When Keri said goodbye this time, there were only smiles, hugs, and pictures. No tears. No fights.
She got the same coffee from the same cafe near the train stop, and it was just as good as she remembered.
The train food was just as terrible as she remembered, too.
She met her parents at the Potomac Heights train station, from where they'd take her to their new building in town. They'd purchased a new investment property just for her. "Don't let it go to your head, dear," Madison said. "The building is lovely, and in a great location. It was a terrific business opportunity."
Her parents also signed them up for a spa membership in town, too.
"Keri, you’re still on vacation until tomorrow. Put your phone away."
"In a minute," Keri said.
"What’s wrong?"
"Nothing’s wrong," Keri said.
Keri didn't say: I just have to conduct a couple hundred interviews within the next four months so we can begin training our sixteen-person flawless crew for the first ever hyperspace manned mission to leave our solar system. No pressure or anything.
Keri wasn't ready to tell her mother that she intended to leave the solar system. Madison hadn't even wanted her to go to the moon—Keri could only imagine the disapproval when her mother found out about the Cassiopeia Project.
Keri also imagined the disapproval when her mother found out that Keri intended to have Stephanie adopt Lily.
Keri wondered which thing her mother would disapprove of more?
"New project?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"It's just nerves," Madison said. "All the more reason why you should relax and get a good night’s sleep tonight."
That was one piece of advice Keri would accept from her mother.
In the morning, Keri was awake with the birds and had a belly full of her favorite espresso.
"I’m ready, sir! Let’s hire some astronauts! Let’s build a rocket! We’re going to the stars!"
—
notes: little update is little. ;)
The outside view of the National Gallery Building is here. You can also see the outside view of Keri's parents' building in this shot. And there are a couple of other new Potomac Heights pictures on the PH town profile page.
I am having a fit seeing all the building you've accomplished in Potomac Heights, plus the botanical gardens, and seeing Keri settling in for her hectic four months in PH! It is really fun seeing your sims travel, as well. How will Madison take the news about Lily? I have a feeling that will be less palatable than Keri's space mission.
ReplyDeleteOMG, ha ha, I need to stop with the building! I have so much else I need to be doing! x_x It's fun though. But it also makes me wish I had a world editor so that I could choose the lot sizes and placements and surroundings that I really want.
DeleteHow will Madison take the news? Well, considering Madison pretty much hates Stephanie and blames her for the ruin of absolutely everything, I don't see her taking the news well at all, lol! Which is precisely why Keri won't tell her until it's finalized. The sad thing is that I feel like Keri would love to tell her dad and that Bryson would be totally supportive, but it will be tricky to do that without her mom finding out. :\
Yes, a world editor would be amazing. I was fantasizing this morning that EA decided to do that for the next expansion, ha.
ReplyDeleteThat is sad that Keri can't talk to her parents yet about Lily. Makes what she did even more of a risk/hard decision, seeing as her mom blames Stephanie and it would be easy for Keri to go along with that.
OMG I have that fantasy all the time, lol!
DeleteLooks like Keri is ready to go! lol It's kinda cute how excited and obsessed she is about her work. It's also good to be passionate about something though-good for the soul! ;)I hope her parents take the news well, even if they don't it's because they'll miss her and I'm sure they'll be scared for her and this big long trip.
ReplyDeleteI really love how passionate she is about her career too. It suits her. She tried doing the spoiled trust fund baby thing for a while, but she found it boring in the end. Keri has a lot more to offer the world than that.
DeleteThey will miss her. They already do. I know Keri isn't thinking about how old they are, but they probably don't have all the time left in the world. But Keri is in her prime and won't have another opportunity like this again, either. The poor girl has had so many tough decisions to make.
I guess though, even with Stephanie adopting Lily, there's no reason Madison couldn't continue to have the same relationship with her granddaughter that she does now. It's an unusual type of family, so they get to set their own rules. But...Madison would also have to get over Stephanie and Justin, soooo...I still can't imagine it will go too well is what I'm saying!
ReplyDeleteIt's sad, too, because Lily is Madison's only grandchild (since I wrote Mariah* out of the story, lol!). The relationship she has with Lily so far is kind of sketchy. It was right around Lily's first birthday that Madison turned on Justin because of suspecting what was going on with Stephanie. After that, with all of her meddling and judging and blaming, they just couldn't really stand to be around each other.
DeleteBryson, on the other hand, has remained involved. But he never fell out with Justin like Madison did. He never really blamed Justin. Probably, if we're going to be honest, being married to someone like Madison for 40-something years and knowing how demanding Keri is too, Bryson can probably understand why Justin would want to run for the hills, lol!
Even so, they still invite Madison to holidays and family gatherings, and if she comes she'll sit in a corner somewhere making sour faces. It's been long enough now that she should just get over it, but I think she's still holding out hope that this space thing is just a phase that Keri will get over and finally come home for good and take Lily back. So who knows, maybe Keri's news will serve as a wake up call for her, for better or worse. :\
* and a side note about Mariah: in my head canon for this universe of the story, I sometimes like to imagine that Mariah had actually been born, that Madison had two daughters but maybe that Mariah died in childhood when Keri was still very young. Madison is just such an unhappy woman and carries around so much animosity against the world, I can see that as being something that happened in her past. And it would explain why Mariah isn't here. ;)