"If you'll excuse me for a moment," she says to Mike and Missy.
Lenise finds Bert Radley in the kitchen with a Korean couple.
"May I have a word?" she says.
"Certainly."
They leave the couple to inspect the size of the pantry and go into the hallway.
"This is highly inappropriate, Radley."
"They asked to see it, what could I do?"
"I'm going to lay a complaint."
"This isn't personal, Lenise."
"You owe me."
"I don't owe you anything."
"I could've had your license revoked after your get together in the Clarkson property."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You were in the client's bed," she smiles. "I saw you."
A sheen develops on his forehead. He glances at the kitchen.
"So that's the way you're going to play it?" he says.
Then he pauses and looks past her shoulder.
"Dirty business, this real estate," he says, walking off.
Lenise turns. The Texan couple stares at her from the doorway.
"It's not what you think," she says. "He slept with a prostitute."
But they won't listen and get into their trendy SUV and drive away, along with her commission.
Lenise waits out the rest of the hour but no one else shows. As she's returning the sign to the trunk, her cell phone rings. She looks at the phone, buzzing in her hand like an electric razor, but can't bring herself to answer it. Five more pulses and the hum stops. She gets in her car and stares out the windscreen. On the road, a black-backed gull plucks at the smashed carcass of a hedgehog. Lenise starts the engine and heads to the clinic.