Marcus stared at her for a moment before speaking. “So what do you think has landed two straight people at a barbecue like this one?”

Billy looked around at the people in attendance and shrugged. “I don’t know, a slow summer night?”

“Indeed.” Marcus nodded. “Yo, if you wanna get out of here, we could—”

Billy raised her hand and silenced him. “Slow ya roll, par. Just because I don’t do pussy doesn’t mean I hop on every dick. We just met, my dude.”

“Pardon me, gangsta, I ain’t mean no disrespect,” Marcus said in a mock-thug tone. This got Billy to smile a little. “But for real,” he said seriously, “I just wanted to get to know you a little bit.”

“That’s a better way to put it,” Billy said, crossing her arms. She cocked her head to the side, letting the moon catch her sparkling eyes.

Marcus watched Billy’s every move, as if he’d be tested on them at the end of the night. Though she was way thugged out, Marcus found himself attracted to her. She had a defiant air about her that he wasn’t used to seeing in women. Most of them turned to mush under his confident stare and boyish good looks, but Ms. Billy was hard. Not hard in the sense that she reminded him of one of the barbecue dykes, but the kind of hard that would make a man stronger. Billy definitely wasn’t having it.

“I can definitely respect your directness, and I’d like to get to the bottom of it.” Marcus removed a business card from his back pocket and handed it to Billy. “Why don’t you come down to the spot for a drink one night? On me, of course.”

Billy read the car and frowned. “This is the same club your sister dances at. You a stripper, too?”

“Nah, my clothes only come off behind closed doors. I do a little bartending and help out around the club when they need me. There’ll be a lot of ass floating around, but it’s nothing either of us haven’t already seen before.”

“What’re you trying to say?” Billy asked.

“I ain’t trying to say nothing. Just you need to come down and holla at me,” he said, closing her hand around the card, as if it would blow away.

“I’ll try.” She nodded.

“You’ll do more than try,” he said, backing up and turning to rejoin his sister. “See about me, Billy,” he called over his shoulder.