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me more harm than good. She eventually started cooking for me two times a week. I was lucky to have a mother who cared so much about me. And, I was lucky to have Inez. I had most of my fun during that time because of Inez. If she wasn’t the one giving a party, she always knew where a good party was being held. It didn’t take long for me to regard Inez as the big sister that I’d always wanted.
    â€œBaby girl, I want you and that fine-ass man of yours to come to my engagement party next Saturday night,” Inez told me a couple of months after we’d become friends. Inez was twenty-five at the time. Technically speaking, she was not a classic beauty. She had dull brown eyes and a slight overbite. When she turned to the side, her lips protruded like a carp’s. But she had beautiful bronze skin and a decent head of black hair, which she’d bleached blond years before blond hair on a Black woman became popular. She’d had matching blond hair weaved into her own.
    Inez was tall and nicely built. I was almost as tall as Inez, but not as shapely. With my big brown eyes and round face, a lot of people described me as cute, or even pretty. But I’d never been called beautiful.
    I dropped into Inez’s nail shop after work and on weekends on a regular basis, whether I needed my nails done or not. One thing that had attracted me to Inez was the fact that she lived such a fascinating life compared to mine. The first time I saw her, she had on a T-shirt that said: WHEN GOD CREATED ME, HE WAS SHOWING OFF .
    â€œ Engagement party? Engagement for what? You’re already married,” I said, amused. One thing I could say was that with Inez, there was never a dull moment.
    â€œIt’s over with Paul,” she announced, with a casual wave. “He’s lost three jobs because of his drinking. God made only one man that I’d be willing to support, but they nailed him to a cross.”
    â€œDon’t most women usually get a divorce before they get engaged again?” I chided.
    â€œI’m not like most women,” Inez reminded me, with a wink. “As you know, I don’t have many shemale friends. You are the only one who understands me. I need you there at my party, Renee.”
    I didn’t have the nerve to tell my girl that I did not understand her, but I told her that I wouldn’t miss her party for the world. I was hoping that some of Inez’s confidence would rub off on me.
    I had never been married. It seemed like I’d kissed nothing but frogs since I was thirteen. So far, Robbie Dunbar was as close as I could get to a prince. We had attended Butler High at the same time, and we had started dating in the ninth grade. He was reasonably attractive, despite the fact that he was bowlegged and had a receding hairline, which had started its premature decline before he even finished middle school. Poor Robbie. I probably could have done better at the time, but the boy was so devoted to me, I got spoiled and comfortable.
    I was disappointed when Robbie dropped out of school in the middle of our sophomore year. Even though it was so he could work at a gas station that his uncle owned, so that he could help support his mother and three younger siblings. I admired the fact that Robbie cared so much about his family that he would sacrifice his education, but I thought that he could have come up with a better solution.
    Robbie and I didn’t communicate much while I was away at Ohio State, but as soon as I finished my education and moved back home, Robbie was waiting for me with a marriage proposal, knowing that I’d had other relationships throughout my college years.
    However, as much as I hated to admit it even to myself, men were not lining up to be with me, so I didn’t hesitate to accept Robbie’s proposal. But right after he’d slipped a cheap engagement ring on my finger during a two-for-the-price-of-one dinner at a Ponderosa Steakhouse, I