17. Amina Sinclair
Amina Sinclair
“When are you coming home, Mina?” my mom asked me the second that the call connected.
I was still in bed. She kept calling my phone back-to-back, leaving me with no choice but to answer. Even when I answered, I didn’t speak. I just put the phone to my ear, and here she was, rambling, and demanding yet again to know when I would be coming home.
This is how our conversations went every time that we would get on the phone with each other. She would question me on when I was coming home, and then I would tell her that I wasn’t sure, and she would get upset. I didn’t have the balls yet to tell her that the plan wasn’t to go back to London.
“Ma, dang! You don’t say good morning or nothing. Let me fully wake up before you start demanding answers,” I was annoyed as I responded back to her. I know for a fact that my mom couldn’t care less about my annoyance though. Knowing her, she was going to keep pressing.
“I haven’t seen my daughter in two months. Yes, I’m calling you, demanding answers. Please, answer the facetime call. I would like to see your face on the screen, since I don’t have the pleasure of seeing you in person anymore,” she was dramatic as hell with what she was saying.
I couldn’t be mad at her though. She missed me.
I honestly missed her just as much. My mom was my girl.
Growing up, she made it clear that she wasn’t one of my “lil friends”, but now that I was grown, she’s quickly become one of my home girls.
I could go to my mom about anything. Well…
up until lately, I could. I’ve been keeping my relationship with Gemini away from her, plus I haven’t been telling her that I didn’t have any plans of coming back home.
I knew my mom, and I knew how she processed things.
If I told her that Gemini and I were dating, she would see all the wrong in it.
She wouldn’t agree with me dating my best friend’s brother.
I only know she would say that because we’ve had many talks over the years, and she’s told me before how she would never date a man that was a part of the family to any of her home girls.
So, she would have that to say, plus she was going to feel like me, and Gemini were moving too fast. This is someone that’s never moved on after my father was killed.
She’s dated here, and there, but she’s never committed to anything.
My father has been gone for almost twenty years, and she’ll still tell you that it’s too soon.
“I’ll just talk to you through regular audio. I’m still in bed,” I responded, quickly coming up with an excuse.
The reason why I didn’t want to answer the facetime call is because I didn’t have any clothes on.
I was naked under these sheets and the second my mom saw that, she was going to call it out that me, and Gemini were messing around.
I didn’t feel like getting into that with her this morning.
I was barely awake. I had no sense of time, or location.
The truck wasn’t moving, and I didn’t hear Gemini up front, so he was probably outside.
“Amina, answer the facetime! I want to see you!” she said it this time in a demanding tone.
I groaned, sat up in bed, and I reached for the foot of the bed, going for my pajama top that Gemini had taken off me last night, right before he fucked me to sleep. The sex that we had last night was the reason I was so sluggish this morning.
Once I had the shirt on, that’s when I laid back down, and I accepted the facetime call from my mom. Her beautiful face quicky appeared on the screen. Judging by her background, I could tell that she was at work. She was in her office.
My mom was an attorney. She was an international human rights attorney, and she’s been in that field since we lived back in Miami.
I’ve always had a love, and respect for her career.
It was the kind of career that took her across different countries, where she stood in different courtrooms, representing clients in cases that involved international law, government issues, and discrimination, just to name a few.
Although my father was a genius, I truly believe that my mom was the smartest person that I knew. She was like a walking encyclopedia.
She moved us to London on a heartbreak, after my father was killed, but she went out there and made a name for herself. Her name was big in London. It carried weight in major rooms. It was commendable what she was out here doing, and I didn’t miss an opportunity to tell her that.
“There goes my beautiful, baby. Good morning, princess,” she said with a smile on her face.
You would think that I was five years old from the way that she was talking to me. My mom overly loved me. I was blessed to have her. She’s had me spoiled rotten from the moment I was brought into this world.
“Good morning, mommy. How are you today?” I asked, even though I could already tell that she was in a good mood, judging by the smile that was on her face.
While I waited for her answer, I sat up in bed, so that I could look out of the window, and see what Gemini was doing.
We were at a drop off. He was dropping off to a customer, as he held his tablet in his hand, doing the check list with the customer.
I could see the time on the top left of the phone screen, seeing that it was a little after 8 in the morning.
“I’m good. I have a meeting in another hour,” she told me. I did the math in my head. With London five hours ahead of us, it was a little after one in the afternoon there.
I was too busy looking out of the window that I never felt her eyes on me. I wasn’t prepared for what she asked me next.
“Is that how you dress around Gemini? Tank top on with your nipples showing?” she asked me.
I promise this woman didn’t miss a thing. I tried to be slick and hold the phone a certain way when I lifted up, and looked out of the window, but somehow I still showed the angle that I was trying to avoid because she still saw.
Her question made me groan, as I lay back in bed, pulling the covers over myself.
“Ma, he’s outside,” was all that I said to that.
“Hmm. So, what’s the deal with you two? Is he the reason why you don’t want to come back to London?” she asked me, and I laughed at her question.
I really wanted to scream. Can you imagine barely being awake, and your mother is on the phone with you, hitting you with back-to-back questions, barely even giving you enough time to get your mind right?
“Mommy, please! Stop. You know the reason why I don’t want to go back to London. Even if I wasn’t on the truck with Gemini, I still wouldn’t have wanted to come back,” I said, only being half honest with her.
I chose not to answer the part about what was really going on between Gemini and I.
In no way, shape, or form was I embarrassed about this new thing that I had with him.
I knew the kind of man that Gemini was, so I knew that I lucked up by getting with him.
I just knew that my mom could be very strong and opinionated.
She wasn’t going to agree. I could hear her already, telling me that I wasn’t fully healed, and that I was moving too fast.
“Baby, you up yet?” Gemini’s deep voice boomed, as he walked back onto the truck.
I was so zoned out, staring back at my mom, watching her as she was watching me, that I didn’t even get the chance to turn the phone volume down, so that she wouldn’t hear when Gemini stepped onto the truck.
The way her eyes bulged out of her sockets, proved to me that she heard what Gemini just finished calling me.
Also, because I didn’t answer him right away, he kept calling me.
He didn’t call me by my name, either. It was just baby, and bae.
I counted this man call me that five times, and each time he said it, I just wanted to sink under the sheets and die.
Yes, I could have muted the phone, but it’s as if my body gave out on me, and I couldn’t do any physical activity.
Gemini made his way to the back, where I was.
He stood there in his work clothes, with a confused look on his face, wondering why I hadn’t said anything to him.
That’s when I moved the camera out of my face, so that I could look at him, and I mouthed to him that I was on the phone with my mom.
While I was lying here, looking as if I was going to shit bricks, Gemini had a nonchalant look on his face, not having the same fears that I had.
“Give the phone to Gemini, Amina” my mom was firm with the way that she said it.
“What? Why? What are you going to say to him?” I asked her, and you could hear Gemini laughing in the distance.
“I’m not going to say anything to him. Just give him the phone!” you could hear it in her voice that she wasn’t playing with me.
Even though I was a grown woman, I’ve never been the kind of child to disrespect my mom, or to go against her, so even though it wasn’t what I wanted to do, I reached my hand out, handing the phone to Gemini. He walked over with confidence, smiled at me, and he took the phone.
“Good morning, Mrs. Sinclair. How you doing?” there was confidence in Gemini’s voice as he spoke to my mom.
I wanted him to stand here, so that I could hear the entire conversation, but he ended up walking away.
He got off the truck, and I heard the door close, so I don’t know what it was that him, and my mom were talking about.
Knowing that I didn’t have any control of the conversation and knowing that she could have been saying God knows what to him, and Gemini could have been telling her all my business, letting her know that we were having sex, and everything else, made me sick to my stomach.