Page 16 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
The line moves forward incrementally and Evie goes with it.
‘How are you?’ Oliver asks. ‘How’s the salon?’
‘Great,’ Evie says. ‘Busy. Busier than usual. We lost a hairdresser.’
Something passes over Oliver’s face. ‘Oh. That’s interesting.’
‘Why, are you wanting a haircut?’ she teases. The last time she saw him Oliver’s thick, dark hair was long, like a hippy’s. The seventies had stopped a few years before but he was clinging on, it seemed, given that his favourite band is Fleetwood Mac. But now it’s short and he looks better. Younger.
He laughs. ‘I could join the army with this, huh?’
‘You could.’
‘Not long now,’ Priss calls in her direction, nodding at the entrance gates ahead, and Evie nods her acknowledgement in return.
Oliver rubs the back of his head. ‘Do you like it?’ His hand drops. ‘My brother did it.’
‘Oh?’ Evie searches her memory for a mention of a brother and comes up short.
‘Sam,’ Oliver says. ‘He’s been overseas for a few years.’
‘Whereabouts?’
‘Italy. We’re Italian. He wanted to follow his roots. Or that’s what he said.’
‘You’re Italian?’
‘On Mum’s side. Dad’s English.’ He grins; it’s a knowing, sweet sort of thing. That grin was endearing when they met andshe finds it endearing still, almost like Oliver knows a joke and he’s deciding whether or not to tell it.
‘Do you speak Italian?’ She’s always meant to learn a foreign language and she bought some cassettes from a bookshop once – for Italian, actually – but that’s as far as it went.
‘A little.’ Oliver shrugs. ‘Not as much as Mum would like. But she didn’t want to speak it to us when we were growing up so it was hard to practise.’
‘Why not?’
‘She didn’t want us to be different.’
Evie nods slowly. ‘My mum’s dad is Chinese. So, um …’ She smiles ruefully. ‘I know what you mean.’
‘Really?’ Oliver frowns, and she knows why – her eyes are blue and her hair is light brown, so she doesn’t look as if she’d have Asian ancestry. Her mother thought it was a blessing when Evie was at school, with kids being cruel the way they are, whereas Evie loved her grandfather and wished they looked more alike. Often she dreamt about living with her grandparents instead of her parents, but it’s the lot of a child to rarely get what they want.
The line shuffles forward again and now they’re at the front of it.
‘Um, I …’ Oliver starts then looks mildly pained. ‘I hope you don’t mind … I have a favour to ask.’
‘Right,’ Evie says, wondering what it could be, considering he didn’t know she’d be here. Or did he?
‘My brother’s actually a hairdresser. He was doing that in Italy. Doing really well.’ Oliver smiles quickly. ‘But he wanted to come home.Mumwanted him to come home. And, ah … he needs a job. So I was wondering if, ah … if, um …’
His brow knits and Evie wants to save him the worry and fill in the rest for him, but at the same time she thinks he shouldsay it. If you’re asking a person for a favour it’s a good idea to actuallyask.
‘If you’re a hairdresser short, would there be a spot for Sam?’ he finally gets out.
She’s mildly irritated that he’s using this chance encounter to ask her for something, but she knows she’d do the same thing if it were her brother. Or maybe not, because her brothers don’t like asking for help. For Billy. She’d do it for Billy. And for Stevo, because he’s family too.
‘Maybe,’ she says to Oliver. ‘I’ll have to ask Trudy. It’s her place.’
‘All right, great, thanks, yeah, that’s good, fine.’ He sounds so relieved.
