Summer 2012 - Thayer

Fawn (37), Gareth (37)

Whenever Gareth was in town, Fawn enjoyed hearing about his time on the road and in the studio and all of the venues his band played in different cities.

Of course, he and his bandmate, Trevor Yates often talked of their hometowns and Trevor had seemed interested in seeing Fawn's Art Gallery.

While traveling between gigs, Gareth and Trevor surprised Fawn by dropping in at the art galley before heading on to the next stop on their tour.

The guys seemed to have a fun time talking about their views on artistic expression.

Since the gallery wasn't doing very well financially just from charging entry, Fawn began putting some of her pieces up for sale.

Which meant the added expense of maintaining an employee.  Time would tell if the change would be profitable.

Fawn was excited to have the honor of displaying the works of a budding young artist from another hood, Veronika Kent of Apple Valley.

She was sure to mention that she went to college with Veronika's father.  He was a few years older than her, but she remembered him from the dorms.  She was excited to discuss painting techniques and sources of inspiration with Veronika.  She was always happy to meet another art aficionado.

Veronika's family, her aunt and uncles and cousins had come along to support her.

Fawn was pleased to see Veronika's uncle's brother, James, had come along too.

In addition to showing her work, Veronika was also excited to check out some of New Eden's historical art pieces. Many of them had been created by Fawn's grandparents who were among the original founders of Eden.

After exploring the gallery, she headed back downstairs to answer any questions visitors might have about her work.

When things quieted down in the gallery, Fawn and Veronika chatted about her work and her plans for the future.  Veronika couldn't help noticing the way James was looking at Fawn and wondered if the two of them might have a future together.  Fawn played the suggestion off and insisted that they were just friends.

Yet, when she kissed him goodbye at the end of the show, she thought maybe there might be a spark between them.

The more she thought about it, the more she wondered if there could be something between her and James.  She hadn't been blind to the way he looked at her sometimes and she had definitely noticed the chemistry between them when she helped him redesign his living room, of course she had been with Winston at the time.  James actually seemed like the type of guy she wouldn't mind falling in love with.

Winston still dropped by the gallery on a regular basis.  She couldn't deny that she still found him incredibly attractive.

They were still friends.  They talked about art, but it just seemed like any chance of rekindling their romance had faded away.

And Jimmy, who she saw everyday, was another man she was definitely attracted to, but it had never been anything more than just physical with him.  She had the feeling he was more into someone else.

So she wondered, why not give things with James a shot?  All it took was a little hint his way and he was eagerly asking her out on a date.

They went to Trevor's, a restaurant that had actually been started by a half-brother of Fawn's back in Eden.  They headed upstairs to the bar first and tried the karaoke machine.  Musical talent must run in the family, because Fawn's singing voice was impressive.  James, on the other hand, could barely carry a tune, but it didn't matter.  It was all for fun.

Afterwards James excused himself to stop by the restroom while Fawn took a seat at the bar.  Of all the sims to run into, Winston and his new flame, Lara, were there.  He seemed to sense her presence before he even saw her.

When he started to head over to say hello, Fawn quickly looked for an excuse to be somewhere else.  And they went down to the restaurant to see if their table was ready yet.

Fortunately it was.

"Do you two know each other?" Fawn asked, when she noticed Heather staring at James.

"Yes.  We're friends."

Heather winked at them.  "On a date?  Have fun."

In a small town like New Eden, it's difficult to go out and have any kind of privacy.  You always ran into someone you knew.  Fawn tried not to think about who may or may not be watching them and focused on her date with James.

She was having a great time.  The food was fantastic,

the company was great, and the atmosphere was totally romantic.

After dinner, they took a second turn on the karaoke machine.  Their small audience seem to approve.

Robin seemed to think that Fawn and James made a cute couple, while Gregory only had eyes for his wife.

Fawn thought it was nice to see a couple that had been married for a long time, out together and still so affectionate and in love.  She wasn't sure if she was suited for that type of life, but it was sweet to see.

James, being a gentleman, accompanied Fawn home and said goodnight to her at her door.

It had been a great night and Fawn was really begin to feel like this relationship could grow into something more.

Meanwhile, Gareth was spending some quiet time at home, in his studio apartment, enjoying the time to himself to play around on the bass and just relax.

Sofia was out of town.  Trying to launch her own solo music career, she was starting to live the type of lifestyle he was, home for short periods of time between touring and working in the studio.  Since he didn't have her new number, he wasn't able to reach her.  So he started thinking about who else in the hood he could take some time to get to know better.  He really wanted to build some new friendships.

He decided that instead of trying to get to know some of the new sims in the hood, he should try to restore an old relationship, with Heather.  She was the mother of his child and what had happened between them was so long in the past.  It was long past time to put hurt feelings aside and be on good terms again. 

It was important if he was ever going to have a relationship with their son and that was something they all needed.

Things had gotten much better between them, but that brought up new challenges. They found it difficult to find the right boundaries for what they wanted their relationship to be.

It was better for them, and better for Lance if they were somewhat close again, but not too close.  They had to make sure not to get too close.

 

(This was long, but I couldn't decide on a good way to split it up.  Thanks to Apple Valley for sending me the McMillians and Veronika for a visit.  Setting up the art show was fun.  Trevor's visit was a random surprise.  He's in my simbin from an earlier Aerial Bionic show and decided to come home from work with Gareth one day.  I actually just moved him into the simbin from the nightclub lot where I'd left him as a placeholder, because I didn't want him randomly showing up around the hood.  I guess he decided he wanted to show up anyway.  A bit of trivia - the sim in the purple sweatsuit is the original Suzanna Carr (McMillian).  She's still floating around my hood.  I may give her a new identity someday if she starts to form relationships with any other of my active sims.  She actually looks different than Apple Valley's version of Suzanna who is dressed in red and pink, so I didn't try to use her as the visiting Suzanna McMillian. Before the date, in his lot, James had rolled the want to go on a date with Fawn and Fawn rolled the want, on her lot, to fall in love with James.  Towards the end of the date he had the want to get engaged to Fawn (and the other wants were all about skill points).  It rolled away, but that's pretty big progress for him, since he hasn't expressed many wants towards anyone.  I may have to max out his skills and get him to the top of his career before he gets serious about settling down.  At one point, more towards the end of the round, Gareth wanted to talk to Sofia, but I forgot I moved her out of  whatever lot she was living on and she didn't have a phone.  Before that he wanted to be friends with Heather, Hope, and Alexis.  Heather seemed the most logical choice.) 

Spring 2011 - Thayer

Spring 2011 - Fawn (35), Gareth (35)

Fawn decided she was done with being a one man woman.  This break with Winston was a chance to explore her options.  Maybe it was better to have as many lovers as possible instead of letting one man fulfill your romantic needs.  So she started flirting with James.  They had always had a strong attraction to one another.  He was always stealing glances at her with that dreamy look in her eye, but never did anything about it, probably because one of both of them were usually seeing someone else.

"You should come by my studio and let me paint you sometime.  I'd even pay you a little to sit for me."

Of course, James was getting a reputation around the hood of not being willing to commit and she didn't want to be in another situation like she was with Winston.  So she wasn't about to limit her flirting to just James.

Jimmy had a reputation too and she knew he was always up for a good time without any strings attached.

"Why don't you take a break from the register?  No one's buying anything anyway.  There's something I want to show you."

"Woah!  This is not what I was expecting you to show me."

"Uh . . . this is a nice painting.  Why isn't it in the gallery?"

"It's one of my personal collection.  Haven't you had enough of looking at art all day?  Come over here."

She wasn't sure what had gotten into him and his attitude made her unsure that this was such a good idea, but Jimmy finally gave in and climbed into bed with her.

She didn't regret it afterwards and he didn't seem to either.

Meanwhile, Gareth's love life was heating up as well.  He and Sofia had always felt a strong attraction to each other, since the first day they met.  But since she was still a teen and he her mentor, they resisted the urge to act on those emotions.

He couldn't say they didn't come close at times at crossing that line.  Especially when traveling for their summer concerts last year they happened to find themselves staying at the same hotel with their respective bands.

Nothing happened, except for some intimate, personal conversations.  Gareth, luckily, was able to control his urges enough to remember that he was the adult (and she wasn't) and walk away before they got themselves into a lot of trouble.

Now that she was eighteen, a high school graduate, and fully an adult, there was no reason to hold back their feelings anymore.

When she wasn't busy with her social life, Fawn was still busy in the studio.  She was always happy to take a moment to talk with any interested sims that wandered into her gallery to ask questions.

Gareth still helped out too when he was in town.  He was glad to man the front desk and answer any questions anyone had about art, to the best of his ability.

He was kind of stunned when one evening Heather walked in.  It was awkward, but he thought he should go over and say hello and try to be polite.

To his surprise, they actually managed to have a civil conversation.  She told him that Lance was interested in taking a new hobby, maybe music. He seemed interested in the violin.

"I could help him with that.  I'd be happy to give him lessons sometime."

It was nice to be on speaking terms with Heather again.  Afterall she was the mother of his child and he had to get along with her if he had a chance at a relationship with him.  He did feel guilty about not spending much time with his son.  But between traveling around sim nation and arguing with the boy's mother, they hadn't seen enough of each other to build a relationship.  He wanted to make that right.

He asked Heather to send Lance over sometime, so they could get to know each other.  He was sure Fawn would like to reconnect with him too.  She hadn't seen much of him since he was an infant.

They chatted for awhile and to Gareth's relief they got along well.  They went outside to play a good old game of catch, something Gareth didn't recall ever being able to do with his own father.  He vowed that he wasn't going to let history repeat itself.  He wasn't going to let himself get too busy for his son and he wasn't going to let him grow up before he ever knew his real father.