Page 3 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
The driver looked through the rearview.
“Take her home,” Tommy said again.
“Yes sir,” the driver said, and drove away.
Marjorie Donaldson, a well-known and well-liked supermodel in the fashion industry and a much sought-after beauty among the elite in the world, was leaned against Tommy like a disappointed child as she fiddled with his expensive coat lapel. “You can’t do this to me, Tommy.”
“I’m not doing anything to you. We had this discussion last night. You said you understood. What changed overnight?”
“You know how much I love you. You can’t just break it off like that.”
“Break what off? What’s there to break off?”
“You know what I’m talking about. Our relationship.”
“You mean theopenrelationship we had that we ended last night?”
There was a pause.
“That’s the only relationship we had.”
She couldn’t get around it. “You know how I am.”
“What did I tell you when we first started dating? What did I tell you, Marge?”
“Not to do it.”
“Not to do what?”
Now Marjorie was angry. She leaned up. “Not to fall in love with your ass, okay?!”
“Because?”
“Because it’s not going to last. But you can’t help your heart, Tommy. It’s not that easy!” Then she looked her beautiful dark eyes into his bright greenish-blue eyes. “Tommy, please don’t leave me.” She began hugging him.
“Don’t do this, Marge,” he said as he attempted to remove her arms from around his neck. But she began kissing him desperately.
“Stop it,” Tommy was telling her as he continued to attempt to remove her arms from around his neck. “Didn’t I say stop!” he said as he shoved her away from him. Her body hit the back of the front seat. “Cut this shit out and cut it out now!” he ordered her.
Then he looked at her with a look that betrayed his inner bafflement. “What are you doing? All these men out here want you. You’re better than this.”
Marjorie knew it too. That was why she angrily wiped her tears, and her still-smeared mascara, with the back of her hand. And then slid over to the other side of the car like a petulant child.
Tommy tried to soften the blow. He tried to get her to come back to herself. “You knew what this was when we first hooked up, Marjorie. I told you I don’t make commitments. I told you I’ll never fall in love and that I only have open relationships. I am not a one-woman man, I told you that. You knew all of that going in.”
She looked at him. He could see nothing but pain and anguish in her eyes. “I heard you’re breaking up with everybody because you found somebody special. Is that true, Tommy?”
Tommy wasn’t about to discuss Grace with her or any of the other ladies in his life. “You’re wasting your time, Margie.”
“What’s she like? Is she better than me? Is he prettier than me?”
“Marge stop.”
“Is she, Tommy?” Then her look turned hard and cold. “But you know what? You’re right. I am better than this. But you’re always right. Aren’t you?”
Tommy frowned. “I’m always right? Where did that come from?”
Then she managed to smile. “Happy now?” she said as she opened the door of the speeding limousine, and then threw herself out onto the street.
