Waffle Love

Chapter 3

I follow him as he walks back towards the front of the house. We end up in the formal living room. He goes over to the wall on the left side of the room, where there is a buffet, and slides it over. Next, he pressed the side of the picture hanging on the wall, and a small key pad opens. He typed a code, and the wall opened up. He motioned me to come through with him. I stepped inside, and I was in another beautiful living room, but inside of another house. "Welcome to my parent's house," he says with a smile. "Mom...Dad... We are here!" he calls out. "Finally!" they respond, and soon I see them smiling walking towards us. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Daniels." It is really nice to meet you," I say, smiling. "This is Destiny, my girlfriend that I have been telling you about," Darius says proudly. "I am so happy that you two are officially a couple now. You have been such good friends for a long time now. It warms my heart to know that my youngest son is with someone who really cares about him. Darius told me that y'all are about to

have breakfast, so we are not going to keep you. Plus, I have to finish cooking the food for the party. We will see you guys later when it is party time!" Mrs. Daniels says. "Aww, thank you so much! You are so kind. Is there anything that I can do to help you?" I respond. "The only thing I need you to do is get settled and keep the birthday guy occupied until it is time for the party. I mostly enjoy working alone, so please don't be offended. Thank you very much for asking, though." Mrs. Daniels says. "Ok, sure! Well, please let me know if you change your mind," I respond. "Well, we are going back next door, and we will see y'all later," Darius says.We turn and go back through the entrance that we came from. Darius pushes the wall closed, presses some buttons on the keypad, and everything seals and locks back up. He slides the buffet back in place, and you can no longer tell that there is an entrance there anymore. We go back to the kitchen and finally have breakfast. It is a good thing we got an early start this morning or else it would be brunch, but it is only 9:50. While eating breakfast, Darius tells me the background story about

his house. "Even though I am the youngest, my parents decided that I should get the house that my siblings and I grew up in. They told us themreasons are because I am the only one who got a full four year scholarship for college, I still had all of my college savings since I had the scholarship, my salary is the highest, and growing up I was the trouble-free kid. My parents inherited the house from my grandparents and took out a mortgage on it to completely renovate it. They let me design all of the tech and security features, since,that is my expertise. My mom is a pro at design, decor, and fashion, and I actually like her style

so I let her pick everything. I used my college savings to pay half of the mortgage off and gave my parents the other half for giving me the house. They used their half to go towards purchasing and renovating the house next door once it became for sale. When the renovations were complete, my parents and siblings moved next door. I have had the house to myself for two years now. My father has been a real estate lawyer and broker for about 30 years, and my mother was an RN for over 20 years until COVID came about. She went and got her real estate license and became a realtor, so she just works for my father now. Sometimes, she does interior decorating and staging jobs too. When my best friend told his parents what my parents did with these two houses, they liked the idea and decided to do their version of it. The apartment that you visited earlier was his

childhood home. His parents purchased the single unit when he was still a child. They recently gave it to him with the condition that he would renovate it to increase the value. Over the years, as the other units became available, they gradually purchased them, renovated them, and sold them to other family members, with the exception of the one that they live in. So, the whole building is now occupied by family. They plan to continue the process with other brownstones on the block when they become available. This is my parents goal too. The mutual ultimate goal that our parents share is to bring family closer by being neighbors. They believe that since we are from Harlem, and Harlem has such a rich culture history, this is the perfect place to reignite strong family unity," he tells me over breakfast. "Wow, this is awesome! I love this goal that they are working towards. I hope that more families follow this process soon, not just in Harlem but everywhere. This would be a beautiful thing to see. My parents gave me money towards purchasing my condo because my college expenses were covered too. My father is a professor and has worked at the same college for over 20 years. So, I attended college for free. I wanted to stay on campus because I don't have any siblings, so my parents were strict and smothering me. The college did not want to cover that because the campus was too close to my parents' house. So, my parents ultimately gave in and decided to help me buy my condo, which avoided me wasting money on rent or paying to stay on campus. My condo is only a few blocks away from their house," I tell him. We are finished eating now, and we throw away our trash."So, are you ready to see the rest of the house?" he asked me." Yes," I respond. "Do you want to see the basement first and work your way up?" "Yes, " I respond again.

He opens the basement door, and we go down the stairs. We enter into a lounge style game room area that has a tv, bar area, pool table, air hockey table, and other games. There is also a bowling area in the back of the room with four lanes. There are a few doors around the room. I walk to one and open it, it is a gym room. The next door I open is a bathroom. I open another door, and I am surprised to see an indoor pool. The last door I open reveals a storage area with the furnance and plumbing. Now, it is time to head upstairs. We turn off all of the lights as we make our way back up the steps to the main level. Once on the main level, we head over to the main staircase and go up the first flight of stairs. On this level, there are guest bedrooms with walk-in closets and bathrooms. We go up another level, and it is mostly identical to the previous level, except the bedrooms are completely empty. We go up another level, and Darius says, " Welcome to the master's floor." The first thing I see is an office room, which he tells me this is where he works most days. In the hallway area, I see a mini kitchen. It has a sink, dishwasher, refrigerator, and microwave. I walk inside the only other door and it is a huge bedroom. Inside the bedroom are three doors, which lead to the master bathroom, closet that includes dressing room, and a small living room area. Just when I thought that I had seen the whole house, he told me that there was one more area to see.