She hoped that her obvious accent would allow him to understand the ridiculousness of his irrational behavior. And it worked. He finally took the twenty-dollar bill she had offered him and stood up to head for the door.

He said, “You tell Faloni that she needs to learn how to be a real lady.”

“Thank you. I will,” Lucina told him as he began to head for the door.

Ivan walked in just as the Marine began to walk away. He caught the tail end of the exchange.

“What was that about?” he asked Lucina.

She exhaled and shook it off. “It was nothing important.” She looked Ivan over, nodded, and smiled briefly. “You look good tonight,” she told him. “Let’s go find Jeffrey and his fiancée now.”

Ivan followed her into another section of the darkened room.

“Hey, Ivan, how are you tonight?” Faloni asked him, grinning.

Lucina eyed her sharply and said, “I will speak with you later. Okay?”

Faloni caught on to her sharp reaction and backed off.

“Oh, okay. Well, thanks.”

Ivan noticed the stiff-arm Lucina had given her and chuckled. “What did she do?”

Lucina answered, “She made her life more complicated than she needed to.” She changed her tone and smiled when they reached the football player and his fiancée.

“Jeffrey, Ivan is here now,” she commented.

Jeffrey Morefield turned to face them, looking professional as usual.

“Hey, Ivan. Let me introduce you to my fiancée, Lachelle.”

Jeffrey had not been to many of their events lately. And when he did show, he had not brought his fiancée.

Ivan extended his hand to her and was impressed. She was a tall, slim, medium brown woman with very smooth skin and a mane of curly, reddish-brown hair. She also had small eyes like Christina’s, but her cheekbones were higher.

“Hi, I-van. I’ve heard a lot about you and Lu-ci-na. It’s nice to finally get to meet you both.”

She had an accent of her own. Ivan nodded to her and grinned.

He said, “Well, I hope somebody gave me a good reputation.”

Jeffrey’s fiancée laughed and said, “Oh, they did.”

Ivan asked her, “Where is your accent from?”

“I am from Gambia in Africa.”

Ivan was surprised. He’d been thinking the Caribbean. “Oh, okay.” So Jeffrey went all the way back to the motherland. And she looks damn good, he told himself.

Lucina said, “We were just discussing us doing something nice for their wedding reception. They’re getting married in early May.”

Ivan nodded. Jeffrey hadn’t said much. He was being Mr. Silent again. Ivan read that and wondered what was on his mind.

He told Lucina, “All right, we’ll see what we can do. We got plenty of time to plan something for that. And congratulations to you guys.”

“Oh, thank you,” Lachelle told him.