Page 4 of Love Me Carefully
“I wanted to take you out. We’ll be alone soon enough.” He winked.
No, he wanted to be in control. Leon thrived on control, and normally that was fine with her. She ran a tight ship where her business was concerned, but in her relationships, as few as there were, she was used to letting the guy take the lead—at least until she was finished with him. Then it became her show.
Leon liked to make the plans, liked to come up with the surprises, and for right now, she was simply a willing participant. She dated for entertainment purposes only. There would be no grand love affair happening in her life, so there was never a power struggle. He could do what he wanted as long as she allowed it. Tonight, however, she wondered how long it would be before Leon would use his control to try to bed her.
The food came and she grabbed the waiter’s jacket sleeve. “Another drink, please.” This was going to be a long night.
* * *
“Who’s next?” Extravagantly painted three-inch nails tapped on the marble counter, waiting for a reply.
“Mary’s next on your list,” Rosie told the skinny young woman who stood in front of her, chewing gum loudly. “And stop chewin’ with your mouth open. It ain’t ladylike,” she fussed.
Keesha frowned at the older woman sitting behind the desk. “I never made any claims about being a lady.”
“And nobody’ll ever mistake you for one, either.” Rosie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mary, you’re next.”
A tall, heavy-set woman got up from the leather couch in the waiting room and walked over to the counter. Keesha stood on her tiptoes and raked her fake nails through the woman’s hair. “What are you gettin’ done today, girl?”
“I want something sexy. My man’s taking me out later tonight, and I want to look good.” Mary put her hands into her hair, trying to demonstrate a style. “You know, something like a little up, and then a little something soft around my face.”
Keesha smirked. “I know what you mean, honey.” Keesha made the gum pop again as the lie slid effortlessly from her lips. She’d do her best for the sixty-five dollars she was going to charge Mary. “Come on back.”
The two females walked to the back of the shop, where shampoo girls waited for their next client. Mary sat down and Chantel tied a cape around her neck before lowering her head into the sink and switching on the warm water.
The bell on the door chimed, signaling the entrance of yet another woman on a mission to be beautified.
Finished with her clients for the day, Rosie was still sitting up front playing receptionist. She didn’t mind the task because it gave her a chance to get off her feet until Donald came to pick her up.
“Hey Rosie, y’all got any cancellations?” Monica, a regular at Innovations Salon, came in on a fresh gust of cold air from outside.
“Now Monica, you know it’s Fridayandit’s Valentine’s Day. The other girls are booked solid and I’m finished for the day.” Monica was stuck-up, and a pain in her wide behind, so Rosie didn’t even entertain the idea of putting her in her chair.
“Come on, I know Nikki can probably squeeze me in.” Standing on her tiptoes, Monica tried to spot Nikki’s chair in the back. To her chagrin, Nikki was styling a client and had another client waiting in the chair across from her.
“Uh un, she got two back there and three waiting and she’s going out tonight. She ain’t takin’ no walk-ins. Why didn’t you make an appointment?”
“I forgot. I thought I was going to be out of town but then things changed. Can’t I just wait and see if she’ll take me?”
“You can wait, but I don’t think she will.”
“I’ll ask her when she comes up,” Monica said hopefully.
“Suit yourself,” Rosie told her.
Nikki wasn’t going to take her. Rosie knew that for a fact. Nikki was going out with Brock Fuller tonight. She’d sashayed and primped and chased that man for a full month until he’d finally asked her out and now that she had her second date with him, she wasn’t about to miss it. Nope, Monica would be sitting there looking stupid for a few hours before she’d finally give up and go home with her hair looking just as it had when she’d come in—a hot mess!
As the hours passed, ladies came in and out of Innovations, dropping lots of money on their way out. Rosie carefully counted all that money and placed it in the moneybag in the bottom drawer. When she saw Donald later, she’d give him tonight’s earnings, along with the receipts.
Rosie had worked at Innovations since its opening five years ago, but she’d only started dating Donald, the owner of the shop, five months ago. Donald was a good man. His wife had died three years earlier from lung cancer and he had concentrated solely on the business after that. But when the shop finally started turning a good profit, he’d relaxed a bit. His two daughters were grown and married with children now, so, after his wife’s passing, he was alone.
A few days before Halloween he’d come into the shop and asked Rosie if she’d go to a Halloween party with him. She’d agreed and, in time, they’d become an item.
Although Rosie hadn’t dated in more than twenty-five years, Donald was a good friend, and it hadn’t seemed so awkward when they started dating. Now Rosie had become accustomed to being with him. And just in the last month they’d started sleeping together. She discovered that she had missed that intimacy.
Sitting at the receptionist’s desk gave her the opportunity to keep an eye on what was going on outside the front door. In the last few weeks there’d been a lot of strange cars parked in their parking lot, with men they didn’t know driving them. All sorts of rumors were floating around, some of which involved the beauty shop.
An hour before closing time, a long black limo pulled up in front of the shop window. The two ladies that were still waiting to get their hair done stared out the window, wondering who would emerge from the vehicle. Rosie stopped massaging lotion into her hands and fixed her eyes on the limo.
