“I’m good. A little tired. I wish I had known that you were going to cook breakfast. I would have done it. At least helped you out or something. I don’t want you to think that I’m lazy,” she said, and I laughed at that. I laughed while pulling her head away from my chest, so that she could look me in the eyes.
Even with it being first thing in the morning for her, she was still so beautiful. Amina did this thing where she would pout, and to me, that was the sexiest shit ever.
“We don’t have to have the kind of relationship where we feed into gender roles. If I’m the one doing all the cooking, that’s not going to make me look at you as lazy. Plus, I gotta come outside to cook. You don’t have to do all that. You always make sure that the sleeping quarters is clean. Let that be your job,” I let her know.
With a smile on her face, she just nodded. She kissed me on my lips a couple of times, and then I lowered her back down, so she could go inside the truck, and put some clothes on, since the food was almost done.
I tended to the food, while she did that. I had the folding table set up, with two chairs there for me, and Amina. By the time I finished cooking, I fixed both of our plates, and shestepped outside. I noticed that she had on a pair of my sweats, with one of my hoodies. I smiled seeing her in those clothes.
She came over, took a seat down at the table, and I eventually joined her. I prayed over the food, just like I always did, and used the bottle of hand sanitizer that was sitting there. She did the same thing.
“Thank you for breakfast,” she said, picking up her fork, ready to dig in. I let her know that it wasn’t a big deal, and I dug into my food too.
“How’s your mom? She’s not telling you to bring your ass home yet?” I wanted to know.
My question made Amina laugh. She finished chewing her pancakes that was in her mouth before answering my question.
“She’s good. I’m going to call her when I finish eating. She misses me. Every time we talk, she wants to know when I’m coming back home. A piece of me feels bad because I’m the only family that my mom has out there. She has a bunch of friends in London, but I’m sure it doesn’t compare to having your daughter. Even though I feel bad, I have to do what makes me happy. I endured heartbreak in London, and I don’t see that as a place that’s going to ever bring me happiness again,” she said, and I nodded my head to that.
“Your mama probably hate me. She did all those years of good parenting, putting you in those good schools, you went to a good college, just for you to end up on a truck with me,” I said it in a joking kind of way. Amina did laugh, but she playfully rolled her eyes at me too.
“My mom doesn’t hate you. She knows you. She knows your entire family. She has peace of mind, knowing that I wasn’t on a truck, traveling state to state with a complete stranger. Also, don’t diminish your career like that, as if it’s the worst thing in the world that I’m on a truck with a truck driver. Seeing you these past few weeks, and learning about what you do, it’s mademe gain a whole new respect for you, and other truck drivers around the world. I knew nothing about any of this before going in, and I respect it. Don’t say ‘just for me to end up on a truck with you’ as if I’m downgrading my life or something. I’ve been at peace on this truck with you. I feel as if I’m where I’m supposed to be,” she checked my ass in a nice, classy way.
“Nah. I wasn’t saying that to diminish what I do. I just know that you don’t come from this. I know the way I live on this truck isn’t the norm for you. That’s why I said that. I know it’s a lot of other places in the world where you could have healed. I know you like nice things… nice experiences, so you could have booked a villa in Greece or something. Visited the Caribbeans, laying out on a beach for two months straight. That’s all I was saying. I wasn’t diminishing me, or myself,” I cleared that up for her.
“And I would have been alone, Gemini. Alone, and thinking about Jacob and how we ended, every second of the day. Wondering why he didn’t choose me. Wondering why he threw away what we had so quickly. Instead, I’m here on this truck with you. Waking up this beautiful morning with this delicious breakfast that you made for us on the Blackstone. I get asked a few times a day from you how I’m feeling, if I’m hungry, or all the other subtle questions that you like to ask me. I’m on the truck with someone who makes me laugh. The way you extend your hand to me, do nice little gestures that I think is so adorable, but you treat it like it’s no big deal, and it’s something that you should be doing as a man. I’ve adjusted, Gemini. I don’t mind being here with you,” she said, and that made me smile hearing her say that.
She smiled too and continued eating her breakfast. When she looked up at me, I could tell that she was getting ready to ask me another question. I didn’t mind the questioning. Amina and I have great conversations. The fact that she could communicateso well, and carry a conversation is one of the many things that attracted me to her.
“I never asked you why you pursued trucking though. Like, what led you to this? I want to say Gianna told me that you majored in business administration. With that degree, did you always know that you were going to get into this side of business, or is this something that just happened?” she inquired, asking me a good question. I knew this question would eventually get asked from her.
“One of my stepdad’s close friends is a trucker. He doesn’t stay in Miami though. He lives somewhere in South Carolina. Years ago, this was a little bit after graduating college, I was at my parents’ house. My stepdad’s friend, Mike hit him, telling him that he was in town for a little bit, and that he was going to pull up on him. He came over to my parents’ house in his 18-wheeler truck. Man, that shit was decked out. He had it decked out just like mine. I got my inspiration from him,” I started, pausing for a second, so that I could eat a little bit of my hashbrowns.
“I started talking to him about the truck. You know how much I love cars, so we talked about the truck, he showed me the inside of it, and right there, he gave me the rundown of what he transported, and shit like that. He was his own boss. The man was making damn near seven figures a year. I was at a place in my life where I’d just graduated college, I got into some trouble with the law after college, and I was just trying to find myself. I thought after college, these big opportunities were going to fall in my lap, but that’s not the way it happened. All I needed to hear was that this man was making 7 figures, and I wanted in. He told me what I needed to do to get my CDL license. Once I did that, I got some training and started working for a company. That’s how I started,” I said to her.
“But how did the transition go from working for a company to you working for yourself? And did you always transport cars or is that something you started on your own?” she asked another good question.
“Nah. I didn’t always haul cars. Shit, back then, I used to haul whatever they gave me. It could be anything from pallets, to food, and furniture. Anything that fit in the back of my trailer, I would move it. I did that for a few years. I had so much knowledge about the trucking business that I started wanting to do my own thing. Get my own truck and deck it out like Mike. I saved up for my own truck. Once I had enough, I purchased my first truck. It wasn’t this truck right here. It was a different one. As far as the transition, once I left the company that I was working for, I started doing a lot of research. Trying to find out who was the middleman that moved the cars. Needing to know who the dealerships were reaching out to. All those things. I started reaching out to companies, telling them about my business. Baby, I was on the phone selling the fuck out of myself, and I wasn’t even in business yet,” I went on, and she laughed, with her eyes glued to me, hanging onto my every word as I shared this story with her.
“A lot of the companies ignored me at first though. Only a couple of them gave me a shot. I did that job to the best of my ability, and that’s when word got out about me, and what I was doing, and those same companies that didn’t want to fuck with me in the beginning, they started reaching out. Dealerships, collectors, auction houses, private customers. They all started reaching out, and it’s been up for me since then. I found my thing with this, and stuck to it,” I said.
“I’m proud of you Gemini. That’s so inspiring to hear,” she shared with me.
We continued eating, and she looked at me again, and I could tell that another question was getting ready to come my way. Ifever she had questions, I had answers. I didn’t mind answering them. Shit, when it came to sharing my life story, I didn’t mind talking about it. Nothing was off limits or embarrassing about anything that I had to go through to get here.
“I know you think that Gianna has told me everything about you, but I do think that there are some parts about your life that she might have left out, which is cool because it wasn’t my business to know. You said that you got into some trouble with the law after graduating college. What happened? If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine too,” she went on.
“I don’t mind sharing. Gianna probably didn’t tell you because she knew what that shit did to me, so I’m sure she didn’t want to go around telling people my business,” I stated, leaning back in the chair, crossing my arms, getting ready to share with her a piece of me that I’ve never shared with any other woman that I’ve dealt with.
I wouldn’t say that I was a secretive person, but certain pieces of me, I was closed off and didn’t let everyone in on.
“I’m one of those people where I’ve pretty much always been in a rush to grow up. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the family dynamic that I had at home. My mom was cool, my pops was cool, and I had a good relationship with my sister. I just always had this rush to become a man. Have my own house and set my own rules. After graduating college, I was in a rush to get a nice, high paying job. I knew I wasn’t going to become the CEO of a company over night, but damn, I at least wanted to find the company that I wanted to work for and work my way up. The job market back then was competitive as hell. Seems like everybody with a business degree were applying for the same jobs,” I went on, taking a pause.
I looked Amina in her eyes. She stopped eating her food because that’s just how tuned in to this story that she was.
“I put so much pressure on myself to be great. My mom and pops have all these fancy degrees, with high paying salaries, so I made myself feel like I had to be doing the same thing. I had to make the same kind of money as them. Once I couldn’t find a job, I started feeling like I had to make some shit shake. I had homeboys that were in the streets. Drug dealers. Them niggas were pushing six figure cars, coming around me with chains around their neck that cost the salary of some of the jobs that I was applying for. Being impatient, and wanting to make money, made me branch over and start doing business with them. Them niggas never stepped foot onto a college campus, yet they had the money, the cars, the jewelry, all the things that I was in a rush to have. Yet, here I was with this big college degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and I was sleeping in my childhood bedroom at my parents’ house. Shit messed with my pride, so I fucked around and made a deal with the devil,” I said, taking a quick pause, thinking about that time in my life.
“I was in the streets for about two months. One night, I was there at a trap house. Cops came in, kicked the door in, and raided the spot. Me, and about five other dudes were arrested that night. As angry as my parents were with me, they got the best lawyer in town for me. I remember the night my mama bonded me out. That was the first night that I ever made my mama cry. She cried angry tears, man. Till this day, when I even think about it, it breaks my heart to know that I broke hers,” my voice cracked a little bit, thinking back to that time in my life.
