Written by Sher Trott-Bailey

Belize, September 2026.

“What?” Marcus said with shrugged shoulders.

” She just happened to be in MY neighborhood?” Salvano said with raised eyebrows.

” Salvano I don’t get you. Selena is hot, a real ten in the face and body. Why don’t you want her? Plus the girl is crazy for you.” Marcus whispered quietly moving closer to Salvano.

” She could be chiselled by the Gods, i don’t want her. The key word that you have said is “she’s crazy” full of drama. İ don’t need her mess in my life.” Salvano replied knowing Marcus would probably relay what he was saying back to the girl.

” No one is saying you got to make her your girlfriend or wifey. Just get a little piece.” Marcus said crudely.

” My dick is a premium grade, it don’t want just any pussy.” Salvano answered just as crudely back.

” Oh God if I didn’t know better Salvano, I would swear you were a virgin,” Marcus said rolling his eyes and sitting on the living room couch.

” I’m not, but if I were I wouldn’t be ashamed to be, especially knowing the things I know now,” Salvano said.

” You got some knowledge on Selena or something i should know about?” Marcus asked getting curious.

” İ don’t discuss women’s business with other men. İt’s not manly. I’m gonna shower. Remember my Asian friends are coming in two weeks and I will also be inviting some Olympic trainees here to train. You need to find your own place by then.” Salvano said and walked out.

” Oh come on Salvano. Really man!” Marcus complained.

Salvano didn’t answer and promptly went upstairs to his master bedroom. He had deliberately expanded his room a year ago to be very spacious with a large attached bathroom and walk-in closet. He also had a large upstairs wrap-around porch. His upstairs had three more rooms apart from the master and there were five rooms downstairs.

Selena’s presence really annoyed him, but he couldn’t exactly throw the woman out in this weather. By most male standards, Selena was really attractive- but that’s where it stopped. Her conversations were shallow and her desire to be with him in her own words were,

” Oh, Salvano we would make the perfect power couple.”

Salvano was not the type to indulge in casual sex for fun either. İt’s not like he didn’t have strong sexual urges often and usually at random times, but he kept himself busy always exercising or rowing to burn energy. İf he really needed relief he would jerk off for the health of his dick.

Nothing about Selena physically, could induce him to want to sleep with her. She just turned him off. Something in his spirit just couldn’t stand her.

He was eager to call Juanita back. That’s all he kept thinking about in the shower. When he got out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and used another to dry off.

He dialed Juanita and sat on his bed, with the towel around his neck. She answered after a couple of rings.

“ Hi.”

” Hi. What are you up to?” Salvano asked.

” I’m chilling in my living room watching a video about what USD$5 can get you for lunch around the world. So far Turkey, Vietnam and Hong Kong have the best-looking lunches in terms of quantity and quality. In New York, they were only able to buy a slice of pizza and a soda for $5. In the UK it was a cold refrigerator sandwich with fake orange juice made from concentrate.” Juanita said.

” And Turkey? Why did it stand out?” Salvano asked.

” İn Turkey the girl ordered her meal and got a good portion of chicken, rice, and a Turkish milk called Ayran. Then the restaurant gave her four side dishes which were: extra bread, veggies( cucumber and tomatoes), pickled peppers and sauce, etc.” Juanita asked.

” Juanita I never talk to you and you don’t have something interesting to say or share,” Salvano said chuckling.

” So are you home alone?” Salvano asked.

” Yeah. Mom’s still staying up by the estate. İ don’t feel lonely though. İt’s raining so heavily here right now though.” Juanita answered.

” Mhmm same down here. However, İ came home to find Marcus and a female friend of his at my house.” Salvano said.

‘Oh? Marcus lives with you?” Juanita asked.

” Only temporarily, until he finds his own place. İ have guests coming soon. He’ll soon move  out.” Salvano said.

” Oh your guests, yes! you mean the guys from Asia?” Juanita asked.

” Yes. I’ll probably make Marcus stay when they are here, he’s a pretty entertaining guy that Marcus. He can take them out sometimes when I don’t feel like it.” Salvano said.

” So I guess you and Marcus are living the bachelor’s dream life? Bringing home girls and stuff. Having friends over, no parents in your business.” Juanita said casually like she wasn’t investigating.

” Marcus is not allowed to bring girls into my home actually. This particular girl got stuck in the heavy rains and asked to stay the night. She’s someone we mutually know from our high school days. İt would be mean on my part to kick her out in the rain even though I want to.” Salvano said.

Chuckling Juanita asked, ” Why do you want to kick her out?”

” Because she likes me, and even though I have been very clear with her that I don’t want her, she keeps pursuing me. Frankly, I think this…her showing up at my house, was all planned by her and Marcus.” Salvano spoke his inner thoughts.

” Oh? So what’s wrong with her? Why don’t you like her? You have a lot of options and she isn’t up to your rankings?” Juanita asked saucily.

” Don’t make me out to be the bad guy. Women are always rising to the defense of other women trying to villanize men. I’m not shallow, it’s not all about looks. Trust me she has the looks and body. But that’s where it stops. We have zero chemistry or similar interests” Salvano said.

” Oh, Okay, I think I get you. Sorry about jumping to conclusions.” Juanita said

” Mhmm, you saw my pretty face and couldn’t wait to judge me as a fuck boy didn’t you?” Salvano said knowingly.

” Nothing of the sort, anyone who writes Body Strike and listens to 1Drop can’t be all vile,” Juanita replied cheekily.

” Let’s play a game called random questions. What do you say?” Juanita asked cheerfully feeling in a playful mood.

” Ok, I’m game. Who goes first?” Salvano asked.

“Me, Me, Me” Juanita cheerfully answered like a six-year-old begging to be picked for a game in primary school.

” Ok,” Salvano said.

” Do you, like so many of the uptown boys in Belize, go to the Brazil Carnivals in Rio de Janeiro?” Juanita asked.

” No. I’m not interested in being conned by transvestites.” Salvano answered.

” Oh my God, you’ve heard about that,” Juanita said bursting out into laughter.

” Yep. I have a lot of so-called friends, Marcus included, who have tried to rope me into going every year. For them, it’s like tradition. They always say, ‘Salvano, Brazilian women are so hot!’ or ‘What happens in Brazil stays in Brazil‘. Yeah and then half of them end up dancing with and getting fucked by beautiful transvestites.” Salvano replied.

Juanita couldn’t help it, she had to laugh. She was so surprised by Salvano’s swearing. It took her a while to stop laughing.

“Ok, my turn,” Salvano said excitedly.

” A guy bursts into our house to kill us and I’m wrestling the guy to save our asses What type of girl are you? The run, scream and cry type, the scared stiff type, or the fighting type? What would you do?” Salvano asked.

” Oh, I’m definitely the find something to hit him or stab him type. İ may be scared but if I’m dying İ’m taking him with me. Some biting will have to be happening, I may even be screaming in fear while stabbing.” Juanita answered cracking up.

“An innocent-looking thing like you…has the potential for such violence.” Salvano asked playing devil’s advocate.

” When it comes to self-defense, then yes,” Juanita answered confidently.

“Ok my question,  Yesterday after you told me about maybe having to shoot the different couples separately because of their work schedule,
You said something about having enough actors. İ didn’t get that, are the couples fake? Are they just actors for the show?” Juanita asked.

” Oh no, I meant I have enough actors for Body Strike after the casting call we had done. The couples for the couples series are definitely real people in real relationships.” Salvano answered.

” Oh ok,” Juanita said understanding.

” So can you describe yourself to me? What do you think are some of your best qualities and some of your worst?” Salvano asked.

” Mhmm, I’m a pretty loyal and straightforward person. I have my principles but I do believe in letting people live and let live you know. I try to be tough but sometimes I do let what people say hurt me, so I would like to just ‘stop caring about people’s opinions. The rest you would have to see I guess over time.” Juanita answered with self-awareness.

“ I’ll ask you the same question Salvano,” Juanita said.

“I think for my age I’m a pretty grounded guy. I am an independent thinker and I value people who also think for themselves. I’m a naturally athletic, confident and positive person. My worse quality I would say is getting caught up in work and wanting to make money. İ don’t want to be a thirty, forty, or fifty-year-old man who is not enjoying his life, or spending time with my wife and kids because I’m caught up with working and chasing paper. So sometimes figuring out how to balance this internal feeling I have to be wealthy, secure and be able to provide for my future family gets overwhelming.” Salvano shared.

” Well by most standards Salvano and at your age you doing very well. So that fear is not rational. Plus I think you are the type of guy who would never run out of ideas on how to provide for your family.

Secondly, once you remind yourself that as long as you have some soil under your feet and seed in your hand, you and your family will always eat.. it helps to break this idea that you need money to go to the supermarket so you can eat. Once you can plant you can eat.


Once you have a shelter you can live happily. There are people and cultures whose lifestyle is to live as nomads in tents…. so this Westernized way of thinking that you must have a permanent house… is just that- a Westernized way of thinking. Don’t let it burden you.” Juanita said comfortingly.

” Tell me more, like what do you think about money and making it? İs it bad? Can people really live without it? Can you ever be free from that niggling worry in the back of your mind about it, checking your bank balance?” Salvano asked.

” I think yes you can be, but then you would have to trust in something higher and stronger than money to accomplish such a renewed mentality,” Juanita answered.

” What do you mean? Are you talking about God?” Salvano asked.

“ Yes Him. For example, you are at a hotel somewhere. You have all the money in the world in your bank account or on your credit card. Yet for some reason you just can’t pay your hotel bill- the card won’t go through, the banks are closed, etc, circumstances beyond your control. There are so many instances where you have money but it can’t help a situation. İn those moments who do you trust?

According to the world, you should fold over and cry. According to the world, you are no longer important if you can’t access your money. The hotel should just throw you out or you should beg and be at their mercy.

I say no! You should trust that somehow God will work it out, hell it could be God himself that is blocking your card. He doesn’t want you to stay at that hotel or he wants to show you that he can get you into that hotel without money. He wants to show you that he is the one who controls men’s hearts. He hardens whose heart he wants to and he softens whose heart he wants to. So then the hotel manager just says no problem,  ‘go up to your room.’

So clearly money is not the be-all and end-all. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have money and I’m not making it out to be a bad thing. I’m just saying keep it in its proper place. İt is just physical paper, a means to an end, something created by a human.

For example, you might think- oh the only way for you to get meat is to have money to buy meat from the butcher. Meanwhile, if you had just gone down by a neighborhood farmer and asked for a goat, you may have just gotten a whole goat. Ask and you shall receive.” Juanita counseled, the words just flowing off her tongue easily.

Salvano absorbed her words. Something inside of him was touched by such a refreshing perspective.

” Life always works out somehow Salvano. Even if you lose money, you can make it back. Fuck it, you could be digging some ground on your land and find oil or gold. You never know!

As long as goats are still fucking you can grow and multiply from 2 goats to two thousand. So please don’t get overwhelmed.” Juanita said reassuringly.

Feeling like he had just been injected with a pump of adrenaline, Salvano felt very upbeat. Her words had encouraged him. He was just about to tell her so when he heard his door being knocked. A flit of annoyance crossed his face.

” Salvano it’s me Selena. Can i come in?” Selena’s voice called out.

Before Salvano could even get up properly or even respond, the brazen girl had already opened his door and sauntered in. She was dressed in a silky short robe that was open, displaying her black one-piece lingerie.

” Hey, you just disappeared for so long. Come on, I cooked some chicken pasta for dinner. Marcus is downstairs dying to eat.” Selena said acting as if she hadn’t just burst into his room.

” Is that the girl that’s staying over? What is she doing in your room?” Juanita asked her ears perking up like a typical woman who likes a guy and hears another girl in his room.

“İs it a girl you’re talking to on the phone Salvano?” Selena said no longer containing her attitude.

The woman grabbed the phone and said to Juanita.

” Hi I’m Selena. And you are?”

Without missing a beat or any sound of awkwardness, Juanita cheerfully answered back. She always prided herself on keeping cool no matter the situation and never letting anyone feel like they could embarrass her. Never give them the power.

” Hi, Selena. I’m Juanita.”

” Well I was just inviting Salvano to eat some dinner I just made for him. İt’s so rainy over here. Are you his girlfriend or something?” Selena said nonchalantly.

Getting over his momentary disbelief and anger at Selena’s boldness, Salvano loudly said.

” Give me back my phone Selena. Get out of my room and don’t ever barge in here again.”

Selena began shouting loudly,

” Salvano I made this lovely dinner for you and I’m wearing a sexy see-through lingerie for you! Why don’t you want me? İnstead you are up here with some bitch on the phone. Juanita, Juanita? Juanita? oh, that’s the girl in the jumpsuit. So you are dating her now.”

” You have two seconds to get your desperate ass out of here or I will push you out,” Salvano said calming his anger.

By this time Selena had begun dramatically crying. Marcus had come upstairs and he shouted out,

” Oh, your dating Juanita now?”

Salvano could not believe the drama that was unfolding after he was having such a great conversation with Juanita. İgnoring Selena and Marcus, Salvano came back on the phone with Juanita.

” You heard for yourself, Juanita. That’s why I wanted to kick her out. Pure drama for no reason and with no instigation. Please don’t let her get into your head. This is how Selena is.” Salvano said right there in front of the listening audience.

” İt’s ok Salvano. İ think we should just talk tomorrow okay.” Juanita said.

” Yeah or maybe I’ll call back later,” Salvano said hopefully.

“ No, I’m actually feeling really tired. I’ll call you tomorrow. You are still my chauffeur right?” Juanita said mustering up a smile in her voice.

” I’m still your chauffeur. Ok sounds good. Good night.” Salvano said.

” Bye.” With that, Juanita was gone and an extremely annoyed Salvano turned on a still eavesdropping Selena and Marcus.

” Why are you two still upstairs? Get the fuck out. Eat your pasta by yourselves.” Salvano shouted, his serious tone quelling any argument.

” Bro I didn’t know…” Marcus began

” Out!” Salvano shouted.

When Salvano had slammed the door. Marcus turned on Selena and said,

” What the fuck was that? Are you crazy?“

” He was on the phone with some bitch!” Selena said going down the stairs.

” So? İs Salvano your man? I’m here trying to help you land my guy and you go up there acting like a crazy bitch, crying and shit.” Marcus said shaking his head.

” Are you in a TV drama? No! now I see why Salvano wants nothing to do with you.” Marcus said making his way back to the kitchen to eat his pasta.

” Come on Marcus don’t desert me now. İ just lost control of my emotions for a minute. You know how long I have loved Salvano.” Selena replied.

” Right now…. you might have just caused me to get kicked out of here faster than I expected,” Marcus said fiercely.

” You can always come to stay with me, I have an extra room,” Selena said trying to bribe her way back into Marcus’s favor.

” I’ve always liked you Selena but you don’t give me the time of day. Salvano ignores you, tells you point-blank your a drama queen that he would never want… but you still run after him. Women!” Marcus said disgustedly.

He however didn’t let up on Selena and continued by saying,

” My friend Salvano is being straight with you. Salvano is a straight guy. He doesn’t want you. Get it into your head and save yourself any further embarrassment.” Marcus warned.

The Next Few Weeks of Juanita and Salvano.

True to his word Salvano did chauffeur her around for the rest of the week. She had called in sick for her work at the Martinez’s estate. She could run her errands and ship her goods freely. Everything worked out like a dream because her mother still had not returned home from staying by the Estate. When her mom had called to let Juanita know that she would be home by herself for a few more days, Juanita hadn’t even batted an eye. She was glad. It was even better now that her mom wasn’t home to verify whether she was sick or not.

In one of their conversations, Juanita and Salvano had continued talking about Gelato machines. Salvano had gotten back some price quotes from a few companies.

” One company with a top-of-the-range all-in-one gelato machine, that came with a pasteurizer was for roughly USD $27,000. There was also another machine that was smaller and more compact which was for around USD$9,400.” Salvano had described.

  They both agreed that the USD$9,400 sounded like the best value for money in terms of churning out high quality and quantity of Gelato.

By the third time of driving Juanita around, Salvano had allowed her to take the wheels. Juanita’s comfort level around the car steering increased a lot.

In another one of their conversations, Salvano and Juanita had discussed business taxes in their country. The conversation had started after Juanita had said,

” I thought of registering my online business at the local tax office but after I saw how many taxes they wanted to levy on a sole proprietor I changed my mind. I’m not paying any taxes.”

” As an internet business selling mainly to international customers you don’t have to pay GST (general sales tax) but you to pay business tax and social security tax if you have employees. It’s pretty unfair because international companies get to set up business in Belize tax-free for years while as soon as a local starts making a certain amount the government wants to dig its talons in immediately. ” Salvano said.

” What about you? How do you do taxes with your company?” Juanita asked.

” I don’t pay taxes either. My business is registered in the US not Belize, but I’m not a US citizen, and my customers are internationals. How do you tax that? I don’t pay taxes to Belize or the US. I do pay yearly property taxes for my land though. That’s about it.” Salvano said.

” I hate taxes. It’s such a lazy move on the Government’s part to not do anything to earn money themselves but instead become a burden on the few productive people in their country.” Juanita said.

” One of the fucked up things is that the so-called social security tax that they say they are collecting on behalf of employees is so bogus. That money is more valuable to my employees now. They know the employees will never see that money again once they collect it.” Salvano said.

” Look at what you’re doing for our country of Belize. Your training Olympic athletes and building our film industry. These are things that have large value to the image and impression of Belize. It’s a huge inspiration to the youth. That’s your taxes right there! Why don’t they put a monetary value on that and write off your taxes.” Juanita vented.

” It’s like no one questions the origin of tax. If there is abundance in the country you won’t even need to ask the citizens for help. Taxes are an indicator of scarcity and oppression.” Salvano expressed.

” What if they come and try to threaten you about wanting to collect tax?” Juanita asked.

” It’s an open world, Juanita. If they threaten me then I will just close the business and go somewhere else. They are ready to kiss the ass of international companies but nonchalant about stifling the locals. You’ll see how quickly they work something out once you push back. If not then I will go and be the welcomed foreigner in another country with all the tax breaks and benefits” Salvano said.

Laughing Juanita said,

” I hear Monaco is a tax-free country. Or our neighbor Mexico perhaps.“

” Plenty of countries offer attractive incentives for foreign businesses.” Salvano agreed.

” Recently many of the Middle East and Asian countries abolished taxes for their people. I think only sales tax still remains. All of them did it as incentives to motivate their people to invest and spend more.” Juanita shared.

” You really keep up with world developments don’t you?” Salvano asked turning to look at her while she was driving.

” Sometimes, yes but I’m definitely not a news Junkie. I just want to know what opportunities are out there and not feel oppressed by where I was born or by a government or the world system you know” Juanita said.

” I get you.”

Juanita and Salvano’s outings usually consisted of far-ranging discussions like these. More and more the two discovered just how similar they were. They truly enjoyed each other’s company.

In another one of their conversations, Juanita and Salvano began discussing the happenings and doings of the quadrillionaire Trott-Bailey Family.

” They bought out all these massive countries with such low populations; countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan. Then the Russian government just gave them free access to half their country to do what they want with it.” Juanita said.

” Man I will never forget what happened two years ago…” Salvano said.

” You mean with the Americans and the Chinese?” Juanita said chuckling.

” Yep,”

” They tried sending in their military to stop the Trott-Baileys from starting their developments. I hear that the ex-American President is still deaf, dumb, and blind to this day. The Chinese president too.” Juanita commented.

” It was so weird what happened to all of them. The whole American military was struck with blindness and so was their senate, congress and President.” Salvano said shaking his head.

” Yeah for months and they never recovered until they issued a public apology. Yet still those two Presidents are the only ones who didn’t recover.”

” Man the strangest things happen whenever the Trott-Baileys are involved!” Salvano said.

” You mean the reports on how since they’ve  acquired those countries, lots of new discoveries just keep popping up?” Juanita stared.

” Yeah and not only that, new and strange animals, new plants, them finding numerous minerals, changes in the weather patterns and shit,” Salvano said in awe.

” I hear the clouds now change colors. Some even say the clouds now appear golden at times over all of the four countries ever since they bought them.
You must have seen the report on the discovery of pink elephants. Out of nowhere a whole tribe of Elephants just appeared in Tajikistan. Everyone swore it was a hoax. I mean it was like the pink elephants out of the movie book, Katya and Zolokhan came to real life.” Juanita added.

” Things are really changing and shifting in the world since that family has come on the scene. The funny thing is they are always on vacation. It’s not like you ever see them making fancy speeches or going around on official political visits or shit like that.” Salvano said in perplexion.

” That’s the thing! Your so right Salvano. By all appearances, they shouldn’t be able to command so much power. But they do. It’s Divine, God is with them.”

” I actually really believe so too Juanita. There is no other explanation for their influence and for what happened to the American and Chinese leadership.” Salvano emphatically agreed.

” And everyone thought it was Aliens or Zombies that we’re going to take over the world or some new world order...” Juanita dramatically said.

” Oh please, not me. I never believed in crap like Zombies or Aliens.” Salvano said rolling his eyes.

After three weeks Juanita had fulfilled her previous orders and had more coming in. When her sick leave days were over, she decided to resign from her job up by the Estate. She had steady orders coming in. She felt great having Salvano to talk with about her future vision. Plus she needed more free time to run her growing business.

Juanita took this step much to her mother’s surprise. Maria didn’t say anything at first. Instead, Maria Cortazar observed the budding relationship between Salvano and Juanita as he picked her up regularly.  She noticed the extra four girls that were now working for Juanita out of their house. They were embellishing dresses, staging video shoots, going out to big parties, and promoting their clothing looks. She noticed Juanita dressing much better in her own unique style. She observed Juanita’s growing confidence and independence.