Juice

by Nako

  “I’m sure she’s embarrassed,” Chanda was holding on to a big secret her damn self.

  “What is Juice saying?” Karma asked, nosily.

  Tia told them not thinking much of it, “He quit.”

  She knew that what they discussed wouldn’t leave Chanda’s living room.

  “Girl, get the hell out of Texas!” Keiva shouted.

  She nodded her head, “Yep.”

  “Whyyy?” Karma held her heart which made Tia laugh.

  “Dawg, you need to get you a YouTube channel or something.” She was way past hilarious.

  Before she could get into the story, Lanise screamed, “YOUR PHONE IS RINGING! IS THAT HER?”

  These heffas were bat shit crazy.

  “I guess so…”

  Chanda told her, “You can use my office.”

  Tia got up and told them, “Be right back.”

  When Juice sent her a text asking if he could pass her number along, he didn’t say it was Nia Hudson wanting to speak to her. She texted her almost immediately asking when a good time for them was to chat and Tia let her know that she was spending time with her friends but would step outside.

  Nia promised not to hold her long, and so now, here was the magic call.

  Tia answered once she was out of listening reach.

  “Hey,” she said, warmly.

  She took a seat on the small ottoman in the corner of Chanda’s office.

  Nia returned the greeting, “Hi lady, how are you?” Her voice sounded a lil’ tired which Tia expected. The woman was a freaking mogul.

  “I’m good. What about yourself?”

  After they exchanged pleasantries, Nia got on down to business.

  “Tia, I’m pretty much a straight shooter…and wanted to know if you were interested in coming on my show?”

  The answer was, “Oh…no…” she said slowly.

  “Did you sign a non-disclosure?”

  She did, but even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t discuss being raped on national television. The attack was personal.

  “I did.”

  Thankfully, Tia didn’t hear disappointment in Nia’s voice when she said, “I understand. What are you going to do now? Look for another firm…start your own?” she asked out of pure curiosity.

  “I’m honestly all over the place right now. I invested the gist of the settlement, but I’m looking into a few things. I want whatever I spent the rest of my life to be meaningful and something I’m passionate about.”

  Nia knew how that felt.

  “That’s one of the reasons why I went into blogging and my podcast. I needed something new to be excited about. I felt like I touched the surface of pretty much everything, but nothing fulfilled me,” she shared.

  Tia didn’t expect her to hold the phone past her telling her that she didn’t want to be on her show. She assumed that would be the end of the conversation.

  She stuttered a tad, “Yeah…I…I want to… you know, like give back to the community. Speak with girls about chasing their dreams and exploring other avenues outside of college.”

  “As they should,” Nia agreed.

  “What does that look like to you? If you weren’t concerned with any of the business aspects of a passion-led career, what would you do?” Nia presented a thought-provoking question that Tia really didn’t know how to answer.

  She said a few seconds later, “That’s something to really think about.”

  Nia laughed, “Yeah, I’m good for doing that. But no, seriously. Don’t rush it. Allow it to find you and absorb you. I promise, you’ll know where God is leading you without a light or any sign of direction.”

  Her words were prolific and everything that she ever heard about her being a genuine and caring person was proven true in that moment.

  “Thank you, Nia.”

  If she could help someone discover their purpose…she’d done a good deed.

  “Are you happy?” Tia didn’t know where that came from nor was it her business…

  Nia told her without much hesitation, “I chase joy every single day, so yes, I am… Have a good night, boo.”

  They ended the call and Tia took a few minutes to herself before rejoining her friends in the living room.

  “How did it go?”

  Tia thought about how she could answer their question.

  “Y’all…she’s the GOAT for real for real.”

  Tia sipped her wine before sitting back down.

  Lanise smiled. “She’s the Oprah of our generation.”

  Keiva shook her head. “I think Nia got more money than Lady O.” If not, they were neck and neck.

  “What did she want?” Karma asked her.

  Tia shrugged her shoulders, “Nothing important.”

  The rape and its entirety were behind her. Tia was moving on to better days and would be chasing her joy like Nia from now on.

  C H A P T E R 20

  Is you gon’ judge me if I fuck you before I catch this flight – Ari Lennox

  Thai food, a good show to binge and one wine cooler because technically lil’ sis wasn’t supposed to be drinking, but Jhene was adamant about Tia knowing that she drinks, smokes and is currently sexually active. She let her know that none of those things made her a grown woman or even a mature being. Jhene still had a lot to learn about life which is what the purpose of being a mentor was all about. If Tia could prevent her from making some of the same foolish mistakes that she’d made when she was her age; she would.

  “I am so not feeling this Meredith and DeLuca set up. Do you like them together?” she asked her big sister.

  Tia shook her head, “Uh, I don’t know. It’s kind of growing on me. She’s happy, I think that’s what I like.”

  Any Grey’s Anatomy fan knew that it had been a long time coming for poor Meredith. DeLuca wasn’t no McDreamy, but he’d do.

  “I feel like she’s settling.”

  Tia guffawed at the young girl, “What do you know about settling?”

  “Plenty honey, and I know I’m not doing it no more!” Jhene was done with these niggas.

  “That’s good. Now, can we talk about this dropping out of school nonsense?”

  She told her, “I’ll need more wine.” She gave her a smirk and then went into the kitchen to grab another wine cooler.

  Tia rolled her eyes. “You’re getting slicker and slicker and I don’t like it,” she teased.

  Jhene sauntered back on the couch. “Wow, that’s how you feel?”

  “Yes.”

  In her defense she offered, “Is it because I’m growing up and you don’t know how to handle it?”

  Tia refocused the conversation on what was important. “Why do you want to drop out of school and what’s your plan if you do that?”

  Freedom had also reached out and asked Tia to speak to her, but she didn’t tell Jhene that her mom was hella concerned. Education was important. A key to being successful.

  “I have some ideas up my sleeve.”

  Tia needed more than that an idea. “Okay, like what?” she was all ears.

  Jhene slid up from the comfortable cushion and dug into her book bag and handed Tia a small notebook.

  “Third page,” she instructed.

  Tia did as she was told and read the scribbled notes.

  “You want to drop out of school to travel the world…and do what?”

  Jhene knew that she wouldn’t understand.

  “I can make a lot of money blogging on my travels. I’m going to Vlog actually, not blog. Vlogging is-”

  She wasn’t that old. “I know what vlogging is, it’s the video version of blogging. I get it. What I don’t get it is why do you have to drop out of school to do this.”

  She suggested, “What about vlogging on holiday break and even during the Summer.”

  Jhene shook her head. “Yeah… I thought about that, but people won’t take my travels seriously. I kind of want to show them how I dropped out and chased my career,” she tried to explain.

&n
bsp; Tia wasn’t on board with this idea. “Jhene, do you know how it looks that you crossed and are dropping out?” she kept it real with her.

  Her mentee had recently pledged the same sorority as Tia, so they were officially sisters, but…her wanting to drop out of school less than a month later disappointed Tia.

  “You’re making it sound bad and it’s really not even that deep,” Jhene’s voice held a lot of attitude and Tia was totally unbothered.

  “Your future is that deep. You have a lot of opportunities that girls your age wish they had.”

  “Why? Because of my mom?” she snapped.

  Tia took a deep breath and told her, “Do what you wanna do.”

  She wasn’t about to keep talking if the girl wasn’t going to listen. At the end of the day, lil Jhene was going to do what she wanted to do. It wasn’t anything that Tia could say to change her mind.

  “I plan on it.”

  Jhene ended up giving her some lame ass excuse about why she had to cut their night short and caught an Uber back to campus. Tia didn’t even tell her goodbye when she left.

  She texted Freedom and said, “I tried…I’m sorry. I don’t know where her head is right now.”

  Freedom responded, “Please don’t give up on her.”

  Tia knew that she couldn’t.

  “I’m going to reach out to her again tomorrow.”

  Before she could close her phone out and resume watching Grey’s, an incoming call was coming through from a New York number that wasn’t saved in her phone.

  “Hello?”

  A man with a raspy, deep Northern accent asked, “Is this Tia?”

  Tia didn’t recognize the voice.

  “Yes, May I ask whose calling?”

  “Hey, you don’t know me. I’m Coop’s older brother. He gave me your number a while back and said if anything ever happened to him to call you.”

  Her heart dropped.

  “Oh my God, is he?” She couldn’t even bring herself to say the word, dead.

  God, life was short. Tia figured she had time to fix their friendship and preserve their trust.

  “Nah, nah nah…nothing like that sweetheart. The FEDS picked him up this afternoon and he told me to call you.”

  Tia exhaled and thanked God at the same time.

  The fact that not too long ago was when she learned of his secret drug-dealing lifestyle was still hard to process. When she did sit and think about everything, a lot of situations and conversations now made more sense. Coop kept weird, yet late hours. He went out of town a lot and was sneaky. He never answered her questions with straight answers. He was extremely calculated and closed-off. All she could do was thank God that she never stopped trusting her gut and following her women’s intuition. It never led her astray. Coop being locked up didn’t even sound right, but then again, she didn’t really know him or how deep in the game he was.

  She wondered was the brother a drug dealer too? Were they like Kingpins? Or was the big brother the head honcho and Coop the second in command. Like, why wasn’t he in jail too?

  Tia didn’t know how to process any of this.

  “Oh wow, I’m sorry to hear this. Do you need anything?”

  His brother let her know, “I actually do. Not money or nothing, but I can’t let my brother sit in a cell…”

  She only had one question, “It’s not murder, is it?”

  Murder was hard to fight in court.

  “Hell nah.”

  Tia was relieved to hear that.

  Coop was always there for her, no matter what. Before Juice turned her world upside down…again…Coop was her best friend. Without hesitation, she was going to do whatever she could to help. Whether he was right or wrong.

  “Let me look for a flight and I’ll call you right back.”

  η

  Coop was most likely going to be spending the next seven or so of his birthdays in prison if whoever they claimed was an informant took the stand. Tia couldn’t do anything other than recommend some pretty kick-ass defense attorneys that knew their ways around charges related to drugs. Tia met his family and they were all good people, she apologized about them gathering under unforeseen circumstances. They all knew who she was and swore that Coop was in love with her. Tia offered a smile, love and prayers. When he called his brother while she was there, she opted out on talking to him over the phone. Promising to visit him soon. She had one thing to get off her chest.

  Being back in New York was such a bittersweet feeling. Her time in the Big Apple was full of lessons learned.

  Juice knew that she was in the city. It was going on two days since she landed, and she had yet to see him.

  What was the likeliness of her running into him in the middle of Central Park.

  Tia had a taste for a hot dog.

  Juice was with his family.

  She spotted him and went the other way.

  He wheeled what she knew had to be his fiancée.

  The girl was pretty. Tia didn’t expect anything less than that for Juice. He was attracted to the same type of women. Tia and Faaizah could be cousins.

  She had to roll her eyes at the fact.

  The fiancée wasn’t smiling as much as Juice was.

  There were kids walking alongside him. Tia couldn’t believe how big they’d gotten, she hadn’t seen them in years.

  Unsure of who the little boy was...she walked a little closer to get a better look.

  He looked as if Juice spit him out.

  Did he have another child? Tia gasped at the thought.

  Two kids. Two baby mamas.

  She’d processed that ages ago.

  But another baby? Damn it, Juice.

  Tia took off running in the other direction once she noticed that he’d spotted her.

  Six hours later.

  Three hundred and sixty minutes later, she heard a key turning in the front door of what used to be known as home sweet home. Now it was just a place that she was able to stay without wasting money on a hotel.

  Tia was half past drunk and high off Juice’s supply.

  She knew he would come sooner than later. Especially since she didn’t bother responding to his text messages or the one call that he placed.

  She was in the bathtub, soaking. Something she used to do every night when he was away, touring around the world with Mahogany.

  He allowed the candles and smell of potent marijuana to lead the way.

  Aisahn was who Tia was digging this week.

  Her cute little voice and “fuck these niggas” vibes always gave Tia the energy she needed.

  “Hey,” his voice lacked passion.

  She wondered was it passion for her or just passion in general.

  Tia hated how much she sat around and over thought everything when it came to him.

  “What up.”

  She sunk down lower into the Jacuzzi tub.

  Juice picked up the towel and asked her, “You ready to get out? So, we can talk.”

  He was growing.

  He was a man, a grown man at that.

  No longer beating around the bush, or hell, at least not trying to.

  “Yeah.”

  He opened the terry towel and watched her rinse her body of bubbles and then stood up, so she could get out.

  Juice wrapped her in the towel and moved out of the way.

  “How is the case going?” he asked.

  Tia walked around him and into their old master bedroom.

  “He’s facing some time, a lot of it.”

  She didn’t want to talk about Coop and really, Juice didn’t either. He was only making conversation until she was dressed. As long as she was naked, his dick would continue to grow and get harder. Once he made it to where he needed to be, shorty would be bent over, and they would never get the chance to talk about what needed to be discussed.

  When Juice was inside of her, nothing else mattered.

  He couldn’t think straight.

  “Damn.”

  Tia removed t
he towel from around her damp frame and dried off, patting her most intimate parts.

  Juice stayed near the doorway. Fearful of what he would do if he took a step further.

  “Can you hand me the lotion out of my bag?”

  He groaned, “Tia.”

  Damn, baby I’m trying my hardest not eat your pussy from the back, He thought to himself.

  “What? Hand me the lotion.” Tia wasn’t stunting him.

  He stepped into the room and did as she asked.

  “Thank you.”

  He took the bottle back from her, “I got it.”

  Back in the day, when they were madly in love, he used to lotion her up twice a day.

  Tia rolled her eyes, “You know the last time you did this for me?”

  Juice ignored her and got down on his knees, starting with her toes, feet and legs.

  He massaged her feet and pulled on her toes, causing a slight, “Hmmm,” to escape from her pouty lips.

  “Tia,” he warned her again.

  She closed her eyes and allowed him to continue without another mumbling word from her.

  Once he made his way to her thighs, she spread them a tad.

  “Let’s just get it over with. I don’t want to fight it and judging from what I seen earlier…I’m sure the conversation won’t end well.”

  Juice eyed her and then asked, “What did you see?”

  “Everything.”

  He needed more.

  “Like what?”

  “I saw you pushing your fiancée around in a wheelchair and another child that looks like your father. I saw you smiling as if you were…happy.”

  “Did I ever tell you I wasn’t?” he asked, not with an attitude but seriously trying to recall if he ever told her anything else.

  She shook her head, closing her thighs at the same time.

  “No, nor did you tell me otherwise. I’m under the impression that you would rather be with me.”

  Which was correct. “I do. Tia, I love you. You know that, right?”

  “But you love her too?”

  He swallowed his nervousness.

  “Why do I feel like this is another goodbye from you?”

  “Maybe because you keep lying to me.”

  She was trying her hardest to keep her voice at a leveled tone, but…it was hard when she thought they were making progress only to be literally karate kicked back to square one.