Juice

by Nako

  He wished she was with him right now. He would make her say that shit in his ear while she rode his dick.

  “Tia, I’m going to show you everything that I should’ve showed you when I had the chance,” he promised her. If he could do that shit right now, on his mama, he would. Tia deserved the world and every little piece that came with it.

  She didn’t say anything back, but she did hear him. She was honestly trying to keep her emotions concealed, but the nigga was making it hard.

  “I apologize for every tear you cried, every missed call, every sleepless night. None of them girls meant nothing to me… I hope you know that,” he spilled his heart out.

  She had to get off the phone with him before she started boo-hooing.

  “Juice, I’ll hit you when I get back from my trip, okay?”

  He knew he applied pressure tonight but that was okay with him.

  “Okay baby, get some rest.”

  She hung the phone up and he was now able to sleep, peacefully.

  Tia held her cell against the tip of her chin as she replayed his words over and over again in her head, wishing that she could’ve recorded him. Was it too late? Could he get her back? Tia believed him though. She wholeheartedly felt the regret and heard it in his voice. She was once his good thing, hell, the best that ever happened to him. Juice was seeing that shit now.

  He texted her, “The ball is in your court,” which really wasn’t true because he was still…engaged.

  C H A P T E R 16

  COACHELLA Music & Arts Festival 2019

  Indio, California

  If the world should end tomorrow, then we only have today – H.E.R.

  The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival was held every year at the Empire Polo Club since 1999. The purpose of Coachella was to deliver a fabulous experience delivered through channels of music, dance, arts and every possible window of interaction open to an individual. Coachella is a nine-day festival that requires a lot of preparation, on attendees and performers alike. Coachella was a big fuckin’ deal and anyone that was invited to grace the stage should consider themselves a commodity.

  Mahogany headlining the concert as the first female rapper and an African-American rapper was a dream come true for her. She had been on pins and needles since rehearsal began and quite frankly, without much apology or regret, a bitch to be around. She’d been touring for almost six years now, but this was on a whole ‘nother level. She wanted to provide her fans with an experience that they’d never seen before.

  Many people didn’t think she could bring it after having another baby and not losing the baby weight in due time, but she was determined to eat cleaner and healthier. She stopped smoking and drinking and devoted all her spare time to the gym. Mahogany told her husband “no more sex” until after the show. She needed all her energy and Porter was good for draining hers when they went round for round. To not get distracted by the trolls and negative comments on her upcoming performance or anything for that matter. She deactivated her accounts and didn’t plan on getting back on until the twenty-four-hour countdown began for her to take the stage.

  There was an entire marketing campaign in place strictly for her social media outlets to prepare her fans for what she was about to bring.

  Mahogany was doing a tribute to the greats along with bringing all her favorite rap female groups out as well. She planned on paying homage along with expressing her love for other female rappers in the game that were poppin’ their shit right now.

  She explained to the show runner, Juice, and a few other important people alongside Yara and Quentin, “I want to tell a story,” she was constantly repeating herself and was starting to feel like no one saw her vision.

  “That’s what we’re doing. What do you not like?” Juice asked her.

  Teamwork made the dream work, so they all needed to be on the same page to ensure that the job was done right, and the show was A1.

  “The dancers, the lights, I don’t like the first or third outfit change. I also told y’all I wanted a female DJ and a female band,” she shook her head. The list was really longer than that, but that’s what bothered her the most.

  “I don’t think the female band is necessary, especially when you’ve been touring with this band for a while and they’re familiar. Time is of the essence.”

  Yara didn’t kiss Mahogany’s ass and Juice was starting to see why she didn’t.

  Yes, she was the artist, but that was why you signed to a label and put people in charge to handle the logistics. Out of nowhere, Mahogany had become more vocal about every fucking thing and he could tell that Yara was beyond annoyed at this point.

  “Well don’t ask me what I want then,” she said and closed the almost three-hundred-page binder filled with details for the show.

  Yara gave her a look that wasn’t a nice one. “I didn’t.”

  Before the conversation escalated, Quentin rubbed her arm and chimed in, “Let me say this and then we need to get back to work.”

  Everyone’s eyes diverted to the head honcho.

  “I think you should trust your team to make everything happen on your behalf and you take this energy and focus on your vocals because the tape I watched last night wasn’t your best performance. To me, it sounded like you were competing with the beat. Not flowing like you normally do,” he gave his honest opinion which seemed to have tipped her over the edge.

  “Great! Another fucking thing for me to worry about!” She was on the verge of an anxiety attack at this point.

  She stormed off. No one said anything. They didn’t know what to say, honestly. This wasn’t her first stop at the rodeo, yet it was her first time performing at Coachella and she was nervous as shit.

  Yara couldn’t deal. “I have other artist performing, let me go make my rounds,” she was ready to go and did just that.

  Quentin watched her walk away and looked at Mahogany’s team, “Can y’all promise that this comes together in…the next three days?”

  Juice nodded his head, “Yep.”

  How was he going to make that possible when she refuted everything someone suggested? He had no clue.

  “In ten minutes, let’s meet with all the department heads and then go from there. This is going to be a long day and night, order lunch now. No one is going anywhere until the show is in tip-top shape. I don’t agree with the female band, but we can get a female DJ. I know someone that can probably do it at the last minute.”

  He raked his brain for what else she said that was of importance.

  “If she doesn’t like the outfits, see what other options we can pull together.”

  Juice looked at her two assistants, “You…order lunch and you, call Carmen and tell her we needed her here yesterday.”

  He was about to start putting their lazy asses to work.

  Genesis was playing a game on his phone, Juice snatched it out of his hand.

  “Aye nigga!”

  “Go see what’s going on with the lights.”

  All that lazy shit stopped at this very moment.

  He hopped on the mock stage and picked up a microphone.

  “Can I get everyone’s attention?” he asked.

  People were all over the place, so he spoke a little louder.

  “AYE!”

  It took about two minutes for the chaos to cease, but it happened.

  “Listen, we are officially seventy-two hours away from show time and on a scale of one to ten we’re at a six with being prepared. That’s not good and we’re not leaving until it’s at a hundred. If you don’t think you can put your best foot forward, there is the door. The lollygagging comes to an end today. Mahogany along with many of you, including myself, worked extremely hard to get to this point and we can’t drop the ball now and we’re not. If she’s giving a 1000% y’all need to triple that.”

  After his supposedly motivating speech, he went to find the crybaby. She was outside on the phone with her husband, so Juice ambled back into the warehouse to give her so
me privacy.

  He wasn’t a stylist, nor was he a dancer or a sound engineer, but he knew how to delegate tasks and that’s what he did best.

  When she came back in, her eyes were low and he could tell she’d been crying. Juice draped his arm over her shoulder. “It’s going to work out, trust me.”

  Mahogany wasn’t so sure anymore. “I hope so.”

  He told her after he checked the time on his watch, “Practice starts in five minutes and I’m pulling motherfuckers off the stage if they don’t bring it,” he warned her.

  She liked the sound of that.

  Juice then playfully added, “Including yo’ ass, so you better pull out that old basement studio Mahogany.”

  Whenever he felt as if she was giving up on herself and becoming defeated, he would remind her of where she came from and how she couldn’t stop now

  She nodded her head, “I’m ready.”

  Mahogany wasn’t lying either, that was the best run-through they’d had all week. He was seeing the light.

  Juice texted Yara, “Swing back through if you can,” a few hours later.

  He made a few twitches to the show and thankfully, Mahogany didn’t complain about ‘em.

  The show was gon be lit as fuck.

  He made them run through it about twenty more times until his artist said that her legs were burning, and she seriously needed to lay down.

  It was six in the morning when the crew finally called it a wrap with dress rehearsal scheduled for eleven a.m.

  Juice called Tia to see if she landed and she didn’t answer. He prayed she made her flight, when he checked on her earlier she was running late due to her stylist being behind. He told her that he could’ve had someone come to the crib to do her hair, but she declined the offer. Not only did he make sure they were VIP for the Coachella festival, but he copped them a nice ass rental mansion. It was one of Ramone King’s investment properties and he didn’t charge Juice to use it for the weekend. Juice arranged for a chef to cook twice a day and made sure the bar was fully-stocked. He enjoyed doing things of that nature because he knew that she appreciated it. Tia was a girly-girl and enjoyed the finer things. Juice only splurged on his kids. Faaizah wasn’t into designer or being chauffeured around whereas Tia embraced the lifestyle of the rich and the famous. She was more on his level and damn, he hated to admit that shit.

  Faaizah was feeling some type of way about him not letting her come to Coachella for several different reasons, so he hadn’t spoken to her all week and wasn’t even tripping at this point.

  He had a lot of important decisions to make once the festival was over and his relationship with her was one of them.

  He was so fucking tired that he didn’t even shower when he walked through the front door. He placed his phone on the charger and was out like a light.

  The next morning, he overslept and didn’t make it to rehearsal until after two in the afternoon.

  As soon as he got there, Genesis warned him, “She is tripping today, bra-bra.”

  He was used to his crazy ass sister acting an ass, but Juice constantly told her that on a professional level, you didn’t want to get a bad rap in the industry or be known as hard to work with.

  Which is why he started making all her staff sign non-disclosure agreements, he didn’t want anyone to be able to blast her in a negative way. Mahogany had to get a grip on her attitude.

  He went looking for her and bumped right into Porter.

  “Long night?” P asked him.

  Juice said, sarcastically, “Of working? Yeah.”

  Porter informed him of the same thing that Genesis said, “She’s not in a good mood today.”

  “Is that why you’re here?”

  He shook his head, “Nah, moral support. Big Mo over there eating,” he pointed to the breakfast table where his best friend was getting down.

  “Have you seen the show yet?”

  Porter said, “She said she had to wait on you.”

  Juice thought to himself, wait on me for what?

  Nor did anyone call him once they saw that he was late…

  “Where the hell have you been?” she was furious but didn’t have to talk to him like he was some lil’ ass boy.

  “I overslept.”

  Mahogany rolled her eyes. “Juice, you on your last leg with me. I swear.”

  It was an empty threat, but he was extremely taken back.

  Her husband saw the dejected look on his mentee’s face and jumped in, “Whoa, whoa, alright baby. Chill out. Let’s get started…”

  He clapped his hands, excitedly.

  Juice gave Mahogany a hard stare that she returned right back as if to say, “Nigga, what you gon’ do?”

  He didn’t know what was going on with her, but he wasn’t feeling it at all.

  Juice did what he needed to do and then dapped Porter and Big Mo, “I’ll catch y’all later.”

  “You leaving? I thought y’all was pulling another all-nighter?”

  He shook his head, “I’m good on that today.”

  His hard work was being taken for granted and he wasn’t about to be cooped up in this dark ass warehouse all day, not today he wasn’t. She’d tried him, and he was about to dip and go pull up on his lil’ boo.

  η

  Coachella was a vibe. Literally, Tia was surrounded by good energy and happiness. Everyone was smiling and feeling wavy. She was happy. She couldn’t stop smiling. This was her season and everything that was rightfully hers would find her. She believed it and was claiming prosperity already. Many people often correlated being prosperous with financial desires, but it was more than that. Tia wanted a life of abundance, mentally and spiritually. She was tired of rambling in her head, tired of overthinking and trying to analyze the why and what. Her season of prosperity went beyond money gains, to wake up and not suffer from anxiety before she could even pull the covers back would be a win for her.

  “I want another mojito,” she told Juice before easing out of his warm embrace.

  He didn’t want to let her go. “I’ll have him bring you one,” he coaxed her.

  “Juice, I’m coming right back.”

  He could be clingy when he wanted to be, and it didn’t bother her. However, she had a cool lil’ buzz and was trying to keep it from dying.

  “Y’all acting like it’s hot as hell outside,” her line sister slid the balcony door back and entered the terrace.

  Juice pointed to the prettiest woman in the world, “That’s her. she wanted to sit out here.” He would do whatever she wanted to do anyway.

  “Thank you again for all of this.”

  Tia warned Chanda, “Table conversation hoe.”

  He heard her and chuckled, “Go get your damn mojito.”

  Truth be told, he never had anyone grill him about Tia nor did he ever get the chance to meet her grandfather who she doted about often. He didn’t know any of her family. Hell, he was her family.

  “She’s happy,” Chanda commented.

  He nodded his head. “She’s rich, that’s that better days have come glow,” he was only joking to possibly lighten the load of whatever this woman was planning on saying to him.

  “I’ve seen her still smile with her tank on E, it’s more than that.”

  Juice knew that, “Yeah I was talking shit. She’s happy. She deserves it. One of the strongest people I know…” He looked over his shoulder and saw her laughing with her friend.

  He loved that she had come out of her shell. Tia went from being extremely anti-social and introverted to a social butterfly who loved having a good time.

  Knowingly, that would’ve never happened had she not walked away from him.

  He was her universe at one point in time and now, he was merely trying to find a small space in her world again. If she would have him.

  “What’s the deal with you and your fiancée?” Chanda was a straight-shooter.

  One night while they were on the phone a few days ago, Tia gave him the complete run-down on he
r small yet power-packed circle.

  “Which one are you the closest to?”

  Tia didn’t have to think too hard about that, “Karma, only because we’re neighbors and I met her first. She’s the reason why I know everybody else.”

  “Karma and Keiva are twins, right?”

  “No…” She giggled, everyone always assumed they were twins.

  “What about that other one?”

  Tia chuckled, “What other one?”

  “The tall one that’s always staring at me.”

  She snorted, “Chanda? She’s really protective of me…like a mom. I love her.”

  “What’s her story?”

  He was interested, there was a lot of sadness behind her eyes.

  “Trying to make everybody happy, not worried about herself enough. She’s like the momma bear.”

  Juice looked again to see if Tia would be returning any second now.

  “Things are still in the air right now, she was in an accident.”

  Chanda was aware of the situation. “I heard about that and sorry…Tia seemed sad…for you. Do you plan on getting married still?”

  She wouldn’t have her little sister waiting around on this nigga if he wasn’t serious about being with her.

  Juice didn’t know what he was going to do, honestly.

  “I have a lot to sort out…but to be clear, I never told Tia I was leaving her. I love my fiancée, I’m not denying that,” he kept it real, always.

  “Yeah, but you don’t think your actions show otherwise?” She motioned around to the massive home. Juice laid out the red carpet for them and for a nigga that claimed he loved his fiancée so damn much, the notions were a tad extreme. Chanda appreciated it and was having a good time but didn’t want Tia’s feelings getting hurt. She didn’t deserve that from him… again.

  “She knows how I am,” he said, defensively.

  He would give her everything she wanted with no hesitation. Even the things that hadn’t crossed her mind. Juice worked hard as hell, it felt good to put a smile on her face.

  Chanda understood all of that, but still…

  “I think that she’s waiting on you to make a move and if you don’t know what exactly that move is you need to be verbal about that. She said she’s healed from y’all breakup, but I never believed her.”