“Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you!” she shouted, roughly grabbing his shirt. To her surprise, Paul spun around with a maddened look in his eyes. A snarl emitted from somewhere deep in his gut as he lashed out. Marlene braced herself, waiting for the blow to land on her chin, but instead Paul put his fist through the cabinet door.

“Keep your fucking hands to yourself!” he snapped. “You don’t have to believe in my plan, Marlene. Hell, you don’t even have to be supportive of it, but for the love of God, don’t tear it down. I’m sleeping downstairs tonight.” Paul stormed down to the basement, slamming the door behind him.

Marlene stood in the middle of the kitchen trembling. For a minute she actually thought he was going to knock her out. She had known that kind of man in the past, but had never seen Paul’s dark side before. Now that she had, she wanted no part of it.

Yoshi sat on one of the long benches in the dressing room, counting her take. She had made just six hundred dollars for the evening. Not bad for a few hours of work. Changing from her costume to her street clothes, she repacked her rolling case and prepared to leave for the night.

“Yoshi, you need a ride home?” Cat asked, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

“Nah, I’m straight. I’m gonna walk to Forty-second and grab something to eat. I’ll take a cab from there.”

“A’ight, baby girl. It’s late, so you be careful out there,” Cat warned.

“Please, with all the police running around Times Square, I’ll be safer out there than I will be in the car with you,” Yoshi joked.

“This is true.” Cat winked. “See you later, boo.”

After securing her case, Yoshi made her way to the street. The walk to Times Square was a brief one, allowing Yoshi to check her voicemail. One was from Rhonda saying something about Reese sleeping with some dude, and the other was from Jah. She swooned when she heard his voice, remembering the night they had shared together. He was so cute trying to be cool, but tripping over his words. She had given quite a bit of thought to the whole situation and wondered what was stopping them from taking a chance. She was feeling the young boy and it was obvious that he was digging her. She decided that she wouldn’t call him back that night, but the following day she planned to confront him.