Seeing Nick's skeletal deathly visage reminded me of the novel The Brethren by John Grisham. Short synopsis: three former judges locked up in a minimum-security federal prison run a scam to deceive and blackmail closeted gay men.
One of the supporting characters is the judges' lawyer, Trevor Carson, who acts as their assistant - he carries letters to and from prison and hires PIs to track some potential targets for blackmail. In exchange he pockets one third of the blackmail money.
In the novel, Trevor is presented as an utter failure: he's an alcoholic, he has almost no clients, he doesn't have a family, friends, hobbies, iirc he's also addicted to gambling. Him being killed by the CIA as part of a larger plot almost seems like a blessing.
Yet even this wretched human being is better and more sympathetic than Nick. Consider the following:
1) If I remember correctly Trevor doesn't have any embarrassing fetishes - he's not into swinging, homosexuality, cuckolding, odd sexual toys or any of that shit.
2) He actually manages to outwit and escape the freaking CIA who have him under constant surveillance - for a time. He eventually gets killed by them in the Bahamas.
3) Despite being bad at it, he IS a practicing lawyer who does have SOME clients (even if very few low paying ones). Additionally, at no point in the book does he allow his lawyer license to lapse.
Back when I first read this novel I thought that this character was patently unbelievable - "surely a lawyer would be better put together and couldn't be such a giant failure?". Now I realize the horrible truth.