Borrow Trouble. Mary Monroe

that, I felt like I had to be a woman and a half just so we’d make a complete couple! I didn’t have that problem with Leon.

      I didn’t have the heart to break off my relationship with Robbie in person. I took the coward’s way out and called him up on the telephone. I had played it safe and waited another month, though. I felt badly about it, but I didn’t want to let go of one man until I was sure I had the other one securely hooked.

      “Robbie, I have something I need to talk to you about,” I began, clutching the telephone in the teachers’ lounge. I had called him at his job at the gas station. Shirley Blake, a nosy busybody who taught first grade in the room right next to mine, walked in as soon as I got started. “Uh, Robbie, I might have to call you back,” I said, both my eyes on Shirley. As soon as she realized I was talking to a man, she came and stood right next to me. Like me, she was well into her twenties and had never been married.

      “Ask your friend if he’s got a friend,” Shirley whispered in my ear, the garlic on her breath almost melting the side of my face. Shirley was one of the most attractive women I knew, and one of the most desperate. She was so anxious to get married that she had already purchased a wedding gown—and didn’t even have a steady boyfriend! Her beautiful shoulder-length black hair and soft delicate features had done her little good so far when it came to men. She had not had a date in over a year. Nobody knew what she did that turned men off. Robbie and I had had some interesting conversations, and a lot of laughs, about Shirley. I was going to miss that.

      I covered the telephone receiver with my hand and gave Shirley a pleading look. “Do you mind? This is a private conversation,” I told her.

      “Well, excuse me,” Shirley said in a loud, hostile voice, rotating her neck. She waved her hands, shook her head, and muttered under her breath as she rushed from the room.

      I watched the entrance for a few seconds before I returned my attention back to Robbie. “Robbie, I need to tell you something,” I said, keeping my eye on the doorway.

      “Was that Shirley Blake’s voice I just heard?” Robbie asked dryly, about as interested in her as I was.

      “Uh-huh.”

      “She still looking for a man?”

      “Every day.”

      “Well, I hope she finds her another one soon.” Robbie laughed.

      “Um, that’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about,” I stammered, turning my back to the door. I no longer cared who heard what I had to say to Robbie. With all of the gossips I knew, everybody would know about the breakup sooner or later, anyway.

      “Talk to me,” Robbie ordered in a firm voice. He had never sounded this assertive before, so it stunned me for a few seconds. “Well, are you going to talk to me or not?” he said, sounding even more assertive.

      I cleared my throat. “Robbie, there is another man in my life. It’s pretty serious between us. Uh…and I wanted you to hear it from me,” I blurted.

      “You are too late,” Robbie replied, now sounding as weak and passive as ever.

      “Who told you?” I gasped.

      “Who didn’t? Your aunt Vicki that runs the produce stand told me. Your cousin Fred, who buys his gas at my station, he told me. Your mama told my mama, and then my mama told me. Your baby sister even told me.”

      “Oh. Well, I am really sorry that you didn’t hear it from me, Robbie.”

      “So am I,” he said, sounding tired and disappointed.

      “Robbie, I wanted to tell you myself way before now, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

      “You are a little too late for that, too. And to tell you the truth, I already knew about you and Leon before anybody else told me. I saw you and him coming out of that fancy restaurant on Price Street a couple of weeks ago, hugging, kissing and everything. I got the picture….”

      “Oh. Um…I know you will find someone else,” I said quietly. “And I hope you will be happy with whomever that is. You’re a good man, Robbie.”

      “But not good enough for you.” Robbie’s voice sounded so hopeless, I almost changed my mind.

      “Robbie, don’t do this to me, or yourself. I didn’t plan to fall in love with another man. It just happened. But…I hope that…uh…you and I can still be friends.”

      “I still love you, Renee. Whether I marry another woman or not, I will always have a place in my heart for you. You were my first love, and that’s something I won’t ever forget.”

      “Robbie, I think we should end this conversation right now. You take care of yourself. Do you hear me?”

      “You, too, Renee. And, uh, you tell that IRS henchman that if he don’t treat you right, I’m going to whup his black ass.” Robbie laughed again. “Bye, Renee.”

      It would not have done Robbie any good to try and talk me out of breaking up with him. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t even try. Now I was glad that I’d severed the relationship. But I had no idea that my decision was going to come back to haunt the hell out of me.

      CHAPTER 11

      The Sunday following my breakup with Robbie, I brought Leon to meet Mama after she and my sister, Frankie, got home from church. We’d arrived at the little one-story gray shingled house that Mama rented on Maple Street just as she and Frankie were getting out of Mama’s old Chevy, still clutching their hymn books. Mama had on a hat that looked like a small umbrella. She snatched it off and started fanning her face as soon as she spotted Leon and me walking toward her.

      Frankie, who was as cute and as sly as a fox, stood behind Mama, with an amused look on her face. My sister had already made it her business to meet Leon. She’d come to my apartment several days earlier, interrogating him like he was a suspect. Once she realized how generous Leon was, she didn’t waste any time joining his team. She didn’t know that I knew she’d called Leon up at work two days ago and asked him for a hundred dollars so she could get her hair braided. I planned to speak to her about that later.

      “That’s a nice suit you got on, Leon,” Frankie chirped, trying hard not to look at me. To a lot of people, a spoiled baby sister was a thorn in the side. Frankie was no different. “Where’d you get it?”

      “Don’t be nosy and rude!” I snapped, glaring at Frankie, wondering why Mama was taking her time to speak. Especially since she was looking Leon up and down, shading her eyes with her hat.

      Mama had told me more than once that she didn’t trust men who wore suits outside of a church or an office. “Young man, did you just come from church or work?” she asked, looking at Leon out of the corner of her eye.

      “Neither, ma’am,” Leon mumbled, giving me a sideways glance. “I wanted to make a good impression on you, ma’am, so I decided to wear my best suit,” he added. I had told him how my mother felt about suits.

      “Oh,” Mama said, obviously pleased to hear this. “Well, I hope you don’t spill nothing on it at my dinner table,” she told him, with a broad smile on her heavily powdered face.

      Getting through dinner was tense. For a while, Frankie was the only one who seemed to be enjoying the turkey wings and greens that Mama had prepared earlier. After a few awkward moments, Leon really dug into the dinner, too.

      Even though Mama was polite, she kept rolling her eyes at Leon and giving me suspicious looks. When Leon stopped the leaky faucet in the kitchen sink from dripping, Mama smiled for the rest of the evening.

      “I done had two plumbers out here, and three of my nephews. Nary one of them could stop that leak,” Mama said, looking at Leon like he had just walked on water. “You, you take a pair of pliers to it, and five minutes later, it don’t leak no more. Ooh wee, child!”

      “And it won’t ever leak again,”