“Why don’t you just stay at my house for a couple days until you figure things out?” I said to Allen as we drove.
He just sat there, shaking his head repeatedly, like he was in shock or something. I could only imagine what he must have felt inside, a man who couldn’t go lay his head at the place he called home—the place where he’d worked hard to pay all the bills and maintain it. I couldn’t even pretend that I knew what he was going through. All I could do was be there for him and at least offer him a bed.
He tightened his lips and closed his eyes as if trying to calm himself down. “I appreciate it, but fuck that. That’s my house. My momma left me that house. That bitch needs to get the fuck out. Besides, you and your old lady got enough going on as it is.”
I’d never heard Allen call a woman a bitch before. That right there let me know that it was not a good idea to take him to his house, knowing there was a chance that Cassie might be there. After all, where else would she have gone? As far as I was concerned, he’d found her ass on the streets, so that was the only place she could go back to. With the way Allen had spoiled her rotten, I couldn’t see her willingly walking away from any of it.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, man,” I told him.
“Take me to my house, Kyle,” he said adamantly.
“Look, I’ll take you there, but if Cassie’s there, you don’t need to stay there. You can’t stay there. Just grab some things, or I’ll grab them for you, and then we’re out. Agreed?”
Allen didn’t respond. He just sat in the passenger’s seat with a tight jaw, flexing and unflexing his fists.
“Agreed?” I was not going there until I had his word.
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” he said, obviously only agreeing to shut me up.
“I mean that shit, Allen. Neither one of us needs any more problems with the law right now. As a matter of fact, you need to call the police to meet you there so that she doesn’t try to pull no shit this time.”
I could tell Allen was considering my words because this time when he said, “Yeah, okay,” he added, “you’re right.” He held out his hand. “Let me borrow your cell.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and gave it to him. He called 911, but since it was a nonemergency, they transferred him to the local police precinct.
“Yes, I, uhh, have an order of protection against me placed by my wife. I need to go to my home to get some things, so I was wondering if you could send an officer to assist me.” There was a pause, and then Allen gave them his address. A few seconds later, he ended the call and handed the phone back to me.
“They’re going to meet us there,” Allen said. “Let’s go.”
No sooner had we parked and I turned the car off than a police car pulled up behind us. We got out of the car.
“Officer, thank you for coming,” Allen said as the officer approached.
“It was pretty smart of you calling us before you came here and tried to get your things without us,” the cop said. “I’ve seen the end result of situations when that didn’t happen, so again, I commend you.”
“I just want to get her out of my house,” Allen said. “That’s all I want, Officer. No trouble, just her gone.” Allen was getting a little riled up again as he spoke.
“You called in saying you wanted to remove your items from the home, sir. Now you want your wife to leave?” the cop questioned.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Allen answered indignantly. “I want her lying ass outta my house.”
“Well, hold up,” the officer said. “Let me go talk to your wife and see what’s what. You just wait right here until I get back. Okay?”
When the cop went into the house, I turned to Allen and asked, “What the hell was that about? You said you were coming to my house. You try to get her kicked out now, you’re just stirring up a hornet’s nest.”
“Whatever, man. I changed my mind. That bitch lied on me, and now she’s got to go.”
As riled up as he was, it wasn’t worth arguing with him about it, so we just stood there without talking until the officer came back.
“All right, sir. I’m going to escort you inside to get some of your things, but then you have to leave,” the officer said.
“I have to leave? This is my house,” Allen said a little too forcefully. “My mother left me that house.”
“Well, your wife just showed me an ID with this property as her address. Right now, she’s a legal resident with an order of protection against you, and she was here first. If you want her out, you’re going to have to legally evict her, so until then, I’ll escort you inside to get a few things, but then you have to go.”
“You’re going to want to calm down, sir, before you lose the chance to go in and get anything,” the officer warned.
“Come on, Allen, you heard the officer,” I said, trying to calm him down before things got out of control between him and the man in blue. “Just get some things to tide you over for a couple days and come on back to my place.”
Realizing he’d run out of options, Allen surrendered. “Sure.”
We followed the officer to the door. When we walked inside, we saw Cassie in her usual spot on the couch, music playing, television going, and a bottle of wine and two glasses on the table. It looked like Cassie was having a celebration since Allen had gone to jail. When she saw Allen come in, she smirked at him and leaned back so her robe opened to almost completely expose her breasts. That was one low-down woman.
It was bad enough that she was taunting him like that, but when some dude came down the stairs in his boxers, I thought Allen was going to lose it.
“What the fuck, Cassie? I’m gone half a day and you got this motherfucker up here in my house?” Allen yelled.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Al, be cool, man. She ain’t worth it.” I shifted my eyes in the direction of the cop, hoping to remind Allen that law enforcement was present and he was skating on thin ice at the moment.
Allen shrugged my hand away. “Hell nah, man. I ain’t calming down. This the same dude that used to beat her ass before she came crying to me and I married her sorry ass.”
The guy in the boxers wore the same smirk that Cassie did. I suddenly understood Allen; now I wanted to smack the shit out of them just as badly as he did.
“Sir, let’s get your things and go,” the officer said. He kept a hand on Allen’s elbow as he guided him past the couch, probably to remind him who was in charge.
As Allen walked by Cassie, he stared at her with daggers in his eyes. If looks could kill, Cassie would be dead, and then I would have two friends on the run to worry about—as if one weren’t bad enough.