Breakfast at Tiffanys

 

Certain Things Redacted as These People Are Still Alive and Kicking.

A conversation I had with Nicco while we were driving the company van around the West Bay.

I was about 30, she 24. Nicco was an Audrey Hepburn gamine, RI style that is. Change the hair color to auburn and there you have her. She was born pretty and quickly realized that fact as I was told by her not-born-as-pretty sister.

We were passing Freedom Boat Club in Warwick, right by Chelo's Waterfront, when she nearly crawled into my lap as I was driving to look out the window for a particular car.

“Ohhh..he's not there...his car isn't there....his boat is in dock though.” she lamented.

I ask, “Which boat is that?”

She points to one of those cabin cruisers that had long tinted windows that seemed to wrap around the ship. My first reaction was lottery winnings. Nope. She went on to tell me he was part owner of the marina there and had numerous homes in West Greenwich and worked as a managing associate at IDS Financial. Which struck me for a bit because I had interviewed with them years prior when I was toying getting out of social services.

She then opened up an odd conversation with me that she never broached before. We had known each other at the job for about two years. She then dropped the following into my lap.

“Do you think it's wrong to be a 'kept woman?'” she asked.

“I guess so if you delude yourself into thinking you're not when you are, it'll be a problem.”

That was a polite way of softening my original thought: “If you're open to yourself as selling yourself as a high priced whore...I see no problem.”

She goes on.

“We met a few weeks ago at Christie's Landing in Newport. After a few dates, he said he'd pave the way for me. I could quit this job and never work again. I'd have everything I'd want if I...” and she trailed off.

“...fuck him as his personal 'lil' slut?” I almost wanted to say.

Nicco could come off as naive and innocent but I was told it was all an act. Her pissed off sister told me so once. Nicco had spent her dating life constantly “trading up” boyfriends as she discovered richer ones. Her sister, who wasn't ugly by any means, seems to have held a grudge against how easy Nicco's life could be at times, as guys fell over themselves to ingratiate themselves with her. Those same boys did not fall over for the sister though.

Nicco was a Days of Our Lives soap opera addict. She had told me a few years earlier she had gone to a “Meet n Greet” of those actors there in LA. Specifically to meet the character “Tony DiMera.” aka: Thaao Penghlis, a Greek actor that was sort of tall, dark and handsome. It sort of reminded me of those girls who wait in the greasy back alleys of concert venues, hoping to be picked by the lead singer/guitarist for a chance to have at an Alpha Male with lots of MONEY!

She wasn't the only girl there and managed to meet Thaao for 88 seconds before they moved the line of women along. A lost chance.

In that van that day, with her admission, which was sort of her thinking out loud if anything, cemented all the pieces of the puzzle together for me. She was a gold digger. An up and coming pretty face that had to make it by 30 or the game was over for her. She wasn't well educated by any means, kinda dumb but she was “girl street smart” as hell. She knew exactly which career path to take and had a definite goal. I came to find out her personal social skill set was devastating too.

Soo, time passes, I move on with my job/career and people I knew from then drift away, which was about 30 years ago now. But, I love to look up people and see “where are they now” and I found her.

She did it. She found that one CEO to marry. A guy involved with oil company computer security with ARAMCO..the giant Saudi/US oil conglomerate. I also came across a few pictures of her, by accident, on one of her friend's site. There she was, older, but sitting in a Gulfstream G7 private jet, holding a thumbs up sign, smiling into the camera as they flew to Gstaad Switzerland.

My mouth nearly dropped. Gtsaad! A private jet! Holy Sh*t thought I. She really did hit the husband lottery. There were just four other women on that plane and I tried to think what it costs to rent a G7...or perhaps use as a tax write off as a “business trip”...a rich wives' adventure to a very exclusive town in Switzerland.

She was probably the only gold digger girl I knew to have “made it.” All the others I had met blew it by screwing up the romance or didn't realize they'd be traded in for a younger, fresher version when they hit 28. I've seen that happen a few time as the boyfriend wants to trade in his old hag of a lease for a perky fresh 20 year old one.

So, did I try to get her when I knew her then? Yes. She was floating in between boyfriends when I started working on her. I got a well crafted “kiss off” in the parking lot one day after I had asked her out. I admit, she was really good at getting rid of guys who didn't measure up and I didn't. I didn't own a yacht nor did my career path say “Hamptons on Long Island”

“Oh..thank you.” she says, tracing her finger up and down my forearm, “But I'm not looking for a relationship right now...you can understand right?” And she leans in for a quick kiss on the cheek.

That face. Those eyes. That lion's mane of hair. The way she cocked her body as she listened to me. All of it disarms a guy in seconds. It did me.

After that blow off, I had told her sister what happened and how amazing Nicco's skills were. The sister, just rolled her eyes, “Dammit...she's been like that since she was FIVE! She ALWAYS got her way!”