Lyssa saw the opening. She had been here all her life.”
-- Narrator (Happily Ever After)

Importance: This quotation describes the attitude and approach Lyssa takes towards the understanding that the music video director wants to have sex with her. It is not entirely clear whether she hopes to gain some advantage by sleeping with him, but this part of the narration shows that she has been conditioned to see opportunity. In the larger context of the story, it is clear that because she is Black, she has felt the need to make the most of certain situations to gain equal treatment that she may not otherwise have — for example, when her mother is ill, she dresses up before meeting with doctors in the hopes of gleaning the same information from them that they would give to a white woman. Regardless of her intentions, the quotation stresses that she is used to making spontaneous decisions based...