4. Amina Sinclair
Amina Sinclair
“Amina. Amina,” the sound of someone calling my name, snapped me out of the deep sleep that I was in.
As if I was confused about my surroundings, and didn’t have a clue what was taking place, I looked around frantically, trying to see where the hell I was.
“Where are we?” I wanted to know.
“We’re in Tallahassee. I’m bringing it in here for the night,” he said, removing the seatbelt that he was wearing, so that he could stand up.
I was confused. What the hell did he mean that he was bringing it in here for the night? Was he just going to leave the truck here? How would we get to a hotel, so that we could shower, and get in a bed? I had so many questions for him.
During the drive, before I fell asleep, I remember getting cold, so I placed my arms into the sleeves of my sweater. Right now, I was pulling them out and looking up at Gemini.
“How are we going to get to the hotel?” I asked him, and he looked at me as if I was bat shit crazy.
“Amina, what hotel? What are you talking about?” he wanted to know.
“You said that we’re in Tallahassee and that you’re bringing it in for the night.
I’m assuming that you’re going to leave the truck here, while we sleep at a hotel.
Is that not what’s getting ready to happen?
” my voice went up a few notches, looking him in his eyes, waiting to hear what his response was going to be.
Gemini did this thing where he would look at you crazy or look at you like you’re dumb whenever you said something to him that didn’t make the most sense. That’s what he was doing right now. That looked pissing me off too.
“You think I booked a hotel? You think I’m going to leave my truck here, and have an Uber or some shit come out here to pick us up, so that they can drop us off to a five-star hotel or some shit?
Amina, I’m in my truck. This is the fuckin hotel!
” he snapped on me. I was appalled. So much so that my body literally slumped down in the chair, and I started looking around me.
Gemini was standing behind me, right where the curtains were, that led to the sleeping quarters of his truck.
Granted, I knew that it was beds, and everything else back there, but I thought that was for times when he just wanted to pull the truck over on the side of the road and take a quick nap.
I thought it was for those times when he had a guest in the truck with him, and they wanted to go in the back and rest. I didn’t think that we would actually be pulled over into a fuckin truck stop, where I would have to sleep in a bunk bed overnight.
I had no idea that this would take place.
If I did, I would have never joined him on this truck.
“You might as well hop out with me, so that I can get our bags out. We’ll go inside the truck stop, take our showers, and then call it a night,” when he said that to me, it’s as if he said the very thing to me that was the final straw to break the camel’s back because within seconds, I pulled my knees up to my chest, and I broke down crying.
The little bit of fight that I had left in me, it quickly left. I was crying from a place that was deep within. It was hard accepting this new reality.
“Amina, what the fuck is wrong with you, man? You’re on a 18-wheeler truck.
You saw the beds in the back, bruh. You had to know that we were going to have to sleep in these beds.
I swear I’m not trying to be mean to you.
I want to sympathize with you when it comes to the shit that you have going on, but I’m having a hard time understanding you right now.
You thought those beds were put in the back for decoration?
Love, that’s where I lay my head, and sleep,” he started, and even though I was sitting here, with my head buried into my hands crying, I could hear him loud, and clear.
“You had this entire thing wrong from the jump. You walked out the house with Louis Vuitton suitcases and shit, looking like you were headed to a resort. What I do for a living is hard work. It’s nothing glamorous about the work that I do.
This shit ain’t pretty. I’m on the road for hours at a time, and when the workday is over, and it’s time for me to call it a night, I turn in at a truck stop, where I shower, and I take my ass to bed.
If you plan on being on this truck with me for the next two months, I’m going to need for you to get with the fuckin program.
You going to have to get used to a change of scenery —”
“I don’t have to get used to shit!” I screamed through my cries, picking my head up and looking at him. He pulled down hard on his beard, laughed an annoyed laugh, while shaking his head at me.
“You do have to get used to this shit, love. If you going to be on the truck with me for two months, you need to get with the program. What? Your plan is to throw a fuckin tantrum every time that some shit don’t go your way? This ain’t London. Shit look different around these parts,” he finished.
That last part of his rant broke me. It broke me because that’s the reason why I had been crying in the first place.
This wasn’t London. This wasn’t the fairytale life that I dreamed of having.
This wasn’t my home with Jacob. I wasn’t on my honeymoon high.
I wasn’t actively doing everything in my power with what would have been my husband to have a baby.
Instead, I was on a fuckin truck with an insensitive asshole.
“You know what? Fuck you! I don’t know what part of me was stupid enough to agree with getting on the road with your ass anyways.
Gianna said that this was supposed to be therapy.
There isn’t shit therapeutic about being in the same setting as you.
Get my bags, and I’ll find my way back home!
” I screamed, standing up, so that I could open the door, get out of the truck, and meet him outside.
“Man, you not about to go no fuckin where. I promised my sister that I would keep you in good hands, and that’s what I’m going to do.
We’re in country ass Tallahassee. Someone will see your green ass standing on the curb with those thousand-dollar suitcases, and they’ll rob you, and probably put you in the fuckin trunk of their car.
Listen, it’s been a long ass day. I been up since four this morning.
I’ve spent the past few hours behind the wheel, pushing this truck.
The last thing I feel like doing right now is arguing with you.
Let me just get our bags, so that we can get what we need to go inside, and take a shower,” he said to me. You could hear the defeat in his voice.
Instead of responding, I just hopped out of the truck on my own, and it wasn’t long before Gemini came out as well. He went over to the storage area on the truck, where our bags were. He was in a squatting position, as he unlocked it, removed the latch, and then turned to look at me.
“Which bag do you need out of here?” he asked me.
“All of them,” was my response.
“You need all three bags to pull some shit out to take a shower with? You don’t have your pajamas, and toiletries in the same suitcase?” he wanted to know.
“I need all three bags because I’m getting ready to fuckin leave! I’m not showering here. I’m not sleeping in this fuckin truck with you. I want to get the fuck away from you!” I screamed.
I knew it was him that I was taking my frustrations out on.
I shouldn’t have been this upset upon learning that I had to shower at a truck stop, and sleep on a bunk bed.
Granted, even if I didn’t have all these things going on in my life at the moment, I’m sure that I would have still been upset about this, but it wouldn’t have been to this extent.
I literally saw the last nerve leave Gemini’s body as he slowly stood up from the squatting position that he was in and walked over to me. His tall frame hovered over mine. There was annoyance written all over his face.
“Keep your voice down before people think that I kidnapped your crazy ass, and they call the fuckin cops on me. Stop saying that goofy ass shit about leaving because you’re not.
You are in a city that you don’t know shit about.
You don’t know anyone here. You don’t have a car.
You wouldn’t even know where the fuck to go—”
‘I don’t care!” I cut him off.
“But I do!” when he said that, he completely shut me up.
It’s like the world stopped when he said it. Naturally, it was in me to try to get the last word in, but my lips wouldn’t even move for me to speak. I didn’t expect him to say that.
“I care because I made a promise to my sister. I made a promise to keep you safe. You can be mad at me. You can curse me the fuck out when we get back on the truck. You can even hate me. Do all that shit, but you not leaving out of my sight,” he went on.
I was standing before him, vulnerable out of my mind, crying heavy tears, while using the sleeves of my sweater to wipe them away.
I know I had to have looked so helpless to him.
I knew that I was getting on his nerves.
Hell, I was getting on my own nerves. I wasn’t trying to though.
I wanted to be normal. I wanted to be reasonable, but I was hurting.
“You like to read, right? I’m sure you’re into reading romance novels and shit, right?
Consider this shit that we got going on right now as a trope.
A forced proximity. I would hate to have to snap on you again.
Please, make it easy for yourself. I’m going to ask you again.
Which bag did you need for me to get out for you? ” he wanted to know.
“The big luggage,” I found my common sense, and answered the question for him.
With a nod of his head, he walked away, and he grabbed the heavier luggage for me. He kept it near him, and he pulled out a black luggage that belonged to him. Like both luggage’s didn’t weigh anything, he wheeled them over to the passenger side door, lifted them, and walked back inside the truck.