“Lady, you look like you’d eat a scorpion,” I said, hoping to evade.

“Oh I have,” she replies simply. “It’s the easiest way to neutralize a sting.” That stopped me. I raised an eyebrow and lingered, despite the alarm bell. That had gone off next to half of these couches already. Weird, weird night. “Really?” She looks at me all too seriously. “Mm-hmm. Just don’t eat the stinger bulb, cuz duh, that’s what stabbed you.” I want to leave again but she moves in, pulling the slight hook she knows she can follow. The night has been full, just chock-full, of woman-word-spells. “What’s your sign? She asks me, as though she already knows. “Scorpio,” I say, and gulp. I regret my opener, intended to be a closer, infinitely.