Toay's work day is a bit different. In addition to Anita, the office is also welcoming Nicole Wyberman. They're meeting at a fundraiser for Salvatore's latest campaign at the art gallery.
"I promise I won't bite," Nicole jokes, her smile showing off some long canines. "Sorry, bad joke. I'm a werewolf, but I promise you won't see me transform or anything weird at work." Her family is originally from Moonlight Falls but they've moved around a few times. Nicole's learned to explain early to avoid scaring "the normies", as her husband Felix says.
Naomi's smile is warm and genuine. "Don't worry about that, Nicole. We're happy to have to you."
Inside the gallery, Calvin is doing his best to entertain himself.
Wow, our town's art scene is really doomed, Calvin quickly concludes.
He does his best to "play nice" like Naomi asked him to do.
....but he quickly finds himself without much to talk about.
He's not the only one struggling...
The real action's happening outside. Nicole and Naomi work methodically through the party guests, schmoozing their way to large donations.
Eventually the cold starts getting to Naomi. Maybe she should head inside...
She comes inside to warm up and finds Calvin and Shelby in an animated discussion. She smiles with relief- she was afraid this party would be too stuffy for her husband.
Despite their success, Nicole seems...unhappy.
"What's wrong?" Salvatore asks.
"It's just...it's near the full moon. I'm sorry."
If this phases Salvatore, he does a good job of hiding it. "Do you need any time off? I think you have lunar leave in your contract..."
Nicole massages her temples. "I'll probably be late tomorrow. I'll come in after lunch."
***
While Olivia and her husband "go camping" in the woods, Naomi spends her evening trying and failing to get Evan to bed.
"Shhhh, Evan, c'mon," she pleads. She hates that there's nothing she can do to reason with her son.
She comes out of the nursery about ten minutes later, visibly exhausted.
"Calvin, I'm so sorry, but I'm exhausted...can you put Evan down for bed?"
A frown flickers across his face for an instant, but he smooths his features over. "Yeah, of course. Here, give him to me..."
Naomi sits down for a quick bowl of cereal. Her feet practically sag with relief. She's been standing for hours.
She quickly checks some emails...
Forwards her thanks to some donors personally...
And then gets to bed about an hour after Calvin.
Naomi finds the fridge distressingly empty the next morning and quickly whips up some mac'n'cheese.
"Plumbob, I'd be so happy if I never had to go to those parties ever again," Naomi jokes when Calvin joins her. "Meeting people is nice, of course," at Calvin's questioning look, Naomi chuckles, "Oh, stop it! But really. Standing outside in the cold for hours... not really a part of the job description."
"I'm just glad that there weren't any papparazzi weirdos," Calvin laughs, "The mayor is, like, one of our only 'famous' people."
Naomi perks up. Good to know his publicity campaigns are working. "Riverview laws about paparazzi are pretty strict," she says instead. "Though there's not much around here for them to photograph..." she agrees.
Despite the promise of a lazy sunday, the washing machine groans, shudders, then spits out smoke and sparks.
They both sigh. "I'll get it," Naomi says reluctantly.
They work together quietly for a while.
Naomi checks the stove afterwards. Gotta be careful.
Naomi sits down to check her emails. Politics don't stop for Sunday, she thinks with a sigh. Thankfully, nothing new there. She exits out of her inbox and thinks. Anything else she can do from home?
"Calvin, what are you doing?"
"Setting up for gift giving day. Don't tell me you forgot?"
Ohhh, that was today. No wonder why she's felt like there was something important she was forgetting.
"Naomiii c'mon, dance with me," Calvin pleads.
"I'm trying to find a gift for your mother," Naomi replies. "How could you not remind me? When did you even invite everyone? And you didn't get a gift for her either!?"
Calvin's expression turns a bit surly. "You normally remember all of this stuff, sorry..." He wonders how she could assume that they wouldn't have a party to go to.
Naomi breathes a sigh of relief. The bookstore is still open and can have a book wrapped and ready to go for her in just an hour.
"I'll be at the bookstore to get that gift, I'll be right back," she stands up and hurries out of the house. Brianne runs into her on her way out.
"Bye...?" Brianne shoots a questioning glance to Calvin, who only shrugs.
***
Naomi comes back just as Calvin's family is arriving. Sadie is a fresh high school graduate now.
Brianne corners her friend. They haven't seen each other in quite some time.
Naomi listens with gorwing interest as Brianne talks about her new job. Well, jobs.
"I tried my hand at journalism, like dear old mom, but I, uh, got into a fight with a source...small matter of him wanting to bribe me to write nice things about him, and well I didn't take kindly to that," Brianne smiles sheepishly, "Sooo...you're now looking at Riverview's newest teacher...? ANYWAYS," she says much too loudly, "Tell me about your own life! New mom and all, huh?"
After being stunned briefly, laughing, and congratulating Brianne for getting out of a toxic work environment, she catches Brianne up on everything that's happened with her mother as quickly as she can.
"A-and then...she just...left for Starlight Shores. I never heard from her again..."
Brianne is shocked. "Really? Not even an email or a text or something?" Naomi shakes her head. "Your mom was stone cold."
Seeing Naomi's angry expression, Brianne hastily apologises. "Sorry, I shouldn't speak ill of the dead...uh... wanna hear more about my life?" she fixes Naomi with a goofy smile. Naomi can't help but laugh.
"Yeah, of course. Please."
Brianne tells her about the whirlwind romance with a man from out-of-town shortly after graduation. "He was only here for a short-term research project, something about fish," she sighs, "I miss him."
"So are you two in a relationship?"
Brianne shakes her head. "We tried for a few months, but all that journalism stuff made me cranky-well crankier- and he was always crazy busy with work. We're better off seeing other people."
Naomi nods and frowns sympathetically for her friend. "Romance certainly isn't easy..."
Brianne's eyebrows furrow. "Something wrong with you and Calvin?"
Naomi sighs. "We didn't plan on having kids....well, not so soon... it's been difficult. But let's not talk about that here..."
Calvin comes out of the nursery with a sleepy Evan.
"Aw, hey sport," Igor "shakes hands" with his nephew. "Is he sleeping all the way through the night yet?" he asks Calvin.
"Ugh, no. But it's getting better. I'm glad that he'll be going to school soon..."
Naomi was making her way to her brother-in-law to make friendly conversation, but she stops in her tracks when she sees a particular party guest.
What is Salvatore doing here? Did something go wrong with the fundraiser?
Calvin hovers near Naomi, not sure who else to talk to.
Salvatore's mother thinks that this is the perfect opportunity to hit on Calvin.
"Lady, no. You're way too old for me," he snaps, "And I'm in a relationship!"
Evan waits for one of his parents to come get him for a few minutes.
But eventually he seeks out his mother.
"Mommy, I'm tired," he whispers, tugging on her shirt.
She barely looks down at him. "Not now, honey."
He mills around, not sure if he can interrupt his dad, before he gets stopped by Michelle.
Uhh... "Tag, you're it!" he suddenly announces. Before Michelle can react, he's dashing away.
He runs outside into the cold. Some older kids are playing catch as he zips by.
Michelle intended to get him inside, but ends up indulging him.
He gets tired pretty quickly and runs back inside before long.
Hmph. Both of his parents are still talking to another adult.
Eventually he puts himself to bed.
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AN: Yikes, there were so many photos I had to delete to make this chapter a manageable length. It doesn't help that I took all these photos years ago, so I have no idea who the townspeople are anymore.
Evan is genius, nurturing, and I think family oriented. The next time I boot up the game I will double check.
EDIT: Marcy from the future here. I finally got the save to boot up (there were some issues with Riverview uninstalling itself) and found out that I got many things wrong about Brianne! She doesn't have any kids by this point so I changed her and Naomi's dialogue a lot. I also got Nicole's name wrong- she and her husband have two children and one of them is named Olivia so I mixed them up. Nicole and her husband have different last names (hers is Wyberman, his is Nocturne) but all of their kids have the last name Nocturne.
Evan's traits are actually genius, nurturing, and unlucky at this stage.
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