Page 11 of Ignite
“Why are you helping me?” I asked. “I mean… I only met you lastnight.”
“Any friend of Liam’s is a friend of mine,” she replied. “Besides, I’m a sucker for a makeover. You’re pretty, Ali, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a man-eater in there. We’ve just got to bring her out toplay.”
I laughed nervously. “Sure.”
“You need more confidence in yourself,” she said. “It’s in there. Otherwise, you would never have walked into The Underground in the firstplace.”
“Do you really thinkso?”
“I know so. I’m a great judge of character. Just askAndy.”
He poked his head around the partition. “She’s right, you know. Listen to her, Ali darling. Time to burst out of yourcocoon!”
I laughed, starting to feel atease.
“So how did you meet Liam?” Faye went on. “He’s never mentioned youbefore.”
“Oh, I um… I only met him the other night. He helped me escape a guy namedMountain…”
“Mountain?” She made a face. “Good thing Liam was there, then. That guy is one of the kick in the balls, ask questions later, fighters. A few coins short of a dollar, if you know what Imean.”
Good thing he was, I suppose. Wondering about Faye and Liam, I got the feeling they were pretty friendly. She talked about him like they’d known each other a long time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were together. I died a little inside at thethought.
“You and Liam?” I asked, my heart withering just the tiniest littlebit.
“Oh, God no,” Faye replied with a laugh. “I’m not his type,honestly.”
“He’snot…”
“In a relationship? No. A man like Liam is hard to tie down. I’ve never known him to be in, or want, a relationship in all the years I’ve knownhim.”
I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and cursed my red cheeks. He’d only been nice to me because I was on my own and completely clueless. Nothingmore.
“Relationship is such a scary word,” Faye went on, oblivious. “It’s a foolproof way to scare off every man in a five-kilometer radius. Our handsome Badeincluded.”
After several applications of some product, a color, a couple of trips to the basin, and a few snips later, I was sitting in front of the mirror, staring at the stranger beforeme.
“Holy hell!” Faye said, clapping her hands. “Was I right, or was Iright?”
I ran my fingers through the silky strands of my newly straightened hair and couldn’t believe it. The fringe was heavy and brushed the top of my eyebrows, but it didn’t overwhelm my face, it framed it. Turning from side to side, I could see the red tones the color had brought out of the plain chestnut I’d been before. Then there were my eyes. The whole thing made them look likehoney.
I was seriously checking myselfout.
“My work here is done!” Andy declared, puffing out hischest.
“Thank you…” I said, sounding completelybreathless.
It was just a hairstyle, but seeing myself looking so different…it changed something inside me. Something really good. I felt like a million bucks as Andy removed the cape, my confidence really starting to fillup.
We left with promises to return, the hour creeping on. According to Faye’s plan of attack, we still had several stops before the battle waswon.
Next on the list was a boarded-up storefront on RussellStreet.
A knock on the door and a burly security guard later, we walked into a large warehouse space with white walls and skylights in the ceiling. Before us were racks of clothes, several tables full of shoes, and stands ofaccessories.
“What is this place?” I asked, raking my gaze over the clothing. It didn’t look like a proper shop but a warehouse. There were no mannequins or fancy displays in the windows, just piles of stuff organized by type and some makeshift cash registers by thedoor.
“It’s a pop-up sample sale,” Faye explained. “Designers do these sometimes to shift surplus stock and end-of-season lines. If you can get in early, there’s some amazing stuff for dirt cheap. Usually, the racks get picked clean after ten minutes of the doors opening, but today…” She spread her arms wide and grinned like a Cheshire cat. “VIP,baby!”
