I love Nick. He’s a good brother, but—he was funky. He probably took as many showers as anybody else but he was still kind of funky. He’s that pudgy guy with rubbing thighs who sweats in all of his new clothes. Once a week I had to tell him to keep drugs out of the house and that his girlfriends were loud. They all spit when they talk and stomp when they walk. Sometimes my hallway smelled like fat sex. I didn’t want Soni to chill at this place, so I decided to grab a loft downtown. We had been kicking it for a while now spending all of our free time together and she even considered moving in with me. I had been wanting another place to live and the combination of my love and his funkiness gave me a reason to do something about it.
I had enough money to move wherever I wanted to, but the Green House was on some real boss shit—like if I ever got snatched by the feds, this would be the place I’d want them to show on the news. My brother used to date a Nigerian nurse who lived in the building. I had only been there two or three times, but I always knew I’d grab a spot in that building once I got my dough up.
And now my dough was up—really up—so I called the rental office and the lady invited me down. The building was located on Pratt Street, not too far from the Inner Harbor. A lot of doctors and healthcare providers in general lived in the building because the University of Maryland medical center was within walking distance. I greeted the rental agent with a handshake and asked to see her best unit. She said, “It’s nineteen hundred dollars a month.” I told her that I didn’t ask for a price, I asked to see the best unit. She turned red and instructed me to follow.
The spot had wood floors, a billion-foot-high ceilings, and spiral stairs that led to the master bedroom, which was a loft overlooking your loft. Everything was open except the guest room.
“I’ll take this!” I told her. I could already envision my furniture—white leather couches and a fish tank on some Scarface shit. I thought I’d make everyone take off their shoes once they stepped foot in my crib.
“If you like this place, we need to do a credit check, sir.”
“No, we don’t,” I said. “I’ll take it.” I went to my car and came back with enough cash to pay the rent for a year. She gave me some papers to sign and I left with the key.