6. Amina Sinclair #3
I stepped into the truck, going for the sleeper area, where the fridge was.
I opened it and pulled out the pan of white rice that was inside.
Gemini picked this pan of rice up earlier.
There was a Chinese restaurant right next door to the Walmart that we went to, and that’s where he purchased the rice.
It had been chilling in the refrigerator since this morning.
I grabbed it, along with the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that I picked up earlier from Walmart.
I was able to juggle two glasses in my hands too.
I brought the items outside, and I sat the tray of rice down on the table, along with the glasses.
“You have a corkscrew? I forgot to pick one up while we were at Walmart,” I stated.
“Yeah. It’s back in the truck. Look in the drawer with the rest of the utensils,” he replied, not looking up from the steak that was in front of him. He was too busy looking down at it, making sure that he was applying the right amount of seasoning.
“You don’t strike me as the type of man that would have a corkscrew lying around. You drink wine, Gemini?” I wanted to know. My question made him laugh.
“I actually do. I don’t know what this shit is that you brought out here though. I’m a Moscato kind of nigga. I like to pour me a glass of Moscato, roll a fat blunt, put on some Anita Baker, and just vibe out,” he stated, and in just one sentence, I learned three new things about him.
I didn’t know he drank wine, didn’t know he smoked weed, and damn sure didn’t know that he listened to Anita Baker. I thought the only kind of music that he listened to were the ones that called women nothing but bitches, and hoes.
“I didn’t know you smoked weed,” I chose to comment on that first.
“Look what I do for a living, love. Damn right I smoke weed. It soothes me. Keeps me calm, and sane. I’m not a junkie when it comes to that shit though. What? You going to judge me because I smoke?” he asked, looking up at me.
“Nope. I tried it before in college. It wasn’t my thing,” I was honest.
“You probably had some trash ass weed, that’s why,” he said.
Instead of responding, I went back into the truck, so that I could grab the corkscrew.
I found it and headed back outside with Gemini.
By this time, he had the Blackstone running, he was adding olive oil, and ready to start cooking.
Since he didn’t leave me in charge of doing anything, the only job that I had was opening the bottle of wine.
Once it was opened, I poured a glass for myself, and a glass for him.
Naturally, he raised his glass, and I raised mine as well.
We did a quick clash together with our glasses and sipped.
I wanted to see his reaction, especially since he never heard of the brand before.
It’s almost like he knew that I was waiting for his reaction because once he finished, he turned to look at me.
“It’s straight,” he said, as he literally reached for the bottle, so that he could pour himself another glass.
“Oh please. You know that’s probably the best wine that you’ve ever had in your life,” I shot, taking a seat down in the chair.
I tucked my legs up under me, while I watched Gemini dump the entire pan of rice onto the grill.
He then used a big chunk of butter to place right at the center of the rice.
While that started doing its thing, he looked up from the rice, placing his eyes on me.
I knew he was getting ready to ask me something. Probably something deep too.
“You miss London yet?” is what he decided to ask.
“I miss things about London. I miss my mom,” I was honest.
“Things like that?” he wanted to know.
“Just everyday things. My favorite coffee shops. Favorite boutiques. Hell, even my job. Just all the things that used to make me feel normal,” I let him know. It’s almost like he studied me for a little bit before he chose to move forward with the next thing.
“Why London though? Granted, I know that you were only a kid when you moved there, so it wasn’t like it was your decision.
Out of all the places in the world that ya’ll could have moved to, why did your mom choose London?
” he wanted to know. I wasn’t surprised by his question though.
I’ve been asked that same question from so many people over the years.
I wanted to give him the real answer. I had so much time left to spend on this truck with him that I might as well get deep and let him know why we moved.
“After my dad was killed, my mom started to develop a strong hatred for Miami. It was like the biggest trigger for her. Miami was the city where her husband was taken away from her. I mean, I get it now, but as a kid, I didn’t.
I remember being so angry at her because I felt like she wasn’t taking my feelings into consideration.
One minute, I’m mourning the death of my father, and then I’m mourning the life that I was getting ready to leave behind.
She took me away from my friends, my school, my home.
All the things that made me happy. It was super hard to have to leave Gianna.
Mainly because I knew that once we left, we would leave for good.
We wouldn’t come back for summer breaks, winter, none of those things,” I started.
Gemini had a way of staring at me intensely whenever I would speak to him. He did it as if he was hanging onto your every word.
“But to answer your question, she chose London because she literally always talked about London. Even when I was a little girl, she had so many paintings around the house of London. Paintings of the Eiffel Tower. Paintings of those telephone booths. Just anything that had to deal with Europe, she was obsessed with it. She made the decision to move to London. Put the house on the market, and it literally sold within a month. We left and she never looked back,” I shared.
Gemini started tossing the rice around, but I knew that more questions were going to come. I took a sip of my wine, prepared to hear whatever his next question was going to be.
“I don’t know too much about London. I’ve never been. What part did you grow up in?” he asked.
“Kensington,” I told him.
“Sounds expensive as fuck. What? That’s like our Star Island that we have back in Miami?” he tried to be funny.
Star island is where the super wealthy lived in Miami. That was a different kind of class, and bougie. Don’t get me wrong, growing up, my parents could have very much afforded a mansion out on Star Island, but I also knew how much they both hated that Miami beach traffic.
“Ha- ha. Very funny. It’s nowhere near as bougie as Star Island.
Going from where I came from in Miami to Kensington wasn’t that big of an adjustment.
I left one luxury city to going to the next.
It was just things that were different. Huge cultural difference.
Schools were different. The houses, the people, even the weather,” I shared, and like it made complete sense to him, he nodded his head.
“Is the plan for you to go back out there?” he wanted to know.
“I don’t know what my plan is. Not to even sound reckless, but for the first time in my life, I don’t have a plan. I’m kind of just winging it right now,” I was honest with him.
“What did you tell your job?” for some reason, I knew that question was coming.
“I took an extended leave of absence,” I let him know.
“Cool. From the architecture firm right?” he asked. When he asked that question, I found myself laughing because how the hell did he know that?
“How you know what I do for a living?” I wanted to know.
“Shit, the same way that Gianna tells you all my business, she would tell me all your business too,” he said.
“What all do you know about me?” I asked him the same question that he asked me last night at the carnival, when I told him that his sister would tell me his business.
“You’re an architectural designer. You went to UCL.
For you to get accepted into UCL, that means you gotta be a little smart.
They ain’t letting just anybody into that school.
I don’t know much about London, but I know that UCL is where all the brainiacs go,” he went on to say.
Not to toot my own horn, but your girl was smart as hell. Gemini was right about that.
“I guess you pay attention then,” was all that I said in response to that.
I watched Gemini as he opened a bag of frozen vegetables, that held corn, and peas inside.
He dropped it inside the rice, mixing it together.
He picked up soy sauce too, adding a hefty amount of it onto the rice.
The rice instantly changed colors from that.
He added just a little bit of salt, and black pepper, mixing that together too.
“Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Where you meet that lame ass nigga at?” he asked, and without him having to explain to me who he was referring to, I already knew that he was talking about Jacob.
I mean, who the hell else could he be talking about?
I’m sure that Gemini has been dying to ask me about Jacob since I got out here with him, but he probably wanted to take things slow.
Just start with London, ask me if I was missing it, wanting to know what it was like before he got to the meat of things.
“Jacob?” I asked, just to be sure.
“That’s his name? Jacob? He a white boy?” he asked me. The way he stopped mixing around the rice so that he could look at me, caused me to crack up laughing. He looked shocked. He looked like he was waiting for me to prove him wrong and tell him that Jacob wasn’t a white boy.