AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dee always said I was his top customer and to call him if I ever needed an emergency appointment. Therefore, for the first time ever, I decided to try to invoke my rights by placing a call to his personal cellphone. He answered on the second ring.
“Dee Angelo’s.”
“Dee, this is Lily. I need an emergency ‘hair esteem’ appointment today. Can you fit me in?”
“For you, anything! But only if you can come now, sweetheart. I have a good fifty minutes between clients, if I skip my break. I’ll get Rachael to boot my next client. She’s always late anyway, re-schedules at the last minute, and never tips.”
I laughed and sped up my pace. Dee always called it like he saw it, and didn’t care who heard him. “Thank you so much. I’m about six blocks, no, five blocks away. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Alright hon, see you soon.” He hung up.
I ran off toward his salon, weaving myself between the people at the crosswalks, and made it to the mauve and black awning in less than five minutes. I pushed through the glass door and walked inside. The seats were full, as I expected on a Friday, but Rachael, the desk receptionist, waved me up to the counter. “Dee said to head on back.”
I gave her a small wave. “Thank you.” I walked past the desk and into the salon area. The décor was modern in style, with built-in beauty stations of mahogany finishing, black leather, and leaded glass. My gaze fell on Dee standing by his station.
Standing next to Dee, he was about four or five inches taller, bringing his height to around six feet. His slender frame was often covered in the latest trends—today skinny denim jeans and a v-neck print shirt—though he often said he wasn’t the one that followed the trends, he set them. His light green contacts and shoulder-length relaxed hair definitely stood out. And with his flawless honey brown skin, he was as exceptional as he defined himself to everyone.
“Hello-hello, pretty lady,” Dee said and motioned for me to take the seat in his chair.
I sat down and grinned. “You and Gregor are so complimentary today. You’ll both be to blame for my out of control ego.”
“If only we could,” Dee said. He shook his head. “I’d think you were fishing for compliments, but I know you better than that.”
Dee was right in a way, but I wouldn’t take either of their compliments to heart. I wasn’t bad looking. I had a heart-shaped face and what most would call a “button nose,” which I inherited from my mother as well as my long, black sleek hair and large deep-set silvery eyes. My lips, however, a little too wide and full, were from my father.
I sat down in the leather seat. “Thanks for taking me on short notice.”
“Well, let me get this long ass hair of yours tamed,” Dee said, removing my hair tie as he tut-tutted. “Why won’t you let me cut this?”
I made eye contact with him in the mirror and glared. Dee had been cutting my hair bit by bit every time I visited, creeping it up to below my bra strap. He joked about Mia Farrow’s cut in Rosemary’s Baby a lot and I feared one day I would zone out and find all my hair on the floor. “Trim, Dee. I mean it. A trim.”
“You could pull off a Mia Farrow,” Dee said on cue. “But keep on hiding behind your hair. Men will still find you.”
I pursed my lips. “What do you mean by that?”
“You frump around town, but men still see you. They still want you,” Dee said.
I snorted. “A man that only wants me for a short skirt is a man not worth knowing.”
Dee rolled his eyes back at me.
“Men are visual, darling. Vis-u-al. Since days of old,” he said, “the girl with the best draped skin fur got the men to risk their lives to feed her. Give them something to attract and they will listen to your feminism.” He chuckled at himself.
I focused on my hands and didn’t say anything. Teasing me about my clothing was Dee’s way, and he didn’t mean any harm. I had pretty much convinced him that it was to attract someone interested in my mind. But in truth, my body covering had started from my relationship with Declan, as to avoid being accused of trying to “pick-up” someone else, though he vocalized often his doubts in my ability to do as much. Declan occasionally added a bit of physical aggression for emphasis. However, that was the past, and I didn’t want to explain it now, so I drew from my old arguments. “If all he wants is a visual, then all he wants is sex.”
Dee lifted his shoulders, “So? What’s wrong with sex?”
I blushed and avoided the question.Nothing, when you’re getting it. “I came here for a boost, Dee.”
He beamed. “When I’m through with you,” he continued, “even you won’t be able to doubt how gorgeous you are.” He wasn’t joking. He took my thick, straight hair and added large body wave curls. He threaded my eyebrows, and even did my make-up. Lifting the mirror when he finished, his face lit up and my heart squeezed.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
I could only stare. It was my mother’s face staring back at me.
What would she say if she could see me now?
My mind pulled up a flash of pictures drawn by her first grade class. They all featured her as a wing-clad angel, hovering over Marymount Elementary.No time for that now.
