ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR by Mallory Monroe Page B

at the
    time, to take Shay on.
    So Shay would always feel beholden to Jessica, and would always do all she could to
    help her out. But helping Hector’s music career wasn’t the same, to Shay, as helping Jessica.
    And that was why Shay still said no. She owed Jessica, yes, but she didn’t owe some guy
    who was certain to be one of Jessica’s numerous ex-boyfriends within the next few months, a
    darn thing. And especially when that favor didn’t just involve Shay, but Matty as well.
    It took several more no’s on Shay’s part, however, before Hector finally got the point.
    He was wasting his time. Then suddenly his disappointment turned to anger and he actually
    got into Shay’s face. Shay stood to her feet, toe to toe with him. “So what you gonna do?”
    she kept asking him, daring him to try something.
    It was Jessica who got in between them. “That’s enough, Hector,” she said, pushing
    her boyfriend back.
    “I can’t stand her!” Hector yelled. “Always parading around like she so superior to
    everybody else! Can’t fool with no regular dudes like us, no, not ShayShay. She gots to get
    her some rich white man!”
    “That ain’t got nothing to do with you,” Jessica said. “So you just need to step off.”
    And Hector did back off, because he knew Jessica didn’t play. But he still pointed a
    finger at Shay.
    “One day, little sister,” he said between clenched teeth, “somebody gonna cut you
    down to size!”
    “It ain’t gonna be you,” Shay assured him. “Bet that!”
    Hector tried to lurch at her again, but Jessica pulled him back again. “Outside, Hector!”
    she said. “You may not like her but she’s my roommate, so you’re crossing a line, buddy.
    Outside.” Then she got sassy when he didn’t move. “Now!”
    Hector looked at Shay longer, but then walked out.
    After he left, Jessica looked at her roommate. “You wrong for that, Shay,” she said.
    “Wrong for what? I’m not getting Matty involved in his crazy schemes. I ain’t down with
    Matty like that yet.”
    “Then you should have explained it to him that way. You didn’t have to be acting all
    superior just like he said. You wrong for that. You may be on top of that mountain now, but
    you may need people like Hector on your way back down.”
    “I doubt that,” Shay said. “And I don’t know what mountain you’re talking about.”
    “Just check yourself, that’s all I’m saying. These white men get these sisters all giddy,
    be at their beck and call, and they’ll toss those line-crossing sisters a bone or two, yeah, they’ll
    do that. But then the next thing you know, it’s wham, bam, thank-you ma’am, and they off
    and marry the white girl. Then those same line-crossers wanna cross back over here. They
    want their people back. You just better remember who your real sisters and brothers are.”
    “It’s not like that, Jess, all right?”
    “But you hear what I’m saying?”
    “Yes, I hear what you’re saying, I just don’t agree with what you’re saying. My
    relationship with Matty isn’t like what you think. He’s just helping me out until I get out of
    school, that’s all. That’s it. I’m not expecting any marriage proposal or anything like that.
    Our relationship ain’t that serious.”
    Jessica looked at her friend as if she knew she didn’t’ mean a word of what she’d just
    said. And then she left.
    When she left, Shay laid her head on her desk, exhausted. She hated the way Jessica
    had looked at her, as if she could see right through her. And inwardly, all of that talk of not
    being that serious with Matty was as full of it as Jessica probably knew it was. Shay saw their
    relationship as serious, she was just too scared to admit it.
    She also hated the fact that she had turned Jessica down so decisively, even though it
    was a favor more for Hector than Jess, but she couldn’t take advantage of Matty’s position like
    that. But that didn’t mean it didn’t bother her. It did. She