“No way.” Jasmine covered her mouth with her right hand. “BJ, don’t say that.” She couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face.
“They had to remove part of my large intestines.”
“But they did say it’s a fifty-fifty chance, so that means that maybe you won’t have to.” Jasmine wiped some tears from her cheek, trying to maintain emotionally for BJ.
“That’s what I’m hoping. I told them niggas I would pay whatever, just as long as they fix my shit up right. Word is bond, they might as well kill my ass if I have to walk around with a fuckin’ bag attached to me.”
Jasmine shook her head and she wiped more tears from her eyes. “They probably was just giving you the worst case scenario to cover themselves. But, believe me, from what I learned in nursing school, as long as you can pay, they’ll fix you up right. But let your ass be poor or up in here with a damn Medicaid card, and you would be ass out.”
Jasmine wasn’t trying to be funny, but her words made BJ laugh.
“It’s true,” she added with emphasis.
“Yeah, I know. Money talks.”
Jasmine walked over to a chair underneath the TV in the corner of the room and sat down.
“I’m gonna be all right, though. Niggas is gonna die behind this shit. You better believe that.”
Jasmine looked at him and nodded.
“So what’s up with you? Nico, told me to make sure you was straight.”
Jasmine sucked her teeth and blew air out of her lungs.
“What’s that about?”
“BJ, it’s like I don’t even know Nico anymore. I don’t see him, I don’t speak to him. It’s like—”
“Jasmine, just hold the nigga down. You know how shit go sometime.”
“I mean, I am holding him down. It’s just I don’t know what we got anymore.”
“Whatchu mean by that?”
“I mean, am I still wifey or what?”
BJ chuckled. “Jasmine, that nigga love you. Trust me when I tell you. And you know Nico’s like a brother to me, so I know what’s up.”
Jasmine smiled. “I know he loves me, but he don’t trust me like he used to.”
“It ain’t you, Jasmine.”
“Well, then what is it?”
“You see where I’m at right now? Laid up in a fuckin’ hospital with half of my intestines missing and shit. And you seen on the news how the feds just nabbed Black Justice and caught forty bricks in the process. That’s what it is—he’s trying to stay one step ahead of death and jail. You feel me?”
Jasmine thought about just how smart Nico really was to have been avoiding her; otherwise he would have likely been facing the same fate as Black Justice. “I feel you, but I still need to—”
“You still need Nico to make you feel like a woman and all that lovey-dovey shit, right?”
Jasmine smiled. “No, it’s not that.”
“Yes, it is. You wanna feel like wifey, like you just said a minute ago.”
“What I mean is, I don’t want to come across all needy and shit like that. I know how to play my position. I know what I signed up for. I just need Nico to trust me and be straight up with me. That’s all.”
“If Nico caught a charge and had to do time, would you do the time with him?”