AT FIRST I GOT to admit, I thought Jimmy was a creep. Like Russell. They hung out and everything, so knowing the way Russell is, I figured Jimmy would be the same. But once I got to know him I saw he was a totally different kind of person.
Like for example, Russell was only into Suzanne’s video project to make trouble. You knew that from the word go. Suzanne knew it too, she just didn’t have any choice on account of nobody else but me and Jimmy were signed up. And maybe that’s the way it was for Jimmy at the beginning too. Only with him you could tell it changed. It got to be he really wanted to do a good job. Partly because he was into it. And a lot because you just knew to look at him that he was nuts about her. Who wouldn’t be?
So we got to be friends. I mean, he’d never let Russell know he cared about this, but Russ hardly ever showed up anymore anyway. And once Russ wasn’t around, Jimmy got into the video, thinking up ideas and really thinking about the subjects we talked about, instead of just jerking Suzanne around like Russell used to. He said if he could be anything in the world it would be a veterinarian, I remember that. Before he started spending time with Suzanne he said he just figured he could never really do something like that. He always screwed up. But she made him feel like he was really worth something after all. She had him studying these vocabulary lists, so he could talk better. One time I even saw him reading one of those little books you get at the supermarket, The World’s Greatest Love Poems or something like that. He didn’t want you to know it, but he had a sensitive side. You could talk to him. I’m not saying he would ever be my boyfriend or anything, but he was my friend.
Like one time, after we’d been working late on the video, Jimmy asked me if I wanted a ride. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, apart from that time when Russell gave me a ride, no guy ever drove me anyplace. And that time was just because Suzanne made him. And he’s a pig anyways.
But this time it was Jimmy’s idea. I mean I knew he didn’t like me or anything, except as a friend. But still.
He wanted to talk about her. Suzanne I mean. “Mrs. Maretto,” he always called her. He wanted to know all this stuff like what was her husband like, and did she ever mention him, meaning Jimmy. By this time Suzanne and I were real good friends. Just like sisters. She told me her deep thoughts. Like that time when I saw her cry in the hot tub.
And the truth was, she never had mentioned him, but you could tell he was hoping she had, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I said yes. I said she liked him, and she told me he had a lot of talent.
“I never saw anybody so pretty,” he says. “It’s like she’s an angel. Everybody else seems like dogshit next to her.”
Of course I knew that included me, but I’m used to that. I was just proud to be her friend. I mean, imagine a person like her, that was going to be a television personality some day, wanting to be with a person like me? The whole thing was like a dream.