"…so you've gotta teach me how to be selfish, 'cause you do it all the time and get away with it. Not that it's a bad thing! I mean, I don't want you thinkin' that I'm putting you down or anything. I just know that it's what you are, and Nikolas likes it, and he lets you get away with it, so I thought maybe you'd be able to teach me to get away with it because Zander doesn't take me seriously when I do it sometimes, so I gotta do it all the time, right?"
Gia Campbell laid on the sofa, her head against the arm, eyes closed. By her estimation, Emily had been talking for at least ten minutes non-stop, and there was no telling when she would quit. A young woman unaccustomed to friends and socializing on a regular basis, her patience for this kind of interaction was thing. However, she'd promised her fianceé that she would be nice, and she was doing her best to keep that promise.
She knew that Emily wasn't trying to be insulting. They had both come a long way since their initial meeting, which included a very scheming Gia spinning a web of blackmail over the adopted Quartermaine. Since then, they had both ended up in relationships that neither would have guessed for themselves and had grown up enough to be relatively comfortable in their own skin. Were it anyone else who spoke so evenly and truthful to Gia, as in Elizabeth Webber or Lucky Spencer, she would have been instantly offended and banished them from Windemere. Emily, however, was no more cruel than she was selfish.
A long silence prevailed and Gia opened her eyes. She sat up and looked at Emily. The brunette stared at her with wide eyes. Gia shook her head. "Oh, you're done. Didn't want to interrupt. A princess has to have manners, or so I'm told."
In truth, Gia was rather proud of her demeanor and the fact that it was one thing that wasn't changed when she entered the life of Nikolas Cassadine. There was so much that everyone told her was wrong, so much of her behavior that she had been instructed to change in order to be a productive member of society. Her selfishness, however, was one thing that wouldn't go away. Her entire life, she had believed herself to be a princess and in a few months time, that would come true. And a princess was required to be selfish. She was supposed to know what she wanted and never betray that. It wasn't her fault that she knew what she wanted and others didn't know how to fight for the same thing.
"Can you help?" Emily leaned forward and her eyes were wide with anticipation and desperation. "I tried, I really did. I begged him not to go out and I told him, I was like, You can't go because I need you here, and he just brushed it off. I think he thought it was cute, and… you can't be cute when you're selfish, can you?"
"Ah, but Gia's cute every time she's selfish." Nikolas Cassadine entered the huge family room with a smirk. He stopped for a second and leaned against the doors, his arms crossed. He winked at both women, then walked across the room. He lifted Gia's feet and sat down, resting her legs on his lap. She folded herself in half, then stretched out again to land with her head in his lap. Nikolas leaned down and kissed her, then looked up at Emily. "You don't need to be selfish, Em. Zander likes you the way you are."
"Yeah, but the way I am doesn't get me anything." She sighed and fell back. Normally, she wouldn't have come to Nikolas with most issues, at least not first. And she most certainly wouldn't have come to Gia for help. Unfortunately, Zander was off doing his dangerous business thing, and Lucky was part of that, so her support system had been wittled away. "I'm selfish every now and then, but they just laugh at me and think it's cute or sweet, but they don't take me seriously. You take Gia seriously no matter how cute she is."
"That's because I'm a master at it." Gia smirked and sat up. She reached back and held onto the arm of the sofa while she pulled herself back, landing with a thump on Nikolas's lap. "And because I've always been this way, and people expect it of me. You…" She sighed. "You're too good to be selfish."
"I'm too pure to be pink," Emily muttered as she slouched down in the overstuffed leather chair. She folded her arms and pouted. "Ya know, I'm really tired of being the good one. Sometimes I wish I could be more like you. I mean, you don't care what people think and they know it, so you can get away with anything. Most people don't even like you but that doesn't matter, because you don't care."
Gia sighed. Again, she knew Emily wasn't being cruel as much as honest, but sometimes, honesty could hurt. In truth, she did care that people didn't like her, she just didn't let that show. To walk into a room and instantly have eyes narrow in her direction made her skin crawl, but at the same time, it stiffened her spine. It also added a cold air to her that only caused people to dislike her more. Well, in that case, she didn't care, because she was not going to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they could get to her, that they could hurt her. Besides, Nikolas liked her, and that was what counted.
"As long as Nikolas loves me, I could care less what people like Elizabeth and the Quartermaines think of me. When I'm a princess, they'll all wish they had what I have."
"And that is?"
"The common sense to know that you can't please everyone and the even greater sense to know that yes, you can actually get what you want." Gia turned to Nikolas and kissed the corner of his mouth, then slid off of his lap. She tossed her legs around to sit up straight, then leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "You really want to know how to get what you want?"
Emily leaned forward more. "Desperately."
"Simple. Open your eyes and realize you have it." Gia leaned back and rolled her eyes. "Look at your life, Emily. You've got this family that dotes on you, swears that you're the greatest thing since the Hope Diamond. You've got Zander who loves you more than anybody could imagine. He would die for you. And everybody adores you. So what if he had to go out, that's a part of life. Nikolas's uncle and grandmother hate me, and they tried to break us up more times than I can count, but in the end, I still have him. He fights Helena and I tell him to just let it rest, but he doesn't. He goes, and Zander will go, but you know he'll come back."
"That doesn't really help me," Emily muttered. "I mean, yeah, my life is great and all that, but… I don't know. I mean, it's not easy to be the good one, the one that everybody expects to be perfect. It's the reason Jason and I still got along after his accident, because we're not perfect, no matter how much they want us to be. And it's why I stick by AJ, because he's not perfect and everybody knows it. They just crap on him and…" She sighed. "And this is just ridiculous. I'm just not a selfish person. It's not in me to be selfish all the time. I mean, sure it works for you, and Nikolas likes it, but…"
"But, nothing," Nikolas said. "Em, you don't have to be selfish to get your way with Zander. You just have to let him know that you'll stick by him. I still don't necessarily like the guy…"
"Nikolas…"
"But, I know you do," he said around her interruption. "And I know what it's like to have people look at you because you messed up a time or two. As long as you keep looking at him like that, like you don't care what he's done as long as he loves you now, he'll always give you what you want eventually."
"Is that how Gia does it? Because she doesn't look at you like that?"
"No, I get what I want because I'm a princess." Gia smirked, then laughed. "And it's Nikolas that looks at me like that, which means he gets what he wants."
"Exactly," Nikolas said with a grin.
Emily looked at the two of them and shook her head. "You two… you shouldn't be a working couple. You should be… I don't know. As far apart as two people can be, but you are, so… I don't know." She sighed and slouched further in the chair. "If you say that's how to do it, then I guess I'll have to do it 'cause I can't think of anybody else that I know of who's better at getting their way… without killing anybody, that is."
"So let the selfish thing go," Gia told her. "It doesn't work for you, anyway. Stick with cute and leave the harder stuff to me. I'm just better at it."
