Page 10 of Ignite
Spotting Faye’s blonde hair through the mass of people, I straightened up. When Liam introduced me to her last night, she’d intimidated the hell out of me. Seriously, she was perfect in every way I wasn’t. Beautiful, confident, admired, and lusted after. She’d just taken me under her wing, no questions asked, and started chattering away like I was her new best friend. There were no snide comments or passive-aggressive compliments. She was just…genuine.
Every man in a twenty-meter radius turned and watched her walk toward me, their eyes settling on her tits and then her ass as they got the back view. I felt a small pang of jealousy, but standing side by side, there was no competition. Faye looked like a Victoria’s Secret model, and I… There were no words forme.
“Ali,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me tightly. “Good, you’re here. I thought you might do a runner onme.”
I’d contemplated it, but I was far too curious not tocome.
“You don’t have anywhere else to be today?” she went on, not even waiting for a reply. It was like she knew I was a woman of few words and was helping me out by filling the silences. When I shook my head, she said, “Great! I’ve got a whole day planned for us. Shopping, hairdresser, makeup, theworks.”
“Shopping?” I asked. “Hairdresser?”
“The churros come later,” she said with a thousand-megawatt smile. Great, she had perfect teeth,too.
“But…” I began, embarrassment flaring. There was no way I had the money to pay for her grand makeover. All I had to my name was the sixty dollars in profits from my two lucky bets at TheUnderground.
“Don’t worry about it,” Faye said, keeping her voice low. “I know a guy who knows a guy.” She winked, over exaggerating the gesture. “Free will never look sogood.”
“Free?”
She laughed, threading her arm through mine. “You’re hilarious, Ali. C’mon. Let’s start with yourhair.”
As she practically dragged me down the street, the crowd parted as we went. Usually, I would put my head down and weave around slow walkers but not Faye. Her presence demanded attention, and like it was an unconscious response, people just moved aside. All I could do was follow, completely shell-shocked.
After crossing at the pedestrian lights, she towed me into a doorway jammed between a cafe and a convenience store. Reading the sign as we passed, I realized we were at a hairdressing school. Rush Academy. A chalkboard just inside was scrawled with the current price of a student’s haircut with basic colors starting at fortydollars.
Clattering down the concrete stairs, we found ourselves in a basement area that’d been renovated into a hairdressing salon. There was a desk with a telephone and an appointment book, a shelf jammed with various bottles of shampoos and other mysterious products, and a dozen or so chairs before floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Behind a partition was a row of basins, and beyond that looked like a staff and student onlyarea.
The entire place was empty—school wasn’t in on a Saturday—but the moment we stepped into the salon, a man appeared from a doorway to the side. When he saw us, he smiled, throwing his armswide.
“Faye, darling!” he exclaimed rushing over to air kiss both her cheeks. “Right on time, sweetie.” Turning to me, he looked me over and nodded. “This must beAli.”
“This is Andy,” Faye said. “He’s a teacher here and owes me about a millionfavors.”
So that was why this was on the house. I began to feel a little better about being poor as hell, and I turned to Andy. He was tall, slim, and had an artfully messy swept back hairstyle. His clothes echoed the look one hundredpercent.
“Darling, come with me.” He guided me to a chair and flung a cape around my shoulders, fastening the button at the back of my neck. Undoing my plait, he combed out my hair with his fingers and made aface.
“Let’s relax and straighten the frizz…” Messing up my hair, he stared at me in the mirror. “Your color is nice, but I think we can put a nice semipermanent through there to add some warmreflect.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but it soundedfancy.
“Then some layers and a fringe,” Faye added. “Heavy, blunt. Totallysexy.”
“Yes!” Andy exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Totallyrunway.”
“Is that good?” I asked, wringing my hands together under thecape.
“Is it…” Andy waved his hand and spun my chair right around. “Darling, when I’m done with you, you won’t know yourself. You’ll be a whole newwoman.”
“Sex on a stick,” Fayedeclared.
It was their way of saying they thought I would look beautiful, so I smiled. Just once, I wanted to hear someone say it to me and mean it. Justonce.
“I trust you,” I said toAndy.
“Oh, my sweet…” He fanned himself. “Those are the words every stylist dreams of hearing. You must let me do your hair from now on. Ali, you’re a gem. I’m going to make yousparkle!”
Faye pulled up a chair beside me and chatted away happily with Andy as he brushed layer after layer of chemicals on my hair, and when I was wrapped up, she handed me some magazines with instructions to pick out clothes I was into so she could figure out mystyle.
