Kindred Spirits | Juan Toscano-Anderson

43 x Type of Way

"I don't understand why you're being like this." Cynatra sighed.

They had been home in the bay for a few days. It had been chaos ever since. Juan deactivated his Instagram because the messages went from normal to excessive and he did not want to be mad about it, but he was.

He tried isolating himself because it was on his mind constantly, but Cynatra was stubborn and would not leave him alone without an explanation. Also, she didn't understand what changed.

"Cynatra, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Juan continued to check the Round 1 message board.

Cynatra sat across from him, on her laptop finishing an assignment for school. Her natural hair in a high ponytail, and a yellow Warriors sweatshirt. Juan looked over at her and then back to his laptop. He wanted to say something but, it wouldn't have been a good opening line.

"Did I do something?" She asked, not being able to focus on her work. "Whatever it was, I did not mean to."

"No, you didn't do anything. Why would you think that?" He closed his laptop standing from the desk.

Juan walked around their barrier and bent down in front of her. "You've been shutting me out. What else was I supposed to think?"

He sighed, "Listen, it's nothing you did. I promise you that."

She wasn't sure what to believe, but she would let it go for now. Cynatra didn't want to have an attitude of her own. Everyone got on her about how she communicated but, anyone else doing what she did as a coping mechanism was given the agency and space.

"You hungry yet? I'm about to order something."

Cynatra wasn't neccesarily hungry but, she could eat. "You know what I like, I'll let you decide."

"Now if you hate it, don't be mad at me." He pointed. "Don't get me something I would hate."

Juan of course, got her something she would eat. They had a lot of work to get done and the final construction job for the facility would begin at the end of the week.

"Have you looked over our numbers?" He asked looking at the hard copies prepared for the next staff meeting. "I haven't yet. What's it say?"

In the time that Juan and Cynatra have been running the gym, they've surpassed earnings of one million dollars. Almost a year ago... meaning Juan's birthday would be coming up and following that would be the anniversary of James' death.

"Because of you, we finally met the marker of a million in one year." She was shocked, Round 1 never made that much in a year span. "We did what?"

"I said you made a million on the business girl." He smiled at her.

She walked around the desk, to see the forms up close. "We really did it." She mumbled. Cynatra felt tears Well in her eyes. "It took so long to do this before."

"You were meant to break those records." She leaned down, so that their faces were directly in front of each other. "We were. Stop excluding yourself from this. We did this together."

"I hear you, but we both know you spend hours in this place doing the work and being the last one to leave. I'm here when I can be. You're here all the time. Doing things nobody else can. I follow your lead, we all do."

Cynatra's expression softens as she looks at him. "I appreciate that, more than you know."

"I'm just telling you the truth." He shrugs. His phone rings causing them both to break away from their stare down. There's an out of state number calling, he assumes that it's the food.