Juice

by Nako

  C H A P T E R 18

  You a real one, I had to inform ya – Kwony Cash

  Juice had barely said two words to her since they made it home from dinner the other night. Nor did she speak to him which told him that she was hiding something. Juice honestly didn’t care enough to play Inspector Gadget. After he dropped his mom off at the airport, he spent the rest of the night on Photoshop and InDesign working on his logo and a few other marketing materials that would be needed for when he was ready to launch his label.

  Back in the day, he used to spend hours on his Mac designing flyers to keep a lil’ change in his pocket. My, how things had changed. One thing about a skill was that you never forgot it. Juice was rusty for a few minutes and then after smoking and getting comfortable, he was able to whip through the process and came up with a few designs that looked…decent.

  If he didn’t absolutely love any of the concepts that he created, he would hire a designer. Juice wasn’t cutting any corners nor was he going to be cheap. This was his baby. A dream come true. He believed in himself more than ever right now. It was do or die.

  The time on his Apple Watch read 4:31 a.m. and he wasn’t nowhere near sleepy. He was getting to it. Cranking out ideas, left and right.

  He had his laptop nearby, his iPad in hand and two notepads damn near full of research. The process of bringing all this together was a beautiful one. Juice was optimistic.

  Faaizah wheeled herself into his office and asked, “Do you think I cheated on you?”

  He turned his music down and told her, “No, did you?”

  She shook her head. Faaizah would never lie to him and he sort of knew that already. Tia’s questioning is the only thing that made him doubt her, but truth be told, she was a good girl.

  “What were you doing in PA?”

  She came closer to him.

  “I feel like you’re giving up on me,” she admitted, which had nothing to do with his question.

  “When you do that, it makes me think you’re playing mind games with me and you’re starting to do it a lot,” he told her out of frustration. He needed her to keep it real.

  Juice was done beating around the bush with her ass. She wasn’t the same woman that he fell in love with. He didn’t appreciate her weak attempts at playing on his kindness.

  She flashed him a look of doubt.

  “My mom wanted to see her high school sweetheart and I drove her.”

  Juice believed her, thankfully.

  “See him for what?”

  They never made it.

  She looked down at her feet. There wasn’t any feeling in them anymore. She hated her life.

  “He’s my father,” she said in one breath.

  Juice was confused, “Huh?”

  “I’ve always known…well kind of. My daddy loves me, but come on, Jihad. You know I don’t look like any of them.”

  He never really thought too much about it.

  “You asked her to take you?”

  She nodded her head. “The wedding was coming up and I don’t know…I wanted him there, which is stupid because I have a great father and now my mom…is gone.”

  It was also a secret that she had to keep to herself. Forever.

  To taint the image of her momma in her family’s eyes would be horrific.

  Juice was happy to know the truth.

  “Thank you.”

  She wanted to make love to him, nah, she desired it strongly. Faaizah was craving physical touch.

  “How much longer will you be working?”

  He asked her, “Why didn’t you ask me about the other night? You haven’t asked me was I okay or how I felt?”

  She lacked compassion.

  Faaizah’s shoulders slumped over. “I can never win with you,” she mumbled under her breath as she prepared her chair to reverse and head back to bed.

  Juice stood up, “No, I really want to know.”

  “You saw them basically chump me off right in front of you.”

  “They chumped me off too. They look at me like your poor ass girlfriend whose now in a wheelchair!”

  She made it about her.

  As always.

  “Dawg, I’m so tired of this shit.”

  He plopped back down and picked up his iPad.

  She watched and waited to see if he had anything else to say, but he didn’t.

  Juice was overwhelmed and defeated.

  “All I want is to have sex. That’s it.”

  She hated to be insensitive to his current dilemma, but seriously, home girl was horny. Faaizah couldn’t play with her pussy another night. She wanted the real thing.

  “Do I look like a blow-up doll to you?”

  He wasn’t even horny.

  “No, but I’m asking you to make love to your future wife…we are still getting married, right?” she tilted her head as she questioned him.

  Juice was so fucking irritated, and he could tell her by her stance that she didn’t plan on leaving him alone.

  “Come on,” he sighed.

  Any other chick probably would’ve told him don’t worry about it, but not her. Sis wanted the dick.

  He wheeled her into their bedroom and helped her back in bed. She slipped her gown off her body and he did the rest.

  Juice turned the light off and kissed her on the forehead.

  “I love you, hope you still feel it.” He felt like she needed to be reassured.

  His mind was all over the damn place and one thing for sure was that it wasn’t on her right now or on fucking her.

  She rubbed her hands all over his sexy body, ignoring him. She didn’t need the commentary, just the dick.

  Juice climbed on bed, pushing her backwards on the duvet.

  He kissed her on the forehead again, then her nose, down to her lips.

  Sparks didn’t fly when he slid his tongue into her mouth. He’d never had to force himself to do something of this nature. Even in the dark he could see the desperation in her voice.

  Faaizah’s breathing was erratic and she sounded like a dog in heat.

  He bent down and kissed her breasts.

  Wondering what Tia was doing right now.

  He hated he couldn’t have her how he wanted her…

  Faaizah started thrusting her bottom half towards him.

  “JUST GIVE IT TO ME,” she cried out in pleasure.

  He pushed her panties to the side and almost cringed at the bush that’d formed in between her legs.

  “Last time you shaved or had a wax?”

  She rolled her eyes, “I’ll handle it tomorrow. Come on, Jihad.”

  Juice prayed that his dick magically grew because he was softer than an Oreo McFlurry right now.

  He pulled his shorts down along with his boxers and grabbed his limp penis. What would normally do the trick was him sliding his manhood up and down against her clit, but it was so much damn hair…

  “Baby, you gon’ have to shave tomorrow.” This wasn’t acceptable.

  She breathed loudly, out of frustration and reached down, grabbing his dick her damn self and pushing it inside of her.

  He wasn’t hard but stroked her anyway while sucking on her titties, hoping that helped her get off.

  Juice even prayed that it would get there just so she could be pleased. He would love for her to be satisfied tonight.

  “Oh yes…”

  What was she feeling?

  He humped her anyway.

  “Fuck me daddy!” She didn’t even talk like that.

  He couldn’t do this no more. Juice pulled out of her slit.

  “Wait, what happened? Why did you stop?” she sat up and asked him as he pulled his boxers and shorts up.

  “I’m not even hard.”

  She was pissed off.

  “You didn’t give yourself a chance.”

  Juice looked in the top drawer of her nightstand. “Where your lil’ toy at? I’m going to finish you off…” Thinking that was the least he could do.

  Tears instantly fel
l down her face. “Are you serious?”

  She was too young to not have a sex life.

  “I’m not about to fuck you and I can’t even get hard.”

  If she could hop off the bed and swing on his big-headed ass, she would’ve.

  “Whose fault is that?” she shrieked.

  Juice had so much on his mind right now, this was only infuriating him even more.

  “Do you want me to help you cum or not?”

  If she told him no, he would be relieved.

  “Get out!”

  Bingo.

  That was even better for him.

  Once he made it to the door, she sent another empty ass threat his way.

  “Juice, you don’t get to le-”

  He turned around, “I know, Faai. Trust me. I know that I can’t leave you…”

  Juice left her in bed with her draws at her ankles. He walked out of their house and headed to his condo. Time apart was needed. What was jacked up was that he literally told her, not less than ten minutes ago that he would never leave her. Actions held more value than words that rambled out of people’s mouth. It was easier to make a promise than show a person what you could do. Juice had a lot on his plate and was trying his hardest to preserve his righteousness.

  η

  The next morning, he woke up and had to remember the events of the nights before. He could only imagine how Faaizah was feeling right now. Juice would have some flowers delivered to the crib. His condo came in handy for situations such as what took place last night. He couldn’t be there with her. His actions were embarrassing and there was no way he could explain to her that their sex life was most likely over. What was crazy was that Juice used to fuck so many hoes on Tia. He used to cheat on a weekly basis. Digging in some mushy gushy pussy used to be his favorite way to unwind.

  However, time had passed, and he was older. Life had changed, and God had been gracious to him. What used to interest him no longer did. Hoes didn’t impress him anymore. He was all about quality over quantity.

  One person turned him on. One person made his dick hard. That person wasn’t Faaizah. Juice had to figure some shit out and soon because what happened last night couldn’t go down again and he didn’t want it to.

  It also wasn’t fair to her. Faaizah deserved someone that loved and worshipped her, like he used too. They weren’t connected anymore, and he couldn’t fake it or at least he didn’t want too anymore.

  He slipped out the bed and into the bathroom to shit all that greasy Mexican food out of his system. If he and Mahogany were cool, they would’ve joked about how nasty the chef’s food always tasted. Porter loved the meals, he and her hated them.

  He was going to miss his best friend.

  Juice showered after he used the bathroom and hit the blunt before he got dressed. He did his morning thing of texting his baby mamas and his sweet Tia, who still hadn’t bother responding to him.

  Juice hopped on Instagram, something he rarely did. Now that he now had so much free time until he started to work on getting his label up and running, he could do shit like scroll his timeline.

  Juice cracked up at a few videos and shook his head at certain posts.

  “Niggas post every damn thing,” he said as he made himself a smoothie.

  Juice was never one of those people that posted to prove a point. What was understood never had to be explained and that’s how he moved through life.

  He was well-respected and could go anywhere without an issue. When you treated people right, it was returned in the form of other blessings.

  One of those damn gossip blog sites reposted a screenshot of Mahogany not looking so happy with Yara at what appeared to be breakfast at Negril Village posted with a caption, “Trouble at YQ?”

  Juice clicked her page to see what was going on, but she hadn’t made any recent snaps. However, he did notice that she’d unfollowed him and considered that to be a lame ass move. What was she really in her feelings about? He would love to know.

  Juice downed the last of the smoothie and headed for the door. He had a few errands to run before he would reach out to Porter to hopefully establish some common ground and come to a peace treaty. Juice loved them dearly and more than anything would like their blessing on his new business. However, with or without it, he was moving forward.

  The day got beyond him, especially when he pulled up on the young boy from Coachella, Tyler. The guy was incredibly talented and had an ear for good music.

  Juice knew P’s schedule like the back of his hand due to being his assistant turned mentee and then little brother. He was quite sure that he was already home, so that’s where he made his way.

  He cut his engine and went up the steps leading to the front door and rang the doorbell.

  It took him four minutes to come to the door and when he opened it and stepped outside, instead of inviting him in…Juice knew that things had changed.

  “What up?” Juice’s voice croaked.

  Porter stood in front of him and took a deep breath, “Juice, look I got my balls in my hand right now. Out of respect for my wife, now is not a good time.”

  He needed more. So much more.

  “She’s mad at me for what? I’m the one that got axed out.”

  Juice was keeping this shit so playa. He could’ve got lawyers involved if he was that type of nigga. He was taking his L in silence. The credit of being Executive Producer would’ve not only been a nice check for his legacies, but it would’ve opened a few doors for him as well. They cut him out big time and he wasn’t screaming like a bitch about it. He was walking away with his dignity.

  “You left her when she needed you the most…”

  Juice wanted to ask Porter if he believe anything that was coming out of his own mouth.

  “Needed me?” Juice was probing.

  Porter sighed, “Just give us a second.”

  He extended his hand for a shake in which Juice left hanging. He stormed off the steps, hopped in his whip and pulled off.

  His next stop was the only other fair person he knew outside of Porter in New York and that was Big Mo. It was two other cars in the driveway, which he knew were Ashton and Xavier’s. He knocked on the door and Mo’s wife came to the door with a baby on her hip.

  “Whose child?” Juice questioned.

  “Long story, Chile.”

  “They in the basement. Moses knew you was coming?” She eyed him cautiously.

  Juice held his hands up in surrender. “I come in peace. What, y’all cut me off too?” he asked, sarcastically.

  Teka didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “Huh?”

  He shook his head, “Nothing.”

  Juice headed down the steps to Big Mo’s man cave.

  “It’s the lil nigga Juicy-Juice!” his big bro cheered.

  “Y’all niggas drunk?”

  Ashton pointed to him, saying, “He the only one drinking through the week.”

  Juice picked up a beer out of the cold barrel.

  He popped it open and took a seat on one of the bar stools.

  “You look like you just lost your best friend,” Xavier joked, unknowingly.

  Emotions that he knew for a fact he’d been holding onto for quite some time, up until this moment came flooding past his orbs and down his roasted chestnut face.

  Moses stood up, slightly tipsy. “Lil bro, what’s going on?”

  They didn’t crowd him, but they definitely came a little closer.

  “Everybody fuck with you as long as you are bending over backwards to serve ‘em,’” he was able to get out.

  Juice wasn’t no bitch boy, but real niggas hurt too. His feelings were crushed, there wasn’t a way around that.

  “What happened?” Ashton asked.

  Juice stood up and wiped his face. “Shit is fucked up man. I don’t even know how to feel.”

  Moses knew that once he regained his composure he would fill them in.

  After Juice stopped crying. He tried to laugh
it off, “I needed that,” he admitted.

  He recalled his version of the story, which was the accurate one if you asked him, and they all just kinda stood there.

  Taking it in.

  “What P say?” was Moses’s question.

  Truth be told, loyalty was rare. They all knew that. Brotherhood was important. It was a sacred union that none of them took for granted.

  If Mo needed to step in and set these guys down to hash this shit out, he would. They were all grown and mature men, but sometimes a middleman who wasn’t bias was needed to help you see where you went wrong. On the business tip, Porter could’ve handled the situation differently. He understood where Juice’s frustration came from. The whole unfollowing shit on social media was childish, in his opinion. He was old school. Moses didn’t have no Instagram and his wife wasn’t caught up in all of that, so he left that part alone.

  “He told me to give him a minute… you know, on behalf of her,” which Juice respected. He was still hurting though.

  “It’s hard when business and personal ties get crossed, trust me. I know,” Xavier shared with him.

  Moses asked, “Did you quit?”

  Juice nodded his head up and down. “Pretty much.”

  He wouldn’t dare let Mahogany think that she could treat him any kind of way and its acceptable. Juice demanded respect, the same he gave her.

  “I don’t blame you, young bull.”

  Juice took a deep breath, “Y’all…this was a major lesson learned. For real.”

  Never in a million years did he expect things to happen this way, but he’ll never forget it.

  η

  “Baby, whether you believe me or not…your peace is more important than my pain…Tia, if you want me to fall back I will.”

  A nigga knew just what to say to get a girl back. She was a sucker for a random, heartfelt message. Tia read it over and over again until she told herself to put her phone on the charger and go for a run. She’d been considering moving out of her place, for two reasons, an upgrade was needed and secondly, security. Tia didn’t really feel safe in her apartment anymore. She showered with the door open and her pistol on the toilet in arm’s reach. She had this crazy thought that her rapist was going to kill her. Although, he was an Ivy-League, silver spoon fed little insecure boy trapped in a man’s body. She was sure his daddy threatened him to never pull his dick out again.