Jimmy

My phone ringing on my bedside table pulled me from my comfortable slumber. It was Saturday morning. Who the hell was calling me so early? I looked over at the clock and groaned at the time. Nine in the morning on the only morning I allowed myself to sleep in.

There was only one person it could be.

“Hello, Nina.”

“Good morning, handsome. I’m home,” she said.

“When did you get in?” I asked. “And could it have not waited another hour?”

“I’m at the airport, Jimmy. I need a ride home.”

“What airport are you at? I’ll come get you,” I said.

“What airport? Miami International, of course.”

“What flight did you fly in on?”

“Delta. First class. They treated me well, so don’t worry about that,” she said.

“Oh, I have no doubt you made sure of that.”

“Are you going to come get me, Jimmy? Or are you going to make me ride home in a cab?”

“Stay patient. I’m getting out of bed now. I’ll see you in thirty minutes.”

I rolled out of bed and splashed some water on my face. Nina was still back a couple of days early, which meant she probably ran out of money again. I threw on some decent enough clothes so I didn’t have to listen to her break down my wardrobe. Then, I headed for my personal vehicle. Nina hated it when I had my driver pick her up from anywhere, so I was doomed to pick her up whenever she needed a ride.

Like I didn’t have a company to run or anything.

I pulled up to the Delta parking lot and saw her standing there. She was in a cute little red dress with her hair fluttering around her shoulders, and it reminded me of why I was doing this. Nina was a good thing. She had her moments, but committing to a woman like her showed both an ability to commit in the first place as well as standards. A man like myself had to portray a certain reputation in the community we were flourishing in, and a woman like Nina was just the type people expected me to be with. She had a grating personality and was selfish to her core, but she was a hell of a woman when it came to mingling at dinner parties and charity galas we were invited to.

So long as I didn’t mind emptying my wallet for her, she kept up the image alongside me.

“Oh, my gosh. You wouldn’t believe how rough that flight was.”

Nina collapsed into the car like she’d had the roughest week of her life.

“I thought you said the flight was fine.”

“You weren’t listening, Jimmy. I said they treated me fine. The flight itself was miserable. The plane was hot. There was turbulence. It was awful,” Nina said.

“Sorry you had a rough flight.”

“And you were right. I should’ve come home instead of staying another week.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“I said you were right.”

“Say that one more time.”

“Don’t push your luck, Sheldon,” she said with a grin. “I’ll never admit if asked.”

“Why was I right?” I asked. “I’m very curious about this.”

“I had to stay with my friends for the majority of the week.”

“I thought that was the point of the trip. To have fun with friends.”

“Yes, but they were all bitching about stupid stuff. Sarah kept going on and on about how her doctorate program was ‘so hard,’ and Nina kept complaining about how her husband wasn’t paying attention to her. And don’t get me started on Delilah. I’m so tired of hearing about her kids.”

“These are your friends? You mean they have decent lives?” I asked.

“Decent lives? Sarah’s miserable in some education courses I don’t know why she insisted on getting. Nina’s in a bullshit marriage, and Delilah’s letting herself go. She’s put on way too much weight. She didn’t even want to go shopping. Kept complaining about how clothes off the rack didn’t fit her. I told her she needed to stop munching on all those chips and try some carrots if she wanted to wear those clothes again.”

“You didn’t.”

“Of course, I did. I’m her friend. I’d be doing her a disservice if I didn’t tell her where she was failing,” she said.

“Did you do anything else with your terrible week?”

I felt Nina look at me as I tossed my gaze to her.

“I know that tone of voice.”

“What tone of voice?” I asked.

“That tone of voice that says you don’t think I work hard.”

“You don’t work at all.”

“That doesn’t mean my life isn’t hard.”

“I’m sure not shopping with friends is very hard,” I said.

“It wasn’t just that. Every time we went out for drinks, someone ended up crying. I had to console them and do all this shit to make them feel better.”

“How terrible,” I said.

“It doesn’t sound like it, but it really was. What if Ross came up to you and suddenly burst into tears because his wife wasn’t having enough sex with him?”

“Ross doesn’t have a wife.”

“That’s not the point.”

“What is the point again?” I asked.

“Damn it, Jimmy. You never listen to me. The point is the week was terrible. They didn’t want to stay out late, and we hardly ever went shopping. I had to spend the money you gave me on fine dining for lunch. Lunch, Jimmy. They didn’t even want to do nice dinners. Just wanted to sit around in ugly clothes and bitch about their lives.”

“Isn’t that what women do?”

“Boring women, maybe. I wanted to go out and have fun. Go dancing and drinking and explore the city. But they kept talking about how they were tired and wanted to sleep and had no idea how I kept up the kind of schedule I did.”

“Your ... schedule,” I said with a grin.

“Seriously?” Nina asked.

“You don’t have a schedule.”

“Yes, I do. And I have to fit you into it all the time. Every time you call me and say you need me, I have to rearrange my social calendar.”

“At least I pay you to do it,” I said.

“You know what? I don’t like your attitude.”

“You’re the one who woke me up early.”

“Take me home. I’m ready to be home. I’m exhausted from the plane ride, and I still smell like pathetic lives and tears.”

“How becoming. And it’s my home, actually.”

“Not your place, Jimmy. You're making me angry too. I want to go back to my home. My apartment,” she said.

“You aren’t staying with me tonight?” I asked.

I looked over at her, and she gave me this deadpan look.

“What part of ‘I’m exhausted’ don’t you understand?” Nina asked.

“Sorry. I was still stuck on the ‘you’re making me angry’ part,” I said.

I drove her to her apartment and didn’t bother to help her with her luggage. I could tell she thought I was going to help. She stood out there waiting for me to get out of my car. But I was tired of her shenanigans and how she thought she was in control of how this relationship worked. She scoffed before she ripped open the back door of my car and then pulled her luggage out onto the ground. She was really making a show of things, huffing and puffing like her suitcase was the worst thing in the world. I watched her tug it up the stairs, her face scrunched up in fake effort to try and make me feel guilty.

I was too tired to feel guilty.

If she wanted me to feel guilty, she needed to try being a decent person.

I did want to make sure she got into her apartment safely. I wasn’t a monster, just fed up with her shit. I waited until the door closed behind her and then looked around my car. I wanted to make sure she didn’t leave anything with me before I backed out and headed home.

My mind was blank as I made my way back to my penthouse apartment. The drive was lonely, and the relief I felt at Nina not coming back with me was greater than it should’ve felt. She had been such a lovely woman at the beginning of all this, bright and vibrant and didn’t expect much. But the more I spoiled her for what she did for me, the more demanding she got. The more I requested her to be there for dinners and events, the more she thought she could ask of me. Yes, what we had was an arrangement, but that didn’t mean either of us had the right to take advantage of the other.

And it felt like she was taking advantage.

I pulled into the parking garage and sat in the corner. I was at the end of my rope with her. She had taken a two-week paid vacation on me to New York, and all she had in return was a bowlful of complaints. She was becoming an ungrateful bitch. I sighed and leaned my head against the seat, allowing my mind to drift off into the ethers. Nina was becoming insufferable, and her downsides were starting to outweigh her benefits.

But I had been with her for almost an entire year now, and ending our arrangement would make me look bad. Breaking a commitment to a woman who had become beloved to the public would cast a large shadow over my company. And what we needed right now was sunshine. Sunshine and smiles for the cameras and good interactions at the events we needed to attend.

Especially with our maneuver into the resort and hotel industry.

I dragged myself from my car and made my way to the elevator. I’d have to have a talk with Nina about her disposition. But later. In the future. I walked into the elevator and closed my eyes, allowing my tired body to relax against the wall.

It was then that she crashed over my conscious mind.

Ashley.

With her deep red hair and her big emerald eyes. Ashley, with her soft, innocent smile and her unassuming demeanor.

Ashley, who was the exact opposite of Nina.

Why couldn’t Nina be more like her?