(Meanwhile in Miami)
“You seen the check that plays Jessica Jones? Her ass looks fine in those jeans man,” Trevario commented.
Mariano starred ahead at the other parked cars around him. The sun was going right into his eyes and it was at a weird angle that he couldn’t block with the visor. The ’84 suburbans weren’t built with visor mobility as their chief concern. At least this time of year the heat was tolerable, if it was July Mariano would have a waterfall of sweat going into his ass crack and he’d have strangled Trevario hours ago to shut up his comic book talk. It was a week away from the Jessica Jones show on Netflix and he wouldn’t shut up about it. You’d think one of their rap solos had gotten over 350 youtube views from how excited he was about it.
“I’m telling you man, Netflix has it figured out.” Corieno chimed in. “First they took the very underrated Daredevil and took it to the next level. I know it wasn’t Dark Knight, but the Affleck movie gets a lot of undue flak. But still we got the TV show which put him at this whole new level, now we get Jessica Jones, who knows what else we’ll see.”
“Well you know how TV works,” Trevario replied. “They already have the New York sets, anything else in Hells Kitchen is an easy sell. They’re just going to keep reusing the same stuff, mark my works its why everything is so purple, it hides that its just the Daredevil stuff. Every superhero is going to be the same set, slightly different angel and a different color is thrown up everywhere. If the next also happens to have biracial butt stuff going on, that’s great too. She confirmed that shit at the comic con panel.”
When Travario and Corieno got talking like this Mariano knew better than to get in the middle of it. He just kept trying to block the sun with his hand as he waited for the real estate lady to show up. The other member of his entourage was also staring blankly out the window. He was a recent addition to Mariano’s crew, a Florida native named Mike that was in a janitor’s union. For years he swept floors before getting involved in the organized labor movement and he started busting head for the local custodial workers union. That’s where he got caught up with the Dixie mafia and found his way to Mariano’s chickenshit outfit. He was probably the most professional person in the motley crew assembled.
If you had told Mariano he would be back in Miami so soon after the Trump election he would have called you a liar. He was prepared to dig in and put down roots in the inner city with his drug money, but fate had dragged him back here for a coke deal. He might as well accept that Miami was going to be an important stop for him and he can’t keep doing this Super 8 bullshit, even though the waffles are great. The problem with their continental breakfast is it stops at 10am and Mariano is the kind of guy that liked to sleep in. He liked a nice breakfast lunch thing around 11 – noon each day, which was how he dealt with life. Apparently that’s also this Jessica Jones bitch was living too from the description Trevario was giving. Oh god his nonsense was getting through and Mariano was learning it. If he wasn’t careful he’d be watching this Gotham show on Fox. That wasn’t Mariano’s style he liked a nice Bob’s Burgers and then he’d call it a night, none of this superhero nonsense.
With any luck he’d have a more permanent place to crash while he was here, and he could make waffles any time of day he wanted. That was the nice thing about getting that hacking couple working for him, they actually did a bunch of Zillow searches and shit for hotspots in the area. Between the housing crisis, which Miami still hasn’t recovered from, and the annual hurricane damage there were a lot of abandoned properties on the market. People get behind on the mortgage, hurricane does some damage and they just walk away with the insurance check. That leaves the bank on the hook for the mortgage and it creates an opportunity for Mariano. The banks wants to get whatever it can for these shitholes and Mariano was in the mood to throw a few dollars their way. These places were everything he was looking for, dirt cheap and that’s about it. They’d need some love and investment to get going, but for right now Mariano just planned on throwing a cot in the back and running an extension cord to steal electricity from an unsuspecting neighbor.
The radio was an alternative to the idiots in stereo behind him, it would certainly help pass the time. Mariano flicked on the old console and started scanning the available stations. It was a lot of preachers and country music, Miami sometimes hid it, but you were definitely in the south. Eventually Mariano settled on a Cuban pop station and let it play softly while the real estate agent pulled up. She was supposed to give them a tour and if Mariano liked what he saw he’d get Mike to sign the paperwork. Mariano would be fronting the cash here, but Mike was the only American citizen actually in the car at the moment so it would be in his name for legal purposes. As long as whatever was wrong with it could be solved by sending Trevario and Corieno to Lowes it was fine by Mariano.
“I’m so glad you’re interested in the property,” the real estate agent named June said sunnily.
“Oh it’s always been my dream to own my own business,” Mike said.
“Well it’s in a great spot, the area is really starting to gentrify,” June stated, which was code for this is the bad side of town. “In a few years this is going to be the hotspot in Miami. It’s zoned commercial and it has about 10,000 square feet of space it’s pretty bare but do you want to take a look inside.”
“Oh sure lead the way,” Mike replied.
The front door took a little force to get open but eventually yielded to June’s shoulder. The door was stiff from weather warping and general neglect. A bit of WD40 in those hinges would get it working again, Mariano noted. The lights didn’t come on because the power company had shut off the electricity months ago. From the look of things though Mariano would have been real hesitant before he tried anything. The boards on the front window blocked the natural sunlight so the real estate agent led them around with a flashlight. There wasn’t a lot to see really, the front room had plenty of space but there wasn’t any furniture to speak of. A couple of floor tiles were missing and the ceiling was peeling off huge sections of paint. In the corner was a giant half eaten family sized instant noodle bowl, likely left by the previous owners. It was now the property of the local cockroaches that paid the five of them no mind.
The tour was already off to a great start, aside from a few aesthetic issues, this could be a real fixer upper. All it would take is someone who didn’t mind rolling up their sleeves and telling their employees to get to work. That would take a lot of supervisory time and effort to stay on top of those two but Mariano felt like he could do it. Now the front area was kind of a bore but the back areas were lovely. They were every bit as bare and neglected but they were laid out nice, there would be room for lots of activities back here. Mariano could put a table up and a TV, play poker with the guys or grab a quick bite to eat. There of course could also be room for more secure storage as well, maybe even an office. This place wasn’t a mansion, that footage went fast when you figure the bulk of it is out front for retail, but Mariano had some room back here to play with. All Mariano needed was to get the water back on, fix the power, repaint everything, furniture, and of course inventory. That was actually quite a bit now that Mariano thought about it, this place would probably require a crap ton of labor to get going and he should adjust his price accordingly.
“This is lovely tour June,” Mariano stated breaking her line of banter about the school districts. “Would you mind if we into one of these side rooms and talked it over.”
Shuffling into a tight storage closet Mariano started speaking once the door was closed, “So this might work, what do you think Mike?”
“Mmmm, the place needs to be repainted and there’s mildew everywhere to scrape off,” Mike commented drawing from his years of union maintenance work experience as a janitor. “If the mold is any indication there’s probably water damage in the electrical, but I won’t know for sure until I start poking around behind the switch covers. Worst case scenario we got to get one of my fellow union electricians down here, and they’ll cut you a good rate. Aside from that, it’s nothing a few lightbulbs and some actual business stuff could solve, like tables and chairs.”
“So you’re down,” Mariano asked.
“Yeah,” Mike begrudged, “If the price is right, we should move.”
“What do you think Corieno and Trevario?” Mariano asked.
“Man we could set up a studio in this room,” Corieno commented. “The acoustics are poppin in here, we all sound amazing.”
Mariano realized that he should stop looking to them for guidance in that moment. It wasn’t like he really was before but he had hoped that coming to America might help them get their shit together. It kinda did in a way but a zebra can’t change its stripes. They weren’t spending all day getting drunk on a stoop but they were still the same lovable idiots they always were. So all he needed to do now was make an offer, something low to set the bar but not so low that the agent wouldn’t negotiate. This haggling would be a fine art, Mariano didn’t care how good the parking or local schools were this place was a dump and he wasn’t paying for a damn parking lot or school district.
Exiting the room Mariano nudged Mike forward with the offer. Mike was clearly uncomfortable in this high stakes business setting but Mariano had confidence in his folksy union ways. In this situation Mariano knew that Mike wouldn’t let him down.
“Ummmm,” Mike said, “We’re prepared to offer 50,000 for the property and not a penny higher.”
The negotiation got off to a rocky start but Mike managed to end it confidently. Now all Mariano had to do was watch the realtor’s wheels turn in her head as she spat back the counter offer. Then they’d dance to the true price in an artful back and forth.
“Sold,” June stated, “Come with me and we’ll get the paperwork sorted out.”
“Fuck,” Mariano thought to himself he bid too high, he could have had this for way less if she bit like that. “Can’t win them all,” he pondered to himself as Mike began signing paper after paper.
A couple hours later it was finally time for money to exchange hands. Mike was left with the keys which Mariano promptly took once the real estate agent left. The four of them shared a group high five over their latest acquisition. They were now respectable businessmen with a place to call their own. Stealing their neighbor’s power and cable would have to wait though Mariano needed to meet some people and take them out of the country.
“Alright,” Mariano said reluctantly looking at his watch. “We got a client to meet and transport. Let’s load up and we’ll come back here afterwards to really get the place looking nice.”
Piling back into the suburban, Mariano bid a farewell glance to his new property as he drove off to the docks. With the kind of crew he was running with now, he’d like to see the sex offenders try something. His guys would wipe the floor with Marshal Vic if his shirtless cheeseburger gut made an appearance. Luckily for him, it seemed that all the activity at the docks had quieted them down.
There was a couple of guys standing around waiting. Those must be Sally’s guys waiting on Mariano and his crew to show up. It was going to be a little more crowded on the boat than Mariano was used to but with the new powerful engine hopefully this wouldn’t be an overnight trip.
“Okay you must be Hector,” Mariano stated warmly as he exited his SUV. “I’m sure that Sally is riding your ass like he’s riding mine, so let’s get everything on board the boat and do the meet and greet at sea. We need to get this show on the road, err ocean rather.”
Requests
10,000 square foot commercial property as real estate, without income yet (but that’s coming soon)
-50,000 for the property (I based this price on an actual property listing link just in case you want to look at it.)
Thread left open please
Statistics: Posted by Mariano Amilcar — Sun Nov 15, 2015 2:01 pm