Page 84 of Abdominal Snowman

Snowy Secrets

“Stay still,” she growled, weapon in hand.

“Sage, I told you I’ve done this plenty of times. I could even do it myself if you just let me have the—”

Sage dodged Soren’s grabby hands and danced out of his reach. Unfortunately, she’d just loaded the brush up with hair dye goop, and it plopped to the floor with a smack.

She lowered her head to stare, open-mouthed, at the dark blob on the white tiled floor. “Oops?” she offered, lifting both hands in innocence. Accepting the towel Soren handed her with a shake of his head, she wiped up the hair dye and whispered a short “thank you” to the sky as it came away clean, no stains left behind.

“I want to do it,” Sage whined. She used to dye Gabi’s hair all the time when they were in college, and getting to relive the experience with Soren was like coming full circle.

Soren relented and crossed his arms as he sat perfectly still for her to paint the first splash of darkness on. She smiled wistfully. It had been a few days since she’d heard from Gabi, and that wasn’t normal for them. What’s she up to?

As if the wind itself spoke to Gabi, a text buzzed on Sage’s phone from her back pocket.

“Hey, can you get my phone?” she asked Soren, turning to the side and offering him the device peeking over her jeans pocket. “What’s it say?”

“Getting there, getting there… Ugh,” he grumbled. Sage snickered at Soren’s giant hands. He hated using her phone because his fingers were too big for the screen.

“It’s Gabi. She wants to call you. Seems serious,” he told her.

“What? Why? Show me,” she demanded. Soren turned the phone her way, and Sage read the text.

G: Can I call you? 🙁

He was right. It was serious.

“Call her please,” she requested.

Soren did as told and then helped her balance the phone between her shoulder and ear as the line rang. Anxiety slithered through her chest. What had happened?

“Hey, girl.”

Oh no.

“You sound like someone kicked your dog, Gab. What’s going on?” Sage rolled her lips between her teeth, ready for a full-service tea session with her best friend while dying her boyfriend’s hair.

She loved her life.

Gabi sighed into the phone, a long minute of silence dragging past. “Do you remember Damien?” Her voice was a rasp.

“That tech bro that wanted to pay for your dinner in bitcoin?” He’d sounded like a real piece of work, but Gabi had been smitten with him the last time she’d heard. It was a whirlwind romance Gabi had texted her about a few days ago. Apparently, it had been going on for a while.

“He... Um... He broke up with me,” Gabi admitted. Her voice was totally flat, devoid of the usual spark of her best friend.

Her protective instincts fired up, and she wanted to know exactly who this Damien was and where to find him. I don’t have an abominable snow-boyfriend for nothing, dammit!

Soren eyed her curiously, and she waved the hand holding the bowl.

Sage had never heard Gabi this devastated. “Oh, hon. I’m so sorry. What happened? What can I do?”

“Nothing. It’s over. He was...He was a jerk anyway.” Something was wrong. It was in Gabi’s tone. There was something Gabi wasn’t telling her, and it had nothing to do with her reporter’s curiosity. This was all best friend radar, and Sage knew not to push. But...

She eyed Soren and put on her best puppy dog eyes as she spoke.

“That’s okay, you’re allowed to stew for a bit. But in the meantime…” Soren’s gaze flicked to hers and narrowed once he saw her expression. “I still have that vacation voucher. You know, the one that’s technically yours. Do you want to come for a visit? You can stay with Soren and me.”

Soren closed his eyes, as if asking for patience, and Sage silently cheered. That was basically a yes.