ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR by Mallory Monroe Page A

what your so-called relationship
    feels like to me. Because, unlike you, I can take care of myself. I can take care of this here. I
    don’t want no white man buying nothing for me. I can buy my own car, thank-you. I’m a
    strong, black, independent woman who don’t want that kind of help, and especially not from
    no crusty butt man who only got one thing on his mind. Nobody owns this here.”
    Shay stared at her roommate. She was one of the most judgmental people she’d ever
    met, somebody who always talk a good talk about being tough and strong and how she can’t
    stand weak women and how every woman needs to stand up to these men and fight the good
    fight and be all tough and strong all the time and it sounded like foolishness to Shay. It
    sounded as if Jessica expected every woman to be just like her and if they weren’t then they
    somehow fell short, or weren’t authentic women.
    But Shay was nothing like her roommate. She was no alpha-female and didn’t want to
    be. She wanted the man to be the man, and if that man proved willing to help her, and she
    was willing to accept the terms of that help, then she didn’t see where that was anybody’s
    business but her and that man’s. And if that made her morally corrupt in the eyes of
    judgmental females like Jessica, or that made her weak and stupid, then weak and stupid she
    was. She’d been poor all of her life, had to struggle all of her life. Now she was finally getting
    a little help, just a little helping hand, from a man she actually liked, until she got out of college
    and was able to handle that end of her business herself, and Saint Jessica here figures she
    should turn it all down. Because, according to Jess, it smacked of the kind of assistance ladies
    of ill-repute would accept. This coming from a woman juggling four different boyfriends at
    one time. Where did she get off, Shay wanted to say.
    “The point I’m making,” Jessica went on, “is that this Matty person has got to be rolling
    in the dough, that’s all I’m saying. And I don’t see why you can’t ask him to help out Heck’s
    career. We ain’t asking him to give us nothing. It’ll be an investment because when Hector
    becomes the Hispanic Lil’ Wayne, then he’ll get paid back tenfold.”
    It sounded like a hand-out to Shay, but who was she to judge? “No,” she said.
    “Why you keep saying no?”
    “Because Matty is a businessman, Jess, not a rap music producer!”
    “I produce my own stuff, know what I’m saying?” Hector spoke up. He was an
    almost-chubby, twenty-something who always wore a bandana around his head and a gold grill
    in his mouth. “I just need help with the financial backing, know what I’m saying?”
    “No,” Shay said again. She liked Hector, he had always shown nothing but kindness
    towards her, but this was going too far.
    Jessica stared at Shay with that same hateful look Shay had seen the night Matty’s
    limousine picked her up. “I didn’t want to go there,” Jessica said, “but you leave me no
    choice. You owe me, Shanita Cooper. Remember when you first came to this university, and
    you hadn’t found a job yet and couldn’t even feed yourself yet, remember what I did for
    you?”
    How could Shay forget it? Every time Jessica wanted a favor, she began by saying , I
    didn’t want to go there , and then she’d go there with flourish. But it was true. Shay did feel
    she still owed her roommate big time because of the undeniable friendship she showed her
    when she first arrived at Franklin without a dime to her name. Her plan was to get a job
    quickly, because her scholarship took care of her tuition, books, and dorm room, but it didn’t
    cover any of her day to day living expenses.
    But Shay couldn’t get a job anywhere. It was Jessica who fed her for nearly three
    months, who took her out with her, who treated her like a blood sister, and who was able to
    convince the former assistant manager at Stop Gap, a young man Jessica was dating