“A tropical storm headed to the Houston area has been upgraded to a category 3 Hurricane.” I was busy trying to watch the news but Fendi was pacing the floor.
“He hasn’t called me. It’s been almost a week. He’s going to kill me. Dammit.” She was busy worrying about Uzi but I was trying to figure out my own damn issues.
“Fendi. Shut up, I need to hear this.” I had been following the news all day. People were talking about a storm for the past week but now it was just a day or so away.
“But it doesn’t look like anything outside.” Fendi said pulling back the curtains. She was right, everything did look clear and bright, but that meant nothing while on the bayou.
“Girl that can turn into a full blown flood in a matter of hours. I don’t think it’s rained since you’ve been here.” She had no clue what this Houston life was about.
“Maybe we should leave then.” I wanted to laugh in her face and tell her it was no big deal, but the truth was that it could be something big.
“I don’t know, maybe we should, but I gotta see what Astro wants to do and…” A horn blared outside and wouldn’t stop.
“Who is that honking?” I asked Fendi.
“Oh my God...It’s Astro.” I jumped up to look out the window and there he was. Standing outside his car leaning in to honk the horn. It would have been normal, except the white t-shirt he was wearing was covered in blood.
“NOOOOOO….” Getting down the stairs felt like it took years.
“Someone call 911.” Fendi screamed to the neighbors.
“Baby…”
“I’m good...I’m good. It looks worse than it is.”
“Who did this?”
“That bitch ass nigga Don. I know it was him.” I held him up as I heard the sound of an ambulance in the distance.
“They are coming, you're going to be okay.”
“Listen to me. I gotta get you out of Houston you hear me. This motherfucker is crazy, he can’t let you go.” I heard his words, let them sink in as the ambulance pulled in.
“Astro...Astro…” Fendi called to him as his body seemed to go limp just as the paramedics were able to help us get him to a stretcher.
“What happened?”
“We don’t know. He came home and honked the horn and when we looked out we saw blood.” They took over calling to him, and finally getting him to wake back up, but it was bad.
“He’s lost a lot of blood, we need to get him to the hospital.”
“Astro, we’re right behind you.” I screamed as they put him inside, but he said nothing, no movement.
God, please don’t let him die.
“Mr. Jones has suffered a catastrophic injury. He has lost a lot of blood and will need an additional surgery to repair tissue damage in his spine.” I felt like I was floating above the doctor, not able to speak, so Fendi did the talking for me.
“Doctor there is a storm coming. It has already begun to pick up wind out there and…”
“We are preparing to have Mr. Jones airlifted to Dallas where a specialist will perform the surgery.” That was a relief to hear but that meant I needed to get to Dallas.
“When will this happen?”
“Tonight, we will have him out of here tonight and the surgery should happen a few days after that. For now he has been placed in a medically induced coma so he does not aggravate the injury further.”
My head was spinning, everything in my world felt like it was on shaky ground.
“One of the nurses will let you know exactly what time. But I think the best thing for you to do is to get out of Houston while you can and get to Dallas to be with Mr. Jones.” It was good advice and we thanked him for his help but I had no intention of listening.
“Do you want to go say goodbye before we leave?” Fendi asked, but I was too angry to go back in there.
“No, I can’t see him hooked up to those machines right now. I’m going to lose it.” His words stuck in my head. His warning about Don, and I was tired of him, he ruled my life for too long and now he was trying to take away the only man that really loved me. The way Astro cared for me in this small amount of time was way more than Don had ever shown. Now he was mad that he couldn’t have any more of my money.
“Shit, it’s already raining. We need to get home and grab some clothes and get out of here.” Fendi was busy strategizing to get us to Dallas but I was thinking of my own damn revenge.
“I’m tired of him having control over me.”
“Who?”
“Don...I’m sick of this shit.”
“Fuck him. We need to get out of here. Come on. It’s almost three am. When the sun comes up we’re getting out of Houston. Let’s go home.” She told me.
“I should go to his house and fuck his shit up like he fucked up mine.” I told her as we made our way back through the hospital.
“Did you see what he did to Astro’s car? He shot the shit up and…” Before she could finish her phone rang.
“Oh shit. It’s Uzi.”
“Hello...baby…” She paused and then a smile. “Oh baby I thought you were going to be pissed at me. I really didn’t mean it, he came in and…”
“Okay...I know. I’m leaving town. We’re going to Dallas.” She was speaking for herself because I wasn't going to Dallas, at least not yet. I had some shit to settle, as she talked I took out my phone, scrolling through to the dozens of photos I had of Don and me naked.
I knew his wife’s number by heart and now she was about to know mine. You never forget the woman that ruins your life and tells you that your husband is a lying piece of shit. And she was never going to forget me.