My phone buzzed across the table. I would have ignored it had I not seen PJ’s name flash across the screen. Gripped with something I’d call fear, I snatched up my phone in the middle of Bibbs about to start in again.
“‘Sup? Where’s Naomi?”
“Sin!”
PJ’s tone had me out of my chair, out of the restaurant I’d met Bibbs at, and rushing to my rental car.
“We were about to have lunch, and all of a sudden, she got up and ran to the restroom!” I barely heard what PJ was saying as she cried. I cranked the car up and flew out of the parking lot, headed straight for the airport, not giving a damn that I left all my shit at the hotel.
“She was throwing up, then she fainted! Oh, my goodness, Sin!”
“Where is she?” My heart was in my stomach, worried like hell. I’d just talked to my baby. We’d just had a successful time at the doctor’s office. Everything was okay. Not this! I prayed there was nothing wrong with my woman nor my baby. This would devastate Naomi.
“We’re waiting for an ambulance. Bri is in the restroom with Naomi while I came outside to call you.”
Shit!
“Okay. I’m about to hop a flight to her. Tell my baby I’m on the way.” Feeling guilty that I’d left her while coming on this business trip, my eyes misted. I was so damn far away!
“Okay,” PJ tearfully replied. “The ambulance is pulling in now.”
“Bet. I’ll be there shortly.” I said it, but as I hung up, I prayed it was true. I needed a flight, ASAP. If these muthafuckas didn’t put me on somebody’s damn plane without an issue, the airport was gon’ have an issue!
I swerved into parking, hustled to get the rental turned in, then went to stand in my airline’s long-ass line. Two minutes later when the line hadn’t moved, I started fuming.
“The fuck is goin’ on up there?” At the ticket counter, a couple with colorful-ass clothes on were cackling and talking with the representative like they didn’t see several people waiting for them to move the fuck on.
“Hey!” I got their attention. “Y’all laughin’ and shootin’ the shit like y’all don’t see this line. I’m tryna be patient when I really wanna flip all this shit over, so I can get on a plane and get back to my woman.”
A rumble went through the line as people agreed with me but were too scared to speak up. The receptionist stared with her mouth hung open.
“I see all those cavities in ya mouth from here, shawty. Close it and move this line.”
She snapped her mouth shut and did as I requested. Within minutes, I was in front of her requesting to hop on the next flight.
“Sure, Sir. It’ll cost—”
“I don’t give a damn what it’s gon’ cost. What time is it leaving?”
“In the next hour with a thirty-minute layover in—”
“Give me the ticket.” At this point, it didn’t matter. I just had to get on a plane. Being in California, I was too far away. Helplessness seeped in as I went through security, then sat to wait for boarding.
Me:I’m boarding soon.
PJ:Okay! We just made it to the hospital.
Hanging my head, I shut out all the noise around me and thought about the only thing that gave me comfort right now, my woman. Naomi was everything to me. Her mental well-being was my number one priority. If anything happened to our baby, she wouldn’t handle it well, and I wasn’t by her side.
It’s fucked-up how we were just laughing this morning. Now, Naomi was in a crisis and my ass was across the country when we were usually glued at the hip. Never again. If I had to travel, Baby Girl was going to be with me. Worry wouldn’t allow me to function if she wasn’t within a ten minutes’ drive of me. Damn.
My phone rang with a call from Bibbs. I ignored his last three calls.
Answering, I barked, “Yeah?”
“Hey, man! You just up and bounced!”
“I have an emergency.”
