Paul sighed and grabbed the phone. “I’m not going to this party because you pressured me. I’m going because I feel like stepping out.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Larry said proudly. “We gonna take it back to ’96!”

“Larry, stop being such a fucking vulture,” Paul said, dialing the phone.

“Who’re you calling?”

“Marlene.”

“Come on, man,” Larry said and threw his hands up. “Don’t check in with her.”

“I’m not checking in. It’s called a courtesy call. Maybe when you get a girl you’ll learn to do the same.” Paul ignored Larry and waited for Marlene to pick up.

Marlene stood barefoot on the tiles of her kitchen wearing a pair of sweat shorts and a tank top. Her hands expertly brought the small knife down in even strokes, chopping a lemon. On the stove a pot of hot water for tea whistled, but still went unattended as Marlene chatted away with Audrey on her cordless.

“Girl, I almost had to get black on this bitch in Target,” Audrey informed Marlene.

Marlene shook her head as if Audrey could see her through the phone. “Audrey, you can’t ever go anywhere without getting into it with somebody. What done happened now?”

“First of all, the line was long as hell. Now, if I was window shopping, there wouldn’t have been anybody there, but the one time I wanna go in and pick something up, a thousand other people get the same idea. So I wait on the line for almost forty-five minutes and when I get to the register, the little Puerto Rican bitch talking ’bout, ‘Sorry, no more cash. Credit only.’ Then when I tried to explain to her that I had been waiting for a long time, the little bitch had the nerve to catch an attitude, talking about it wasn’t her problem.”

“What did you end up doing?” Marlene asked, finally removing the pot from the stove.

“What do you think I ended up doing?” Audrey asked, as if Marlene shouldn’t have had to. “I raised so much hell up in there that they finally got the manager to come out and handle my purchase. I tried to get them to knock something off the price for my trouble, but they weren’t trying to go that far.”

“Audrey why you gotta be so damn black all the time?” Marlene joked.

“Fuck that. She should learn some damn courtesy. If you don’t like your job, find another one. Don’t be giving the customers no attitude.”

“I know that’s right,” Marlene agreed, making her self a cup of tea.

“So what you doing tonight?”

Marlene sipped the brew and frowned. “Nothing much,” she said, adding two more scoops of sugar. “I’ll probably kick back and watch a DVD.”

“The story of your life. You need to come out with us,” Audrey suggested.

“Where are you heifers going?”