The Beaumonts (B) - Round 4

Starring:

Arnaud Beaumont, Adult Romance Sim, LTW Become Celebrity Chef

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Last time we saw Arnaud, he was graduating from University and preparing to move back home. He got engaged to Steffi Thomson during his last semester of college, got caught cheating, broke up with her, then couldn't live with her anger and got engaged to her a second time. Can he keep it in his pants to begin a life with Steffi? Does he really want to do that? Who knows? Certainly not Arnaud...

With a little help from his Maman and Papa, and with the money he saved by being able to live in the Greek House at college, Arnaud had enough to purchase a small house on Lily Lane, near the family home. It was small but open and airy, and it had a decent kitchen for Arnaud to work on his culinary creations.


The first thing on his agenda after he moved in was to try to find a job. He knew - had known since he was in high school, in fact - that he wanted to work in the culinary field. He'd even chosen the major in college best suited to help him achieve that. But as he searched job websites, he couldn't find even entry-level positions. He gave up his search for the day and decided to concentrate on his other interests.


Namely, girls. Or girl, as the case happened to be. He invited Steffi over to see the new house and hang out for a while. As they lay on the bed, they talked about college. Steffi had definite reserves about their engagement. "It's not that I don't love you, Arnaud, but you really hurt me," she commented hesitantly. He was quiet for a moment. "I know," he finally answered. "You're right to. I love you too, but it seems so hard for me. That sounds like a cop-out," he sighed, realizing how cheap the words tasted in his mouth. "I'm sorry. I'll try," he promised. "Can we see how it goes?" He wasn't sure why she said yes, but he did, and her faith encouraged him.


That night, she left him a present on the doorstep, and he knew that he was infinitely lucky to have found a girl who cared so much and was so patient with him.


They continued to have dates almost every night, as Arnaud still hadn't had any luck finding a job.


He entertained himself during the day while she was at work, and she came over in the evenings, sometimes staying over, sometimes not.


Arnaud had to admit that the best thing about being an adult was having his own place, without any roommates or relatives interrupting his time with Steffi. Some nights, they did little more than watch a movie on the couch and cook a meal together.


Of course, it also meant they didn't have to limit their romantic interactions to one room of the house to escape prying eyes and interruptions. Arnaud's new couch saw more action than any other couch in Rosebud.


He continued to work around the house during the day, keeping the place spotless as was his neurotic habit and working out to make sure all the foods he made and tasted didn't add inches to his waste or force him out of shape.



Finally, one morning he got lucky and found an opening at a local restaurant downtown. They would hire him on as executive chef in a sort of probationary way. If he could hack running his own kitchen for a month, they would consider adding him onto the staff permanently.


A sous chef from the kitchen came home with him one night. Arnaud's hands were sweaty from nerves inviting her home with him. He thought of Steffi. Could he remain faithful to her? The more he tried not to think about how pretty Meadow was with her cocoa skin and her long, lithe legs, the more he couldn't STOP thinking about it.


He tried to place them in the least sexy place in the house - on the living room floor. He forced himself to focus on the words that were coming out of her mouth instead of how lovely she was. By the time Meadow stretched her legs and got up to go, Arnaud was exhausted from the effort of trying not to hit on her. But as he waved goodbye to her, he realized he'd done it, and he could have jumped for joy. He had been utterly faithful to Steffi, even when he had a beautiful woman alone with him in the house with no one around to witness any indiscretions that might have occurred.



A while later, buoyed by his success in his private life, he was approached with some endorsement deals. He decided that he really wanted to be the new face of the spork trend. After all, who doesn't like sporks?


To his shock and horror, he had made a gross misstep in endorsing the sporks, and when he came crawling back to work, the restaurant informed him that they had no interest in being associated with the face of the infamous sporks of steel. Arnaud was crushed, but it wasn't all over for him yet.


Meadow, his sous chef friend, pulled some strings and talked to a friend of hers who owned a local diner. She managed to get him in, even though it was at the lowly position of dishwasher. Arnaud was grateful but still crushed. It looked like he would have to work his way up from the very bottom rung on the ladder.


Of course, he was immensely overqualified to scrape food from plates in a diner, and he was promoted quickly despite the fact that some co-workers treated him badly thanks to his very public shame so recently in his past. He was intensly bummed most of the time, but he was determined to become a celebrity chef one day, even if he had to crawl up the ladder on hands and knees. He was just grateful for the support of his family, friends, and fiancée.

Next up: We check in with Enzo, Fiona, and Imelda in their new digs!

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Scoring:

No new points.

[[Poor Arnaud. He really is such a sympathetic guy. I feel bad for him. He still has wants for Steffi all the time, but he completely bottoms out when he screws up and she's mad at him. He brought Meadow home, and I was slapping my forehead like, "BRILLIANT PLAN, ARNAUD." But to his credit, he only had one want to flirt with her the whole night, and I didn't prevent him from doing it, but he didn't autonomously flirt either. So good for you, Arnaud. You are the absolute weirdest and most tortured Romance sim I've ever seen. Have fun with that.

The new house is the BOMB. I love it. It's a download from TSR, but I cannot for the life of me remember who did it, and I'm bad at keeping records. If anyone's curious, I can look it up and let you know, but suffice it to say, I am supremely grateful to the talented artists out there who share their stuff. I leave you with a song and a blooper, as always.

EDIT: The house is 3 Alpine Road by windowbird. Thanks, windowbird!

This Entry's MP3:
Sentimental Heart by She & Him (from the album Volume One)

Blooper:
Incoming call on the crotch phone.]]