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“Then let’s go with that center brownie please!”
A few minutes later she was out the door. It was a beautiful day out, unseasonably warm, and it felt like the perfect way to kick off the week.
When she got to the salon, there was a lot going on. Drywall was up. The electrician was doing something up in the ceiling, and the plumber was working on the sink station. The general contractor was on the phone and Ashlynn felt a little guilty that she didn’t bring anything for him.
“Afternoon coffee break is on me,” she murmured as she happily looked around.
Then she kind of felt like she was in the way. There was so much happening that she wasn’t sure where she was supposed to stand or what she was supposed to do.
“Hey, Ms. Donovan,” Tanner Reese, her general contractor, said as he walked over. Smiling, he explained everything that was being worked on. “We have inspections scheduled today at four, so if I were you, I’d come back then so you can walk through it all with us. Right now, I’m trying to keep everyone on task.”
“Oh, um…sure. No problem. I guess I should have checked with you before just showing up.”
He was still smiling. Tanner was her dad’s age and she looked at him as an uncle rather than just someone working for her. “It’s your business so you can show up any time you want. I just figured you’d want to be here for the important stuff.”
“That I definitely do.” With a soft sigh, she nodded. “Then I’m going to take off and I’ll see you later this afternoon. I’ll probably bring my sister with me too if you think that’s okay.”
He chuckled. “Ms. Donovan, you are both allowed to be here. You don’t have to ask.” Someone called out to him from the back so he excused himself and walked away, leaving Ashlynn wondering what she was going to do with herself for the rest of the day.
Or…until four.
Reid immediately came to mind, but she knew he was back at work today. She’d been so busy all weekend that she never had the time to reach out to him.
Liar.
Okay, she still wasn’t ready to talk to him, even though she needed to.
Tonight. I’ll call him tonight.
That was one decision made; now all she needed to do was figure out the rest of her day. She texted Billie to let her know about the inspections and then tried to think of who else she could call or hang out with. Everyone was at work, so as she made her way back to her car, she decided to take care of some of the things she’d been neglecting, like shopping for groceries and doing laundry. Neither was very fulfilling, but she knew that later on, she’d appreciate the clean clothes and the ability to eat food that was already in her pantry.
After eating a sandwich, Ashlynn watched a tutorial on a new hair coloring technique she really wanted to try. The butterscotch ribbons would look awesome on Chloe’s hair and Ashlynn knew she was going to have to twist her sister’s arm a little to convince her to let her try it out on her.
“This would definitely look amazing on her and she’ll thank me later,” she murmured before taking the last bite of her sandwich. “And now I can finally have my brownie! Yay!”
Another perk to finally getting her life back on track? Not sitting at home all day. Between all the boredom and snacking, her jeans were starting to feel a little snug. Not that this meant she was eating her last brownie, but it would be nice to have a job to go to every day that kept her on the move more than she’d been for the last few months.
So she took her laptop into the living room and sat down to watch a few more hair tutorials for inspiration and at 3:30, she texted Billie to remind her to meet her at the salon for the inspections. After quickly refreshing her makeup, Ashlynn brushed her teeth and grabbed her keys, phone, and purse and was out the door with a bounce in her step. One more set of inspections meant one step closer to her taking ownership of the space and opening.
As usual, it was a quick drive, but there were a lot more cars parked out front so she had to park a bit farther down the block. A minute later, Billie pulled in right next to her. “Hey! Perfect timing!”
“I actually saw you drive by the coffee shop while I was in my car,” her sister said before walking over and hugging her. “Wow! Lots of cars here today. I wonder if they’re working on the other shops too?”
“Maybe, or it could be the different inspectors, right?”
They walked along the sidewalk until they stopped in front of the salon. “Are you ready for this?”
She shrugged. “Just inspections, right? Although, it means things are getting done and we’re getting closer to being able to get in there and start decorating and getting everything ready!”
“That’s going to a very exciting day when you get to go in and really turn the place into a salon.” She gave Ashlynn another hug. “I’m so happy for you!”
“Thank you. But I wouldn’t be here without you, so thank you.” She squeezed Billie tight before they stepped apart and walked into the salon.
As expected, Tanner was in the middle of the space on his phone while everyone was cleaning up around him. It took a solid five minutes before he was done and walked over to greet them.
“The inspectors are next door and will be right over,” he said with a big smile. “The guys are just cleaning up so nothing will be in the way.”
“Great!”
