“Sure thing.” I was not going to call my uncle, but to appease my mother I would shoot off a HBD text.
I pulled up Nori’s series of text messages.
Nori: Updates, the moving van has been located and should be here by the end of the week.
Nori: The hotel wants to know if you would like a personal butler.
Nori: You have an interview with ESPN next week. More on that later.
Aldridge: Is the butler free?
Nori: No, there’s an additional fee.
Aldridge: Then the answer is no. And what exactly do I need a butler for?”
Nori: Make dinner reservations, drop off your dry cleaning, purchase tickets to the latest show.
Aldridge: That’s what I pay you for.
Nori: I know but you’re in Vegas now. I’m sure these athletes’ assistants have assistants.
Aldridge: Don’t get any ideas. We are not like these other rich folks. We are on a budget.”
Upon hire she took one look at my household and whipped that shit into shape. Nothing moved unless she greenlit it. She kept me on schedule, fixed any inconveniences, and made sure I linked up with the hottest designers. Nori touched everything but my finances, which were exclusively handled by me and my accounting firm. I would be damned if I ended up like some of these other celebrities who at the end of their reign had nothing to show for it.
I didn’t play about my money mostly because I wasn’t the only one depending on that check each month. Even though I was grown and my mother worked, I still supported my childhood household. And by support I meant I paid the mortgage, car notes, school fee, and college tuition. I couldn’t fuck this up because if I did, the impact would be so much bigger than just me.
Nori: One last thing. I heard back from the realtor, and it sounds like she’s been busy. She has a bunch of homes lined up for you.
Aldridge: Great.
Nori: Was that a great I’m so excited or a great one more thing to do?
Aldridge: Maybe a mix of both.
Nori: When do I get the story about you two?
Aldridge: You don’t.
Nori: Do you want me to hit pause on the home search?
That was an excellent question. I needed a place. Staying at a hotel was a waste of money and was not sustainable long term. It wasn’t the house hunt that was the problem. It was who the hunt was with, Danessa. Seeing her again after all this time caused some feelings to resurface. Like what gave her the right to be walking around Vegas clearly thriving and acting like she’d leveled up since me. She was finer than I remember her being. She didn’t have any business looking that good. And her smile … was there a man in her life who was being treated to that smile and phat ass every day. I’m not implying she wasn’t allowed to move on, but it made it hard for me to pretend she regretted her decision to leave me when clearly she didn’t.
Aldridge: No, the sooner I can find a place the better.
Nori: Got it. Then I’ll tell Danessa it’s a go for Saturday.
Aldridge: Great.
I never gotnervous when meeting with clients. I’d represented politicians, dignitaries, celebrities, and one time a Saudi prince. But this afternoon I was running around the property like a chicken with its head no longer attached. Fussing with pillows, opening and closing doors, and I was torn between retracting the hideaway slider or keeping them shut as a mini surprise.
This could probably be considered normal behavior when one was about to tour a house with their ex. Oddly enough this wasn’t the first time we’d walked through real estate together. In college we lived on campus all four years. But during our senior year, Aldridge drove up into the hills and stopped in front of a home with an open house sign out front. Inside we pretended we were engaged and looking for our million-dollar starter home.
I don’t know who we were fooling because we stood out like sore thumbs among the real million-dollar bank accounts. In the backyard of this well-appointed home, Aldridge vowed to buy me a house just as big as this one when he made it to the NBA. This wasn’t an empty promise. Aldridge had a gift, and he was onthe shortlist to be drafted in the first round. Some people were even saying first pick.
It was at that moment in the type of yard I’d only seen online, I knew I needed to get off the Aldridge Mosley ride. I didn’t want to be a basketball girlfriend and eventually a spouse. The thought of spending the entirety of my life chasing his dream while deferring mine turned my stomach. Looking back on it now, it felt a little silly. I was a realtor, a profitable one, but still a realtor all the same. Was this the life-changing future I’d envisioned for myself?
I’d graduated with a degree in business with the hopes of going to law school. I ultimately wanted to work for the Innocence Project which worked to get individuals who were wrongfully convicted out of jail, but life had other plans. A bell ringing brought me back to the present. Before answering the door, I fussed with my hair and swept any possible eye boogers from the corners of my eyes.
