9. Gemini Black #2
“I know bits and pieces of what happened between her, and her ex. Your mama, and Gianna told me. She was engaged to a fuckin coward. A week before the wedding, he decided to leave her hanging like that. Nobody going to judge her. I know the son that I raised. She get brownie points for choosing you,” he said, and that made me laugh because I thought about me telling Amina the other day that she had good taste this time around.
“We haven’t crossed that line and had sex.
We’ve kissed a few times though. The feelings are there.
Shit, feelings are growing for each other every day.
We went out to this bar last night. Got a few drinks in our system.
We even went on stage and did karaoke. Amina got drunk.
I could have crossed that line with her last night, but I didn’t.
If shit ever go there with us, I want us to do it while we’re sober.
That’s where we’re at right now with it,” I was honest with him.
He took a while to respond. I’m sure he was taking in all the things that I’d just said to him, wondering what his response should be.
“I don’t expect you to have a full plan right now, but I think after kissing her, and feelings developing, that’ll you’ll have somewhat of a feeling on how you plan to move forward.
A woman coming off a broken heart is a delicate being.
I’m sure she’s questioning everything right now.
Her judgement. You. Her. Although Amina and your mom share two different stories, it’s some similarities.
The man that she created you with had a way of fuckin up your mom’s mind.
She was scared to take a chance with me in the beginning because she thought that I would leave her high and dry like he did.
Coming off a broken heart like that, a woman can be dangerous to herself if the wrong man shows up next.
That’s the place that your mom was in, and that’s the place that I’m sure Amina is in.
She gotta pick right this time around,” he voiced.
That was real, so I nodded my head to that.
“You have a decision to make son. If you want to be serious about her, then do that. If all you want is some in house pussy on the truck for the time being, leave her alone, man. Too many things can go wrong if you don’t plan to do the right thing with her.
You don’t want that shit to trickle down to the friendship that she has with Gianna.
The two of them have been friends for too long for you to step in, treat her wrong, and risk the years long friendship that they have,” he said real shit to me. I respected it.
Darnell has always been that person in my life to share input with me and educate me.
Smart man. After graduating college, it was easy for him to get a job as a college professor.
He balanced becoming a husband, a father to me, and Gianna, along with studying for his Masters, all within two years of graduating college.
Darnell knew so much about the world. He could sit down and talk politics with someone for hours.
He knew everything that there was to know about economics, history, and race, so it made all the sense in the world that he was an African American Studies professor.
This man played his role in me being pro black.
I’ve been learning about our history since I was a little boy because of him.
I learned to question everything that I heard because of him.
He taught me that everything had context. There was history in everything.
“I hear you. I like her. I promise this not one of those situations where I’m just looking to get some pussy on the road.
I genuinely have feelings for her. If we decide to explore it, we’ll do that.
If we get to a point where we want to back off, and not take it anywhere, then that’s cool too.
I’m still going to make sure that she’s protected while she’s on the road with me because that’s what I promised Gianna I would do.
She in good hands with me,” I let him know.
We talked about it for a little while longer.
Before I knew it, I was pulling up to the truck stop.
I let my pops know that I would hit him later, and that he could go back inside to have dinner with my mom.
I let him know that I loved him, and he said the same to me in return.
After that, I found a spot in the back to park, shut the truck down, and stood up.
I headed to the sleeping quarters, where Amina was.
She was resting on her side, with the throw blanket wrapped around her body, snuggled up with Bruno.
She was in a peaceful sleep. Even in that peaceful sleep, it’s as if she could feel me standing over her because she quickly opened her eyes, focused them on me, only to close them back, and open them again.
“Where are we Gemini?” she wanted to know.
Her voice came out raspy. She was still feeling the effects of throwing back all those shots last night. I had the same amount of shots as her, plus a couple of beers, but I was feeling good.
“I’m done for the day. We made it to a truck stop. It’s a laundromat across the street. We’re going to go over there to wash our clothes. How you feeling?” I wanted to know. I could kind of tell how she was feeling right now, but I still wanted to hear her say it.
“Like I’ve been run over by a truck. My head is killing me. Before we go to the laundromat, can I take my shower and stuff first?” she asked me, moving the blanket from her body, prepared to stand up.
“That’s cool. I was going to suggest we do that first anyways,” I let her know.
I reached my hand out, so that she could grab onto it in order to stand up.
She took it, stood up, and instead of letting her hand go, and allowing her to walk around me, so that she could get to her shower bag, and anything else that she was going to need, I stopped her.
I stood in front of her, with a smirk on my face, looking down at her.
“You showed your ass last night, love,” I let her know.
When I said that, her hand that wasn’t still holding mine, she lifted it, so that she could place the palm of it on her forehead. She did it as if she was ashamed.
“Really? What all did I do?” she wanted to know.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked, just to see.
She laughed at that question, and I could see it in her eyes that she was literally trying to remember the last thing that she did from last night.
“I think karaoke. I really don’t remember anything else after that. What all did I do? Is it embarrassing?” she wanted to know. I laughed at that, while letting go of her hand. I hopped on the counter, so that I could look down at her.
“Nah. It wasn’t embarrassing. Your true feelings for me came out last night.
We were in the bar kissing. You were whispering in my ear for me to fuck you.
I had to carry you in my arms all the way back to the truck.
We got on the truck, and you started crying because I wouldn’t fuck you.
Then, you started crying again, telling me not to fuck the women back home in Miami.
I put you in bed, and you took your ass to sleep,” I let her know.
With each thing that I would say to her, her face would scrunch, as if she hated to hear herself in that kind of light. She stood there, picking her hand up, so that she could scratch at her head.
“Wow. You said that it wasn’t embarrassing. Gemini, that is embarrassing,” she whined, picking up her hands to cover her face. No lie, that whining shit was sexy as hell. It was such a girly thing to do, and women who were well into their femininity was such a turn on to me.
I reached my hand out, so that I could pry Amina’s hands away from her face.
I pulled her to me, making her stand directly in the middle of my legs.
Now that I had both hands removed from her face, she put them on my firm thighs, while looking up at me.
We didn’t say anything. We just stared at each other.
“I didn’t fuck you. Just want you to know that,” I let her know.
“I know you didn’t. I know the kind of good character that you have,” she said.
“Oh damn. You giving me credit now? I got good character?” I asked with a smile on my face, that made her laugh.
“I never said that you didn’t have good character. I just used to think that you were an asshole,” she went on to say.
“Yeah aight. I’m not even that. Haven’t I been taking good care of you since you’ve been on this truck with me?
You safe, right? I drive careful, and everything.
I make sure you eat a few meals throughout the day.
I let you get drunk, and I didn’t take advantage.
I’m a good man, Amina. It just took us a little while to understand each other,” I finalized. She nodded to that.
As if we were a couple, and we usually ended our conversation in kisses, she reached her arms up, wrapped them around my neck, and she kissed me.
The kiss wasn’t as steamy as the other ones, but it was still good.
She put kisses on my lips in ripples. Just back-to-back pecking me on the lips, without slipping me her tongue.
When we finished, I tapped her on the ass, and that was basically my way of telling her to step back, so that I could get down.
She stepped out of the way, and tended to her area, so she could grab her shower bag.
I did the same. We were off the truck in less than five minutes.
We walked into the building together, where I reserved two showers for us.
We were able to get two showers that were next door to each other.
I gave Amina the rules like I always did, telling her not to leave the area if she happened to come out before me, even though I knew she wouldn’t.