“That’s fine with me. I don’t want to stay nowhere I ain’t wanted.” He gave me a dirty look as he reached in his pocket. He pulled out a wad of cash and handed it to me. “Damn,” I mouthed. I looked at him and blinked. “Goodness gracious, Odell. You really been on the ball lately, my man. I’m impressed. Yvonne will be tickled to death when I get home. I don’t think she believed you’d give us more money again so soon.”

“She’ll believe it when you show it to her. Now please get the hell up out of here.” He pointed toward the door.

“I’m going, I’m going, I’m going,” I chanted, still standing in the same spot.

“Go faster, damn you.”

“You ain’t got to be such a bully. I didn’t come here to get my feelings hurt,” I pouted.

Odell’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe what you just said. Every time you come here you hurt my feelings. Now get your disgusting black ass out of my sight!” “I said I was going. But there is something else I want to say before I leave.” I swallowed hard and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Odell glared at me even harder. “I never thought things would turn out the way they did. I almost wish I hadn’t caught you with Betty Jean.”

His gasp was so loud it sounded like a fart. “Milton, how can you say some mess like that with a straight face? You jumped on this opportunity like white on rice. So don’t be trying to lighten up what you and Yvonne been doing to me. Now get!”

I started walking backward toward the door. “Okay, I’m leaving.” I whirled around, snatched open the door, and skittered out before he said something that would make me lose my religion. But the thoughts bouncing around in my head about what was coming up this evening with Joyce, was hard to process. I was a little nervous about it. But at the same time, I was anxious to get it over and done with.

I took my time walking back through the store, glancing around at all the nice new stuff laid out. Me and Yvonne had swiped hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise from this store, and we’d charged our credit account up to the limit. We didn’t plan on paying it off now. With all the stuff we had on Odell, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to sue us.