What she did know was that there was a reason for everything. Maybe that was why she’d found herself on the floor when she woke up, so she could get down on her knees to talk to God.
God, I don’t know why this is the life that I was given, but through everything, I trust you, Lord. Though I’m alone, I know you will never leave me or forsake me. I trust you to love me and to surround me with good people who love me as well. I trust you to keep me in your care and to give me peace and protection as I go on this journey. I’m grateful I still have clothes in the suitcase. In your name I pray. Amen.
She got up off her knees. Suddenly, she felt grateful that she was still alive. “Thank you, Lord,” she said. She headed to the bed, turned on the television, and then she plopped down on the bed.
For a split second, she thought about calling Caesar, but then she decided against it. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to call him and admit that she couldn’t hold her own after not being gone even a week. Plus, she knew if she heard his voice, she’d begin to miss him and their life together. That alone could change the game for her. She couldn’t see herself going back to Virginia and winding up in prison. No, she had to keep moving forward. She couldn’t look back.
In the midst of her thoughts, she noticed the napkin on the night table. A light bulb went off in her head. What did she have to lose?
She picked up the phone and dialed the number that was scribbled on the napkin.
“Hi, Black?” she said, her voice lilting upward, since she wasn’t sure if he had given her a bogus number.
“Yeah, and this is?”
“It’s Bianca—the girl you met yesterday.”
“Oh, okay.”
There was a brief silence between the two of them, like he had muted the phone. When he did come back on the line, she could hear the noise in the background, as if he had a lot going on around him. “Did I get you at a bad time?” she asked.
“Ummmm . . .” He paused. “Listen, baby, I really want to talk to you. I can’t lie. I been waiting on your call from the second I gave you the number.”
She smiled through the phone, listening to the game he was kicking. It had been a while since she had dated, and she really wasn’t looking forward to the back and forth ping pong of dating.
“And you might think it’s game—” He read her mind—“but it’s real.” Then he said to someone else, “Hold on. I got you, but I’m on an important call.” Then he came back to her. “Bee, baby,” he called out to her in the sweetest demeanor, “is it at all possible that I can call you back at this number right here?”
“Um, no problem,” she said, “but it’s my hotel number.”
“What’s the room number, and how long you going to be there?”
“It’s Room 2308, and I will be in here until about two or three. I’m going to move rooms, ’cause I got robbed.” She knew that changing rooms should be no problem, because they still had her thousand-dollar security deposit downstairs.
“Wait—you got robbed? Baby, how that happen?” he asked with what sounded like sincere concern.
“It’s a long story. I will tell you later, but I just don’t feel like rehashing now.”
“Damn, baby, I’m sorry. And I told you don’t be trusting nobody.”
“You did. You did.” She had no other choice but to agree with him. She now wished she had listened.
“Baby, since you didn’t get around to get your phone yet, I got my old iPhone. I just upgraded it. You can have it. I’ll bring it to you.”
“No, it’s okay.” She declined the offer. “I appreciate that.”
“Didn’t you say you just got robbed?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Oh, okay. Then look, I gotta go. I’ma drop this phone to you, and a few bucks so you can get it cut on. You can go get it cut on near where I saw you. And whatever I gotta do to help you, I will.”
“That’s sweet, but I can’t.”
“Look, you don’t have no family out here. Shit is hard and fucked up, so I will help you. You seem like a nice chick, and everybody needs some help. Shit, just blessed I had an a’ight night last night that I could help.”
She took a deep breath. “I appreciate that. Like, real talk.”
“It ain’t nothing. Look, I gotta go holla at somebody real quick. Meet me in the lobby of your hotel in twenty minutes and I got you.”
“Thank you,” she said. She really didn’t want to accept the help. For her, it was almost impossible to accept help from someone.
“It’s going to be okay, ya hear?”
“Okay. Thanks again,” Bianca said.
Once she hung up the phone, the cord got stuck in the drawer of the night table, and when she tried to get it out, the drawer opened, revealing the Holy Bible, which allowed her mind to drift off. Had God sent Duck Boots to her? Was he her guardian angel?
As Bianca drifted off in deep thought, she was quickly snapped out of it when her room phone rang and startled her. She sat paranoid
