“I can go up, then,” I answered, and he got a funny expression.
“Did you think I would bring you to a place where you had to climb that many stairs?” he asked.
“You might not have remembered that I had a problem with my hip,” I pointed out.
“Except that I already went walking with you three times to help with it. Come on.” He led me through the lobby, which was very nice, very sleek and very different from where I lived. My building featured threadbare carpet, stains on the walls, and ultra-dim lighting, but there was none of that here. The elevator worked, too, and took us right up to the sixth floor.
“Wow,” I said when he opened the door to his apartment. This was a full-sized place, with a kitchen that would have made sense in a house, and big windows overlooking the city. They probably opened, too, but I didn’t want to test them. “Do you have a roommate?”
“No, and I know that you’re wondering how I afford this.”
“Yes, I am,” I agreed, and he laughed.
“It’s part of August’s real estate portfolio. Can you believe that he has a portfolio?”
“I believe it,” I agreed again. If I was right, then he was up to something no good, and those kinds of ventures were often profitable. “So he’s renting to you below market?”
“He’s doing me a favor,” Levi agreed. “I wanted to get out of Ava’s house. I had to.”
“He’s doing you a favor just because you’re friends, or because you’re doing other things for him?”
“Sit down and I’ll explain,” he said, and pointed to the couch. I did and listened. “When we were in high school, August had a truly shitty life. His dad was gone and his mom was high all the time. He was taking care of himself, and my family helped him. My parents let him stay with us for a while and I studied with him until we got his grades up so that he could graduate. He wants to help me back, and he’s not asking me to do anything illegal. He knows that I wouldn’t.”
“Ok.”
That word meant I’d acquiesced but maybe he’d heard some doubt in my voice, because it remained in my mind. “Haven’t you ever had someone do something nice for you?” he asked me. “Don’t you have friends who stepped up?”
“Not really. That’s why I was trying to get you to be my friend, or your sister.” Maybe she still only saw me as a possible match for Levi, but at least it made her stay in touch. “She and I are going to lunch soon.”
“That’s nice.”
“It’s because I thought you’d dropped me, until I saw you at her cocktail party and we started making plans.”
“First of all, you can be friends with more than one person at a time. Second, I didn’t drop you. I got busy and I wanted to move myself out of her basement before I saw you again. Pretty soon, I’ll be moving out of here, too, because I got…” He tapped his index fingers in a drumroll on the leather-covered cushion. “Are you feeling the excitement? You don’t look like you are.”
“I wouldn’t say that I’m excited, but I’m curious,” I said.
“I’ll satisfy your burning desire to know. Ready?” He waited until I nodded. “I got a job! A real one, not just working for a friend whom you suspect of something nefarious.”
“Really?Wow.”
“You still sound less than thrilled but, of course, there’s no reason for you to be invested in my employment status.”
I was, actually, and I was thinking that if he got a job so easily, he didn’t need my help at all. He was doing fine. “I’m very glad for you.”
Despite the drumroll and the dramatic pauses, he didn’t sound very thrilled for himself either as he explained more. He’d obtained a paycheck-supplying position at a local real estate company, a big one which employed a lot of people in the area. He sighed as he explained it.
It sounded as if he would be starting at a low level but I had faith that he could move up, and I told him so. “You said that you were lazy, but you don’t really seem like it,” I also mentioned.
“I’ll be the oldest entry-level person in the company,” Levi pointed out.
“That’s ok.”
He shrugged but unlike his sister, he used both shoulders. “We’ll see. But you’re right that I wasn’t totally loafing before.”
“You’ve been doing the advertising stuff for your friend,” I suggested.
“Right.” Now he looked a little nervous, which I didn’t fully understand. “I’ve been doing a side project for a few years now, too. I’ve been writing something.”
