Free She Who Finds a Husband by E.N. Joy

tell me what the jacks is going on with you and Mr. Sound Man in there.” She pointed toward the church.
    Tamarra chuckled. “All right, already,” she gave in. “Maeyl and I went on a date.”
    â€œA date? You went on a date with Brother Maeyl?”
    â€œShhh.” Tamarra put her index finger to her lips and looked around to make sure that no members walking to their cars were within earshot. “We might as well have stayed in the sanctuary if you were going to broadcast it like that.”
    â€œOh, my bad,” Paige apologized, lowering her tone. “But when did all of this go down? I mean, how? I’ve never even seen you two interact, so when did this man get a chance to ask you out on a date? Oh, let me guess, you took my advice again and asked him out? See, girl, I told you there isn’t a thing wrong with a woman asking a man out on a date. That last incident with you and what’s his name was just a bad fluke. But—”
    â€œWill you shut up already, and let me tell you the dang on details?” Tamarra interrupted a speed talking Paige.
    â€œOh girl, I’m sorry. It’s just that I can’t believe that God has just been moving in both of our lives as far as relationships go. All in the same week at that, He’s put someone in my life and yours. I mean, can you believe . . . ” Paige’s words trailed off once she realized that she was busted. She, too, was guilty of engaging in a date without sharing the details with her friend.
    Although Paige and Tamarra had only been friends a little over a year, one would think they’d been friends forever. Trust between the two was formed almost instantaneously. The way Paige had connected with the woman almost ten years her senior, she was sure God had placed Tamarra in her life as her very own counselor.
    Growing up, the only person Paige had to confide in was her younger brother, and there was only so much a girl could tell her brother that was two years younger than she. Paige’s mother never had time to give mother-daughter talks because she was too busy catering to her husband.
    Although Paige and her brother’s father had been a wonderful provider and a strong head of the family, she often resented him for taking up so much of her mother’s time, leaving her to have to learn things that a girl’s mother should teach her, on her own. Paige felt that her father expected too much from her mother and that her mother darn near ran herself ragged to make sure that all of his expectations were met. He was bossy and unappreciative of her mother’s time is how Paige saw it.
    He expected her mother to keep the house clean, make sure the lawn was watered, meals were prepared to his daily preference, take care of the kids at home and show up for school functions as well as get them to dentist and doctor’s appointments, and do laundry. This might not have been so bad had Paige’s mother been a stay-at-home mom, but she wasn’t. She worked full-time and paid half the bills. So Paige never understood why her father’s list only included taking out the trash and cutting the grass. The least he could do was pay all the bills since he was working her mother like a Hebrew slave.
    Paige had made it up in her mind a long time ago that when she found herself a husband, he’d be nothing like her father, which explained why she had dated so many men. The first sign one of the men gave that he held a trait of her father’s, he was cut off. Deemed flawed.
    Tamarra had often told Paige she wasn’t giving these men a fair chance, but Paige always countered with, “God shows me these things speedily so that I can get rid of the losers speedily without becoming attached.”
    Tamarra didn’t agree, of course. She would always reply with, “God is a God of second chances, so He at least expects us to operate in the same manner.” As much as Paige valued her