Entitled . HS

TWENTY-FIVE.

We got back to New York City, well actually to Brooklyn, mid afternoon. Harris dropped me off at my place to get everything unpacked and say hello to everybody. I think it was because he wanted to go back to his place and make sure everything looked good on the first floor and though it was overkill, I wanted to let him present it as he wanted to.

A few hours later, Levi and I made up something about wanting to go out to dinner to catch up, which we did end up doing after we saw the apartment, but we were doing things in the opposite order we told dad and Dillon. I was anxious to let Levi into so much of my life with Harris, but that was what happened next, right? So, I tried to push those thoughts to the back of my mind. When I walked up to the front of the building, Levi stopped. "This is the building that he owns? He honestly said $1700 a month for this?" He was understandably skeptical.

"Yeah. Like I said, it would just be extra money towards utilities. He already owns the place free and clear."

"And which floor is his apartment on?"

"The third." It was my brother, so I really didn't want to have that conversation with him, but I knew exactly why he was asking. We walked up to the front door and located his name next to #3 and buzzed it, but there was no answer. So, I took out my key fob and let us into the front door, and Levi gave me a strange look. I shrugged my shoulders as the door unlocked. "What? I watered his plants once and I never gave it back to him."

"Sure," Levi said, again skeptically. "Look, I know you two are dating, but I just don't want you to rush into anything, and if us moving in on the first floor makes that happen then we can find another place for dad and Dillon."

"What about you?"

"I'm hoping to get my own place. I might have to spend a couple months on the couch at Dad's, but he doesn't have to have a whole room for me." In the back of my mind I was remembering what Harris said about the basement apartment and hoping that he might show us that today, too, but I hadn't told Levi about it yet.

As we entered the building, I could see that the first floor apartment door was open. "Harris?" I called out, searching for him.

"In here!" I heard him yelling from inside the barren apartment. The door for apartment #1 was on the backside of the building, so I knew that the layout had to be different from Harris' place. Sure enough, we walked into a large open foyer that brought us straight into the dining room, and then the kitchen. Through that was a large open living room and at the front of the building were the two bedrooms with a bathroom in between.

After giving us details on the place, Levi and I wandered the space and Harris stayed behind us without really saying anything. Then, Levi started to ask him questions- about things like the heating systems, did it have air-conditioning, was there Internet access in the building and what upgrades had been done. All things that I had no idea I needed to ask when I was looking for an apartment.

I could see that everything was kind of in this greige color. The floors were original wood and worn in some places, but they were clean and well-maintained. The bathroom had penny tile on the floor and a subway tile in the shower- very classic. "I can have Dillon's bedroom painted whatever color she wants," he was quick to say as we walked around in the smaller of the two bedrooms. " There is an office nook off the backside of the kitchen. I guess some people use it as a breakfast nook, but I'm not sure that it would hold much more than a twin size bed," he said to Levi. "But I have a different space to show you."

Harris guided us out into the hallway. Between the mailboxes and the front door, was another door that had the letter 'B' on it. "So, there's a small basement apartment. It can be accessed directly from outside or it can be accessed from the lobby. Right now it has a lot of crap in it that I have to go through and some artwork that I'm in the process of boxing up to sell, but you can still take a look." Levi was shocked. I hadn't told him about the space because I didn't know if Harris was ready to give it up.