Page 70 of You Only Live Once
‘Hiiii!’ A bubbly-sounding woman of Poppy’s age came in, snatching a quick double take at Jack as she did so. She had tumbling waves of electric-blue hair, beautiful skin and barely a scrap of make-up, save a slick of lip gloss, and looked amazing. Following her in was a slim man, of similar age or perhaps a few years older. He was tanned and beautifully dressed in a three-piece suit. Shiny chestnut hair was cut in a short, neat style and I could just see the tip of a tattoo peeking above the crisp collar of his shirt.
‘Hello,’ he nodded at me and then saw Jack. ‘Hello!’ he said again, this time with a lot more enthusiasm and emphasis. I flicked my gaze to Jack, who smiled at them both and put his hand out for them to shake.
‘Hi, I’m Jack. I’ll get out of your way now.’
‘Hi, Jack,’ Poppy said, giving him a big hug as she closed the front door behind her. ‘Any chance of a cuppa before you disappear off?’
‘I can do that!’ I piped up.
‘It’s fine, I’ll do it. You go off and start getting pampered.’
‘Oh, my goodness. This one’s definitely a keeper,’ the man exclaimed resting his hand momentarily on Jack’s arm and then, feeling the bicep, rested it a moment longer.
‘Oh, he’s not mine. I mean, I don’t keep him. I mean… we’re just friends,’ I bumbled, knowing that I was now glowing bright red.
I glanced at Poppy with a silent plea in my eyes for some help. She gave me a private smile, then stepped in.
‘Jack’s an old friend. He’s recently moved back from New Zealand, and is setting up his own business again. He’s lodging with Lily until he gets settled.’
‘And where are you looking to settle?’
‘Definitely in this area,’ Jack replied, smiling.
‘Shame. Well, if you’re ever looking for somewhere to stay in London, I’ll leave my card.’ The man gave Jack a wink and then me a large grin, which I returned. I liked him already. Hopefully I’d still like him by the end of the day.
The lady with the blue hair still hadn’t really said anything apart from her initial hi to Jack. I smiled at her and she smiled back, but still nothing came.
‘Well, I’m Lily, as you probably guessed.’ I held out my hand.
‘I’m…’ She looked at Poppy for a second as though she temporarily forgotten her own name. ‘Sorry, I’m just… I’m such a fan of yours. I’m a little bit star-struck.’ She laughed and pushed her hair back from her face with perfectly detailed fingernails. ‘I’m Jemima.’
‘But I thought Poppy said you worked with film stars and top models and the like?’
‘I do, all the time. But that doesn’t faze me. To be honest, I’m not really into movies or stuff like that. I much prefer a book and I’ve always loved your books in particular.’
‘Thank you. I’m so glad you enjoyed them and thank you both for coming here today to do this. I can’t say how much I appreciate it.’
The man waved away my words of appreciation and took my hand, folding his own over it. ‘I’m Martin and this is an absolute pleasure for both of us, darling. We’re going to make you look fabulous. Not that you don’t already. Just a bit of shoozing up, you know, give you a bit of confidence.’
‘That would be wonderful. I definitely need some of that. I’ve never really done anything like this before.’
‘It’s really good that you are,’ Jemima said, fastening a hairband around my face with all my hair scraped back out of the way. ‘I can’t wait to see the film, although of course it won’t be as good as the book. They never are. I’m going to see it, even though I don’t especially like films, just because it’s your book.’
‘I really hope you enjoy it.’
‘Come in.’ Poppy led them through to the dining area, which was being commandeered as a temporary beauty salon while Jemima and Martin, hopefully, worked their miracles. Jack was busying himself at the other end of the room, getting out all the paraphernalia for tea and coffee, before wandering over and asking who wanted what. As he walked back, the muscles in his tanned legs were on show in his shorts and both the stylists watched him a little longer than was strictly necessary. I didn’t blame them, I might have had a sneaky look myself. Unfortunately, when I looked back, Poppy was looking directly at me and gave me a secret smile which I pretended to completely misunderstand.
‘Now let’s have a look at this hair,’ Martin said, walking around me, feeling my hair, flicking it out and doing various other things I didn’t understand. ‘It’s a good colour, although we could probably brighten it up a little bit.’
‘How bright is bright?’ I asked.
‘Not as bright as Jemima’s, don’t worry.’
‘It’s not that. I actually think your hair is beautiful. I’m just not sure that I could pull that off.’
Jemima raised a hand to her own hair and touched it briefly, smiling and thanking me for the compliment.
‘But Poppy said you were looking to go quite short today, so we can always start with the cut, and then go in with the colour.’
