didn't. And I can't thank you enough for that," Meadow said.

"Hey, thank you for helping me not be so anti-social. You've forced me to let people in more. Which may not have happened had we not become.......friends...."

"Well we're having you and Caleb over for dinner just as soon as Joss and I get settled. This isn't goodbye, Ginger. I don't want to lose our friendship just because we don't live together anymore," Meadow said.

"We won't. You know I freaking hate goodbyes........go get in your taxi before it takes off," Ginger said with a smile.

"I'll miss you more than you know," Meadow said as she hugged Ginger before walking out of the door.

It wasn't that Meadow wasn't scared, she was terrified! She had never lived with a man before and now she was doing that AND getting married in a few months time! It was scary as hell..........but she had never been so sure about anything before............

And judging from the size of the playroom that Armand had professionally decorated for Joss, they were going to be quite happy in their new life...................she was finally going to get her happy ending.....................

* Ok so I know this was super rushed lol. So after not playing my game for like 2 years, some of the lots did not load correctly. There were missing walls and floors and furniture and all kinds of things! Their apartment building was pretty terrible with the outside having no covering at all! So I decided to move them out of it. I had already planned to allow Armand to propose to Meadow, so this just pushed it ahead. I have since fixed this issue by deleting all of the cache files in my sims folder. But I had already played through this by the time I figured that out lol.

* Caleb will simply be a kind of liason for Mayor Brown. I figure since his parents are friends with him, he would get opportunities that others would not. He's still in the political career field and he will still complete the requirements for his master's degree. I absolutely plan to one day build Jessica a second salon and when I do, Ginger will get to manage it. Kimberly and Ricky won't become playable, but we'll still get to see them through Ginger and Caleb's updates. And Ricky will be in the school updates as well.

* The round will end with Meadow and Armand's wedding. SO excited to set that up. With all of his money, I should be able to do a nice little event :). Meadow's store is doing very well and I'm excited to watch that grow as well. I have some plans for these two that Meadow might not be too happy about lol. Hey, nothing in life comes easily, ya know?

*We'll get to briefly hear what Slade feels about his child's mother's impending marriage in my Mellow Metal Mini-Update later on. Gonna be weird to not have Ginger and Meadow living in the same household, but I'm sure they will still see each other fairly often, I mean she has to help Meadow plan the wedding.......which we all know Ginger won't be happy about lol.