Diamonds Are Forever (11 page)

But Andy wasn’t as helpful as he had hoped.  Damian had apparently texted Gemma out of panic the night before, unexpectedly overwhelmed by the decisions he needed to make regarding where to live.  Gemma sipped on her coffee as they made their way across the Manhattan Bridge.

“So why Brooklyn? Isn’t it a little out of the way for you?” Gemma asked.  “I’m pretty sure even most of the Brooklyn Nets live in Manhattan.”

“There’s a little more quiet out there,” Damian replied.  “And just a little more space.”

“That makes sense.”

“And my parents were also from here originally,” he explained.  “My mom was from Bensonhurst and my dad from Fort Greene.”

“I don’t think I knew that,” she replied.  He shrugged.

“They went to the same high school but didn’t end up together until sometime at the end of college.  Then they moved to Beauford when they found out they were having me.”

“So do
you
know Brooklyn at all?” Gemma asked.

“A little.  Just from family get-togethers during the holidays.  Not very much at all,” Damian laughed.  “Which was what I realized when I was here on my own yesterday.  Between not knowing the neighborhoods and all the options of pre-war, post-war, condos, rent, buy – I don’t know.  I couldn’t handle it.”

“Well, I’ll do what I can to help,” Gemma said with a smile.

“We’ll be starting in DUMBO, that would be Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass for ya, newbie,” Andy said, looking at Damian through the rearview mirror.  “It’s a small neighborhood close to Manhattan and it’s got views of the water and the bridge, like your place in the Bay Area.”  Andy turned to Gemma with a roll of the eyes.  “All this dude could say yesterday when I asked him what he wanted was, ‘I don’t know.  Something like my old place but in Brooklyn.’  This man has given zero thought on what he wants to live in.  Guess that decision to sign with the Knicks was
that
draining.”

“It was, man,” Damian laughed.  “Give me a break.”

“Whatever, dude,” Andy grinned.  “Just give us something to cheer for, for once.”

Shortly after getting off the bridge, Gemma found their car passing the patisserie that she had gone to with Zoe a few weeks back.  The car pulled up on a cobblestone road.

Gemma scurried after Andy and Damian and into the building.  Though the exterior looked like an old factory, the lobby was grand and finished in a way that made it look brand new.  She recalled her own real estate agent showing her pictures of the building when she had first started her apartment hunt.

“You’re gonna love this place,” Andy said.  “Ultimate bachelor pad.  Pantydropper.”

“Andy, come on,” Damian said, tilting his head towards Gemma.

“I’m sure Gemma has heard the term pantydropper before,” Andy scoffed.  “She doesn’t need you to protect her ears.”

“Yeah, Damian,” Gemma teased, poking his arm.  “I don’t need you shielding me from the word
pantydropper.
”  Damian smiled to himself, shaking his head and biting his lip as he watched the elevator numbers go up.  Gemma wondered if he was recalling the time she wouldn’t say
groin
while measuring him. 
God, I hope not,
she silently prayed as the elevator took them up to the apartment.

The silver doors opened directly to another door.  Andy punched a combination into the keypad attached to the doorknob.  It beeped, swinging open to reveal a sun-drenched open space with floor to ceiling windows covering three of the four walls.

“It’s a one bedroom, bedroom has a balcony facing wes.  Like I said – pantydropper.  Am I right, Gemma?” Andy asked, turning towards her.

“I’d say so,” Gemma said, admiring the breathtaking view.  She stood in the middle of the living room, stunned by just how much she could see in a single shot.  On one end, she could see the Manhattan Skyline – everything from the Freedom Tower to the Empire State Building – all set behind the East River and all the bridges that crossed it.  On the other end, she could make out the distant outlines of the Statue of Liberty.

“So?” Andy said.  “Can we just have you say yes and call it a night? I have a date at eight and I have grooming I need to do.”

“This is the first apartment I’ve seen today,” Damian laughed.  “You can’t be serious.”

“I totally am.  I showed you this first because I want it to be the
last.
  If you want Brooklyn, have
this
Brooklyn.  You can’t get this view in Manhattan, you know.  Because the view
is Manhattan.
”

“Damn.  Good sell, Andy,” Damian smiled.  “I see why you do as well as you do.”

“Shut up, man, and sign the papers.”

“I’m not just going to agree to the first place I see,” Damian said.  “My trust for you only extends so far.”

“Ouch,” Andy made a stabbing motion at his heart.  He turned to Gemma.  “He’s still holding shit against me.  From our childhood, Gemma.  We went to basketball camp together and I tripped him to get the ball, cause that’s what I thought defense was back then.”

“Andy, we were on the same team,” Damian laughed.

“Okay, but we’re adults now and things are different, and you
can’t deny this beauty,
” Andy said, emphasizing his words by slapping the back of his hand against his open palm.

“I still kind of want to see the other places,” Damian said.  “Tell me you had
something
else in mind.”

“I didn’t, okay?” Andy said, throwing his hands in the air.  “I thought I was doing my friend a favor with this spot.  I didn’t know normal men our age would say
no
to a place like this.  Scratch that, I didn’t know humans of any age, who aren’t concerned with baby-proofing, would say no to this spot.”  He pulled out his phone.  “I’ll see what I can do though.  Just give me a second.  Look around in the meantime, okay man? Gemma, please, help me out and get this man in his right mind.”

“Okay,” Gemma said, dutifully.  She glanced up at Damian, lowering her voice to a whisper.  “Why don’t you like it here?”

“I like it fine,” Damian replied.  “It’s gorgeous, there’s no denying that.  I just don’t know that this is what I had in mind.”

“But it’s by water and the bridges, like you said with your place out west.”

“I said I wanted a place like the one I had,” Damian said.  “But I think I meant more so something homey and comfortable, not necessarily by water and bridges.  I really made a home out of that place and I want the same feeling here.”

“Damian, it’s
beautiful
here,” Gemma smiled gently.

“Yeah, but I need more than that,” he replied, crossing his arms as he continued to survey the space.

“It’ll feel more like home when you actually put stuff in it,” Gemma replied.  “Or when you’ve lived in it for long enough.”  She paused, laughing at herself.  “But I’m being a hypocrite for saying this because my place is so untouched I only realized last week that I’m not sure I’ve actually ever opened my refrigerator.”

“You’re probably not home much,” he said, turning to look at her.

“I’m really not,” Gemma shrugged.  “And you probably won’t be either.  I mean, half your season’s going to be on the road.”

“All the more reason I want a place to come back to that doesn’t feel like I’m still out or partying,” Damian said.

“Fair.”

“What’s your place like?” Damian asked.  Gemma cocked her head, wondering how to describe it.

“It’s in Chelsea.  It’s smaller than this place, for sure,” she laughed.  “But I like it.  I like feeling cozy somewhere I can call my own, be alone with my thoughts, you know – daydream.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Damian smiled, taking Gemma’s hand and pulling her closer.  “I’m not sure Andy wants to understand that though.”

Gemma looked over at Andy who was kneeling on the ground, scribbling notes into a notepad as he talked on the phone.  She laughed, turning back towards Damian and leaning into his chest.  She looked up at him with a crooked little smile.

“That’s because Andy’s a guy friend, and as a guy friend, he’ll always have your
pantydropping
needs in mind,” Gemma said, her voice low and hushed.  And surprisingly, a little raspy.  She bit the corner of her lip the second she finished her sentence.  She hadn’t quite planned to wrap her lips around the word
pantydropping
like that – it just happened.

Damian blinked back at her.  Gemma braced herself for the impending awkward moment that would come between them.  But instead, Damian narrowed his eyes at her, causing a twinkle of mischief to skip across them.  He was known for that in high school – that look that made girls stop and wonder what was going on in his mind.  Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him.

“I kind of hate that word,” Damian finally said.  Gemma frowned.  She hadn’t expected that particular thought from him, not with the way he was looking at her.

“Oh,” she said.  “I’ll stop saying it then.”

“Actually,” Damian smiled, bringing a hand up under her jaw.  He brushed his thumb over the corner of her lips, dropping his gaze to them.  Gemma felt her heart stop.  He dropped his voice to the same hushed tone she had used on him before.  “I was going to say that I kind of like it coming out of you.”

She paused, stunned.  In a flash, Gemma rifled through her mind, searching through mental records of every one of her reactions with Damian.  She was looking for anything similar that he had done in the past, anything that would indicate that this was maybe normal behavior for him.  The search turned up empty.

“I…” she uttered, wetting her lips and swallowing hard to keep her composure.

“Alright, I have a couple more places for you,” Andy said, stepping up onto his feet.  Damian dropped his hand from Gemma’s face.  “I’ve got some cozier,
old man
styles for you in Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill.  Don’t know why you’d want to be in those places at twenty-three, but who am I to argue, I guess.”

~

By the end of the night, Damian had started the paperwork for a townhouse on a small street off of DeKalb Avenue.  It was in his dad’s old neighborhood of Fort Greene, and was probably about the same amount of space as the DUMBO loft, but spread out onto three separate floors.  Gemma loved the rooftop space and the small backyard – two things that were scarce in Manhattan.

“He’s crazy, right?” Andy asked, lighting a cigarette as he stepped up next to Gemma.  Gemma looked up the stairs to the front door, where Damian was talking excitedly on the phone with his father.

“It’s definitely an unconventional choice,” Gemma replied.  “But I do love the space.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s not bad,” Andy shrugged.  “He could probably do some cool barbecue and beer-tasting parties in the backyard.  I would go to those.”

“I can’t even furnish my
much
smaller apartment, I’m not sure how he’s going to manage filling all this space with the limited time he has,” Gemma said, stepping back to marvel at the red brick exterior.

“He’s an NBA player,” Andy scoffed.  “He’ll find someone to handle it.  Or his mom.”  Andy shrugged.  “It’s probably gonna be his mom.”

“So you two have known each other for awhile, haven’t you?” Gemma laughed.

“Yeah,” Andy said, a small smile cracking his lips.  “When I really let myself stop to think about it, I should’ve known that this is more his style.  I was just debating between approaching this as an agent versus approaching this as a friend.  I just
really
wanted a friend to buy that other place and Damian’s the only person I know who can afford it.  By a longshot.  Also, the commission on my end would have been pretty sweet.”

“I can imagine.”

“You two used to be a thing, right?” Andy asked, his cigarette hanging lazily from the corner of his mouth.  “I remember hearing your name in high school.”

“Yes,” she said, lowering her eyes to the ground.  Gemma was starting to feel shy about the topic.

“How about now?” Andy asked.  Gemma looked up, furrowing her brows.

I don’t know how to answer that,
Gemma thought.  She was pretty sure she hadn’t imagined that peculiar moment between them in the DUMBO loft.  After all, he had remained surprisingly flirtatious in the car on the way to their next location.  At least she thought so.  She wondered if there was any room for interpretation in their exchanges.  He had been equally flirtatious with Azura at the Gotham Ball the other night – and after returning from the bathroom, Zoe had reported back that Azura and Damian were in fact not dating, or at least not currently.

But in Andy’s car, Damian had stretched his arm across the backseat, letting his fingers rest in a tangle of Gemma’s wavy locks.  He would give her the occasional playful tug as if to let her know he hadn’t forgotten about her despite his focus remaining on the streets in front of them, studying the neighborhoods as they drove through.  And he
had
opened the car door for her upon arriving at each destination.  But then again he’d do that for anyone.  She was pretty sure he had actually opened Andy’s door for him each time too.  There were small touches, quick glances, many little things that were ultimately more ambiguous than she would have liked.  That is until they saw yet another loft with a spectacular view in Red Hook.  It was a different style than the one in DUMBO, but much more unfinished and quite the fixer-upper.

“I can’t really take on a project like this,” Damian had said to Andy.  It was the sixth stop they had made, and Andy had postponed his date for yet another hour.  Oddly, Damian didn’t seem to feel too bad about it.  Gemma found the two boys’ relationship rather amusing – Damian was less careful around Andy than he was with everyone else, the way he probably would have been if he had a brother.  She was amused by the little surprises in Damian’s personality, seeing things that she actually didn’t know, would have never predicted but somehow still fit.

As Andy stepped away to make another phone call, Damian sidled up next to Gemma, slipping an arm around her waist as she watched the brilliantly red sunset out the long stretch of windows.  He let his hand rest low on her hip, as he normally did.  But this time, Damian’s fingertips dug into her hips as he pressed her body into his side.  He buried his face in her hair, breathing in as he let his lips graze her temple.  In that moment, as far as Gemma was concerned, it was the most winning combination of touches a girl could possibly feel.