He and I go up to the roof, the narrow stairs and low door. The tiles on the terrace are orange clay and slick with rainwater. He opens a new beer from the six-pack he's been carrying.
"Do you know the story of the Lady In Red." He slams back the cerveza and doesn't give me a chance to answer, but then, it's not a question.
"So you know, in Aladdin. When the genie's offering him everything, anything he could ever want. And those three **** girls appear, in red dresses, tempting him. And in the Matrix, they're walking down the hallway. Neo stops to look at the lady in the red dress and when he turns around there's a gun in his face.
"This city is my Lady In Red.
"She's so beautiful, so passionate, you don't even see. I don't even see it until it's too late.
"This city is killing me", he says. "She's given me everything I thought I wanted, and taken everything I have."
He finishes the can and kicks it across the rooftop. He laughs meanly.
"I'm a ******* alcoholic." He laughs again. Opens another can.
"Twenty-one years old." He shakes his head and coughs harshly, hacking up spit and sending it off the edge of the roof. "I am actually ill because of her."
"She's so perfect, but it's not real at all."
He looks so ******. So lost. I look out around us.
The skyline is so beautiful.