Just because a White woman identifies as a conservative on the political spectrum doesn't mean that she doesn't enjoy the company of Black men, I thought to myself as I gave my date the once-over. My, this one is definitely a cutie. Adam Trebucher is the tall, athletic young Black man of Haitian descent my good friends Kristin and Jacqueline set me up with. We sat inside a nice little Italian bistro in the east end of Ottawa, enjoying a nice meal. Adam told me he's a second-year student at Carleton University, majoring in Criminology. Good looks and brains, eh? I like that in a man.
The name is Evelyn Saint-Jean. I was born in the City of Montreal, Quebec, and raised in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. My family is French Canadian. Well, they were anyway. My parents, Louis and Beatrice Saint-Jean of Montreal, Quebec, died in a car accident while I was just starting high school. I was taken in by my aunt Gabrielle Darcy and she moved to metropolitan Ottawa with me shortly after my folks burial. Aunt Gabby isn't the nicest person in the world, especially when she got some liquor in her. That's when this outwardly charming and friendly woman would get violent. And she often took it out on me. Until one day, I couldn't stand it any longer. She fell down the stairs and died. The police ruled it an accident. If they only knew.
Anyone looking at me would see a five-foot-nine, slim and fit young Caucasian woman with long blonde hair and pale blue eyes. People assume I'm just another pretty, easygoing gal until they look into my eyes. The eyes of a battle-hardened woman who's seen too much and been through hell. After my aunt's death, I was all alone in the world. In spite of the mess my life has always been, I've always been able to focus on what mattered. Like school. Yeah, while living with my abusive aunt, school became my only refuge. I excelled academically, that's why I won an academic scholarship to the University of Ottawa. I went there to get my bachelor's degree in business administration, then switched to economics. I saw it as more promising, you know?
I recently graduated from the University of Ottawa with my Master's degree in Economics. December 2012, that's when I graduated. I thought I would find a job easily but someone forgot to tell me about the job market in provincial Ontario in 2013. I'm twenty eight years old, and I'm broke, crumbling under student debt. I owe OSAP, the government-run student loan agency, a lot of money. If I don't get a job real soon, I'm toast. In a time like this, I feel super stressed and life has been hell lately. Don't ask me when was the last time I did anything fun. Or thought about things like romance, sex and dating. I was too busy trying to survive.