13. Gemini Black
Gemini Black
“Ican already sense that some bullshit is about to happen at this pick up. I texted this man twice already to confirm the pickup time, and he hasn’t responded to any of my messages.
If I get there, and these cars ain’t ready, it’s going to be a problem,” I said out loud, as I was pulling into the dealership.
Amina was up, sitting in the passenger seat, but she had a word puzzle in front of her that kept her occupied.
Pretzels sat in her lap, that he was snacking on.
She had her shoes off, with just her socks on her feet.
Her legs were crossed with her throw blanket wrapped at the lower half of her body.
I loved to see her sitting there relaxed, instead of being all uptight, like she’d been when she first got on the truck with me.
“Hopefully he was just tied up, and forgot to respond,” she said, turning her head so that she could look over at me.
“A nigga not that busy that they can’t look at their phone and respond back after somebody hit them up over an hour ago,” I let her know, pulling up front.
She didn’t respond. She just closed the book, and she stood. I knew she was going to go to the back, so that she could put her shoes on. Usually, when we arrived at the pickups, and drop off locations, she would get out of the car with me, so that she could stretch her legs.
We were still in Louisiana. I had a lot of business here.
We made it over to New Orleans this morning, and I’ve been nonstop working since I got here.
After this scheduled pick up, and drop off, I had a couple more, and then I would be finished for the day.
If I finished at a decent time, I already told Amina that I would leave the truck at a truck stop, and we could Uber over to the French Quarter.
I’ve been plenty of times before, but Amina’s never been, so I was hoping that the rest of the day was smooth because I wanted to get her out there.
I parked the truck, and I went to the back because I needed to grab my tablet.
When I made it back here, Amina was bent down, tying her sneakers.
I placed myself directly behind her, so when she stood up, she could feel me.
She stood up slowly, doing that shit nice and seductive, and once she was up on her feet, I wrapped my arms around her waist, leaning my head into the crook of her neck.
The same way she liked to get up under me, and sniff me, I found myself doing that weird shit to her too. She smelled so good. Nice, and fresh.
“This shit still feels so surreal to me. I still can’t believe that I have a woman on a truck with me,” I let her know, and through her laughs, she turned around in my arms, so that she could look me in my eyes.
“Which one do you prefer? Being on the truck on your own, or having me here with you? Be honest,” she said.
“I prefer having you here with me. That’s not just game that I’m kicking to you either.
I’ve gotten so used to you. Aside from the physical, one of the things that really attracts me to you is your ability to ask questions and learn about what I do for a living.
You could have chosen to lay in bed, bored out of your mind, not caring to know what it is that I do for work.
You ask questions about the route. You want to know about the cars that I’m picking up.
The business that I have going with different dealerships, and other companies.
I like that. That’s attractive as hell to me,” I let her know.
She raised her arms, so that she could wrap them around my neck. Nothing needed to be said. She just kissed me on my lips a couple of times, and when we pulled away, I tapped her on her ass.
I grabbed my tablet, and I headed to the front, so that I could step off the truck.
Amina came after me, and I reached my hand out, assisting her with getting out.
She followed me to the back of the truck, so that I could pull the liftgate up, and prepare for this load that I was getting ready to get.
As I was doing that, one of the workers came over, staring at me.
I’ve only been to this location a few times before, so I wasn’t familiar with him.
He was a younger dude. Probably in his early twenties.
“What’s up? Gemini, right? Frank know you here?” he asked me.
The second he asked me that shit, I jumped off the truck, looking down at him, wondering what the fuck he was talking about.
Frank was the dude that I’ve been in contact with.
We’ve been talking on the days leading up to today’s pick up.
I just hadn’t heard from him today when I texted him earlier to confirm that I was coming.
“I don’t know if he knows that I’m here, but he knows that I was coming. I texted him earlier to confirm, but I didn’t get a text back from him. What’s up? What’s going on?” I wanted to know.
When I asked that, he picked his hand up and scratched his head. He never got the chance to answer me because Frank ended up walking over.
Frank was an older guy. Probably in his late fifties.
We were standing at his dealership. He owned a lot of luxury cars.
I was here to pick up four cars, so that I could drop them off at another location.
In the past, I’ve always done good business with Frank.
He was usually punctual and would give me cars that were in good condition, so when they made it to the next location, I never had to have any issues.
I could tell by the way he was walking over, scratching his head that today wasn’t going to be one of those days that was followed by good business. I felt like I’d just walked into some bullshit.
“Gemini, what’s up man? Don’t kill me with this shit, but the transport bringing your pickup got delayed this morning.
The cars were supposed to be here no later than 9:00 A.M. I guess the cars spent more time in the body shop than anticipated.
I’ve been so tied up with other things that I have going on here, that I forgot to respond back to your text and let you know that you didn’t have to come today,” he let me know.
This time, it was my turn to scratch my head. I only did that, so that I could have a minute to watch how I was going to respond to him. I didn’t want to get ignorant, but at the same time, this man wasted my time.
“Ay, I understand that shit happens. At the same time, you know that this isn’t the way that I do business.
You couldn’t have been so tied up that you forgot that I was coming.
I texted you over an hour ago man to let you know that I was on my way.
After this pick up, and drop off, I have a couple more, and then I’m done with my shift for the day.
I’ll be out of Louisiana first thing tomorrow morning.
Because of your slack, now I gotta be the one to reach out to another business and let them know that I won’t be showing up with the cars, all because you couldn’t take five seconds out of your day to text me back, and let me know that there was a delay,” I let him know.
Frank knew that he was the one that was in the wrong, yet, as I said these things to him, he had the nerve to stand there and look at me as if he was offended that I chose to speak up for myself like this.
He never saw this side of me. Remember, I said that we’ve always done good business in the past, so there’s never really been a reason for him to see this side of me.
“Gemini, I understand that I made a mistake. I apologized for it—”
“You actually didn’t apologize for it. You walked over here and you told me not to kill you with this shit. That’s not an apology to me. That’s the thing that you say before you start dissing out excuses,” I spat, looking this man in his eyes.
I wasn’t angry. This wasn’t a situation where I would pull up my gym shorts and fight this man. At the same time, I wasn’t fuckin with that smug look on his face, as I was checking him, telling him about his fuck up.
“I apologize for not getting to you earlier, letting you know about the delay. You can relax though, man. It’s not that serious. All I gotta do is call another transporter and they can come pick the cars up whenever they get here,” and that comment right there is why I was really upset.
I could tell by the look in his eyes that that’s how he felt the entire time.
He thought that this was an easy fix, and that’s why he had been staring at me like that when I was going off on him.
It was an easy fix for him, but for me? It made my business look bad because now I have to call the other company, and it was going to look as if I’d dropped the ball.
“It’s not that serious to you! You booked me for a job, and I did my part, making sure that I was here on time.
I received other calls from other businesses while I’ve been here, but I turned those jobs down because I had already committed to being here with you.
Because of your lack of commutating, now it’s my lack of professionalism,” and that was all that I had for him.
I closed the trailer, and I called Amina over, so that I could walk her over to the passenger side.
She came over, and I opened the door for her.
I was such in a rush to get away from this nigga, that I didn’t even allow Amina the chance to walk up the steps on her own.
I lifted her ass up, made sure that she got in the truck, and I closed the door behind her.
After that, I walked over to my side, quickly got in, and closed the door.
I dropped the tablet down in my lap, started the truck, preparing to pull out. For the first few minutes, Amina didn’t say anything. She kept quiet. She allowed me the space to cool down before she said anything.
After about ten minutes of driving, she did reach her hand over and placed it in my lap. I lifted her hand, brought it to my lips, so that I could kiss the back of it.
“You okay?” she asked me.