Page 13 of Exit: Us
“So, that’s not you then?” Chris asked again, just to make sure.
I shook my head at him. I don’t know what it was, but I felt the need to be overprotective of Amina in this moment. Not because I was trying to keep her to myself or anything like that, but I knew bits and pieces about the things that she was going through right now in her life. I knew the last thing that she needed right now was a thirsty ass nigga checking for her, trying to see what her relationship status was. I’m sure she needed to heal before she started giving dudes a chance out here.
“Ay, Chirs, main man, with all due respect, that’s not what I’m here for. I’m came here to drop off this load to you. Let me know when you ready for me to unload the cars, so that you can inspect them. When that’s done, let me know when you ready for us to sign the paperwork. Whatever she got going on right now in her personal life, whether she’s single, married, in the process of a divorce, none of those things have shit to do with this load,” I was firm.
I was a serious type of person. I could talk my shit, do all the playful banter, but when it came to handling the business, there was a fine line.
You could tell that Chris didn’t expect me to come at him the way that I did. He turned to look towards his brother, and Malcolm kind of just threw his hands up, basically letting Chris know that he didn’t want anything to do with this.
“You got it. Come on. You can unload the cars,” Chris said, dropping it. It was the best thing for him to do. If we’re being honest, it was the safest thing for him to do as well.
I walked away, so that I could head for the back of the truck. The first thing I did was open the trailer door. On the inside, I had wheel straps and ties securing the cars in place, so I had to hop in to quickly release them. There were hydraulic controls that were in place to manage lowering the upper deck. Seeing that everything was clear, all I had to do was step inside thetrailer, where I went for the first car. I completed the same step, releasing the wheel straps, that had the tires secured to the floor.
I quickly got into the car, started it up, and it rumbled loudly. It was a Lamborghini Huracan. If I wasn’t always on the road, away from home for months at a time, this would be a car that I would add to my fleet. Since I’m not home like that, it wasn’t worth the money.
I slowly backed it out of the enclosed trailer. All it took was a few seconds for me to carefully back it down the ramp and onto the pavement. As I was getting out, I could hear Chris and Malcolm behind me, and they were already admiring the whip. I tossed the keys at them, and I hopped back into the trailer, so that I could go for the next whip. This one was a red Ferrari 488. This shit was nice as hell too. Definitely one of those whips where people would stare whenever you pulled up somewhere in this. I was able to repeat the same steps with the Ferrari, removing the wheel straps, and ties. I started it up and backed it out of the trailer.
This time, when I stepped out of the car, I could see Amina walking outside. I noticed that she removed her sweater. Instead, she had it tied around her waist. You could see the tank top that she was wearing, that was clinging onto her body. From where I stood, it was evident that she had a waist that was non- existent. It was hot as hell out here, so when she walked, she picked her right hand up, using it as a visor to kind of block the sun that was beaming on her. Not wanting to come off as the same drooling ass niggas that Chris and Malcolm made themselves out to be as they were looking, I quickly turned away, so that I could get back to business.
I hopped back into the truck, and this was the part that was a little trickier. The way my setup was built, I was able to haul four cars at a time. The two that I just pushed out were the two that sat on the trailer floor. Now, I had to tend to the other two thatwere on a hydraulic upper deck, above the two at the bottom. All I had to do was go over to the control panel that was mounted along the wall, and from there the platform that carried the two cars up top began to slowly descend toward the floor. That took about two minutes to successfully get down to the floor, and everything that I just finished doing to the bottom whips, I did to the top.
I pushed out a silver McLaren 720S and an Aston Martin DBX. All four cars were beautiful. I’ll admit that when it came to this car shit, Chris and Malcolm always ordered the best whips.
“Damn. These shits look even better in person. Good shit, G. Thank you for getting this down here successfully to us,” Malcolm stated, walking over to me, so that he could shake it up with me.
I nodded my head, and then I went over to the front of the truck, pulling the driver side door open. I reached for my black Stanley cup that I placed in the cupholder. It was scorching hot, and I was sweating.
I took the cup over to the back of the trailer, where I hopped on, sitting on the back of it. I had the perfect view of Chris, and Malcolm, as they were inspecting the cars. I could see Amina too. She wasn’t standing too far away from them. It’s as if she was in the same trance that Malcolm and Chris were in, as she examined the cars.
“Let me get the paperwork. I’ll be right back,” Chris let me know. I nodded to that, as I finished drinking my water.
Malcolm stayed out here. He was too busy messing around the inside of the Ferrari though.
Amina made her way over to where I was sitting. Instead of sitting down with me, she chose to stand. She did prop her butt against the trailer a little bit, and she crossed her arms. I sat my cup down in my lap, and I used this time to turn and look at her. She kept her arms crossed, as she turned to look at me too. I feltlike she only looked over at me because she could feel my eyes on her.
“You hungry?” I asked. It was the only thing that made sense to ask her. We’ve been on the road for a few hours, and neither one of us snacked on anything on the way over here. I knew I was hungry, but I just wanted to check and see if she was.
“Not really,” she was short with her response.
“Aight. We not going to be here much longer though. We just gotta finish up the inspection and paperwork. Ima pick up something to eat when we leave here. I’ll pick up the next set of cars, fuel up, and we’ll head to Jacksonville,” I let her know. It was kind of one of those things where she just had to accept what was going to take place. Even if she wasn’t fuckin with it like that, she had to be on board because I was scheduled to handle this shit today.
Chris eventually came out, holding the paperwork in his hands. That’s when I hopped off the trailer, so that I could meet up with him. Inspection took about forty- five minutes. We had to go over each car, making sure that everything was working, making sure that there weren’t any scratches, dents, none of those things. Everything checked out, we both signed our name on the dotted line, and I shook it up with the brothers, letting them know that I appreciated their business. From there, I closed the back of the trailer up, hopped back inside the truck, sitting my cup in the cupholder.
Amina managed to get in the truck on her own this time. I could tell by her body language that she was shutting down. It was the way she had her body leaned against the door. Her back was sort of turned to me, so that I wouldn’t see her face. I wanted to speak up, say something to her, but her ass was so fuckin moody, that I just let her be.
I went for the dashboard, going for one of the screens, so that I could do a check-off, updating the system, stating that the loadwas completed. From there, I was notified that a payment was on the way. Usually, the way it worked, the payment would be to me within the next hour or two.
“Ima go to Zaxby’s. You eat that?” I asked Amina.
“You can stop wherever. I told you that I’m not hungry,” her bipolar ass said to me.
I nodded and then pulled off. Zaxby’s wasn’t that far. I pulled up in less than ten minutes. Pushing this big ass truck, I couldn’t just park it anywhere. Luckily, Zaxby’s shared a lot with a strip of empty storefronts. With that, I was able to ease the truck along the far edge, and I parked across several unused spaces that were all the way in the back.
“Ima run in and get something to eat. I’ll lock the doors,” I let Amina know. She didn’t respond. She just nodded her head.
I hopped out of the truck, locking it like I told her I would. It was easy making it over to the front of the restaurant and walking inside. With it being noon, it was just a little busy inside. The line to order your food wasn’t that long. It was the people waiting on the side to receive their orders that was crowded. As far as ordering, I was able to walk right up and place an order. I heard Amina when she told me that she wasn’t hungry. Truthfully, I couldn’t tell you if she actually wasn’t hungry, or if she had just snapped into one of those moods where she was going to starve herself because of however she was feeling at the moment. Either way, I ordered something for her to eat too.
I ordered chicken tenders and fries for her. Shit, the way I saw it, everybody ate chicken tenders and fries. If she wasn’t fuckin with it, and didn’t want to eat it, she didn’t have to. I just knew that her mind might change hours from now. We still had some time left on the road. Shit would annoy the hell out of me if she decided that an hour from now she wanted to eat something, which is another reason why I’d gotten something for her.
