As I walked over to the pawn shop I started thinking I could probably buy myself something too with the money I was about to get, as my Rolex was worth around $30,000 and I was sure to get a lot of money for it at the pawn shop.
“How much will you give me for this Rolex?” I asked the foreign looking individual behind the counter of the pawn shop. He took the watch from me and by the way his eyes almost bulged right out of his head I could tell that he knew it was real Rolex. He turned it over and looked at it from all angles before looking back at me with his little snake eyes and he had a nasty sneer on his face. He probably thought the watch was stolen or something and I could see that he was setting me up for a rip-off.
“It’s cheap imitation. I can give only $100,” he said in very broken English.
“What? That watch is worth $30,000!”
“I pay $100 so take it or leave it,” the bastard replied and I was just about to tell him to go and lovingly fuck himself somewhere when I thought again about Justin and how happy he would be if I bought him the gifts I had in mind.
“You know what? Let’s just do it!” I said and the pawn shop owner smiled greedily as he handed me a hundred dollar bill and then he handed me some papers to sign away my ownership of the Rolex.
I walked out of the shop and was surprised at how happy I felt after being ripped off that way. I felt totally free for the first time in my life and it almost seemed like I had won the lottery for some reason. I started whistling as I walked over to the TV shop where I’d been looking at the special and ten minutes later I was out with the gifts I’d bought for Justin. The store clerk had neatly wrapped it for me and I was ready to go and light up the heart of a very special little kid. I had some money left so I stopped by the supermarket and got some little surprises for Emily too.
I took home all of the gifts I’d bought and that’s when I realized that it wouldn’t be all that smart for me to leave it all at home the next day, as there was no one around to look after my apartment during the day while I was at work and I wasn’t staying in the greatest neighborhood, to put it mildly.
I sat down on my cheap couch for a while and then decided that it was time to take a bit of initiative. Emily had said, after all, that I could come around again sometime and I thought that it would probably be okay if I just went ahead and took the gifts over to her place right away. If she was busy with something else I would leave it there and go right back to my own apartment, no problem.
I realized that I was probably going a bit faster now than Emily wanted the relationship between us to develop, but I also thought that she was being overly cautious and that she could do with a little push in the right direction from time to time and that this could be exactly that kind of little push. It was quite a mission to carry all of the gifts I’d bought and I must have been quite a sight to behold as I wobbled on the street with all of the wrapped parcels in my arms.
When I finally got to Emily’s place I carefully put down all of the wrapped gifts behind me and knocked on her door.
“Hope I’m not disturbing your busy social schedule,” I said with a broad grin as Emily finally opened the door of her apartment. She looked surprised for just a second and then rolled her eyes in her head and finally seemed to let go of whatever reservations she’d had of just letting the relationship between us develop naturally. She smiled at me standing there in her doorway like a fool and then stood aside for me to come in.
“I’m getting ready to welcome all the rest of my guests but you can come in for just a second,” Emily said sarcastically and I was extremely glad that she didn’t seem too upset that I’d arrived there unannounced.
“Just a moment, I have some things here I need to carry in,” I said and picked up the gifts behind me.
“What are those?” Emily asked and I could see that she was very curious about the wrapped packages I’d brought with me.
“Just a little something for Justin,” I replied.
“That’s wonderful! But nothing for his mother?” Emily asked with mock disappointment.
“Of course there’s something for her too, I said and took out the massive box of chocolates and flowers I’d bought for Emily with the money that was left after I’d paid for Justin’s gifts.
Emily looked at me with a strange expression and then put her arms around my neck.
“Just what am I going to do with you Nathan?” she said and kissed me on my lips.
“Oh, I have a couple of suggestions,” I replied and she abruptly pulled me inside her apartment.
“Come inside before we get the neighbors yapping about us making out in public,” Emily said and I just laughed. I carried all of the boxes inside and then Justin saw me from where he was sitting in the living room.
“Nathan!” he shouted and ran up to me as if he was my very own son.
“How are you, tiger?” I asked and ruffled my hands through the little guy’s hair, “I’ve brought you something!”
It wasn’t long before Justin had ripped the wrappings off of his gifts and he looked as if he was ready to jump right through the roof with excitement when he realized that I’d bought him some TV games and little TV to play them on. I helped him to set up the PlayStation and TV games and soon we were engrossed in a TV game of gridiron football against each other and Emily just stood there watching us while we carried on like two little boys.
“I really can’t believe what you’ve done,” Emily suddenly said out of the blue and for some reason I got the feeling that she wasn’t quite as pleased with my actions as I’d hoped she would be.
I played with Justin for a little while longer and then Emily announced that it was time for Justin to go to bed. He finally went off to his room after complaining that it was still too early and then Emily said that she was feeling very tired and that she had to get an early night.
“Are you upset with the gifts I’ve bought for Justin?” I asked just before kissing her good night.
“No, I’m not upset…I’m just really very tired. Maybe you can come over again some other night when I’ve had a little rest,” Emily said and waved me goodbye before closing the door of her apartment behind her.
I turned around and started walking home; feeling more than just a little confused. I’d just pawned my $30,000 Rolex earlier that day to be able to afford the gifts for Emily and her son and the only thing I’d succeeded in doing was to upset Emily for some unfathomable reason.
“One day when I figure it all out I’m going to write a book about women and how to understand them,” I whispered to myself. “But then again,” I thought, “all of the pages of my little book will probably be blank.
As I walked home I thought about that crazy party I’d attended on Janine Riley’s yacht the night when I was supposed to pick up the Chinese delegation at the airport. I remembered how the most important challenge in my life at the time was trying to figure out a way to pick up the Chinese guys at the airport and make it back to yacht party before Janine ended up in someone else’s arms.
Now the challenges I faced in my life included struggling just to scrape together enough money to pay the rent for the shitty little flat I lived in; a place so uncomfortably small I would never even have kept a pet dog in it, it was so shabby. I also had to try and figure out why I was suddenly in a woman’s bad books after spending several weeks working overtime so I could buy her son some wonderful gifts to brighten up his otherwise dreary life.
I had certainly come a long way from being the carefree playboy who roamed the streets in his silver Porsche with no care or thought for the day of tomorrow, apart from wondering which party to attend next and which girl to chase down.
EMILY
I realized now that Nathan had a wonderful heart and that I’d been wrong about him. He wasn’t just some playboy with immature intentions, but a young man who cared a lot for others. I felt a little guilty about the way I’d sent Nathan off after he’d brought us the wonderful gifts, but I was initially a little shell-
shocked and didn’t quite know what to say after he’d arrived so unexpectedly at my door. I was totally intent on making up for my offish behavior towards Nathan some time soon, although I thought it would be good if I could convince him to be slightly more responsible with his money.
I was just about to start thinking of a possible relationship with Nathan and a way we could work things out so he could come and see Justin and me more often, when disaster struck. My mom phoned and told me that my dad had to go to hospital for an emergency medical procedure to keep his diabetes in check and that if he didn’t go soon his life would be in danger. I knew that my mom wasn’t trying to ask for money or anything, but I really had no choice other than to send her the little money I had in my bank account so that she could take my dad to the hospital. This included the money that I’d set aside to pay the rent, which was due within the next couple of days. My next paycheck from the factory would be way too late to pay the rent with and, in any event, it wouldn’t nearly be enough.
I felt like my whole world had come crashing in around me and I simply didn’t know what I was going to do to pay the rent the next month. The more I thought about it the more I realized that there was only one solution to my predicament. As much as I hated it there simply was no other way for Justin and me to survive. I knew that I was probably going to be making myself very unpopular with the people around me, but I was getting used to that by now.
I had no idea what to say to Nathan after I’d taken the very hard decision about how I was going to pay the rent and tried avoiding all of his questions at work, which was very difficult as he was still working right next to me on the assembly line.
It was simply horrible! Fate was now driving a wedge between us just when Nathan had proven himself to me as a very caring and considerate person. I wished I could sit down and just explain to Nathan the full extent of the financial difficulties I found myself in. He seemed to be fairly poor himself yet still, for some unknown reason, Nathan didn’t quite seem to have a full grasp of the real value of money. He didn’t even own a car, yet he’d gone and blown all of his savings on the expensive gifts he’d bought for Justin and me!
I knew that I would have to have an honest talk with Nathan sometime about it all but I had no idea how I was going to explain to him how difficult it was for me to get involved in a real relationship with him while I was going under the incredible financial strain that was tying me down. I also suspected that the solution I’d come up with to help me pay the rent, after I’d sent all of my life savings off to my parents, would not go down all that well with Nathan at all, once he finally found out about it.
NATHAN
For some reason Emily was now totally avoiding me at work and no matter how I tried to find out what was wrong, she wouldn’t open up to me about it at all.
Never before in my life had I been so totally confused by the way a girl was acting around me.
I knew that Emily found me attractive…even though I no longer had my silver Porsche and credit cards to give me that extra swagger I still knew that I wasn’t half bad looking and I could see how Emily stared at my biceps at work every now and then when she thought I wasn’t looking.
I guess you could say that I was learning some things the hard way. Not only could money not buy a girl like Emily’s affections; it apparently had the exact opposite effect on her as my most generous gifts had now somehow created a rift between us. I couldn’t give a damn about the fact that I’d spent all of my savings on the gifts, but I still needed some kind of explanation from Emily as to why she was avoiding me after I’d gone to such great lengths to bring a bit of sunshine and happiness into her and her son’s lives.
“Why are you avoiding me?” I asked her for the hundredth time.
“I’m not avoiding you, I just have a lot on my mind,” she said and I could see that no amount of additional prodding and questioning was going to yield any further information, so I left it there.
Something was very wrong somewhere and I was determined to find out what it was. Perhaps Emily was having some kind of trouble with her ex-husband or something like that and, although I had no idea how I would be able to help her with such a problem, I still felt an urgent to need to find out what was wrong. I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the working day and it felt quite strange to be standing there in the work station right next to her without making little jokes and chatting away like we’d always done before.
Not for the first time since I’d met Emily, I walked home with a puzzled expression on my face after work; wondering how I could figure out what my next move should be and racking my brains for a solution to the breakdown in communication between Emily and I. Despite the fact that I was feeling slightly anxious about the whole thing I tried to relax as I thought about what was going on with Emily. I decided to approach it almost like some kind of epic quest as I tried to figure out a way back to her warm embrace. I couldn’t imagine that I had done something to offend her in some kind of way that she didn’t want to tell me about, as she’d always been very quick to tell me when I was doing something that was irritating her. I felt confident that I would eventually figure out what was going on with her and relaxed as I walked home in the late afternoon sun.
Not for the first time since I’d met Emily, I started whistling as I thought about her on my way back home to my humble little apartment, not far from my dad’s electronic factory in Round Rock, Texas.
I got home and took a shower to wash away some of the sweat and grime from another hard day’s work at the factory. The shower heads didn’t work that well and I was confined to another lukewarm shower, which left me feeling slightly annoyed and unsatisfied afterwards. I lay down on my couch and just closed my eyes to relax. This had become something of a habit for me during the weeks I’d now spent without even the basic luxuries of a TV and radio to keep me entertained. I found that I could see things more clearly when I thought about everything this way at the end of the day and this occasion was no different. I realized that something was up with Emily and that she, for whatever unknown reason, didn’t feel like she could talk to me about it.
There was only one solution, no matter from how many different angles I looked at the problem. I would have to scrape up the courage to go and see Emily again at her apartment, despite the fact that my last visit there had been so disastrous.
Sometimes it only takes ten seconds of incredible courage to make a miracle happen my mother always used to say to me and I now realized that I was going to have to follow my mother’s advice if I was to have any kind of hope of getting through the obstacles in my way. It had been a while since I’d thought about anything my mother had taught me through the years and I suddenly wondered if I’d been neglecting my relationship with my mother.
I called my mom on the payphone outside the factory every now and then and she always assured me that she was constantly speaking to my dad to try and convince him to just let go of the silly idea of forcing me to prove myself. I truly appreciated the fact that she was sticking op for me at home, albeit with no signs of success, and I decided to make more of an effort to talk to my mom and take care of her if I was ever fortunate enough to make it back to my privileged place in the sun back home in Malibu.
Ten seconds of incredible courage I whispered to myself and got up from the couch. How bad could it be? The worst thing that could happen was that Emily could chase me away and tell me never to come bother her and Justin ever again.
I shut the front door of my apartment behind me at about 7 pm and started walking, very slowly, in the direction of Emily’s apartment two blocks away from my own. I knew that she wasn’t working overtime, as I’d managed to finesse that little piece of information out of her despite her general reluctance to talk to me at all on the assembly line, so I knew there was at least a good chance that she would be at home. I had no idea what I was going to say to her and hoped that I would be able to come up with something on the spot. I didn’t expect her to have anyone
else there with her in her apartment, but it was at least possible that there could be some kind of nasty surprise waiting for me, such as an angry ex-husband or something. I slowly walked the rest of the way over to Emily’s apartment, chasing up ghosts in my mind as I went along.
When I finally stood in front of her apartment my heart was beating like crazy in my chest and I felt excited and terrified at the same time. Whatever the reason for Emily’s strange avoidance of any communication with me had been, I was probably about to very shortly find out what it was.
I knocked three times and Emily opened after a couple of seconds. She looked at me for the longest time without saying anything and then promptly burst into tears.
“No, please don’t cry,” I said and took her in my arms, “Whatever is wrong we will find a way to work it all out.”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to do it but I had no choice and now you’re going to hate me forever!” Emily sobbed. She was making absolutely no sense so I walked her inside and closed the door of her apartment behind us.
“What are you talking about? I asked and gently wiped away her tears with my fingers.
“The TV and PlayStation you bought for Justin…I had to sell it to pay the rent!” Emily sobbed and her whole body shook as she cried uncontrollably in my arms.
It was like a shot of cold water in my face. I felt quite upset about the fact that Emily had sold the TV and PlayStation and thought little Justin probably felt the same way about it. The only thing I felt grateful about was that I finally knew what had been troubling Emily.
“If you had to do it then you had to do it,” I said and kissed her on her forehead. I tried my best to keep my emotions in check, but an almost irrational anger was building up inside me.
Big Bad Billionaires [Volume 2] Page 43
