Shego glanced at her caller ID as the phone rang. Kim was calling her again. She sighed; why did that damned kid not just get a life? She had stopped taking Kim’s calls because she was trying to distance herself from the girl. She thought that they were getting too close and she did not like that idea, so she was cutting her ties to Kim.
She would not admit it to herself, but she did not like being without the adorable little redhead. She had enjoyed having someone to hold against her without it having to be because the person wanted her to do it and was paying her to do it. She could hug Kim close to her because she wanted to do and nothing more. It was a nice feeling; she wondered if that was why some of her clients requested such things.
Kim’s presence had been soothing for her. She was able to just relax with the kid, which was something that she had never been able to do with a person. Sure, she could relax on her own and she did, but it was different when the redhead was around. Kim provided her with someone to be affectionate with and she did not even know that she wanted someone like that; she would not even admit that to herself either.
It really boiled down to something that Shego would never confess to and that was that she was lonely. Kim was someone that took away that lonely feeling and made her act differently than she usually did, namely when she was nice to the kid or affectionate toward her. She did not want to think of herself as lonely because she thought that loneliness was a pathetic feeling and she associated it when some of her most annoying clients.
She had one extremely irksome client and it seemed that all he ever wanted her to do was hold him. He went by the name of Drakken, but she knew that was not his real name; he was a somewhat famous scientist. He was a pathetic little man with issues and he always hired her just to be a pair of arms and ears. She had to listen to him rant for the time that he had her for and he liked being held while rambling. She suspected that he was a mama’s boy, but she was not sure. She did know that he did not have any friends and it seemed to be one of the things that helped make him pathetic.
She had other clients like that, but Drakken was truly the most pitiful in her opinion because her other clients would at least get the bang for their buck. Drakken would go for it sometimes, but he did not last long and he did odd things while freaking her. Sometimes the nutty bastard cried; see, he was just a piece of work.
So, loneliness was an emotion for pitiful bastards and Shego did not see herself as pitiful. She refused to be pitiful. So, she did not want Kim around, tempting her to snuggle with the kid and relax around the redhead. She was not supposed to be nice to anyone either; she was a bad girl. So, Kim had to go away because she was the one making Shego act somewhat affable.
The phone finally stopped ringing and Shego sighed again. She hoped that Kim would give up on calling her sooner or later. She needed to just take the hint already, Shego thought. Kim needed to figure out that whatever they had was being severed right now. Whatever they were was done.
Kim sighed as she disconnected the call to Shego’s house. She had not been able to get through to Shego for a couple of weeks now. She was hoping to ask the pale woman to join her at an art show in a few days. Some of her paintings were going to be featured and Shego had claimed to want to see what her finished work looked like, so she thought that it would be all right for them to go to the show together.
She had also been hoping to have a date for the evening, even though it probably was going to cost her. It was just that the last function she went to with Shego made the thing exponentially better. Everything was better when she was with Shego, but that was more from an internal standpoint since she did not do much with the pale woman when they spent time together. The couple of the parties that they had been to together were outstanding because the green-skinned woman was there in her opinion.
She wondered why Shego was not answering her phone anymore. She did consider that the pale woman was just not taking her calls, but she could not figure out any reason for that. Nothing too strange happened the last time that they met up, except for the fact that Shego had requested that she stay with her through out the night. It seemed like Shego enjoyed having her around, so she did not see why the older woman was not taking her calls anymore.
As a last resort, Kim called Shego’s work number. The pale woman did not answer that call either. Shego did grace her cell phone with a glance, but nothing more when she saw who it was that was calling her. The redhead sighed; it was becoming apparent that Shego really did not want to see her anymore.
She did consider that she might just be able to hire Shego to join her at the art show. She guessed that since Shego was not taking her calls, she would just go straight to the source. She had to find the card before she could do that, though.
Kim went ripping through her things for that card. She had no idea what she did with that bloody, fucking card. She searched underneath everything and discovered the card under her desk. It was covered in paint, which she had to scrap off to see the number. She dialed and once again fumbled while on the phone with the woman in charge of it.
“Um…I was…um…” Kim mumbled.
Betty recognized that shy little stammer, even though she had not heard it for a long while; she just had an excellent memory. She also recalled that Shego told her that she was no longer handling the girl. Shego suggested giving Kim to someone else, but Betty was not sure who to give Kim to. Kim seemed to enjoy being with Shego and she did not have anyone else quite like Shego; she was skeptical that anyone on the planet was quite like Shego.
“Kid, you really shouldn’t be so shaky. We’re all friends, aren’t we?” Betty asked Kim, hoping to calm her down. Kim was more nervous that she was doing something illegal more than anything else.
“Right, I was wondering if Shego was free on Saturday,” the redhead explained in a stronger voice.
“Oh, Saturday? No, she’s already got a date for Saturday. I could give you someone else,” the brown-haired woman offered.
“No, that’s okay,” Kim replied, sounding very disappointed.
Betty made several suggestions, but Kim did not go for any of them. It seemed that the girl had fallen for Shego in Betty’s opinion. She thought that because Kim was making it seem as if only Shego would do, which was something that she was a bit used to when it came to the pale woman’s clients.
Shego’s clients either got rid of her after the first date or stayed with her through out their time using Betty’s service. She was not sure, but she figured that the people that kept Shego enjoyed having a forceful partner and they probably did not come anymore forceful than Shego.
Kim guessed that she was going to the art show alone. And she had so been looking forward to going with Shego and showing her some of the work that she had been doing since she met the pale woman. The thought of going alone actually depressed her a bit.
Being alone somewhere had never bothered Kim since she graduated high school until that very moment. She fell onto her bed with a pout on her face. She was going to be alone again.
No, she told herself. She could get a date and she did not have to pay for it. Sure, she could. She was a fairly attractive redhead and she could be social if given the chance. Well, she could be social, but it was difficult for her to get dates for some reason.
She went out to try anyway and failed as usual. She had such a hard time with the dating thing and she could not figure out why that was. Okay, fine, when she got to talking about what she did with her time, it put people off. Not too many people believed her that she was a hero and those that did believe her were not looking to put up with such a dangerous lifestyle. No one really wanted to get close to her and it was the story of her life, but she just had not gotten used to it and she doubted that she ever would.
It was a painful thing that followed her around, knowing that most people did not want to be close to her because of what she did most of her time. So what she liked jumping out of planes? So what she liked running through the jungle? So what she faced off against maniacs on almost a weekly basis? Well, she looked at it as “so what,” but it was a big deal to many people…except for Shego.
All right, she could do the art show alone. It was not the first time that she was going to go someplace alone and it probably was not going to be the last since Shego was no longer dealing with her. She supposed that it made some sense that the pale woman no longer wanted anything to do with her.
It made sense because Shego seemed to be a businesswoman more or less. It was all about money to her and Kim just could not afford the business, not for all of the time that she was with the green-skinned woman. She was costing Shego money.
She guessed that she had made the mistake of thinking that she and Shego were friends of some kind, but that did not seem to be the case. Shego was all about the money. They were never friends, even though it seemed that way. It seemed like they were cool with each other, but she guessed that she had been reading too much into things.
(New day)
“I can’t believe I let you leave the house like that,” Bonnie sighed and she shook her head. She was speaking to her boyfriend.
“What? We have a deal. When it’s my party night, I can wear whatever I want to and when it’s your night, you can threaten me all you want to get me into the clothes you want me to wear,” Josh replied.
They were at an art expo and he had some work on display. He was hoping someone brought a painting; he really could use the confidence boost. He did all right for himself, but it would be a real kick in the teeth to him if none of his works moved.
“I still can’t believe I let you leave the house like that,” the aqua-eyed dancer said.
Josh only laughed. He was dressed somewhat decent, but not up to Bonnie’s high-class standards. He was wearing jeans, yes, but he had on a black blazer too. The outfit did fall apart after that because he was wearing black sandals and a red tee-shirt. He did not see a problem with it, but Bonnie was almost embarrassed to be seen with him; it was almost because there were plenty of people dressed worse than him.
“If Kim is dressed right again, we’re reworking this damn deal,” Bonnie stated.
Josh chuckled again, but he sounded a bit uncomfortable. If Kim was with Shego again, he was willing to bet that she would be dressed impressive again because she had been that way the couple of times he had seen her with Shego. He was going to have to start wearing suits, he silently groaned. Well, at least he and Kim would still have something in common if their bum wear was taken from them; they would both have domineering girlfriends.
“What time is it anyway?” Bonnie asked.
“You know Kim is going to be late. She always is,” Josh replied.
“Well, yeah, but this is her night too. She should be here almost on time,” Bonnie argued.
“She’s never been to an art show almost on time. She’s never been anywhere almost on time. We should be happy if she’s even in this country right now,” the young artist remarked.
“She needs to learn to let the police save the world every now and then,” Bonnie commented.
“Hey, is that her?” Josh asked when he noticed the top of some orange-red hair.
Bonnie turned to look and saw what he was talking about. The crowd parted and they got the chance to see that it was a false alarm. They turned their attention to the other side of the room and then noticed someone else.
“Hey, that’s Shego,” Josh realized when he noticed a curvy ebony-haired female in a flattering black and green gown.
“But, who’s that she with?” Bonnie wondered out loud.
Shego was not with Kim as they would have thought; they had seen her at a couple of parties with Kim, after all. They knew her through Kim and they had assumed that she and Kim were a couple, but that was being challenged by what they were seeing now. Shego was on the arm of a man, engaging in conversation with him and smiling at him as if he was someone special.
“Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about Kim showing up looking better than me,” Josh muttered for lack of a better thing to say.
Bonnie hit Josh for such insensitive words; hey, if anyone was going to be hard on Kim, it was going to her and that was all. She was tempted to go bark at Shego for not being with the redhead, but she considered that Shego might have never actually “been with” Kim. She thought that Kim might have actually used that card that she had given her months ago. Well, she was about to find out.
“Shego,” Bonnie called.
“What are you doing?” Josh inquired.
“Finding something out,” Bonnie answered and she went over to Shego, who was trying to spot who it was that called her name.
“Oh, it’s you,” Shego said. She recognized Kim’s friends, having met them a couple of times at parties that she attended with the petite hero. She had not really talked with them or anything, though.
“Yeah, where’s Kim?” Bonnie inquired.
“No clue,” the pale woman answered. Was her Princess going to be at this party? She hoped not. She doubted that she could take seeing the little redhead.
“You didn’t come with her?” Bonnie asked, even though she could see the answer to that.
“No, as you can see, I’m here with Monty,” Shego motioned to her date for the night. He was sinister-looking chap, as if he did more brooding than sleeping during the night.
“Done with Kim then, are we?” the dancer asked with a bit of an attitude.
“Kimmie’s a poor little bugger. Maybe when she gets a better paying job, we can talk,” Shego replied.
All right, so Shego was just a hired hand. Bonnie was not sure how she felt about that. She was a bit hurt to know that her good friend, who was the sweetest, kindest, most selfless person on the planet had to buy a date and to make matters worse, the date that she brought was leaving her high and dry because she could not afford it. Bonnie decided that she was pissed at Shego for leaving Kim, especially since the redhead had seemed so happy to be with the pale woman.
“You know what, she was too good for you anyway. She deserves someone who can see just how great she is and you’re obviously too fucking money hungry to see it. You’d better stay away from her from now on,” Bonnie warned the green-skinned woman, which Shego did not like.
“Or else what?” Shego inquired with a daring glint in her emerald eyes as she moved to glare down at the dancer, who did not back down.
“Baby,” Josh said, trying to get his girlfriend to calm down. There was something about the way that Shego was moving that reminded him of Kim, which let him know that he did not want a physical fight to happen because his lover would probably end up in the hospital.
“You need to listen to your fashion disaster,” Shego told Bonnie.
“Fuck you,” Bonnie snapped.
“You probably can’t afford it,” the pale woman quipped.
“You’re just a fucking whore anyway,” Bonnie countered.
“Yeah, a damn good one. Now, get the fuck away from me before I have to lose my favorite shoes in your ass,” Shego stated.
Bonnie growled, but Josh saved her skin by pulling her away from the moss-hued call girl. Shego watched them move to the other side of the large hall. Great, now she had been reminded of Kim. She had trying to work the girl out of her memory ever since she cut the kid out of her life and now Kim was back in her head. To make matters worse, the girl might actually be somewhere in the crowd. Damn.
“What was that all about?” Shego’s date inquired.
“Nothing, Monty,” she assured him.
Monty Fiske was an aristocrat that usually called Shego when he was in the country. He was actually married to some fat woman that he did not seem to like to bring out in public. She did not care about his marital status as long he paid her at the end of the night. She would fulfill whatever fantasy he had as long as the money was right and with his quirks, she made quite a pretty penny off of him.
She could almost understand why Monty hired her with all of the weird things that he liked to do. She doubted that his wife would do them, but as it turned out, his wife would do just about anything for him. The thing was that he did not want to do anything with the obese female. She supposed that she could understand that.
The pale woman stopped thinking about her date as they moved on to look at some of the art. They came to a piece that looked familiar to her, but she was not sure where she had seen it before. She knew that she had not seen the painting before, but it seemed very familiar.
“Kim!” Shego heard someone call and that was when it hit her. The painting looked like that photo that she had seen in Kim’s apartment on her desk. The painting used the same pose from the photo, but the difference was that there was a ghostly figure floating over the back of the kneeling girl at the tombstone. The phantom looked like the girl, who appeared to be weeping, but the ghost was smiling.
The pale woman turned since she heard someone call the name of her Princess. She spotted Kim almost instantly. The redhead stood out, even in a place with fellow bohemian types. Kim had shown up dressed as she usually was, which did not look as bad compared to what other people were wearing, Josh included.
Shego nearly made the mistake of calling out to the girl. She stopped herself just as her nickname for Kim was on the tip of her tongue. She was cutting Kim out of her life, she reminded herself. She did not need Kim around. The redhead would only prove a burden and she would make it seem like Shego was pathetic because of the way that Shego acted with the petite hero. No, she had to fight the desire and soon it would go away, she told herself.
The pale woman turned her attention back to Monty, who was going on about the painting that they were standing in front of. It seemed that he liked the colors that were used and the smoothness of the style. He told one of the people in charge that he would like to meet the artist if the piece if the artist was around. Kim was nearly snatched out of her skin as she was walking by that very moment.
“Here she is.”
“What’s going on?” Kim asked and then she turned to Monty and Shego. The smile that had been on her face since she arrived faded instantly and it seemed like if they had an x-ray on her, they would have seen all of her guts and organs drop right into her feet.
“You did this piece?” Monty inquired, speaking to Kim. He pointed to the painting that was situated behind them.
“Uh-huh,” the redhead confirmed in a mumble. She could not speak at the moment. She could only focus on Shego and the fact that her body felt like it was being drained of everything that was underneath her skin.
“You have a very nice style. Do you have other pieces around here?” Monty inquired.
“Uh-huh,” Kim answered while wondering why the pale woman was not speaking to her. Shego was trying to not look at the little redheaded artist.
“Do you suppose you could point them out?” he asked. He was starting to get the idea that she was an idiot because she was not being more articulate.
“Uh-huh.”
Kim pointed to her left, where there was a section of her pieces on display. Monty nodded and started off to go look at those; he was glad for an excuse to get away from the brain-dead artist. As he walked off, he failed to notice that Shego was not at his side. She had tried to walk off, but Kim ceased that by grabbing her hand.
“Shego,” the redhead said.
“I’m working,” Shego replied in a clipped tone while pulling her hand away roughly.
“Shego,” Kim said again, but the pale woman was not listening.
Shego walked off to get back to her date. She tried to ignore the hurt look that was in the girl’s huge olive eyes. She really wanted to just turn around and grab Kim to let the redhead know that she did not mean to hurt her, but even a thought like that only pissed Shego off more and let her know that she needed to get away from that kid.
“This is really nice work,” Monty commented as Shego returned to his side.
“Yeah,” she agreed. She did not know art well, but she knew what she liked. Kim had a nice, soft style to her. Her paintings were comforting, even if they showed strange scenes, like two lions fighting. She seemed to work like a spiral where a person started out at the border of the painting and was just drawn into the center by the direction of her subjects and brush strokes.
“It’s a shame that someone so brain dead does such great work. I’d buy a painting if I wasn’t so sure she’s just going to blow the money on drugs,” Monty remarked.
“What?” Shego asked in a rather offended tone. Her Princess did not do drugs and she was far from brain dead.
“She obviously smoked all of her brain cells away,” Monty stated.
Shego growled and she flexed her hand. She wanted to do badly to tear into him for his words about Kim, but she controlled herself. She was not supposed to care about Kim anyway, so he could shoot his mouth off about her all he wanted, she told herself. She did not care. She just did not care.
Through out the night, Shego could feel those wounded olive eyes on her. She ignored Kim, hoping that the fool kid got the idea that she did not care about her and did not want to be around her anymore. By the end of the night, Kim did get the hint and she stopped looking at the pale woman. Apparently, whatever they had was done and over.
Next time: Confrontation occurs when Shego sees Kim again.