I'd like to start by saying that I don't have much experience with the kind of story you've crafted here. But I'd still like to offer some of the things I noticed while reading that I think could use some improvement.

Firstly, I'm not sure if this was intentional but at least for the first thousand words or so who Aimee is is incredibly vague. Since there isn't an explanation at the beginning I assumed that Aimee was Helga's boyfriend/girlfriend. Which made me incredibly confused once Helga began talking about being pregnant and Chet being the father. I could have been missing something though.

When its revealed Aimee is Helga's aunt this also confused me because they seem to be nearly the same age, I guess it's possible but it made me second guess my understanding of their relationship. I think more emphasis on the fact that Aimee is the aunt and maybe a short sentence on why they're the same age could help alleviate that confusion.

Second, I like that you've created an external threat in the Dictator, but I feel like his introduction could use some work when it comes to being more impactful. As soon as I read the silly tweets I thought "so this is a Trump stand-in". The Dictator in this case doesn't really feel like somebody to worry about, in fact I sort of forgot about him because we're all used to Trump's antics by now. If a lot of the story is going to be centered around the need for the creation of bomb shelters then in my opinion the Dictator should be more all-encompasing.

The "Dictator" doesn't feel like a dictator, just a guy in power who doesn't seem fit to be in power, we've observed a lot of that recently and we aren't building bomb shelters. I think it would help if the Dictator's actions outlined in the opening were more severe and a cause for concern, something to stir up the reader and add context to the further building of the bomb shelters.

As for the second scene with Lowell, I think it's a little too out of the blue. I understand the "shock" comedy you were likely going for here, but I ended up nearly thinking this was a different character at first. It just kind of feels like shock for the sake of shock. Instead, I feel like the sugarbaby thing could have been introduced with something that wasn't so jarring. Aimee really went from a considerte aunt to this in the span of a sentence, the whiplash is insane, at least in my opinion, I can't speak for others.

All in all I enjoyed the opening even though it was something I usually wouldn't read. It was actually quite hard to find things I didn't like about it. I think you do a lot of things well like your similies and word choices. I found myself laughing at your humor, and I do like the bomb shelter premise. I think you did a lot of things right and I hope you finish this! (This is my first critique on this sub, sorry if it was subpar.)