“Hey, you sent me a video on WhatsApp,” Alex suddenly said. “Let’s see what it is.” He moved to sit next to me and then pressed play.
“Okay!” I said, slapping my hands over my mouth as I looked at it.
“Wow!” Alex said.
“We are really going for it, aren’t we?” I stared at the video in shock. Alex and I were kissing. But not just kissing, I mean, really,reallykissing. Tongues, open mouths, hands . . . We both watched in total silence and jaw-dropping shock, until the video cut out.
There was silence in the car after that.
“Well, that was—” I started but didn’t know what else to say.
“Interesting,” Alex offered up.
“That’s definitely one way of looking at it,” I said.
We sat in silence again. And then both of our phones beeped with a message at the exact same time.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Five words.
That was all. That was all we needed to be back on the road once more and heading straight back to where we had come from.
Julian:My wife is a hairdresser.
We drove in total silence back to the tropical beaches of Saint-Gilles where this whole adventure had started. The mood in the car was strange. We cast awkward smiles at each other and tried to make small talk the entire time, but nothing was really clicking.
Two words.
The video.
Images from that video were running through my mind over and over again, and whenever I looked at Alex, all I could see was his mouth. Lips. Tongue. Soft hands. Face. And I wanted them. I wanted them all, and not necessarily in that order and that thought made me feel very unsettled and somewhat confused.
We finally arrived at the address that Julian had sent us. Immediately, I could see that this was a much more civilized place. A row of pretty shops were set along a strip by the marina and hers was the third one. Its front was painted in a bright turquoise with gold lettering written above the door . . .
Halo.
Now that, that was a much better name for a hair salon. We walked inside and were greeted immediately by a bubbly redhead. She introduced herself as Emma, Julian’s wife. She had even cleared her schedule to help us, since this was such an “ ‘emergency,” and we were Julian’s friends.
My hair was not that hard to undo. The plaits that Salome had put in weren’t very good and some had already started coming loose. But once all the plaits were out, I had something that resembled a poodle. Emma gave me a quick wash and blow and soon my hair was back to normal. No one would ever know that I had once rocked braids and beads . . . except all those people who’d seen my social media over the last twenty-four hours, which was a lot. I’d also received some fairly interesting messages from my friends, mainly wondering if I was okay, had I lost my mind, why was I playing with a sex doll and why did I look like Destiny’s Child? The usual thing you would expect from caring friends. Except for that one message where Stormy-Rain actually thought I looked amazing.
Emma started on Alex. She said it would take a little longer, so I excused myself and went for a walk along the marina. It really was quite beautiful here. A row of palm trees ran the length of the water’s edge. Small boats bobbed up and down in the crystal-clear waters, swaying to the invisible current. The air was warm and smelt fresh and salty.
I continued my walk; all the way up, and then back all the way down. A pharmacy caught my eye, and I quickly went inside. I can’t resist a pharmacy, they always have interesting things, besides, I needed some more deodorant. I walked the aisles and found the deodorant, then something caught my eye and I moved over to them. Various boxes and packets of wax.
“Mmmm.” I bent down and took a closer look. I might need one of those. So I grabbed one. With all my stuff safely in a bag, I headed back out, just in time to see a dark-haired Alex walk out of the salon and into the sun.
I stopped and watched him. His hair wasn’t the same as before. That gorgeous salt and pepper hair was gone, now it was a dark, rich, warm, brown. But he looked amazing.God, he was really hot, wasn’t he?I mean, I knew he was hot, but all of a sudden, he looked even hotter. Hotness level . . . killing it. Hot AF. So damn . . . and he was nice. More than nice. Kind, funny, interesting and he’d kissed me likethatand told me I was beautiful. Now why couldn’t I have met a man like him instead of one like Matt? My finger itched and I scratched it, something caught on my nail and I looked down. The ribbon was starting to fray around the edges and a long green thread had come loose. I tried to snap it but it didn’t work and now I had a long thread dangling from my hand. I sighed and looked back up just in time to see Alex run his hands through his hair. The muscles in his arm and shoulder rippled through his clothing. Then he pulled his phone out of his pocket, almost in slow motion. He flipped his hair again and then raised his phone to his face. His big, strong, smooth hands holding the phone tightly. His fingers moved deftly over the phone screen. Nimble perfect fingers, surgeon’s fingers. I watched him, totally intoxicated by everything he was doing right now. And then suddenly . . .
“AAAHH!” I screamed, jumped and dropped my packet on the floor when my cell phone rang in my bag. It was so loud and had caught me so off guard that I’d almost fallen over in fright. The shout had caused Alex to look in my direction. He smiled over at me and waved his phone in the air, indicating that he’d been the one calling me.
I scrambled to pick my shopping up off the floor as Alex came running over.
“Let me.” He bent down and grabbed my things, slipping them back into the bag.
“Thanks.”So nice.“Your hair looks good.” I indicated.
He smiled. “Much better.”
