“Um, I don’t have no car.”
“Okay, so listen. Don’t worry about it. It’s all good. I will catch a cab.”
“No, I’ll figure out something. Don’t worry. I will be there. Hook or crook, I will be there.”
“Okay, thanks, sister.”
“I got you,” were the last words Bella said to Bianca before she hung up the phone.
Bianca came in on Jet Blue, but she had told her sister US Air just to make sure there was nothing funny going on. Once she landed, she called Bella. “Where are you?”
“At US Air baggage claim, like you said.”
“Okay, come to Jet Blue.”
“Okay, I’m going to come back around.”
Bianca stood at the airport curb, looking, wondering where her sister was. She studied every car, and then all of a sudden, a black hearse slammed on its brakes.
“Bitch, where you get this from?”
“I told you I had you. You know I work at the funeral home now.”
“I ain’t know shit.”
“Yeah, so I told them I had an emergency.”
Bianca was laughing so hard that she couldn’t even get into the car.
“Girl, get in and come on. You said you got urgent business.”
Bianca put her bag in and climbed in.
“You know you can put your bag back there.”
“Bitch still crazy. You know good and got-damn well I ain’t putting my damn bag back there where the dead people be. You got me fucked up.”
“Shit, it ain’t never the dead people. It’s the alive people that get you every time.”
At that moment, Bianca remembered just how much she loved and missed her sister. On the highway, she shared with her what had happened. In retrospect, Bella told her all the tea on Caesar: how he had moved to this big house and was living with a flaming gay man.
“How you know?”
“Because one day, I met up with him, and that’s where he had me to come to.”
“A’ight, well, take me there then.”
Bella navigated the hearse like she was a skilled driver, all the way to Caesar’s front door. They knocked, but there was no answer. Bella went around the back and managed to pick the lock without the alarm going off.
Bianca turned her face up. “Girl, where you learn to do that?”
“Chile, please, it’s so much you don’t know about me.”
Once the door was opened, she went in and got the shock of her life. Caesar was laying on the floor, bleeding. “Oh my God!”
He smiled when he saw her. In spite of him playing her as his beard, she still loved him, and he still had a place for him in her heart.
“Hang in there. Everything is going to be okay.” She held his hand. “Please just hang in there.”
“I’m sorry,” Caesar managed to get out. “I’m glad you are back. I love you.”
She ignored him. “Look, everything is going to be okay. You are going to be okay.” She tried to be as encouraging to Caesar as she could.
Bella was on the phone, calling the ambulance.
Just a few feet away from Caesar, in the dark, Bianca heard some coughing, and that’s when she realized it was Fitz. “Oh my God! God, nooooo!” She quickly dropped Caesar’s hand and raced to Fitz’s side, leaving Caesar to fend for himself.
“Baby! Please, baby! Please! You just hang in there!” she cried out as the blood was seeping out of the side of his mouth. “Just please, baby! I love you! Please fight, fight for us!” She looked into Fitz’s eyes.
Caesar managed to turn his head and see Bianca at his brother’s side. Tears formed in his eyes.
Bianca had all her attention focused on Fitz as she sat between the two bleeding brothers, who were both once her lovers, trying to be strong. “Baby, please, look at me,” she said to Fitz.
“Where the fuck is that ambulance?” she cried out to Bella.
“I love you.” Fitz smiled. “I love you until . . . death do. . . us part.”
“I love you too,” she said with tears in her eyes. “You are going to make it. We got too much we gotta do. I need that promise,” she told him.
Bella screamed, “They’re on the way. They are three minutes away.”
Bianca looked into Fitz’s eyes. “I need you to hold on, baby. Please,” she said with tears in her eyes, but she saw him drifting away. “Help is coming.”
“All the places I can be and people I can see . . . the decision was easy to make. I choose you over everything,” she reminded him with the Jaheim tune. “I love you so much.”
Fitz opened his eyes. “Manuella,” he croaked.
“Baby, don’t talk, please. You are making it worse.”
“Manuella. Call him.” Fitz struggled with the words but managed to get it out.
Sirens rang out, getting closer and closer.
“I know, baby, I’m going to call your father. You know I’m going to let him know what happened. Don’t worry.” She kissed him on the forehead. “They are almost here. Just please hang in here with me! Baby, just a little longer. Please, baby.” She begged him.
“No,” he said, gasping for air. “No!” He kept insisting.
“Baby, please. Baby, don’t talk. Hang in here for me, for us—for our life, for our promise,” she said, looking into Fitz’s eyes, begging him to fight.
“They here! They here!” Bella screamed.
“They here, baby. Fight. You’ll be okay. I love you!” Bianca said, for the first time realizing that Caesar’s eyes were on her as the blood was still pouring out.
“Over there! Over there!” Bella anxiously demanded.
“Manuella, baby.” Fitz was gasping for air. “My pops is . . . connect!” He pushed the words out and struggled to take another breath, and then the EMTs came in and took over, prying her hands from his.
Bianca was pushed off to the side, watching and praying, not knowing the fate of the only two men that she had ever really loved or cared for. She was also not fully understanding or realizing exactly what her new destiny would be. In time,
