Yvonne came up with a answer real quick. “I got it!” she yelled, snapping her fingers. “We’ll do some overtime to make up for that evening. For the next couple of weekends, we’ll let our guests know they can come to our house and start drinking around noon instead of them waiting until evening.”

I held my breath. I was scared Joyce would ask how come we hadn’t already done that before. She didn’t, so I went on. “Another reason we have to go on a Friday or Saturday is because Mr. Cunningham said we could only borrow his truck on a weekend. His nephew uses it to get to work every evening during the week.”

“Oh. Well, I’d sure hate for Odell to miss out on a nice supper. What about borrowing Willie Frank’s truck? Then we wouldn’t have to go out on a weekend,” Joyce said.

“His motor is on the blink and he ain’t sure when he can get that took care of,” I said. “He don’t think it’s a good idea to be driving on the open highway in a truck that might break down.” It was a good thing I was such a good liar. I could make up believable fibs at the drop of a hat. When Joyce found out we was going in Willie Frank’s truck after all, which she wouldn’t know until we got ready to go, I’d tell her he got the motor fixed. And that’s when we’d tell her we decided to take her to a restaurant in Hartville that was even better than the one in Mobile.

“Okay. When do y’all want to go?”

“Well, one of the dishwashers at the grill owes me a few dollars and can’t pay me until next month. I don’t want to dip into our money, so we can’t go until I get my money from him,” I told her.

“All right. Ooh, I can’t wait. I’m going to buy a new outfit just for the occasion. Odell says I look good in pink. I’m going to start looking for the right outfit as soon as I can,” she squealed. “Thanks for being so thoughtful. But y’all don’t have to do this.”

“No, we really want to,” Yvonne said.

Joyce stood up. “Oh, I need to say something.” She paused and looked like she was about to laugh. Then she said in a serious tone, “I sure hope y’all don’t wear anything too outlandish.”

My blood was getting hotter by the second. I prayed in my head that she’d leave before it reached the boiling point. “Joyce, believe me, we won’t wear nothing that’ll embarrass you. All the dressing and grooming advice you and Odell done gave us is really helping.”