Page 8 of All Out of Love

She also pulled out a comb and began combing her thick, dark, very bouncy and healthy-looking hair that touched down just below her neck. Her very nice dark neck, he thought, as he looked downward. When he looked further down, at her sizeable breasts, he began to get an arousal. He quickly looked away.

“You look fine,” he said to her as he returned his attention to his phone.

“Thanks,” she said as she looked over at him. “But if I were to be honest,” she said, “you don’t.”

He looked at her when she made that observation. When he realized she wasn’t kidding, he laughed out loud.

But she was serious. She had this sudden, heavy urge to help him. She felt as if he needed help. Why she felt that way was odd in and of itself since she never felt that way about any man before. Not even her ex-boyfriends. Not even her ex-husband. But that urge to help this white man in his rumpled white dress shirt tucked halfway in and halfway out standing before her was there, and it was strong. So strong that she attempted to take her own comb to his messy hair. But he quickly moved his head away from her comb before she could connect it with his hair.

He didn’t mean to be offensive, but he wasn’t accustomed to anyone invading his personal space that way. Not anyone. But what he liked was that she didn’t seem offended at all.

“I was just going to comb your hair because it needs it,” she said in all honesty as she looked into what she saw as his very kind green eyes. “It’s just that . . .” She was looking at his hair again.

“It’s just that what?”

“It’s a mess,” she said. You’re a mess, she wanted to say. Then she couldn’t help herself. That urge was still too strong. She took her comb and started combing his badly out of place hair before he could move his head again.

Grayson couldn’t believe anybody would be that concerned about his appearance to do something this bold about it. And the care she was taking as she combed his hair, as if it truly mattered to her, floored him.

He looked at her as she combed. He ingested her sweet, fresh, perfumy smell as she softly combed his hair as if she was taking care of somebody very dear to her. Nobody took care of him. Nobody had ever bothered - not even his parents. But this stranger was? In this bathroom of all places? If truth had ever been stranger than fiction, it was in that moment.

“Now that’s much better,” Toya said when she finished combing his hair. “Although you need a shave too.”

“It’s been a long day,” Grayson explained.

But Toya would have no parts of his explanation. “That’s no excuse for poor grooming,” she said. “You look like you hopped out of bed, put on that shirt and pants, and the rest oh well. What the hell.”

Grayson laughed. Then he felt his own urge to know her. “Who are you?”

“I told you I’m here from the temp agency.”

“No I mean what’s your name?”

“Oh! Toya. Well, actually it’s Jameesha Latoya Morgan. But everybody calls me Toya or Latoya, which is fine by me.”

Jameesha, he thought. He liked that name. He wondered why she didn’t like it.

“But stop making excuses for yourself,” Toya said as she began putting her comb back in her purse. “That’s not a good look for anybody. Because it’s still a fact that you look like you got out of bed and hurried on over here.”

“Actually,” Grayson said, “I haven’t been to bed yet.”

Toya stared at him. “What do you mean you haven’t been to bed yet? It’s almost five o’clock.”

“That would be accurate.”

“You haven’t been to bed since yesterday?”

“Accurate again.”

Toya was floored. “Now that don’t make no sense. You have to sleep! What’s wrong with you? And I know you’re telling the truth because you look like you haven’t slept for days.”

Grayson smiled again. This girl!

“My mama never said much of anything worth anything ever, to be honest with you, but she always said you should never look like what you’re going through. Especially if it’s bad stuff. You look like what you’re going through.”

Grayson smiled. “Is it bad stuff?”

“Let’s put it this way: It ain’t good stuff,” she said, and he laughed. She liked his booming laugh.