Page 61 of Exit: Us
I let him know that that was cool, handed him the cash, along with a nice tip, and then I joined Amina on the bench that she was sitting down on. She’d already got inside.
With a smile on her face, she scooted closer to me, while I slouched down just a little bit, spread my legs some, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
He took off, and with the smooth R&B music that was playing, I tapped my foot and hummed along to the music. This was such a vibe, man. It also made me happy knowing that Amina was happy. She would point out everything to me, so that I could see it, and if it was something that she wasn’t familiar with, I would explain it to her.
Amina looked at me as if I was the person in her life that knew everything. She could have easily pulled out her phone,and googled certain things, but she treated me like google. For a man, that was a good feeling. Made a nigga feel useful. Needed.
“This is so beautiful. Gemini, not to even sound dramatic, but when I’m with you, a lot of the things that we do feels like a fairy tale. Even those moments of being on the truck with you. Not to bring my ex up, but when I was with him, we didn’t do things like this. He didn’t express his love for me by taking me out to nice dates. He expressed it by being the provider for the house, sending me flowers to my job occasionally, and things like that. He worked a lot, so a lot of the time that we would spend together was home, once we were both home from work. I’ve never shared a night like this with him,” she turned to me to say, looking me in my eyes.
“A man should be the provider in the household. That’s probably the one thing that the man got right. That shouldn’t be the only task that a man does though. When a man tells a woman that he doesn’t have time, I look at that as an excuse. What’s an hour out of a man’s day to take his woman to dinner? What’s two hours to go to the movies right quick? When you’re dealing with someone in your life that matters, you gotta learn to adjust. That’s why a relationship is a partnership. Both gotta be players and do what they gotta do for the relationship to succeed,” I said some real shit to her, and she nodded her head.
“I agree with that. You told me that you had two serious relationships, right? How do you be a team player, and adjust? You’re going to be on the road, away from home, so how will that work?” she wanted to know.
“Those past relationships that I told you about were in my younger years though. The first one lasted my first two years in college. The second one lasted the middle of my junior year, up until a few months after graduation. Remember after I graduated college, I was at a place in my life where I was trying to find myself. I needed a job. I was trying to make some realmoney. My girlfriend at the time moved back to her home state, which was Georgia, and with us both trying to find careers post-graduation, the relationship wasn’t as strong anymore, so we made it a mutual decision to break up. Since I’ve been driving trucks, I’ve never had a girlfriend though. Just women that I deal with when I get home,” I told her the truth, and I knew she was going to hate the last part of my confession because she rolled her eyes at me and groaned.
Her reaction caused me to laugh, pull her closer to me, and place kisses on her face.
“Why you gotta do all that?” I asked her with a smile on my face.
“Because what happens when you get back home? You going to reach out to those women again?” she wanted to know.
“Why would I reach out to those women? I thought I told you that we were in a relationship?” I said with a serious look in my eyes as I looked down at her.
“Hmm,” was all she said to that, and she turned her head, so that she could finish enjoying the ride that we were on and taking in what was around her.
“Hmm? What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t believe me? You think I’m lying to you?” I wanted to know.
“No. I don’t think you’re lying to me. Can I admit that I’m scared that once this trip is over, that there might be other women that I have to compete with? Having you on the truck is easy. It’s just us two. Not like I have to worry about you doing anything behind my back because we’re together all the time on the truck. Back in Miami, you’ll have more access to other women. I don’t know. I guess I’m just in my head. I’ve never been insecure. Never been one of those women that believes that all men cheat. I guess after what just happened to me, it left me scared. Gemini, I’m fuckin scared of getting hurt again,” hervoice cracked towards the end of what she was saying, and you could literally see that her body was trembling.
I ended up picking her up by her hips, so that I could sit her down in my lap. I placed her sideways. I kept an arm wrapped around her waist, while I looked up at her.
“Don’t think that just because a man is on the truck with a woman that he can’t fuck around. Being in this business, I’ve met a lot of other truck drivers, and these niggas be nasty, and they do disrespectful shit to their girls. A nigga can have his girl on the truck with him and still be cheating. It don’t matter the setting you put these men in, if they want to cheat, they going to do that. I know all you have is my word Amina, but I’m not going to do you like that. When Raven called me a couple of weeks ago, and I saw how that shit made you feel, I deleted her number out my phone. Her, and the rest of the women that I was dealing with. I wasn’t obligated to do that, but I could tell that our feelings were growing for each other, so just out of respect for you, I did it,” I started. She nodded her head towards my words, looking at me, trying to see where else I was getting ready to go with this.
“I’m not going to hurt you. It’ll say a lot about my character if I put you through that kind of hurt twice. All I’m trying to do is put together the missing pieces that that lame ass nigga left you with. I go out my way to see you smile, even if that means buying flowers on the side of the road, bringing you to The French Quarter, even though I’m tired. Shit, sleeping in a fuckin twin sized bed with you every night because you love to cuddle, and don’t let me sleep on the top bunk anymore. This shit not a game to me, Amina. I take this serious what we’re building,” I finished.
She pulled down on my beard, leaned her head in, and we started kissing. You could tell that she believed me because she stopped with all the doubts.
After the kiss ended, I kept her in my lap. She continued to sit sideways on me, as she laid her head on my chest, taking in the views.
The tour eventually wrapped up, and the driver dropped us back off to where he’d picked us up from. Amina and I thanked him for the ride, and by this time, we were about to head out, so that we could get back to the truck. I called an Uber for us, just like I did on the way over here. I had a black truck come pick us up, and it arrived in under five minutes.
I assisted Amina in getting inside and then slipped in after her. During the ride, she was dozing off next to me.
It didn’t take us long to get to the truck stop. We thanked him for the ride, hopped back on the truck for a second, so that we could grab what we needed to take another shower. Being out there in that humid air, it made you want to hop in the shower again.
Once we both had what we needed, we walked inside the truck stop. When I walked us over to the spot to reserve a shower, for the first time since Amina and I have been doing this, I asked for one shower this time. I couldn’t wait to get back on the truck to bust a nut. I was trying to bust one now. I knew that Amina was on the same time as I was because she didn’t say anything when I only reserved one shower.
We walked away after getting the assigned shower, and Amina looked over and me, and laughed.
“She’s going to know that we’re about to fuck in the shower,” she blurted.
“Oh, that’s where you want to do it at? I was thinking on top of the counter,” I stated, reaching my hand over, so that I could slap her on her ass.
“It’s wherever you want me big daddy,” she shot, walking faster, just as eager to get to the bathroom as I was.
Amina made it to the bathroom first. She keyed in the code, and I didn’t let her open the door. I moved her out of the way, so that I could come over, and open it. Once it was open, she walked in first, sitting her things down on the counter. I was quick to make it over to the shower and turn it on.
“How you like your water, baby?” I asked her. This would be our first time showering together. I had to see what her favorite temperature setting was.
