Nico was right about his face getting on TV. As soon as the media found Jackie had gone into hiding with a lover, especially such a sexy lover as Nico, they all wanted a piece of him. The pictures of him emerging from the mountain cabin with Jackie were shown on TVs throughout the world & run on the front of every entertainment paper. But that of course is just the blood in the water for the media sharks to start their feeding frenzy. Jackie gets whisked back onto her tour & her handlers closed around her to fend of the questioning reporters, but Nico gets tossed back into the ocean to fend for himself. He barely gets back to his apartment, where he finds the building manager has tacked a notice to his door, telling him he has one week to pay his rent or get out, and the phone calls start coming in. Monica, the editor of WhooNoo magazine calls & wants to meet with him.

Almost any kind of fame is a good thing & Nico is not above riding Jackie's coattails to the top, but he's not going to be known as just a gigolo if he can help it. He demonstrates to Monica that he has other talents, too.

He tells her about his ambitions as a musician.

Monica laughs throatily. "I'm the editor of an entertainment & fashion magazine. I'm not a record company. I want you to give us an exclusive interview about Jackie & your tryst in the mountains. Of course, I have a lot of friends in the music industry, too, and if you rub my back..." Nico expected that he would be asked about Jackie, and he thought he was ready to kiss & tell. But now that it is coming down to agreeing to give a full interview, he's starting to have apprehensions. He's never been in love, he's never had any loyalty to anyone but himself & he's never cared about the consequences of his behaviour. But somehow, Jackie has found a way into him, because he's actually thinking about her & how she would feel about all this. She would consider it a betrayal for him to start doing tell all interviews, & it could be the end of their relationship. Of course, if it gets him in the limelight & in the position to finally get a record contract of his own, then it shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter, and it doesn't matter, he tells himself as he starts talking money with Monica. Unlike all the other wealthy women Nico's made love to, Jackie doesn't pay his rent, and his rent needs to be paid now.

If Nico gives Monica's magazine an exclusive print interview (he's still open to do TV interviews, of course) they'll give him 5000 simoleons. But that's when he gives the interview: his rent is due now & he's at the point of desperation. Monica says she can give him some cash to get by until the magazine cuts him a check, if he'll go shopping with her first. Well, it's not like he hasn't done this before: it's his bread & butter. Nico has never quite understood the American obsession with emaciated women: Monica, a former supermodel, is bony & skeletal & as unappealing as day old soggy pasta. But this is work, not play, & Nico steels himself to the task, as he has done many times before.

Nico does what's expected of him with his usual skill, as he's done time & time again. There is one difference this time, however. He closes his eyes & sees Jackie. Monica whispers his name & he hears Jackie's voice. And when he goes back to his apartment with the money he 'earned', he feels dirty in a way he's never felt before.