had been expensive, especially with the remodel. She hardly saw Nigel now that he wasn’t working. He was going to the pub a lot at night to meet up with friends.
“I’ll drive you out to see the country house in Sussex tomorrow.” She’d only been to see it once herself. It was beautiful and peaceful, but she feared that Nigel’s remodel to modernize it would be extensive, and provide another excuse for him not to work.
“Why all these houses?” Sam looked baffled. He knew she had inherited a large fortune from her parents, but she wasn’t given to showing off like this. It was obviously all Nigel. He took their social life very seriously, although it had slowed down recently after he was fired, and she quit her job.
“I think he wants to impress his friends. He wants us to entertain, and give house parties in the country. That’s a little grand for me, and a huge amount of work to entertain fifteen or twenty or thirty people for a weekend. And it costs a fortune. He just lost his job, by the way. He wants to take the summer off, and start looking in September.”
“How do you feel about that?” Sam asked, concerned.
“I don’t like it,” she said honestly. “He pressured me into buying this house, and made a commitment to a friend to buy the place in Sussex without even telling me till after he did it. Things are a little rocky. I told him that if he makes another purchase like that without consulting me, I’d leave him. He spends a hell of a lot of money.” She looked worried and Sam wasn’t surprised.
“It sounds like he’s gotten very grand since you two got married. He wasn’t like that before, was he?”
“He likes the good life, and we certainly went to some very fancy homes on our weekends away together, but now he wants to give parties like that, not just go to them. He likes to live a glamorous life, and he has a very good idea of what I’ve inherited from my parents from the declaration of assets in our prenup, and he did some research before.”
Sam was disturbed to hear it, but not surprised. “And you didn’t,” he reminded her. “He sounds very entitled. He didn’t strike me that way last year.” He had been respectful of Coco then, but his ideas had been somewhat grandiose even before they married.
“He promised me he wouldn’t do it again. I hope he means it. I want him to get a job. It’s embarrassing to have to push him about it. He said something about how pointless it is for him to work, given what I have. But I’m working. I think he should too.” He had some savings, but he would be totally dependent on her when that ran out, which would be soon.
They both knew she had married him too quickly and didn’t know him well enough. It had been obvious even then that Nigel liked living in the fast lane, and wanted a Great Gatsby kind of life, which Coco didn’t. She’d let him pull her into it, but she didn’t want to buy houses left and right to keep him happy. That kind of spending frightened her, no matter how much money she had. With her parents’ example, she wasn’t irresponsible about her money.
“Ed says I’m okay, but I won’t be forever if Nigel keeps spending this way.”
Sam was worried for her as they drove back to her mews house, which was a far cry from the mansion she had just bought.
“When are you moving in?”
“Supposedly in August. The country house will be finished in September, and I’ll have to hire people to run it.” It was a very luxurious lifestyle for a twenty-three-year-old girl with a brand-new husband without a penny to his name, or a job. But he had always told her that he had no money. She just didn’t know that he was going to spend hers like a drunken sailor, and then get fired on top of it.
Nigel was out when they got home, which didn’t surprise her. Sam had a glass of wine, and they sat on the couch and talked with his arm around her. They talked about his family, working with his father, and Tamar, who was devoted and loyal, and even willing to help with his father’s business on the weekends. She was helping them with the billing. It made Sam feel even