Juice

by Nako

  C H A P T E R 13

  Make me unselfish, without making me blind – Lauryn Hill

  “It was never…about the money,” she said through tightly clenched teeth. Her hands shook profusely. “It’s not about the money. He really raped me. How am I over exaggerating that?” she wanted someone to fucking answer her.

  The devil himself had to have been in the middle of this because there was no way in hell that man really thought she came onto him. Tia barely cracked a smile at him. She wasn’t dressed in provocative attire and if she was, her argument would be that men of all kind needed to have more self-control. It shouldn’t be legal for a man to claim that he was enticed by a woman’s clothing, whether intoxicated or not. It didn’t give a man a pass to violate a woman. She didn’t give a fuck if she was stripping on a pole, no female deserved to be raped. No means NO.

  Keiva placed her warm hands on top of hers. “We know that sis.”

  Freedom paced the board room. “They’re calling your bluff.”

  These dogs, because that’s exactly what they were acting like…little fucking spoiled dogs. All bark and no bite, that’s how she saw it.

  “Tia, they don’t want to see you in court. Trust me, baby girl.”

  She would bet the millions of dollars that she had in her account.

  “Why are they doing this to me? I’m not a liar. I don’t scream for attention.” She tossed the paperwork aside.

  Tears covered her face. “Why would I lie? The evidence is right there,” she stared down at the black and white photos that her line sister forced her to take for a time such as this. In case…

  Those were the words Chanda used, “In case you want to share your story.”

  She jolted out of the rolling desk chair and told everyone in the room, “I need a minute.”

  What she needed was a damn smoke break.

  She went to the bathroom and doused her face in cold water. No one told her this would be easy, but damn.

  Tia needed a breath of fresh air and someone to talk too…but no one in the other room would suffice. Dr. Freedom was heaven-sent, truly. Tia was grateful for the push. She would’ve never fought. Freedom was her microphone right now because Tia felt as if she didn’t have a voice.

  She called Juice again, although she promised herself she wouldn’t ever reach out to him after he tried her by asking if she was pregnant.

  He sent her to voicemail after the second ring. As always, the backup was Coop who always picked up for her.

  “I miss you,” was his confession as soon as he answered her call.

  Tia closed her eyes, holding the phone in her hand as she took a deep breath, not knowing why she wouldn’t just let him be her man. Lord knows how bad he wanted to be hers. But it was something that kept her still and until she knew what the one thing was, they would have to remain friends. Although, it had been years since they met…there was still so much she didn’t know about him.

  “I’m going to come see you.”

  She just needed forty-eight hours away. Phone on do not disturb. No police reports. No investigators. None of the constant probing or interrogating from Freedom.

  “Okay, I’m here.”

  “Tonight, I’m going to come tonight,” she added. Coop picked up on the urgency in her voice.

  She didn’t give him a chance to say anything else, “I’m also low on cash, so I need you to get my flight.”

  Tia had to get a job as soon as possible. The way this situation was going against her partners, she refused to bank on any money that she didn’t have or could even believe was coming. Especially with her former bosses insinuating that was her sole reason for having Freedom contacting them in the first place. Instead of admitting that they attempted to sweep her rape under the rug. Forcing everyone in the office to sign a NDA after seeing her carried out of her office like a damn rag doll. She was told that by one of the three black girls that she worked with, but what was even more fucked up was the chick told her that she couldn’t help her out with the case or testify on Tia’s behalf.

  “Girl, I got two kids. I need this job.” In so many words, home girl was telling her that she couldn’t afford to be blackballed or blackmailed along with Tia.

  She told her that she understood and then blocked her number. The bitch would never see her again.

  “I’ll Cash App you right now.”

  Tia didn’t ask Coop how well he did in life, she just knew that she when she needed him, he came through. Every single time. Unlike Juice’s sorry ass.

  Ten minutes later, three thousand dollars was sent to her Cash App and she was thankful.

  She texted him, “I’ll hit you when I land.”

  “Cool.”

  Tia returned to the meeting room that an associate of Freedom’s was letting her borrow to conduct any business pertaining to Tia’s case.

  “Tia, we’re going viral,” Freedom announced.

  Karma, her best friend, followed up with, “We got your back, sis.”

  She wasn’t ready for this. This isn’t what she wanted. “Everything will be out?” she whispered.

  Freedom slowly nodded her head. “Your voice will be heard and I’m certain that it will bring more women out to tell their story too.”

  She wasn’t trying to be a walking billboard for rape.

  “I don’t-”

  Tia was nervous as shit. “I’m not…I can’t,” her words were failing her.

  “We already contacted the President…of our sorority. She’s releasing a press letter…Tia, you’re not alone.”

  That gave her a small boost of confidence, but it didn’t take away the fear.

  “Okay,” she told them, although she wasn’t sure about any of this.

  Freedom saw the hesitation and reassured her, “I got you.”

  She did this for a living. Tia was going to win once this was all over. Not only was Freedom going for the big bucks, but she was also going to have Tia press charges along with getting every lawyer involved with covering her rape up, license revoked. In the end, the firm would be closed, which was her ultimate goal. A woman’s body was not to be tainted or violated. They had crossed too many lines and didn’t take Freedom seriously when she tried to settle the matter privately, a sincere apology was all Tia wanted. Now, they had to pay. Freedom was going to make them regret their decision. She wasn’t going to sleep until Tia felt like justice was served.

  “Where are you going?” Chanda asked her.

  “To New York for a few days, I’ll be back…I promise.”

  Tia’s travel plans actually worked in Freedom’s favor. “Great, we can fly out together. I’m going to see if you can go on Good Morning America,” she said.

  She wanted to roll her eyes, but instead she told her, “As long as you’re sitting right next to me, I can probably get through that.”

  “Hopefully, social media will carry this out for us. As much as I hate that damn Instagram, it’s going to help us get the word out,” she shared with everyone.

  Tia pulled on her index finger, something that she started doing since the rape.

  Her anxiety had tripled in the past few months. She prayed that it went away soon. She felt like she was always on edge and that wasn’t a good way to go through the day. She was scared to make eye contact with the opposite sex, tossed and turned all night and now, showered with the door open. Life had changed, tremendously. All Tia wanted was to be normal again….

  η

  Juice booked a studio session Uptown. He was footing the bill because he believed in this girl that he discovered on Instagram. She was getting a lil’ buzz from doing covers, but he wanted to hear her sing some original songs. Some, he wrote himself and others, he was able to score from people that he knew had a few hits for sell.

  Juice told her, “Get comfortable, we’re going to be here all night.”

  “If you get hungry, let me know. You smoke? I can roll up,” he offered.

  She shook her head. “No, I don’t smo
ke. I bought some tea with me. Think I can get a mug of hot water?”

  “Yep.”

  When he returned from the breakroom with the cup, he saw that she had sage burning along with two candles.

  Her shoes were off, and her hair was tied up.

  “Sorry, I know you’re probably like I didn’t mean get this cozy,” she was nervous as hell.

  “Nah, catch your vibe. Get right,” he told her, as he took a seat in front of the sound board.

  She did as he told her. Ten minutes later, she tapped him on his shoulder since calling his name wasn’t working. Juice had headphones on, listening to beats.

  “I’m ready,”

  He nodded his head. “Booth is that way.”

  Four hours later, he was pleased with what they’d done thus far.

  “Your voice is…out of this world,” he praised her.

  She was the perfect mixture of Toni Braxton and Anita Baker, he couldn’t wait to play the tracks back while driving home.

  Someone knocked on the door and stuck his head in. “Yo, when I heard Juice was in the building, I said that can’t be true.”

  Munch was an old friend and a trusted ear. “Mannnnn, I ain’t know you still be in here. Come on in big dawg.”

  They’d made magic together. He was happy to see him.

  “This is Summer,” he introduced her to Munch.

  “Mahogany know you in here recruiting?” he teased.

  Once she signed to YQ Recordings, a lot of things had changed for Mahogany. Yara had the final say-so on just about everything. The only thing that his artist asked was for Juice to manage her, which meant Munch was forced to go back to hustling and engineering whatever he could get his hands on. Luckily, he would forever eat off her first EP being that he had mixed and mastered every single song on it. Munch had a few more hits after Mahogany signed to YQ, but none of the checks came even close to being as big as they were when he was grinding in the stu with her and Juice.

  Juice told him “She gon’ know soon,” he was preparing his exit.

  “Heard about y’all going to Coachella, that’s big,” Munch mentioned the headliner.

  Every now and then, they discussed bringing Munch in to create some magic, but it never happened.

  “Yeah, she’s hype.”

  After the concert, he planned on scaling back…

  Munch questioned, “What about you?”

  Juice shrugged his shoulders. “Shits all the same to me at this point,” he kept it real with him.

  “Man, I would love to do Coachella. Let me know if you can get some passes,” he casually tossed that out there.

  Mahogany headlined the Danube Island Festival in Vienna, which was the largest music festival in the World. With almost four million people, eleven stages and over two performances…that was his “nigga, we made it,” moment. Then she headlined the Rhythms of The World, another big ass music festival in Morocco. She had international fame, Mahogany was honestly on a whole ‘nother level. Coachella was cool though.

  “You good bro?” Munch noticed the unsatisfied look on his face, which wasn’t like him at all.

  “Yeah, you got time to check out some of her songs?” It was always business with Juice. He didn’t know how to turn that shit off.

  “Of course, yo. I’m sorry to hear about Tia too.”

  Tia?

  Juice gave him a questioning look, he expected him to say he was sorry about Faaizah but being that he wasn’t an A-List celeb, Munch probably hadn’t heard the news being that Juice hadn’t posted shit about what happened. He was a private man. From his social media feed, you couldn’t put his life together.

  “My fiancé name is Faaizah, dude, me and T broke up years ago,” he corrected him.

  Munch seemed surprised, “For real?”

  When was the last time they seen each other, was the next thing that crossed Juice’s mind?

  “Well shit, they took ole girl through the ringer, but I heard she about to cash in on them fuckers,” Munch shared with him.

  He asked, “What did she go through?” because he was lost like hell.

  Munch filled him in and even pulled his phone out to show him a clip that went viral of Tia being carried down a hallway in what was supposedly her former work place.

  “I’m confused. Break this shit down to me, Munch.”

  He had forgotten all about Summer’s music.

  “The man, apparently it was her boss’ son, he raped her yo. He raped her and beat her ass. Then they sent her an email saying that her performance was low and suggested that she take a leave of absence, ain’t that some shit?”

  “She got a lawyer?” Juice was now prepared to do whatever he could to make sure that Tia made them crackers pay. He was furious.

  “Guess who came out of retirement, dawg?” Munch told him with big eyes.

  Juice couldn’t guess another fucking thing.

  “Freedom Anderson, remember her tall, fine ass?”

  She was like their generation’s Angela Davis.

  “Fuck man.”

  He was starving before Munch knocked on the door and now, his appetite was gone.

  “I gotta call her.”

  Juice pulled his phone out and apparently, the news had officially hit. He had missed calls from his mom, Pops, even his crew, P, Ashton, Xavier, Big Mo…

  Yara Moreland, owner of YQ Recordings, who Mahogany was signed to had texted him to see if she could help her in any way that she could.

  He didn’t think all of them remembered him being with Tia. She broke up with him right when his career really took off.

  Juice clicked the group chat he had with his brothers, “Tia is dating Coop…wow, small world.”

  The fuck?

  He told Munch, “I’m going to email you the tracks.” He needed to get out of there.

  It was almost four in the morning anyway and Faai hadn’t called.

  “Yo sweetheart, you did good tonight. I’m going to be in touch.”

  Juice did ninety all the way home and called Porter as soon as he made it home.

  “I’M NOT UP,” Porter told him.

  “Who is Coop?” he asked, ignoring the fact that Porter was clearly sleeping like the rest of the world at this hour.

  “Nigga from the streets…”

  Porter left out that he was “that” nigga.

  “A real nigga?” he wanted to know if she was dating someone she had no business being with. He still cared about her.

  “Yeah.”

  Juice turned the alarm off and the kitchen light on.

  “He got more money than me?”

  Porter chuckled lightly, “Does that matter? It’s a lot of broke real niggas and a lot of rich niggas that ain’t real.”

  Leave it up to P to cause Juice to recant.

  “You right…I didn’t know she was involved with someone, that’s all.”

  Porter asked him, “Does it matter though?” He often proposed the same question to Juice.

  “Your plate is full, youngin.”

  Juice didn’t say anything back, so Porter told him, “I’ll rap with you in the morning.”

  He placed his cell on the counter and took a deep breath.

  Tia was raped. Is that why she texted him randomly when he was in Berlin?

  “Do you still love her?”

  His heart almost jumped out of his chest and through the window.

  “WHAT THE FUCK!” He never cursed at her, but…yo, you couldn’t roll up on someone like that.

  “Why aren’t you sleep? It’s-” He squinted his eyes to get a glimpse of the time on the stove.

  “Late. It’s late and you just got home. Nor did you call and check on me. I fell twice, trying to get in the bed.” She was mad. He heard it in her voice.

  “My bad, baby. I got caught up in the studio.”

  Faaizah didn’t care about that, she did…until she heard him on the phone with whomever asking about his ex.

  She heard about the rape case
while she was attempting to still fulfill her girlfriend duties and didn’t turn around to look at the television until she heard the reporter say her name.

  Tia DiCaille.

  It sounded way too familiar.

  Faaizah never knew what the girl looked like until today. From there, she went searching for her profile on various social media outlets, but she either lived under a rock or had deactivated them once her story went public.

  Faaizah discovered a few pictures during a Google search.

  She was…cute. Nah, fuck that she was sexy as hell.

  It was easy to see what Juice saw in her.

  Tia possessed an alluring look in her eyes. She could only imagine the nasty ass things that she did to her man during their courtship. Faaizah remembered the day the letter came into the mail. She couldn’t think straight, but knew one thing, Juice wasn’t going to be funding no other woman’s dreams.

  “Do you still love her?”

  He was tired and wasn’t having this conversation with her. “No,” he told a fib.

  It was his first time lying to her. He hoped that it didn’t become habitual.

  “Are you sure?” she probed.

  Juice told her, “Yeah, Faai. Can we go to bed now? I’m tired.”

  She wasn’t at ease nor was she satisfied with his answer but decided to let it go.

  Juice wheeled her into their room and helped her in bed. When he laid her down, she pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

  He allowed her to slide her tongue in his mouth, and he even kissed her back but stopped her there. She tried to grab his penis with her other hand. “Not tonight,” he whispered. Letting her down for the umpteenth time. The rejection that she’d been receiving from him was at an all-time high these days. Faaizah hated it.

  “Are we ever going to have sex again?” Her body was craving attention and physical touch from her man.

  He didn’t lie to her this time, “I don’t know.”

  Juice picked and chose when he laid with her and tonight, it wasn’t happening. He called for the cows in the room across from hers. The next morning, he was gone, but had texted her, “My mom is coming back down to help you interview people. We have to find someone…you falling out of your chair, can’t keep happening.”