Author's Notes: Yet another chapter I'm not too fond of, which probably means everyone will love it :) Sorry this is so short, but I'm taking off on vacation soon, and I wanted to post something before I leave. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and keep them coming. It's great to know people are reading this.



Benny, as I soon discovered, lived by order and routine. He was happiest when he made out a schedule for his day and stuck to it religiously. That was the secret to success, he told me. You have to plan your time well if you want any of it to be productive.

"Take it from me, Mimi," he told me over and over. "Use your time wisely, and don't be afraid to work hard, and there's no limit to what you can accomplish in life."

I always laughed at him when he said this. Perhaps he had ten years to spend building his empire, but I would be lucky if I had half of that. I'd be damned if I was going to spend my remaining time as a slave to some words scribbled on paper.

But like I said before, Benny thrived on predictability. And as his girlfriend, I had to fit into that schedule of his. Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday nights involved Benny showing up at my apartment, sometimes with flowers, sometimes with dinner, but always precisely at seven thirty. What we did afterwards varied, but he was always gone by midnight at the latest. He had to be at the office by eight, he told me. And Alison would get suspicious if he wasn't asleep in bed with her when she got up at six.

His being married didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I had slept with several married men during my days with Eddie, and had come to adopt the opinion that you can't break up a happy marriage. Benny was the one who had started this, I kept telling myself. If it wasn't me, then he would just be fooling around with some other girl.

It also didn't bother me in that I wasn't jealous of Alison in the slightest. Maybe because I wasn't in love with Benny. I was fond of him, yes, and he could be extremely charming at times. But I didn't love him. How could I give my heart to a man who was cheating on his wife every time he kissed me?

Sometimes he would show up at the club on Friday nights, and sit in a table at the back while I danced. I didn't like it when he did that. I'd learned back when I started the job that the more I flirted with the guys, the more I got in tips. It felt too weird when I knew Benny was watching me. I could feel his eyes boring into me, and his disapproval radiating from across the room.

"Mimi, why do you stay at that place?" he asked me once, as we were walking home after my shift. "Why don't you get a more respectable job somewhere?"

I bristled immediately. "Are you saying I'm not respectable enough for you?"

"I'm saying that working in a place like this reflects badly upon you," Benny said in that calm, even voice that I'd come to hate. "Why don't you let me set you up with a nice office job somewhere?"

I rolled my eyes. "You mean to tell me that you're going to use your father-in-law's influence to get your mistress a job?"

"Mimi, you can do better than this!" he insisted. "There are other, more respectable fields of employment--"

"You know what?" I snapped at him. "I tried to get one of those nice, respectable jobs. I must have walked all over Manhattan when I moved here. And no one would hire me, because I wasn't respectable enough for them."

"Maybe you weren't going about it right," Benny persisted. "You know, first impressions are everything--"

"Benny, stop it!" I shouted. "I'm not one of those nice, respectable girls! Everyone knows it! And you know it!"

We had reached my apartment building by this time, and Benny dragged me inside, with a bit more force than was necessary. "Mimi Marquez, I don't want to hear you talking like that," he instructed me. "You're a beautiful young woman, and I'm not going to have you throw your life away dancing in some trashy night club!"

"There you go." I threw up my hands. "I'm beautiful. Not intelligent, not hard working, just some pretty slut for you to have a fling with, right?"

"Is that what you think I'm doing?" Benny demanded. "You think I'm into this for the thrill of slumming it?"

"Don't play stupid with me," I warned him. "You don't like me because I'm intellectually stimulating. You like me because I know all these dirty little tricks that you'd never dream of asking Muffy for. That's it, isn't it?"

"Of course not!" he exclaimed.

He looked genuinely wounded, and I felt bad for having been so harsh. "I'm sorry, Benny."

I let him fold me into his arms, and breathed in the familiar scent of that expensive cologne he always wore. He led me up the stairs to my apartment, and opened the door. No sooner had he shut it behind us than his hands were tugging my sweater over my head, and fumbling with the zipper in back of my skirt.

I stepped away from him. "Benny, I'm really tired. I just worked an eight hour shift."

"That didn't stop you last week," he protested as he tossed his jacket onto the sofa and stripped his own shirt off in one fluid movement.

"I mean it, Benny." I bent down to pick up my sweater. "Not tonight. I'm too tired."

"Oh, come on, Mimi," he insisted, pulling the sweater out of my hands, balling it up, and sending it sailing across the room. "I've had a long day too, and I need to unwind. This won't take long."

His words sounded more slurred than normal, and I wondered how many drinks he'd had tonight, and why it had taken me this long to notice. "Tomorrow, I promise," I told him, in an attempt to placate him. "For sure."

"No good." He shook his head. "Alison's father and I are going golfing at his country club all day tomorrow."

"Well, what's wrong with Sunday night?" I insisted. "It was always fine for you before."

"What's wrong with tonight?" he shot back. "If you spent eight hours being sexy for perfect strangers, why can't you spare fifteen minutes for your boyfriend?"

I flung open my door, not caring that I was still in my bra, or that my skirt was hanging loosely about my waist. "Benny, get out."

He looked at me in astonishment. "You're kidding, right?"

"Get. Out." I snatched up his shirt and tossed it into the hallway.

"Mimi, you can't do this," he insisted. "Come on, don't make this harder than it has to be."

I folded my arms. "Benny, you own the building. You own my apartment. But you don't own me. Are we clear?"

"I can't believe you're doing this." He shook his head. "Mimi, you're about to make a very serious mistake."

"Maybe so, but I don't care." I grabbed his arm and shoved him out into the hall. "Goodbye, Benny."

"Oh, all right," he grumbled. "I'll see you on Sunday."

"Actually," I began, "I don't think that's such a good idea."

He blinked. "What?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," I repeated. "And I don't think you and me is a good idea either."

"You're breaking up with me?" he asked in astonishment. "Mimi, don't be stupid."

"Benny, I've done a lot of dumb things in my lifetime," I told him. "But regardless of what you may think, I'm not stupid."

And with that, I slammed the door in his face.