Reader Input: Girl...Talk to ALL of THEM!

“I like cat and mouse games, but I have to be interested in you first.”

I know I have both men and women who come here because of the private messages I get from many of you, but more recently I have received so many messages from women sharing their dating stories and other experiences with men. So I do not know if this is a newer generation thing, but a few of you are telling me to talk to all the men who are interested in me and only get close to the one who stands out the most.

Okay, okay, those of you who are new here, you may have not picked up on this, but for the rest of you…You know I have strong morals, I may do certain things that are up for moral debate and I may say certain things in theory, but in practice I’m not out there like that.

People Say I Act Funny

Because I don't like to be bothered with every day. And I don’t like to be questioned why.

I’m someone who believes that sticking to your morals and values is what grants you the most blessings, but I’m not going to sit up here and say I've never done anything that was frowned upon. I’ve been in a situation where I didn't know certain pieces of information about someone and in lieu of it, I did things against my morals. But, since then I’ve prayed on it and I’ve forgiven myself and I do not regret anything that has transpired because I did have a lot of great times and through that experience and the experiences surrounding it, my views have changed about men…everything happens for a reason. And with that, I can’t let disappointments taint me or my abilities to be at peace and be happy. That’s a testament of my growth. People will be who they want to be, you decide how you want to be around them.

I say all of that to say that we can go through things that shape us to thinking and behaving in a way that we never thought we would. Although, I still cannot see myself having interest in more than one man. Don’t get me wrong, there are men I speak to who have interest in me, but the feelings are not mutual, so I keep a respectable distance with what I do and say to around them.

But hey, if this is what women are doing these days, don’t let me stop you from being great! I just cannot see myself going through my phone and having multiple conversations of “So what are you doing this weekend?” just to try to decide who I want to spend more time with. It seems like some of you ladies are ruthless. One of you went on 3 different dates with 3 different men in one week! Ma’am, I salute you, live your best life! So I’m just going to go through what some of you women have shared with me:

  • Talk to all the men, they’re doing the same thing with us!

    • That may be true, but it would not make me feel good to do that. Sometimes I get irritated when my phone goes off too much, so it would be too much tedious time wasted to share my interest to multiple people.

  • I met up with a man on Saturday and a different one on Sunday and I cannot decide who I like more so I am going to keep hanging out with both of them.

    • Oooo..see I can’t do that, I would feel guilty because then I am not really investing my attention on one person. That sounds fun. My conscience won’t let me do it.

  • I’m 26 and I go on as many dates as guys want to take me on. I tell them that I’m not looking for a relationship and they all seem to like that and some of the guys try harder to date me.

    • A few things here…YES, you are young, so be as free as you want to be. I think I recently saw a meme or caption that said, “Women in their 20s should be toxic.”…I do not know what all that means, but I was married during the bulk of my 20’s, I didn’t really start living for myself until my late 20s, early 30s. And I cannot say how I would have been if I was not married, because it was a different generation then. We did not have all these social outlets that’s available to us now. It was almost taboo to talk to strangers online and the term “Thirst Trap” relatively new where people show different types of pictures of themselves for likes. You have so many ways to meet people and it’s a normal concept. I used to meet people at house parties and we would write our phone numbers on napkins, but again, this was all before I was married and had children. Although, I was doing things in my high school years that people were doing on their college years…things worked a little faster in the northeast. If you know, you know.

  • I dated a lot of guys at one time, but I didn’t have sex with any of them. I wanted to see who I connected with better and now I am in a committed relationship with one of the guys.

    • Okay, I could see how this is viable. If you’re single and want something serious then you’ll go through the process of meeting different men to figure out who is the best of the bunch. But would that be the same way for me since I’m not looking to have a traditional relationship? I want to talk, spend time, hang out, go places, but I don’t want to merge everything about our lives. It told you, it’s Partner vs. Companion and I don’t want the paperwork. You can have me, but I’m not signing anything.

  • Just start dealing with someone you already dealt with before.

    • I feel like this thought is coming up more often these days amongst different groups of people. The things is, anyone who I have been with before, my views are different now and I don’t think any of them would understand or may take advantage of the whole companionship thing and mishandle it completely.

There were a lot more comments and suggestions, but this was the just of it. I get it ladies, I’m single, I have my standards, and I don’t want to play any games. I also don’t want to waste time.

I can't remember who said it to me, but one of my friends said, “Raya, don’t let any of these dudes out here try to tell you that you need to change anything about yourself especially if he’s not putting food on your table, paying any of your bills, and not calling you his woman. You can treat a man special, but don’t let him treat you like you're not.” My people aways big me up. Get you some people like this.

I Don't Date

I just observe if he’s worth my interest.

My dating life, I wouldn't even call it that. I meet people, if I like them, I meet them again, if I don't, I don’t. I’m not kissing anyone or sleeping with anyone. Listen, I may be too confident but I rather be that then not at all, but my Hello Kitty is too good to be touched by anyone.

Also, I’ve also developed a few turn offs recently:

  • E-cigarette or those smoke pens are not really attractive to me. It’s starting to resemble people who smoke cigarettes, like they can't go a day without one and they have to carry it everywhere with them.

  • People who like to talk about how good they used to have it when they made so much money doing things that were not legal. Like, okay sir, but did you developed any useful career skills from that?

  • Men who are too eager to get into relationships within the first few hours or days of knowing you. Why are you rushing?

  • Men who have newborns…there are so many concerns and unnecessary headaches with this one, so I just rather not entertain a man like this.

  • I don’t prefer men who take pride in receiving attention from just anyone. Have some self value.

  • And lose interest when men try hard to convince me they are "the catch", sir, if you are, you don’t have to tell me, let me learn that gradually. If our first few conversations are all about what type of man you are, then I don't need to know anymore about you.

Be safe everyone. 🙏🏽


Convos With The Fellas

“My latest whip, my latest chick both foreign…I ain't left the city once, still travel abroad.” - J. Cole

I reference my guy friends frequently. We talk about all things from social bs to business bs and they are very unfiltered with me, which I greatly appreciate. Here are some insightful tidbits from conversations I have had with the fellas:

I AM THE CATCH: My friend and I were talking about dating and he said if he dates a woman who has not accomplished some of the same things he has, then HE IS THE CATCH. In summary, he said: “If that girl is a sales clerk, working at McDonalds, or waiting tables, she can’t fuss at me about anything I’m doing because I AM THE CATCH. You just worry about making sure people get their food on time. And if you ask me if I am talking to other people, YES TF I AM, because you don’t match me. You ain’t bring nothing to the table, I am the table.“ — Now, ladies, please don’t be hard on my boy here or me because I completely agree with him, if you’re not matching me in what I’ve got going on in my life then Yeah, you just worry about you. And if you are working in retail that’s not a bad thing if that’s the field you want to stay in and you’re moving up to be in management or own your own store or even work in luxury stores like Chanel, that’s great. That is a goal! It’s the same if you are working in the restaurant or bar business and you are learning to move up in the industry. Baby, you do that! One of my favorite bars I go to, with some of the bartenders that’s their passion and skill, some of them are in school and just making some pocket money, and other are learning the field to start their own businesses. There is nothing wrong with that, just have a vision and make the move to make is a reality.

AGE GAPS: This is actually a common topic with most of the fellas mainly because they are of a certain age, but they are still attractive to younger women because they are handsome AND because of the first bullet point: They ARE the catch and listen, I would not want any of my guy friends making a fool of himself chasing after a child that’s not their own, what sense does that make? And all of my guys have said these something similar to this: “WTF am I going to talk about with a 25 year old? If we are just hanging out at the lounge that’s one thing, but there’s no reason to take it further than that.” One of the fellas said, “These girls talk too much and bring around their friends and they sit and gossip and be petty with each other and trying to be Instagram models and dancing on TikTok, you can keep that over there.” — Again, I agree with my guys. But the funny thing is, they also know about the 25 year old that’s been trying to get me and they all tell me to go have my fun with him and then send him home because apparently when they were all younger, they fooled with older women and said that experience taught them a few things about how grown women like to be and do things.

There Is No Reason For You To Not Be Successful: Now you already know I agree with this. One of the fellas said, “You have the internet where you can learn anything you need to make money, ain’t no reason for anyone to be broke and struggling.” He is so right. If you’re in college or just starting to work, yes it’s going to take time to make the money you want, but if you’re getting older and still relying on other people to get you right, then baby, you are a DEPENDENT and going back to point 1. I Am The Catch and you need to focus on building yourself up to be the catch too.

I’m Going To Tell The Truth Because I Can Deal With The Consequence: Two of the fellas have told me that they are very honest with women and their intentions. They let them know they are dating around or talk to other people. If they are out with one woman and another woman they are seeing comes around, they don’t ignore her, they will get up and greet her and show her love. And if it starts to get uncomfortable they will take the time to speak to each woman separately and be honest about what is going on with the other woman. — Ladies, with this one it is kind of a hard pill to swallow because there is not a large pool of decent men who mark off all the things we are looking for and when we do find that man our naturally instinct is not to want to share him and I said that to both of these guys. If I really like someone, I don’t want to see him with another woman regardless if our situation is casual or not, but I understand their point of view too and they both have said that they don’t go to the same place with the different woman so it limit the chances of running into each other and having any issues. So they do make a conscious effort to keep their ladies separate from one another.

“Hoes Balance Society”: These are the wise words from one of craziest fellas. He says look, you can be married, dating, focused on work and have a lot of things going on, but every now and then you just need to let loose, drink, fck, do some crazy shit, and get home safe. I love this man.

Don’t Bring Any Corny Dudes Around Us: Now this one is specifically for me. They strong on me not dealing with any nonsense from any man. Because no. 1, they are guys so they know how other guys are. No. 2, they are going to size him up to make sure he is good enough for me and No. 3, regardless if he is good enough for me or not the fellas are still going to hug on me, be fresh with me, talk shit to me and be how they normally are with me so if I man I bring around a man, he’s going to have to be very confident, otherwise he’s going to be upset with me and assume that I have something is going on with one of the guys. Yeah, I’m just not going to bring anyone around them. And they told me that I better not be on any dating apps. Another funny thing is if I am out with one of them and they see a guy trying talk to me but the guy doesn’t seem up up to their standard or my standards they will act like my man. The last friend I hung out with he went to the bathroom and another man came up to him and asked if I was with him. So I guess my friend knew he wasn’t for me told the dude, “Yeah, that’s my wife.” And this type of thing has happened a few times where one of the fellas will block a guy from talking to me because they knew it would be a waste of time for me.

One of the main reasons I love these guys is because they tell me how it is, they don’t water anything down for me, there is no bs-ing with them, and they are so supportive of me living how I want. So yeah, those are my fellas. I rock with them.