Two HoneymoonsAdam Gold and Lily Riverhawk were married in a simple ceremony, with just their families in attendance. Nobody felt like throwing a party so soon after Emmaline’s death.
Everyone agreed that Lily was a beautiful bride. The groom was pretty adorable, too – so obviously head-over-heels in love with his new wife.
“So, Mrs Gold, where would you like to go for the honeymoon?”
There were no available flights until the following day – but they found ways to pass the time at home.
It’s slightly unconventional for the bride’s parents to accompany a young couple on their honeymoon but then, they weren’t exactly your average family.
Nick and Cassidy had spent their whole lives helping the Golds. Now, everyone was uncomfortably aware that they must be running out of time. Cassidy, in particular, had started behaving strangely. They’d all been keeping a close eye on her since she the day when she'd 'taken a wrong turn' leaving the bathroom. Maybe she'd benefit from a holiday.
And so two couples ended up honeymooning in China.
They all visited the Forbidden City together and Adam completed his ‘Lovers Abroad’ series of photos. Then Lily suggested that her parents should borrow the family tent and tour Shang Simla to see the sights while she and Adam stayed at base camp.
Letting her parents have the comfortable sleeping quarters was only partly altruism. Nick was also beginning to show signs of eccentricity (to put it kindly), wandering around the camp in his underwear and upsetting some of the other guests. As Adam said, it somehow wouldn’t have looked as bad if he’d taken his socks off.
And Cassidy was getting odder…
For once, Adam hardly touched his camera. He spent some time talking to the locals but, for the most part, it was good to have a break from dynasty duties and simply enjoy being with the girl he loved.
Lily did request one photo, though: another portrait, as a present for her parents.
This one was called ‘My Spouse’.
Sam and Sophia could also have used a holiday, but Sophia’s pregnancy was too far advanced. She said she didn’t mind – she felt too much like a stranded whale to be cooped up in an uncomfortable airline seat for hours on end while people tried to sell her pointless gifts and nectar she couldn’t drink.
Soon after the travellers returned, she went into labour. She’d opted for a home birth this time – after all, they had a comfortable house now. Emmaline had been a great fan of natural childbirth and this was her second child, after all. Everything – ow! – should be perfectly straightforward. On the other hand...
Maybe she –
ouch! – should have gone to the hospital again. There was a lot –
eeargh! – to be said for modern medicine. She should know, after all. She’d been (BREATHE!) a doctor herself once.
At last, the baby made his appearance – but ‘he’ was a girl, despite the apples.
A girl with definite opinions. She wanted a feed
right now!They’d been so convinced that Sophia was having another boy that they hadn’t even considered any girls’ names. The baby was close to becoming a toddler before she was called anything other than Baby. But at last they decided.
Welcome to the family, Zoë Gold.
It was strange to be starting over again with parenthood so late in life but Sam and Sophia loved having a little one around and decided they wanted at least one more child before they were completely past it.
But that would have to wait. On the day of Zoë’s toddler birthday, Adam, who had joined the business career in search of more opportunities, was asked to take some documents round to the hospital. Which meant that the last space in the household would now be taken by someone else…
Next chapter
Rhoxi, you were right: Adam's little sibling was intended to be a ‘pollinator’ – except that it didn’t quite work out like that. This is the second case of a fruit-proof baby that I’ve come across in the last few weeks, the first being in ratchie’s short immortal dynasty. It could just be chance, of course, but I wonder whether the weighting’s changed in a recent patch. Irritatingly, Sam wanted a girl and I cancelled the wish
.
Sam and Sophia really have gone broody, by the way – they both rolled wishes to have a child and to have a child with each other almost as soon as Zoë was born.
I’m jumping the gun slightly here but I wanted this at the end of a chapter – and nothing had changed by the time Lily had her baby:
Summary – Generation 1 Parents tried for baby within 4 days of start? Yes
Heir: Adam
Traits: Loves the Outdoors, Good, Ambitious, Photographer’s Eye, Charismatic*
Lifetime wish: Swimming in Cash
Unique maxed career: Self-Employed Photographer
Two unique best friends: Bao Louie & Hui Young Kim
Three unique skill challenges: Architectural Eye, Photog, Shutternut**
Four unique opportunities: Best in Show Competition, Visa Photograph, Al Simhara, Hospital Delivery
Buildings owned: The Enchanted Grill, Tuatha de Books, Alvetta’s Fresh Produce, Angela’s Bistro, Sulis Theatre of the Arts, Gold Bend Coffeehouse (formerly Flying V’s Coffeehouse)
Fully-upgraded properties: Meadow Beach, Louie Falls, Whole Body Fitness, Redwood Heights Luxury Lodge
Vacations used: 3 out of 4
*Lily’s traits, incidentally, are Loves the Outdoors, Friendly, Angler, Green Thumb and Nurturing. She completed her Perfect Garden lifetime wish during her pregnancy.
**Yay!
Adam is my first Sim ever to get Shutternut to register. I’ve had Sims who have completed far more than five collections but the game’s always stopped recognising that more than two or three were done. This may have been a glitch that was patched out a while ago, in fact. I got so fed up with it that my recent photographers (Will Goole, for instance) haven’t even tried to finish the challenge.