New Year, New Money

“Happy almost New Year, baby,” Mira smiled, setting down one of two bubbly glass of champagne on the wooden coffee table in front. She sat down against the couch arm; legs curled up underneath her while her red silk cover dangled in open air. With a tiny smile, Mira took a sip of her own champagne, marking her glass with red lipstick. The illuminated lights against the night sky seeped into the room, outlining distinct features of her body, almost like a glow. Her azure eyes stayed locked with Dorian’s.

              Dorian, who was sitting on the opposite side of the couch, eyed the sparkly glass and took a deep breath. “Isn’t it a bit early to pop the bottle?”

              Mira chuckled, and swung her head down. “Isn’t it a bit too early to be moping about the new year?” She took another sip, trying to meet his eyes.

              “I just-“ Dorian paused, eyes locked on the shimmering liquid, avoiding her glare. “I have a lot to think about for next year.”

              Carefully raising her arms and throwing her head back, Mira exclaimed, “Well, just push those thoughts to the back of your mind, because this is a time of celebration!” The excitement in her eyes sparkled like rays of glitter.

              A small, forced smile cracked on Dorians lift. With a little head nod, he leaned over to grab his drink. There was a long pause of silence, with only the small movements of Dorian and Mira taking small sips of their champagne and quick glances at each other.

              Mira broke the silence. “So, I’m curious. Since you’ve been working so much and I barely get a chance to talk to you, I’ve been wanting to ask you. What is your New Year’s Resolution? Mine is to work out and lose this extra blubber,” She giggled and set her comfort drink down on the table.  

              The silence crawled back. Dorian kept his head lowered and slightly shook his head.

              Mira tilted her head and puckered her lips. “Oh, come on! Everyone has at least one resolution for the new year!” She picked the glass up from the table. “Rebirth, that’s what I like to call it. You can name one at least one, honey.” Her deep red lips curling into a reassuring smile just for him.

              Dorian’s breath skipped, but he tried his best to keep it unnoticeable. His thumbs carefully traced the circular outline at the bottom of the glass, the red and purple beads playing a sweet tune to keep him distracted. “To save money,” he mumbled.

              Mira’s eyebrows furrowed and twisted her head slightly, so her ear faced him. “What was that pumpkin? I couldn’t hear you.”

              “T-To save money.” Dorian said, flatly.

              With a little shake of the head and widen eyes, Mira’s head drifted backwards, like a little explosion happened right in front of her. Then, a smile broke through with a little laugh. “What do you mean, sweetie? Your job pays an exponential amount of money which supplies us both with all the riches we have!”

              Dorian couldn’t form a sentence.

              Mira’s smile quickly dropped as she scooted closer to him. “Dorian, baby… what aren’t you telling me?”

              For the first time, Dorian locked glares with his wife, a coat of glass blurring his vision. “The business…” he whispered.

              With her free hand, Mira combed his hair with her fingers, trying to sooth his anxiety. “What about the business?” She cooed.

              Dorian couldn’t hold back and let the words fall out. “We are getting sued millions. One of my customers said that an employee of mine harassed them in some way. I didn’t get much of the details as I was told about this just this afternoon. But word spreads like wildfire in this large city. Clients and contractors are dropping like flies, scarring our company’s name and what we stand for.” Dorian stood up from the couch, letting Mira’s hand fall limply on the seat he once was in. “As a result, my company is moving to the brink of bankruptcy.” Dorian flung his hands to his head.” I won’t be able to pay for my employees, and I won’t be able to provide for me, us, or this house anymore!” With a swift kick, the potted plant next to the table went flying and cracked upon impact with the wall.

              Mira followed in his footsteps and stood up. Placing her chilled hands on his shoulders, she could feel the tension that had quickly built up in his little outburst. “Look, baby, I will change my New Year’s resolution to saving money as well. Yes, I wish you would have told me sooner, but we can overcome this together.” She said sweetly, slowly dragging him back to the couch and sitting him down next to her. With a soft smile, she placed her hand on his.

              For a few moments, the room didn’t dare move. Even the glass couldn’t leak out all the tension that was building up from inside its’ walls.

              With a small slap on his hand, Mira perked her head up. “So, I was thinking. What we could do is slowly save up. Like, with the money we do have, we can put bits of it in different piles for, let’s say, house mortgage, electricity bill, and all that for when the bills do come. Then, we can use the rest of the money we have and will receive to still do the stuff we like.”

              Dorian shoved her hand off his. “Don’t you get it? We can’t afford any of those things anymore, yet alone our house!” He furrowed his eyes and looked away. “We need to save up every last penny we have. There’s no saying where we’ll end up in even a few months from now. We need to sell the house and move.”

              Mira stood up and kneeled in front of his seat on the couch. He was avoiding her glare, trying not to have the fire burn her too. “Sweetie, breathe. We will get through this. We don’t need to sell our house or any of that stuff. We can always borrow money from the bank if need to.”

              He scoffed. “Why? So we can put ourselves into more debt?” Dorian stood and pushed himself away from her view, yanked his fizzy alcohol from the table, and gulped it down in one go while walking over to the kitchen. Wiping his mouth, he finished, “No thanks. I would prefer getting hit by a bus than dig myself into a deeper financial hole.”

              Mira stayed on the ground, surveying Dorian’s every harsh move. “Okay well, let’s not resort to moving just yet. If we work together to save up money, we can find a way to stay here.”

Without turning around, Dorian straightened his back. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you.”

“What?” Mira’s head tilted.

Fiercely, he spun to face her. Finger in the air, he answered, “You know, You are the one that goes out and spend the money that I earn to go out with your girlfriends.” He slowly crept toward her. “You go and get your nails done or your hair all nice and pretty for no apparent reason.” Dorian made a motion of curling and fluffing his hair with an invisible hair curler.

Mira was taken back, unsure on where this sudden anger came from. She stood up, breaking her protective bubble. At an attempt to keep peace, she angerly whispered, “Do you know how much effort I put in making sure you know you are love and cared for everyday?” Dorian’s eyes were dead on her.

He raised his arms. “Like what, wrapping your arms around me when we are in bed? So helpful in this situation, Mira.” Dorian turned back and made his way to the kitchen, wanting to find another drink.

Taking a step forward, Mira’s innocent façade was broken. “I spend hours making sure you stay happy. And I feel like you don’t appreciate any of that or anything that I’m saying!” Her voice bounced across the walls, filling the room with sound.

With that comment, Dorian tripped over a potted plant which shattered upon impact with the floor. His frustration level hit the roof, and as he turned around, he snapped. “Because your logic doesn’t make sense! You aren’t thinking about the right thing to do, you are thinking about what you want to do and what you don’t want to lose!”

Firmly, with clenched hands at her side, she responded, “That is not true, and you know it.”

“Oh yeah, sure. Tell me one time you put me first in front of your little ‘me time.’” He continued to get closer.

Mira paused for a second, mouth hanging open. “Delilah is having a party tonight, and I decided not to go because I wanted to spend New Year’s with you.”

“Then what’s that over there?” Dorian quietly muttered, pointing to a brilliant gold, skintight dress, peeping out of the closet door.

Mira interlaced her tense hands behind her back, avoiding eye contact with Dorian. “I… Well, after you fell asleep, I was going to go over and say hi.” She looks back up at him.

“B*******, Mira!” He spits in her face before backing away. Mira cowers in the safety of her shoulders. “This is what I mean! You don’t even put me first! You think of no one but yourself!”

She released her clasped hands. “All I’m saying is that we should start small before dramatically jumping to the easiest option.” Mira takes a few steps toward him.

Turning around, he bursts, “And I’m saying we can’t! I’m the only one in this relationship that ever brings in money, so I’m the only one who knows how we actually stand financially.” Dorian points to himself before forcefully running his hands through his hair, trying to wipe away her useless comments.

Mira just shook her head.

Dorian glares at her. “The money we currently have isn’t enough to get us through the next year. On top of the small amount of income I would get, if I even get an income at all, isn’t enough to pay for all this expensive, luxury stuff that you made us buy!” He yells, starting to pace around the coffee table.

With her head up high, Mira narrows her eyes and softly says, “I still don’t think we should resort to that.”

Dorian threw his hands up again, blood rushing to his face while his hands start to shake. “Oh, what do you know? About any of this. Really, Mira, enlighten me with your whimsical knowledge.” He sarcastically motions her to come to him. “Because it seems to me that all you do is sit on you’re a** all day and read ‘Gossip Girl’ Magazines.”

“Well, at least I know that your little plan of saving money isn’t going to work.” She points to herself, leaning towards him, attempting to assert dominance. “Mine is.”

Dorian cackled. “You and what knowledge? You can’t keep defending a plan you know nothing about! You haven’t even given me a single piece of evidence that my plan isn’t going to work!

Silence peers out of each corner.

“Exactly.” Dorian slaps his hand to his forehead and takes a deep, angered breath. “You are such a selfish, spoiled brat who can’t even put the husband as their top priority!” His eyes shot arrows into her soul.

After a few small, failed attempts to try and rebuttal, she finally yelled back, “You greedy bas****!”

“How am I the greedy bas****? You are the one who takes my money to go do your princess things. This is part of the reason why we can’t keep affording the house; because we don’t have enough money saved up!”

“You don’t even appreciate what I set up for you tonight!”

Looking her dead in the eye, and in a calm, but dangerous voice, he rumbled to her, “I can’t believe I ever married someone like you.”

              Silence slapped Mira in the face. The sight of her husband had her trembling to the core. With blurry vision, she pushed him out of her path and stormed to the outside balcony. She leaned her stomach on the railing, gazing to the world of flashing lights and colors just out of her reach. A few minutes later, Dorian followed, but stood on the complete opposite side, facing the city.

The couple starred off into the glittering city lights. Shouts of excitement echoed from below the penthouse, people raging on about the coming new year.

“10… 9… 8… 7…” A slow rise in volume as more and more people ran to join their crowd.

“6… 5… 4…” The town square was packed. People started readying their explosives and fireworks. Families gathered arm-to-arm to embrace this new, fresh start.

“3... 2…” Dorian shot a quick glance at Mira, who was still completely fixated on the swirling rainbow.

“1!” Mira tilted her head down and starred at her cupped hands.

“Happy New Year.”