Kindred Spirits | Juan Toscano-Anderson

69 x Trying Times

"Look at my little one!" Juan smiled as their three month old child giggled. "You smile just like yo mama. I wonder where her fine ass is."

Cynatra hit the corner as the words left his mouth. "What I tell you about cursing around my baby?" Juan had a nasty habit of doing that, he couldn't help it. But he tried.

"My bad, I'll add it to the jar."

Walking over, she wanted to take a peak into the crib. It had been twenty minutes seeing her baby's face and she could get enough of being a mother. As she laid eyes on her wonder child, the infant wailed like never before.

"What's wrong?" Juan placed the screaming baby on his chest and soothed until there wasn't a peep. "You're okay."

"Nothings okay! My baby hates me, my mother was right."

Cynatra stared at the ceiling trying to figure out how Tennise got to her. It was tragic really. Their conversation had a lot of layers and it only last twenty minutes. They had to be separated before Tennise got the boot.

She had no idea why her mother came back after all this time, they never got to that point of the conversation. Cyn distinctively remembers her egg donor mentioning she should feel lucky she was abandoned so that she could be raised by a man with money.

It made her sick that the person who was supposed to nurture her, could be so crass. It was bad enough she felt unwanted most of her life, the person who didn't want her made it abundantly clear.

Cynatra had two hours left to rest and her mind was consumed with the evil that had been planted in her psyche. She couldn't call Juan because he was in playoff mode. Her phone call would hinder his game. She did not want to do that.

Little did she know, Juan couldn't sleep either.

Being miles away from the person you love while they're going through things, is painful. Juan laid in bed wondering what was going on with Cynatra and what was going on with Avery. He had left the Bay on unknown ground. He had to focus but he couldn't.

Something was wrong.

He reached for his phone, fumbling in the dark to place the device in his hand. Unlocking it, he scrolled until he reached her contact.

One ring, two rings, three rings...

"Hello?" Her voice filled his ears as he sighed in relief. To just hear her voice was a moment of bliss. "I needed to hear your voice."

"Ronel, why are you up? You have a game tomorrow. An important one at that."

"Baby I could ask you the same. Why you up? Don't you have a meeting tomorrow? An important one at that."

She huffed and immediately laughed soon after at the uno reverse card he pulled. Juan was right. They both were in a predicament.

"Just nervous. I'm thinking about everything right now." She didn't want to share what recently happened, not yet at least.

"Cynatra, you don't have to think about everything though. You gotta let God handle things how he see fit. It's hard giving up your control but have faith. I got you 100, and I wish I could be there but I got things he want me to handle too."

"I love you, thank you. I hope you're not stressing too much papa. You giving me advice when you gotta give your all today. I hope you're not carrying it all as if you have to do it alone, you don't."

He was and he felt like he did.

"Boston ain't shit honestly. This food is trash." Juan was absolutely disgusted at the catered food in their practice facility. The association sponsored the food and it seemed they found the worst place in the city to order from.