Okay, it’s hypo time. It’s long before I freewrote it and am too lazy to edit. No poll because I can’t 'be arsed. Today’s story is about Lily, an artist, waitress, and college student in her late twenties. Despite being pretty, charming, and clever, Lily doesn’t have two nickles to rub together. She grew up in an upper-middle class family but left home at age 15 to escape her mother’s passivity and her father’s fists. Living on her own, she worked hard and saved a nice bit of change. Unfortunately, she also dated a series of guy whose resemblance to her father everyone but her could see, culminating in a marriage at 23, to a man who sent her to the ER four times in one year. By the time she divorced him, he had not only depleted her savings but ruined her credit. As you might imagne, she is less than confident of her taste in men.
Three years ago, Lily he met Edward–a handsome, charming regular at the coffeehouse where she works. She was flattered by his amorous attentions but reluctant to return them. Edward, surprisingly, seemed perfectly willing to be platonic. What had drawn his attention to Lily was a painting of hers on display at the coffee house; he’d been coming their for months but never been anything but polite to her until the day he asked her who had painted “Eurydice Fades,” and when she said it was her, suddenly got very interested. He bought the painting on the spot, and over time they became close friends.
Now Ed’s got money. He doesn’t throw it around, and when he was just her customer Lily didn’t realize that; but as their friendship deepened she realized it was in the hundreds of millions–family money to which Ed is the sole heir. Though he could easily be idle, Ed works as a lawyer; his practice consists entirely of pro-bono cases, representing criminal defendants who can’t afford lawyers, or immigrants seeking asylum, and so forth. Lily has met many of Ed’s peers and colleagues, and no one has a bad word to say about him–except, that is, for his ex-wife, Anna, who considers him a controlling asshole, though a very subtle one. Anna doesn’t claim Ed was physically or verbally abusive, but she speaks as affectionately of him as Lily does of the two men who between them broke both her ribs. Lily has long classified Anna’s opinion of Ed as null information.
Lily’s life has gotten a lot better since she and Ed became buddies. She got a rent-controlled apartment in a wonderful building (that happens to be within walking distance of Ed’s even more luxurious one); she got a full scholarship to a prestigious university (that happens to be Ed’s alma mater); and she’s sold a ton of paintings to a variety of people. As mentioned above, Ed never pressed Lily to make their relationship physical. This let her grow to trust him more and more, and a couple of weeks ago she decided she loved him, told him so, and with him made that famous two-backed beast.
Which brings us to our dilemma. Lily’s graduation is coming up. In a meeting with her academic advisor, Lily mentioned a friend of hers whom she hoped would get the scholarship after her. The professor laughed. Ed has been funding the scholarship anonymously, he said; it didn’t exist before Lily got it and probably will be discontinued afterward. The professor is only spilling the beans because he’s retiring and no longer gives a fuck – unless Lily, he says, who clearly gives quite a few fucks.
Lily is as disturbed by this revelation as by the insults. Doing a little digging, she discovers that her apartment is so cheap because Ed is subsidizing her rent, and that he’s been buying her paintings through proxies. By the time she confronts Ed, she is furious. Presented with her evidence, he admits t everything. “But I wasn’t trying to hurt you, or even control you,” he says. “I was trying to help you. I love you. I loved your paintings before I knew you had painted them. I wanted to help you, but you wouldn’t take my money directly, so I had to be discreet. I swear I am not trying to fuck with your head. Please forgive me.”
Lily isn’t sure she can. Ed’s confession makes her question every moment of their relationship in both its platonic and romantic phases. Every time she looks at Ed, she thinks of Anna’s assessment of his character; every time she looks at herself, she wonders how many people at her university know about her scholarship, and whether they all think she earned it on her knees. But she also can’t help but recall how sweet and patient Ed is to her, how generous to everyone.
Is Lily right to mistrust Ed, or are her suspicions correct?