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I reached out and grabbed a strand between my fingers. “What’s your natural hair color?” I asked.
Annie reached out and gently pushed my hand away. Her cheeks flushed pink as she placed the strands behind her ears. “Why? Is the current color not to your liking?” she asked.
“Just curious.” I was. Ever since Annie spilled her coffee on me, I’d been drawn to solving the mystery of the woman in front of me. I wanted to know everything there was about her because she wanted me to know as little about her as possible.
It was trite, but I was the type of person who was more interested the more you placed something out of my reach, and despite our arrangement, Annie felt as far out of my reach as possible.
“My real color is blonde,” she said. “I tried to dye it brown six months ago, but it didn’t turn out well.”
I didn’t argue with her on that. Annie was a naturally stunning woman, but it was obviously that someone had fucked up her hair. Parts of it were bright blonde, nearly white, others were dark, and some appeared orange in the wrong light.
It needed to be fixed before Friday’s charity event, but I wasn’t going to broach that subject. Not yet at least.
“Why are you at my house?” Annie asked me.
I wanted to say something flirty, but the time for that had passed. I could see that Annie was closed off to that, and I wanted to kick myself. I’d inadvertently pushed her too hard.
“I needed to go through some things with you,” I said.
Annie’s brow rose. “I thought that we already talked about everything yesterday when I signed the contract.”
“There’s a charity event this Friday, and I’d like to announce our relationship during that time.”
Annie palled. “Announce?” she asked.
I nodded. “Nothing formal,” I said, realizing that ‘announce’ might have been the wrong word. “We would just go to the event together. Maybe take some photos.”
Annie shook her head. “I don’t want to be photographed.”
That gave me pause. “What?” I asked, sure that I must have misheard her.
“I don’t like having my picture taken,” she said.
I wasn’t really sure what to do. Being photographed together was part of the deal. I couldn’t exactly have a public relationship if we weren’t photographed in public together.
“I’m not saying that I never wanted to be photographed together. Just not yet.” She reached out and touched a strand of her hair. “I’m not exactly looking my best, and I would have liked having the opportunity to get myself together.”
I sighed. “Can we go inside and talk?” I asked. I didn’t want to be getting into this conversation in the middle of a hallway that smelled like a mixture of cat piss and human excrement.
Annie sighed, but she turned and opened the door. “Come on in,” she said.
I stepped inside doing my best to keep the shock off my face at the smallness of the space.
“Welcome,” Annie said.
I stepped inside surprised by how tiny but clean the space was.
“Julia, we’ve got a guest,” Annie called out, as she walked further into the space. I looked across the room to see Julia laying on a bed in the middle of what looked to be in the living room. The comforter was a bright turquoise, and there were pillows surrounding her that were bright orange and yellow.
“Ezra Wright?” Julia asked. I noticed that she was laying in the bed, her leg in a brace, propped up on a pillow. “What are you doing here?” There was anger in Julia’s voice, and I suspected that it was because she thought I’d fired her friend.
“He came to talk to me about some work stuff,” Annie said, jumping in to save me from the third degree.
Julia wasn’t going to let it go though. I could see it in her eyes. She was like a Pitbull, and sometimes, that could work for me, and other times, like now, it worked to my disadvantage. “I hope you aren’t going to help him considering he fired you.”
Annie sighed. “He didn’t fire me. Human Resources did.”
Julia’s lips pursed as she looked me up and down, disgust in her eyes. “You didn’t stop it.”
