Page 59 of The Moment You Know

Jules took Paige’s hand and held it firmly. “Do you trust me?”

It wasn’t the first time Jules had posed that question in their long friendship and even though there had been a few times the results had gone a little sideways, Paige nodded, because Jules was her person.

“Then calm down, shut-up, and let Sophie work her magic. Please. You need this.”

A little reluctantly, Paige let her hair get washed and conditioned, and when they were back in Sophie’s chair, Paige cleared her throat. “Please don’t cut my bangs. I’ve almost got them right where I want them,” she told Sophie, not wanting the months she’d invested in growing her bangs out to have been in vain.

“Don’t worry,” Sophie replied cheerfully. “I’m not cutting your bangs. I’m cutting everything else.”

At Paige’s look of terror, Sophie smiled. “Close your eyes if you can’t watch, because it’s coming off.”

The first cut was the hardest and it was a doozy. Sophie literally pulled her hair into a ponytail and then chopped it off; Paige’s eyes watered a little in shock at seeing her hair go from the middle of her back to just touching her shoulders in five seconds.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

Sophie nodded approvingly. “It looks better already.”

Paige endured the rest of the haircut with her eyes closed, only opening them when Jules announced it was time to look. When she did, Paige was pleasantly surprised to see that her longer bangs now blended with her shorter hair into a tousled bob that was very flattering. “Oh.”

“I told you so,” Jules murmured smugly.

After Sophie dried and styled Paige’s hair into big, wavy curls, Jules insisted on augmenting Paige’s conservative make-up with more eyeliner, mascara, and a raspberry colored lipstick.

“I really like that color on you,” Jules said, giving the lipstick her seal of approval as she was paying for Paige’s visit. Then, deciding her friend needed to have it, Jules stepped away and went to the large make-up display and grabbed a new tube. It was $38 dollars, but she didn’t hesitate to get it added to her bill.

“You’ve already spent way too much—” Paige started to protest.

“Fuck it.” Jules pulled out her credit card. “It’s your birthday.”

Jules then shocked Paige by taking her on a bar crawl, which was a rather clichéd birthday outing and Jules normally didn’t do clichés. In each establishment Jules ordered the drinks for both of them and it soon became clear there was a running theme by the names of the beverage choices that were made: Silk Panty Martini, Between the Sheets, and Sex on the Beach.

By the time they hit the last stop on the tour, a bar called Three Amigos, they were both feeling the effects of the alcohol and Paige had forgotten she was dangerously close to being forty years old.

Chapter 23

Evan had just finished making what felt like the 500th Cosmo of the evening, when he glanced up and saw a woman wearing some sort of a crown sitting at the bar, off to the right. She hadn’t been there a second before, so it was almost like she’d just magically appeared and when Lars, the other bartender working with him started to beeline for her, Evan almost clotheslined him.

“That’s your end of the bar,” Evan told him, pointing for good measure.

“Asshole,” Lars returned, mostly good-naturedly, but backing off because Evan signed his paychecks.

Evan wiped his hands on a towel before making his way over to the woman, who looked like she might have already had a few drinks and smiled at him as he approached.

As he stopped in front of her, he hoped like hell that she wouldn’t order a Cosmo, because then he might have to kill himself.

“Who’d have thought an angel would appear on the day I had to fork over a small fortune in taxes?” he asked, speaking loud enough to be heard over the live band that had just kicked off their second set and introduced himself. “I’m Evan.”

“I’m Paige,” she semi-shouted back, quickly taking in his warm brown eyes and engaging smile, instinctively knowing that he was a consummate flirt and therefore way outside her possible dating pool; she had to learn to swim in the shallow end before moving into the deep end.

It didn’t mean that she couldn’t enjoy the view, though.

Evan leaned forward and as he did, he noticed the freckles liberally splashed across her nose and cheeks that gave her a ‘nice girl’ vibe, which was reinforced by her large, amber eyes. He immediately relegated her to his discard pile since he didn’t do nice women—and this one looked like she was a sweetheart. “Nice to meet you, Paige. What can I get for you?”

“Nothing yet. My friend has to order for me.”

He looked around, but didn’t see anyone with her. “Is your friend … imaginary?”

“What?” She laughed. “No.”

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