Six Years, Wasted on a Cheapskate

1: 1

Harvey Gilbert hated waste. He couldn't stand people who threw money around.

So for the six years we were together, I scrimped and saved and worked hard to be the woman who knew how to make a dollar stretch.

Six years on the same phone, never once replaced.

One white dress worn for three full years.

Terrified he'd call me a spendthrift.

Even when my parents traveled all that way to visit, Harvey served them nothing but the leftovers from the fridge.

"There's still plenty of this food left. Waste not, want not."

They ate those leftovers and were doubled over with cramps that same day. Two days in the hospital.

They were so wrung out they could barely stand, and still they kept coaxing me.

"Harvey's a good boy, he knows how to run a household. Don't fight over something like this."

"It's just a little stomach trouble. We'll be fine in a few days."

After they were discharged, I took them back to their hometown. And when I came back, I found out.

Harvey was throwing a lavish spread for his childhood sweetheart Carol Fox and her whole family.

Carol sat there holding the newest iPhone, three different-style designer handbags lined up beside her.

"Are these all birthday presents for me?"

When he said yes, Carol lit up and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"You're still using a phone from three years ago, but you buy me the latest model. I knew I didn't misjudge you."

Harvey smiled, indulgent. "You're worth it."

The trash can was heaped with every kind of expensive leftover, and a cake somebody had taken one bite of and tossed.

None of them thought they were wasting a thing.

That was the moment I finally understood.

It wasn't that he hated waste.

He just hated wasting resources and money on me.

I stood in the shadow of the entryway, forcing a bitter smile, ready to turn and leave.

My keys slipped out of my hand and clattered onto the floor.

The noise pulled every set of eyes toward me.

"Who's there?"

Harvey's voice.

"Glory, when did you get back?"

He came toward me. No surprise on his face, no fluster, only a hard knot between his brows.

As if my sudden appearance had spoiled everyone's mood.

When I didn't answer, he glanced past my shoulder.

"Where are your parents?"

"I took them home."

My voice came out worn thin. All I wanted was to go rest, but then Carol clamped a hand over her nose and let out an exaggerated groan.

"What is that smell? It's disgusting!"

"Glory, don't tell me you fell into a septic tank and marinated in it?"

Her parents behind her covered their mouths and noses too. Harvey shot me a cold look and couldn't keep his brow from creasing.

"Gloria Finch, how much of a slob are you? How many days since you showered?"

The sudden humiliation swallowed my pride, but underneath the embarrassment, what I felt more clearly was grief.

"I haven't showered in days, Harvey. Shouldn't you know why better than anyone?"

He opened his mouth to argue, then saw the exhaustion in my eyes and the words died in his throat.

My parents spent two days and two nights in the hospital because they ate Harvey's leftovers.

Harvey never showed his face. Not once.

I stayed with them the whole time. Never changed my clothes.

Last night, when I noticed my clothes had started to smell, I texted Harvey and asked him to bring me a change of clothes.

I waited two hours before a cold little reply came back.

"Can't."

"It's Carol's birthday tomorrow. I'm picking her and her parents up from the airport."

"We celebrate her birthday together every year. This year's no exception."

Maybe that was what he was thinking of now. He waved a hand, irritated.

"Stop standing there being an eyesore. Go clean yourself up."

I didn't move. I looked at the three opened designer boxes on the coffee table.

The black quilted one was the classic.

The white one was a limited-edition pearl bag.

And there was a pink crocodile-skin one, so glossy you could tell it started in the six figures.

The trash can was piled with takeout containers.

And in those containers sat all the expensive food I only ever glanced at online before scrolling past.

King crab legs from a Japanese place with the meat still on them, foie gras from a French restaurant with a single corner bitten off, tossed in.

Even a huge fondant cake, a few bites taken and the whole thing thrown away.

"Did you want some too, Glory? Shame you came too late. It's all in the trash now."

Carol smiled over at me, her voice turning sweet and petulant.

"It's Harvey's fault. I told him not to buy so much, but he insisted. Such a waste, all that food we couldn't finish."

I looked up, not following.

"If you can't finish it, you can just keep the rest."

Carol shrugged. "I've never liked leftovers, not since I was little. Doesn't matter how pricey it is. I wouldn't eat the rest even if you fed the dog with it."

"Harvey knows that about me. So the trash can was the only option."

2: 2

Harvey smiled and ruffled Carol's hair.

"It's only because your stomach's so delicate. You eat leftovers, you get sick. I wouldn't dare feed you leftovers."

"Otherwise your parents would come after me with a stick."

A few easy lines, and the room warmed right up.

A bottomless bitterness spread through me, and my fists clenched before I knew it.

A few days ago, my parents landed in the hospital because they ate leftovers. The stomach trouble nearly took half their lives.

My eyes were red with panic. Harvey had only looked cold.

"That's what they get for being old and greedy. Serves them right."

So this was what it looked like, being treated differently.

I pulled the crumpled receipts out of my canvas bag and held them out to Harvey.

He turned, glanced at them, and frowned. "What's this?"

"The hospital bill."

"Two days of inpatient care for their stomach infection. Four thousand three hundred and twenty total. The ER registration fee's separate."

Harvey didn't take the receipts. His eyes dropped to my hand.

"What happened to your phone?"

Only then did I notice I was still gripping the phone I'd used for six years.

The cracks webbed across the screen stood out sharply under the light.

Yesterday, paying at the hospital, I'd scanned to pay and the screen froze for three whole minutes.

The person in line behind me cursed and shoved me.

The phone hit the floor, and the screen shattered.

"It broke."

I said it lightly. "First, let me get this reimbursed"

"Sis, are you thinking about getting a new phone too? Look at mine!"

Carol cut in out of nowhere, all delight, digging the newest iPhone out of her little shoulder bag and thrusting it in my face to show off.

"Harvey gave it to me for my birthday. Look, Sis, the camera's amazing."

She held it right up to my face. The wallpaper was a photo of her and Harvey flashing peace signs at the camera.

Last night I'd stayed at the hospital in my clothes, taking care of my parents.

Harvey had been busy putting together a thoughtful birthday gift for another woman, and posing for pretty photos with her.

That picture was hard to look at.

I wanted to snatch the phone right then and smash it to pieces, but I didn't.

I stood there like a block of wood, letting the heavy resentment build in my chest.

"Give me the bill."

Harvey finally reached out and pulled the receipts from me, giving them a careless glance.

"I'll take it out of your allowance later."

Something dropped in my chest, and a laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.

My "allowance" was three hundred dollars a month, and it covered groceries, utilities, everything for the household. Last month I'd bought the family a new rice cooker.

At the end of the month, the accounts showed I'd gone over by forty-two dollars.

Harvey lectured me for a solid twenty minutes about what he called "fine-grained management."

Six years together, and the wedding never came.

Instead I'd worn myself down into a housewife. What a joke.

I said nothing. I changed my shoes and turned to go into the bedroom.

Carol's parents were waving hello at me.

"Gloria, you got back a little late. If we'd known you were coming, we'd have saved you some food. But now"

They pointed at the food in the trash can, scratching their heads sheepishly.

"We threw it all out. Didn't leave you any."

Six years of frugal habit made my heart bleed at just one look.

"It's fine, there's still plenty of it here, and some of it didn't touch the plastic bag, it's still clean. Should I dig it out?"

Penelope Fox grabbed a disposable glove, eager to go rummage through the trash.

Dig food out of the trash? It struck me as absurd. I shook my head, my face blank.

"Don't trouble yourself."

Even if I were starving, I wouldn't stoop to food that humiliating.

Carol opened a soda beside her and drank it, then tipped the bottle over so the liquid spilled across the floor.

"Ah!"

She yelped. "Harvey, the floor's a mess now, what do I do?"

"Go grab the mop, I'll wipe it up."

She hadn't even stood before Harvey stopped her.

"You're the birthday girl today. You came here so we could celebrate you, how could I let you do chores?"

"Just leave it."

Carol looked up at me. "Such a clean, pretty floor, it'd be such a shame to leave it dirty."

"There's someone here to clean it up anyway."

Harvey said it so naturally I doubted my own ears.

For six years, every floorboard in this house had been scrubbed by me on my knees with a rag.

Because he said hiring a cleaning lady was a waste of money.

Now his tone made me feel like a joke.

I closed my eyes for a moment, turned, and went back to the bedroom.

The instant I shut the door, Carol's wounded voice came from behind it.

"Harvey, disaster! Look, that pink handbag seems to have a scratch on it. Did something go wrong in shipping?"

"Don't keep it."

Harvey glanced at it once and said it right away. "Go to the store tomorrow and get a new one."

"Have them pull the stock from the nearest warehouse. Rush it."

3: 3

"But the rush shipping is over eight hundred dollars."

Carol bit her lip. "Maybe just forget it. No one can see it while I'm carrying it anyway."

Harvey leaned down and pinched her cheek.

"You deserve the best. Eight hundred is nothing."

"Even if the shipping were eighty thousand, if it's worth buying, we buy it."

I gripped the strap of my canvas bag, the fabric long since washed pale and fraying.

I'd bought this bag off a street stall my sophomore year. Fifteen dollars. It had been with me for seven years.

"How much was the bag?"

I heard myself ask.

Carol blinked. "Why do you want to know that?"

"Just asking."

"Twenty-five thousand," Harvey said, his tone flat and offhand. "Limited edition. Only three of them in the whole country."

Twenty-five thousand.

Enough for two of my father's heart stent surgeries.

Enough to replace all my mother's old appliances that were always breaking down.

Enough, even, for the engagement gift money Harvey owed my parents.

He'd saved for six years and still couldn't scrape together the twenty-five thousand, and he was always saying I was too expensive, that my parents were selling off their daughter.

And now he'd spent that same money on a bag for his childhood sweetheart without a second thought.

Bought three of them, just like that.

I nodded. I couldn't name what I felt, only forced back the tears and turned away in a hurry.

"I'm going up."

I turned toward the stairs.

"Hold on."

Harvey stopped me. "Carol's staying here tonight. Change the sheets in the guest room. Don't use the silk set in the cabinet, she left that one here last time."

My steps halted. "The guest room sheets were just changed last week."

"Last week's have been slept on."

Carol said softly, "I want them to smell nice"

She pulled a bottle of perfume out of her bag. "Can I spray this on the sheets, Gloria?"

A pink bottle. I'd seen the brand in subway ads. One bottle cost as much as three months of my "allowance."

"Do whatever you want," I said.

"Also," Harvey's voice came again from behind me, "Carol's going to an art show tomorrow. Take her to pick out a dress, and remember to get the receipt."

I whipped around. "Tomorrow's Wednesday. I have work."

"Take the day off."

"The attendance bonus is five hundred."

Harvey finally looked at me straight on, his eyes full of appraisal and distaste.

"All you think about is money."

"It's five hundred dollars. Is five hundred more important, or is Carol more important?"

Carol sneezed right on cue and rubbed her nose.

"If it's too much trouble for you, Gloria, don't worry about it. I can go by myself. It's just that the gallery's out in the suburbs, and an Uber there costs over two hundred"

Any other time, I'd have agreed without hesitation.

Because I had to save money.

As long as it saved money, I could shortchange myself in every possible way.

But this time I didn't give in.

"Suit yourselves."

I turned and went upstairs, Carol muttering under her breath behind me.

"Harvey, why is your girlfriend so stuck-up? What's she got to be so smug about?"

"That dress she's wearing is practically falling apart. My dog wouldn't wear it."

Harvey chuckled.

"That's just her taste. How could she compare to you?"

"I'll make you caviar tonight, the premium kind I brought back from the Harborview District."

"Yay! You're the best, Harvey!"

My hand paused on the guest room door.

Caviar.

He'd told me that was a business gift, off-limits. I'd never even dared to smell it.

Last time I opened the fridge for eggs, my finger just brushed the packaging box, and he was in my face yelling.

"Gloria Finch, can you stop scheming about that caviar?"

"I already told you it's for a client."

"If you touch it, how am I supposed to explain that to the client?"

Only now did I understand.

His childhood sweetheart Carol was the biggest "client" his heart had ever known.

Back in my room, my mother's video call came through at exactly that moment.

She was all smiles on the other end.

"Glory, your dad and I made it back to the hometown. Don't worry, and don't fight with Harvey over our business. You two just live your lives well."

"And this time it was our own fault, us two old fools eating something bad. We forgot to ask, too."

My mother rubbed her hands together, trying to cover her nerves.

"When are you two planning to get married?"

My father sat beside her, looking just as uneasy.

"Don't ask so bluntly. You'll upset Glory."

I held back the sting in my nose and shook my head.

"Mom, Dad, I'm not getting married."

"Tomorrow I'm quitting my job. I'll pack up and come home, settle down there."

4: 4

When she heard me say it, my mother shot to her feet.

"But everything was fine why aren't you getting married anymore?"

"Glory, is it because the engagement gift money I asked for was too high?"

"But all your girlfriends back home, every one of them got two hundred thousand, and it's not that I'm after the money"

"That money was all meant to go with you into your new home. I only worried that Harvey wouldn't treat you well, and I wanted to leave you some security."

That was when the tears finally broke loose.

"Mom, it wasn't too high. What you asked for wasn't high at all."

"Harvey has plenty of money. He could"

He could buy some other woman three eighteen-thousand-dollar bags without so much as blinking.

But he wouldn't give six years of my youth so much as an answer.

"Mom, it has nothing to do with you. I just figured things out for myself."

"I don't love Harvey anymore, all of a sudden."

The thought of spending the whole second half of my life pinching every penny.

A life with no end in sight. It suffocated me.

I'd earned plenty over the years, but Harvey had socked every cent away in the name of the joint household fund for our future.

I wanted to use my own money to buy myself a designer handbag.

To finally replace this beat-up phone I'd used for six years.

The next morning I was up at six. I didn't reheat last night's oatmeal for breakfast the way I always had. Neither Harvey nor Carol had come downstairs.

But Carol's laughter drifted from the second-floor bathroom. "Harvey, stop messing with my hair!"

I entered the password and withdrew the money I'd put into that so-called joint household fund over six years.

Six years. Six hundred and eighty thousand, all told.

Enough to buy a small house back home, a car, and settle into an easy, peaceful life with my parents.

I didn't feel like going out.

For the first time in six years, I ordered food delivery.

Breakfast, with a breakfast sandwich, a doughnut, and orange juice.

I was happily eating when Harvey and Carol came down. They saw me eating and frowned.

"Gloria, how can you be so selfish? You only made enough breakfast for yourself?"

Then Harvey caught sight of the delivery box in the trash, and his face went dark.

"You actually ordered delivery?"

"Gloria, you were always so frugal, so careful. When did you get so bad at managing a household?"

Any other time, when he stood on his moral high ground and scolded me for not knowing how to economize, I'd only feel guilty.

Now it just struck me as absurd.

"Economize? Economize for what?"

"So I can hand the money I saved to some other woman to spend?"

Harvey's brows drew hard together, and he pointed at the phone with the cracked screen lying on the table.

"The money you saved could've bought you a new phone."

I laughed harder.

He frowned. "What's with that attitude? Have I ever shorted you on food, on clothes?"

"I give you three thousand dollars a month in allowance. Save even a little of it and you'd have plenty for a new phone."

"There's no need to parade around with this old thing and make people think I've been mistreating you."

There was something bitter in my laugh, but my eyes came up cold on him.

"Harvey, how do you have the face to say that?"

"I scrimped and saved alongside you for six years. And what did I get for it?"

"My parents finally come to visit, and they end up eating your leftovers. Six birthdays you gave me, and every time it was two boiled eggs. Did you ever once buy me a cake?"

"Harvey, you're the one who made me feel like I've lived my life as a joke."

"You're impossible."

Harvey was silent a few seconds. "Gloria, you didn't used to be like this. You used to be so sensible."

Sensible.

I gripped the phone and wanted to laugh, but the corner of my mouth wouldn't move.

Sensible meant six years without a new phone, three years in the same dress, my parents traveling all that way only to eat leftovers and end up in the hospital with an upset stomach.

Sensible meant standing quietly by while he bought some other woman designer bags.

"Carol's different from you."

Harvey sat down on the sofa across from me. Carol's half-finished iced latte still sat on the coffee table. "She's been in poor health since she was little, and her family doesn't have much. It's only right that I look after her."

"And when I was a kid, if it hadn't been for Carol's parents taking care of me, helping raise the money for college, I wouldn't be where I am today."

"Glory, we have to know how to repay a kindness."

"You're the one who received their kindness. It has nothing to do with me."

I cut him off, cold.

"Harvey, I was a fool before. You had me spinning in circles. That won't happen again."

Harvey ignored me, sure I was only throwing a tantrum like all the other times.

He gave a cold snort, put his arm around Carol, and moved for the door.

"I'll take you out for a five-star breakfast buffet, and this afternoon we'll hit the art studio. Let's enjoy ourselves a couple of days."

Carol turned back with a smug look.

"Glory, the woman who knows how to pout has the best luck."

"If you'd just say a few soft words and give Harvey a way to save face, maybe we'll bring you back something nice"

"No need."

I shot it right back at her, cold.

I'd already withdrawn every cent I had in the joint household fund, and I'd already bought my ticket home for that afternoon.

"Some people take good intentions for garbage!"

Harvey gave me one cold look. "Come on, Carol, let's go pick out some gifts for your parents. Don't mind her."

I watched the two of them disappear, and drank the last of my orange juice.

Then I picked up my bag, got up, and went out, taking an Uber to the mall.

Six years riding the bus, six years without hailing a car. So this was how convenient and comfortable it felt.

I bought myself the newest phone, then two pieces of clothing that were nice and fit well.

The suitcase was worn out too. Time for a new one

By the time I'd bought everything I needed, it was two in the afternoon.

Suitcase in hand, I headed for the station without looking back.

Meanwhile, Carol was clinging to Harvey, begging him to buy the painting she'd set her heart on.

"Harvey, this painting is only a little over twenty thousand. That's nothing to you. You'll buy it for me, right?"

Harvey went stiff all over.

One lousy painting for over twenty thousand. His heart was bleeding.

But faced with the eager look in Carol's eyes, he couldn't get the refusal out.

"Of of course."

The moment he agreed, the clerk beside them brought over the card reader.

"Cash or card, sir?"

Harvey hesitated a few seconds, then steeled himself and pulled out the bank card with the joint household fund on it.

There should still be over eight hundred thousand on it, he thought. That would be more than enough.

But the clerk took it, set it on the reader, and looked up with an odd expression.

"Sir, there aren't enough funds on this card. Would you like to use a different one?"