4. Amina Sinclair #3
I hated that I couldn’t stand him, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny that he was a very overly attractive man.
To be fully transparent, and blunt about it, Gemini was fine as hell.
Completely opposite of Jacob. I’m not saying that Jacob wasn’t fine himself, but the two of them were like night and day.
Jacob was a white guy. He was the first white guy that I’ve ever dated in my life.
It was how soft he was with me. His compassion, his corny ass jokes, the way he uplifted me, and poured into me is what won me over.
I’ve always been drawn to a person’s character more than anything else, and that’s how it was with Jacob.
There were so many things about Gemini that made him out to be this fine guy that I was saying he was.
His built was out of this world. I’ve never been attracted to a man with a bunch of tattoos, but for some reason, the full tattoo sleeves that he had were beautiful to me.
He removed the durag from his head, so you could see the fine hair, and those beautiful waves.
He was sporting a sleeveless orange shirt, with green lettering across the front that said, ‘FAMU’.
I knew that Gemini attended FAMU for college from Gianna.
That’s all I know. I didn’t know what he studied or anything like that.
He wore black joggers and they hung off his waist a little bit. White socks and black slides completed his look.
He had to do a skin care routine just as I did because his face was shining. His arms even had a glow. I could smell him from where I was standing. Cocoa butter is what I smelt on him.
“You ready?” he wanted to know.
“Yeah,” I said, and he stepped back, allowing me to fully walk out, and get on the side of him.
“Your Zaxby’s still in the car that I got you earlier. You want that, or you want to grab something to eat from here?” he asked me.
“It’s okay. I’m not hungry,” I let him know.
“But you haven’t eaten anything all day,” he said.
“I’m not hungry,” I told him again, and he nodded.
“Aight. Let’s walk over here right quick. Ima grab a sub. It’s a Subway over here,” he said.
You could tell that he’s stopped at this specific truck stop plenty of times because he knew his way around.
We did a little walking, which landed us into the main area of the truck stop.
Per the signs, I guess we were standing in the travel center.
The entire atmosphere of this place changed.
It was livelier over here. Because it was so late at night, it wasn’t that many people, but you could tell that this place could get pretty busy.
It wasn’t just truck drivers. You had families.
Families that were probably on road trips, just stopping in right quick to grab something to eat.
“It’s all kinds of food spots in here. You sure you don’t want anything?” Gemini asked me again.
“I’m sure. Go ahead. I’ll just wait right here,” I let him know.
He nodded, and he walked off, going for Subway.
I found an empty table and settled into one of the chairs.
I sat my shower bag down on the empty chair next to me.
Crossing my legs, I kept my eyes on Gemini, watching him as he ordered.
From where I was sitting, I had the perfect view of him, and I could even hear a little bit of what he was ordering.
I heard this man ask for two subs. Hearing that, caused just a small smile to appear on my face because I was steady telling this man one thing, but he would do another.
Even with me telling him that I wasn’t hungry, this was his second time still grabbing food for me anyways.
I knew that second sub was for me because of the way he ordered it.
With the sub that he was getting for himself, he added on so many toppings, but for mine, he kind of played it safe, only asking for things that he felt like the average person might get on their sub.
He finished, and once he paid for the items, and started heading back in my direction, the sound of women screaming caught my attention.
I turned to the entrance of the main building, and that’s when I saw five white women walking in.
Four of the women were wearing these beautiful pastel pink silk pajamas.
Then, only one of them had on a white silk pajamas.
Although they came in loud, it wasn’t the obnoxious kind of loud.
It was the overly happy kind. You know like when you’re out with your girls and all of you are just so happy, that you can’t contain it?
It was the same happiness that filled the hair salon that afternoon that I went out with some of the women in my bridal party.
We were all geeked about my wedding coming up that next week.
The reason why I described that kind of happiness is because that’s what was happening here.
The woman standing in the white silk pajamas had a sash around her, which said, ‘Bride to be’.
I watched as each of them had phones in their hands, recording their own videos, jumping up and down, screaming about their friend getting married, and screaming about the road trip that they were on.
“Our friend is getting marrieddddd,” one of the girls yelled into the phone, as she was recording a video.
“Come on. I’ll eat in the truck,” Gemini immediately said to me once he was close enough. He knew what was happening. He saw the same things that I saw.
I could feel my throat getting tighter, as if I was getting ready to start crying all over again, but I didn’t.
For the first time, I didn’t challenge him.
I just stood up, and I pushed the chair back into the table.
I grabbed my shower bag, and Gemini led the way out.
The front entrance, which is where the girls were still standing was only a few feet away.
Literally a straight shot. It was the quickest way that we could have walked to get back to the truck.
Most people would have walked that way. Gemini didn’t though.
Instead, he turned left, leading us back through the corridor, that placed us back to the area where we’d been with the showers.
He made us take the longer route. The route that didn’t allow me to have to be face to face with the bride to be, and the bridesmaids. If I had to say it on a deeper level… the route that didn’t force me to watch someone else live the life that I was currently mourning.
Gemini never said anything about why he’d chosen to take this route, but I knew. I knew and it showed me that even with me annoying him with my tears, and mood swings, he was paying attention, and he was fully aware of what was taking place.
We made it back onto the truck. Gemini showed me where to put my dirty clothes.
He showed me where to store my shower bag.
Before he hauled my suitcase away, he wanted to know if I needed anything else out of it.
I needed my hair scarf, so I grabbed it.
After that, he took our bags, and he placed them back onto the storage area outside of the truck.
I knew that the bottom bunk belonged to me, so that’s where I chose to go.
I pulled the blanket back, quickly got under, allowing the cover to swallow my entire body. Lying on my side, I rested here, as if I was numb.
I didn’t hear Gemini in here with me. I felt like he might have been sitting up front, probably eating his food.
I didn’t hear movement in here until about fifteen minutes later.
I could hear him when he climbed onto the top bunk.
I peeked my head out of the covers, just to see that it was pitched black in here.
For another five minutes, I just lay here.
At night is when all the depressing thoughts started coming at me full circle.
I’ve already had a couple of breakdowns today, so I swore I wasn’t going to cry anymore.
I felt like I might have been good if I hadn’t ran into that bride, and her bridesmaids. I probably would have been able to say my prayers and quickly fall asleep. Because I saw that, my emotions were all over the place, and before I knew it, tears were falling.
I was trying as hard as I could to be silent with my tears.
I wanted Gemini to be able to get his rest. I knew he was tired.
I didn’t want to be the woman from hell that he took a road trip with.
I didn’t want to annoy him more than I already was doing.
My cries grew just a little louder, along with my sniffling.
It was going on ten minutes, and I was still carrying on, having this sad, depressing ass moment to myself.
“Amina. Bruh please,” I could hear Gemini say from the top bunk.
I couldn’t help what I was going through.
I felt like I lost someone. I felt like I was mourning someone.
I felt like I was thirteen years old all over again, and I’d just gotten the news that my father was killed.
This was a literal grief that I was experiencing, and that’s why my emotions were all over the place like this.
I had no understanding how something could be here one moment and then gone the next.
I sat up in bed, swinging my legs over, so that they could rest on the floor.
I dropped my head down, and I just completely broke.
I could hear Gemini moving around. Seconds later, his body emerged from the top bunk, he turned the lights on, and he was standing there on the side of me, looking at me as if he wanted to curse me out from A to Z because of the way that I was crying, and carrying on.
“Amina—”
“I’ll…. I’ll… go… just…. I’ll just go… up front,” I cried, not even looking him in his eyes because I was too embarrassed to do it.
I stood up from the bed, and was getting ready to walk up front, so that I could just sit in the passenger seat, but he stopped me. He grabbed my arm, stopping me from walking away.