Breed

Round 32: December 2035 (Summer)

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Amar Hamilton is 34.
(Jacob and Claudia are both 34, Adrienne is 28, Zane and Leslie are both 24)

Narrated by Amar Hamilton

I live alone now and even after so long, it still feels strange sometimes. It's the first time I've lived by myself. I've always been kind of a social animal, so it's been an adjustment for me.

I do really love this place though and it's great that I no longer have a landlord knocking on my door every week.

I've been spending more time than normal at home recently. I waited until my mid-30s to buy a house, thinking my finances would be stable enough by now and then I end up losing my job.

I was fired via e-mail, if you can believe it. The magazine I worked for decided that they're going to use freelance photographers, rather than pay me a salary to work for them full-time.

If I didn't have my photography business on the side, my house probably would have been repossessed by now.

I don't have much left over after I pay my bills but it's better than no income at all.

One day, it'd be nice to make the photography studio/store a full time thing and be my own boss. Until that day though, I really need a proper full time job. I have a mortgage to pay.

Things are going well with me and Adrienne, especially considering what a mooch I am these days.

Adrienne has been footing the bill for most of our dates recently. The money I have has to go towards the house or the business.

She's a buyer for an upmarket department store and she makes more money than I do even when I am working.

I asked Adrienne to put in a good word for me with some of the designers she knows. Photographing gorgeous women all day sounds like a pretty good job to me.

She pretended to be annoyed but I know she doesn't really care when I say that kind of thing. She's pretty relaxed, which I appreciate.

I've been avoiding serious relationships since I was in college but I think "relaxed" is what I needed. Adrienne has never been desperate for marriage and kids and I like that I feel like we can take our time on all that.

She does want to take another big step sometime soon and move in together.

I was a bit resistant to the idea at first but I came around to it, gradually.

I mean, we're almost living together already. She's got a bunch of her stuff here and she has her own key. It makes more sense for her to move in than for us to keep living separately.

And not that it's our overriding reason, but it makes financial sense too. No rent for her and I pay the mortgage off faster.

I told Zane about it at my New Year's party and they seemed quite amused that I was finally "making a commitment".

But then, Zane and I have always been quite different. He's 10 years younger he moved in with a girlfriend before me, he got engaged before me and even though he and Chloe haven't set a date yet, I'm 100% positive he'll be married before me too.

I can't imagine being ready for that kind of thing at 24. But to each their own, I guess. It seems to work out for some people.

The party was a pretty low-key kind of thing. Lots of people, especially for this house, but we all seemed to fit without being on top of each other.

Just a few beers, some good music and waiting around for midnight.

I invited Jacob not knowing whether he'd be able to convince Claudia to come but he came and brought her with him.

She stuck by him at the beginning but she loosened up after a little while. There were a couple of other people she knew there, like her sister and her boyfriend, so it wasn't as awkward as she thought it would be.

We mostly had a good time but Adrienne had a bit too much to drink and decided to start something with Leslie.

I don't know what she said but Leslie was pretty upset.

I ended up inside with Adrienne for a while, trying to figure out what her deal was but it was pretty pointless.

She was being irrational and what she really needed was to just sober up. I did manage to get her to leave Leslie alone for the rest of the night, at least.

Adrienne decided she was going to sulk for the rest of the night but everyone else had fun. It started raining, so we all crowded into the kitchen.

I'll have to do this kind of thing more often. It was so good having everyone over to ring in the new year.

Adrienne fell asleep on the couch and was dead to the world, so the rest of the night was quite peaceful.

Next morning, I was surprised to see Adrienne cleaning up the yard. I think she was feeling bad about the night before, hoping I still wanted her to move in!

I'm not going to change my mind that easily. I know she's not usually like that. Once Adrienne is sure her brother will be able to pay the rent on his own (which should be soon, given he's almost finished med school), she'll be moving in here.

• Title is from Breed by Nirvana.
• Amar rolled the Fired! ROS this round. I have plans for him to get back into the Photography career using some connections but I'm not enacting that just yet.
• So Adrienne is moving in! Amar has the simultaneous want and fear of marrying her, so it's on his mind but he's not quite ready for that yet.
• Adrienne insulting Leslie was as a result of the beer. I was hoping for a knockdown dragout or something, like I had when Evan had a party when he was still single (to refresh your memories, the fight was between him and Amelia, lol!), so I'm glad I got a little bit of drama out of the beer.
• The beer is supposed to cause spontaneous proposals, which I have still never seen in my game though this time, I almost did. And I would have too, if not for a route failure! I spotted "Propose Engagement" in Malcolm's queue. Hope was there but in Malcolm's beer-fuelled haze, he was actually going to propose to Dominic! I can't imagine that would have gone over well but it would have been interesting!