Page 10 of Heavy Lifting
Me: I got you bro. Next time shoot me a text instead of having me worried about your big head ass
Baby Brother: I’m sorry sis, let me tell you about this thick lil bitch I just had in the hotel room….
Me: TMI, I don’t want to know about your extramarital affairs. I hate lying to your wife and acting like you care about her while you are out here being a dog. Mommy wouldn’t like this.
Baby Brother: You always have to guilt me by bringing Mommy into this. I have been separated from Kaliyah for a year. I no longer live there. She won’t give me a divorce, even though we both haven’t been happy for a long time. Maybe if you would stop selling her dreams, she would finally sign the damn papers.
Me: I just hate to see her hurt, that girl loves you. You are a grown ass man and it’s time you start acting like it. Leave these hoes alone, go get your family back, it ain’t nothing in these Atlanta streets but diseases and bitches looking for a come up. You have a good girl at home.
Baby Brother: Love you, bye.
Every time I tried to convince Co that he should take his ass back home, he always dismissed it. He claimed to be so sick of being married but had no problem using marriage as a way to fuck multiple women without them getting attached because they signed up to be side chicks. I felt sorry for the weak ass,low self-esteem ass girl that he just had in someone’s cheap ass motel room. He was the reason I didn’t trust men, especially not the attractive ones. What type of man was separated from his wife and pretended that they were still married so he could get pussy?
“My trifling ass brother,” I said aloud answering my own question.
I wrapped up my research and found a name for the juice bar. I also sent emails to a few of my contractors asking for a quote. I planned to turn one of the empty conference rooms in the gym into an official juice bar. It would be a cute little addition to the gym and a way to keep that money in house and out of the juice man’s pocket.
Satisfied with my plans, I locked the computer, stood up to stretch, and walked out of the office locking the door behind me. I had planned to stay longer and go over some payroll and profit loss margins, but Auntie duty called. It annoyed me that my brother barely helped run the gym with both of our names on it and barely showed up as a father as well. I wished that he would just get his shit together.
When I made it to the front of the gym, Shelly and Trallis were grinning sinisterly at me, and I frowned my face at them.
“What are those smiles about?” I asked them as I crossed my arms.
Shelly pointed to a beautiful, large wicker box that I noticed was sitting on top of the counter. It hadTHE JUICE PLUGon the front of the box the large logo had a juice plugged into a man’s arm fueling him through a workout. I rolled my eyes in annoyance.
“What is this garbage doing here?” I asked angrily looking back and forth between Trallis and Shelly.
“The fine ass man from next door just dropped it off,” Trallis said as she unscrewed the top on a juice with his logo on the front and began drinking it hungrily. Shelly smiled at me and I walked over and took the top off the box. Inside there was shredded paper, a menu, 10 different juices, and a note. The note said:
I’m sorry for stealing your spot. It won’t happen again. Take this box as a peace offering, I hope you enjoy the juice. You inspired me to create a new one, it’s called Midnight in the Parking Lot, I hope you enjoy it.
With Love and Juice,
Zumo
I folded the note and placed it back into the box before pulling out juices one by one. Each juice had a different name on the front. I picked up the one with the name MIDNIGHT IN THE PARKING LOT. I unscrewed the top and took a sip. The taste of watermelon, carrot, cranberry, and a few other ingredients I couldn’t place exploded in my mouth. It was unlike anything I had ever tasted, and my eyes closed in bliss. It was better than good and worth every brag. I didn’t know I finished the bottle until I took it from my mouth and held the weight of the empty plastic in my hand.
“I told you it was good,” Trallis grinned sheepishly.
I looked through the box in envy at the names of a few of the juices and I couldn’t help but smile, Spin the Block, Red Flag, Toxic Trait, Ghosted, Double Text, The Side Piece. The names were hilarious, and if the juices tasted anything like MIDNIGHT IN THE PARKING LOT, it was going to take a little more thansome basic ass juice and a cute new name to compete with Zumani Welsh. I could tell he was going to be trouble, and I had enough shit on my plate to deal with, I didn’t need to add in the fine ass juice man from next door.
Chapter Four
NY’Airy Buckle
I woke up sore in places I didn’t even know could be sore. My arms felt like they were about to fall off, my thighs were screaming, and my back felt like a Sumo wrestler plowed on it. I laid in bed, staring at my ceiling, like it had the answers to the questions that were plaguing me.
Why the hell would I willingly put myself through so much torture?
Wouldn’t it be easier to just say fuck this and get some tacos?
Why was this weight so easy to gain if it would be this hard to get rid of?
After several moments of silence, I realized that if I didn’t know the answers to these questions, I couldn’t expect a painted piece of wood to know either.
“Get up Bitch,” I sighed loudly.
I had to force myself out of bed even though every bone in my body felt like it was on fire. I had to force myself to put on my workout clothes, grab the bag, and drive back to Brick & CO, because if I didn’t, I would lay there and sulk in soreness. I had only been going to the gym for one full week, thirty minutes every day. The day after I signed up, I returned and Iwas immediately paired with a nutritionist and an accountability partner. After being weighed, discussing my goals, and getting a thorough breakdown of my macros and micros I was given a full grocery store list, and a week’s worth of recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No more eating out, no more snacking, no more sugary sodas, and juice my diet was stricter than a drill sergeant. When I left the nutritionist’s office, my partner and I went to work.
