Episode Report Card Niki: D | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Daddy's Girl
By Niki | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.13.2000
So Jake gives her a quick lesson in managing personal finances. See, credit card juggling is like a game. If you play it right, you never actually have to pay anything off; you just keep charging and flipping the balances onto new cards. It's simple. Heck, he'll even get her another card today! "What are you talking about?" Lily wants to know. I think she suspects he's insane. Relax, Lily, he does it all the time. Doesn't it make you feel better to know that your future is riding in this man's capable hands? Jake asks her for just three more days, until after the opening, and he'll have some money for her then. She asks what they're supposed to do in the meantime, especially since Grace's camp check is already overdue. He promises to write her a check to cover it the next day. As she's leaving, she turns to remind him that he hasn't put any money in the account and they don't even have enough for dry cleaning or groceries. You can tell how scary and humiliating this situation is for her. Jake reaches into his pockets, pulls out a few crumpled bills, and holds them out for her. The bills crackle as she swats at his hands, but the money's still in them as she walks away, apparently upset with this paltry gesture. He looks down at the bills in surprise, and then turns to get back to work. He tries to look unaffected, but the scene has clearly rattled him.
Cut to Lily outside, stabbing at the keypad of her cell phone. She's calling the lawyer. Attagirl, let him have it!
We next see her sitting in the lawyer's office with a folder of stuff and explaining that mediation isn't working, basically because Jake is such an ass. ["And the lawyer is played by Caroline Aaron, who kicks ass! Yay!" -- Wing Chun] Just as she's gathering steam, the lawyer, Toby, jumps in to tell her to slow down since she's not charging Lily by the hour.
A little while later, they're sitting at a table with a pot of tea, and Toby is giving Lily her take on the situation. She explains that the way things stand, Lily is on the hook along with Jake if anything goes wrong with the restaurant. Toby suggests that Lily needs to protect herself, her kids, and her share in the restaurant by putting it into receivership and maybe freezing their accounts until the trial. Lily, looking stunned and uncomfortable, is reluctant. Toby lays it out in simple terms: "If the restaurant goes down, you go down with it." Well, enough said. Lily wants to know what everything is going to cost. Toby "only" needs a retainer of five thousand dollars, but hey, if that's a problem, she can go ahead with half that. To drive home that her services represent good value for money, she bluntly states, "In most divorces, men get angry and women get poor."