“I guess when the opportunity to do business with the marjories presented itself, you shouldn’t have been nervous you were going to catch the faggot if you took the territory,” I replied, blowing a plume of smoke into his face.

He very dramatically waved the vapors toward his nose and markedly inhaled as I rolled my eyes at his showmanship.

“You know they don’t bother me,” Maks tsked. “They’re everywhere now, not only in Towertown. I see normal guys on the street ducking into alleys with the working boys. It seems everyone’s doing it.”

“Everyone?” I asked, examining my cousin’s face.

“Well, not me, but a lot of guys,” he clarified. “It’s not as taboo as it once was. That’s all I’m saying.”

“There are thirty-five pansy parlors in Towertown right now, and they’re all crowded every damn night,” I stated, tapping the paper to loosen ash at the end of my cigarette. “Night clubs are shutting down everywhere else, but the belles are building new places and packing them full of thirsty bitches. You wouldn’t believe how much juice I’m moving.”

“Now you’re bragging,” Maks huffed, shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth. “How many of those thirty-five are on your ledger?”

“Fifteen.”

“That’s too many,” he exclaimed. “There’s no way you can handle that volume on your own.”

“I’m handling it fine. They don’t have any complaints and neither does Vlad or the rest of the big boys,” I assured, waving my hand as if his worries were irritating gnats. “You’re angling to come in for a cut.”

“I’m not denying that,” Maks laughed. “I may look dumb, but I’m smart as a whip, Vik.”

I rolled my eyes. “Smart folks don’t need to tell other people they’re bright. They just … are.”

“Well, my intelligence isn’t even my best quality,” he began, tilting his head to grab my gaze.

“Is this where I’m supposed to ask you what it is? As if I haven’t known you for most of our lives?”

He nodded.

I indulged him. “What’s your best quality?”

“My discretion,” Maks answered, with weight behind his stare. “The city as a whole may have grown to have less of a problem with the homosexuals, but just as you do, I know Little Russia hasn’t come around with the times.”

Though the wildness of desperation wasn’t present in his eyes, I didn’t rule out the fact that it could be soon. “I’ll think about it,” I promised, drawing a relieved smile from my cousin who held his popcorn out toward me.

“Corn?”

I took a handful and threw it into my mouth, focusing on the men jogging onto the field, filling out their crisp, white uniforms so well.