Curtis watches Lena and her son Andre from afar. Andre is the fifteen-year-old son of his best friend Marvin, who died in a fire before Andre was born. Curtis has been in prison the last twelve years for vehicular homicide after he got behind the wheel drunk. He was just recently released and now lives with his mother. One day, when Curtis is watching Lena and Andre, he overhears Lena tell her son that she is going to a bar tonight with some friends. Curtis takes the chance to go to the bar himself. There, Lena comes up to Curtis and dances with him. She offers to get them a hotel, and though Curtis says he does not have any money, she pays. She tells Curtis that she knows who he is and knows he has been following her. She tells the man that he could have just approached her. Lena admits that, however, she is fine with having gotten sex out of Curtis's plan. Curtis and Lena continue sleeping together, sometimes at a hotel and sometimes at Curtis's mother's house when she is not home. Then, they start going over to Lena's apartment after Curtis and Andre get acquainted. Andre jokingly refers to Curtis as his uncle, and the man is glad that he is able to form a relationship with his best friend's son. Curtis feels a particular type of guilt surrounding his friendship with Marvin; he died when they were in the middle of a fight. Curtis had been jealous of the time Marvin was spending with Lena and referred to her as Marvin's bitch. Then, one night, Marvin, tired from the hours of work that he had taken on due to money struggles that Curtis refused to help with, fell asleep with a lit cigarette on his bed. Lena and Curtis do not love each other but continue to sleep together. They do, however, have a different kind of love, a mutual love for Marvin and Andre. Lena is happy knowing that all of the men in her life are content. Curtis thinks that, though it is not traditional, they are a kind of family.