Two Ways to Starve
A Story of Love and Money
The Cheap Millionaire and the Dior Girl.
“How did they end up together?”
They live on opposite edges of the same spectrum. One clutches every penny like a lifeline. The other chases moments of freedom on borrowed money.
This is a story about hunger—both for money and for love—and the ways we starve ourselves before we learn to share.
I. The Cheap Millionaire
He drives a Lexus,
over ten years old,
polished like an heirloom
he’s afraid to touch.
He counts coupons
like a monk fingers beads,
each cent a small salvation
from his immigrant father’s ghost.
His socks have holes
he refuses to replace.
Says comfort isn’t bought;
it’s earned through enough pain.
He owns three homes,
but keeps the thermostat low.
A quiet chill that settles deep,
like the fear he never names.
A few Rolexes sit in the drawer,
still wrapped in their boxes.
He says he’s saving time
for a moment that won’t come.
II. The Dior Girl
She swipes like it’s nothing.
A wrist flick,
a magic trick
that turns doubt into gloss.
Velvet dress,
red-soled lies,
lashes thick enough
to hold up her fragile world.
Rent’s late, again.
But champagne’s cold.
Tomorrow always starts
with a new shade of lipstick.
She wants to be wanted—
weightless, worshipped,
like women in perfume ads,
shot in soft light with no backstory.
She tells herself
she’s building a brand,
but the mirror keeps asking:
Who’s the real product?
III. Love’s a Buck
He saw her large Dior tote,
wondering what secrets it held.
She ordered three rounds of oysters
with money she didn’t have.
Their first kiss was thunder—
sweat trembling, breath catching.
What if she spends it all?
What if he sees it all?
So reckless met afraid.
She left her pricey bags on his floor.
He washed her silk blouse by hand.
They were both right—and wrong.
Love didn’t fix them.
It peeled them open,
made space for silence,
taught him to dance in debt.
Now they share meals,
from lentils to Michelin steaks.
He wears the Rolex,
she pays in cash.
And some nights,
they sleep like two people
who have known hunger
but choose not to starve.