~The Promise~

XIII

Talia was my stylist, or so she said. She looked too young to be anything but an amateur. She had dyed blonde hair combed incredibly straight with a sharp part on the left side. The hair stood in stark contrast to her dark black eyebrows.

"What are we doing to your hair today?" Talia asked. Again, before I had a chance to answer, Jennie jumped in.

"First, let's trim the eyebrows and then..." I raised my hand sharply and gave Jennie a look. I didn't want to, but I kind of felt I was losing myself. It was my head after all. "Sorry," she said and covered her smile with her hand. I gathered my thoughts and realized I screwed up.

"Um...trim the brows and..." I had no idea how I wanted my hair. I turned my head sideways and looked at it in the mirror. The messy hair look might be comfortable, but it looked like crap. I rolled my eyes, "and however she wants it." I nodded my head weakly toward Jennie who was no longer covering her silly grin. I had put my foot down, directly into dog shit.

"Get it just below the shoulders," Jennie kicked back in without missing a beat, "please color her hair brown but make it look as natural as possible." She touched just in front of my ear sending an unexpected shiver down my neck, "Can you layer it a bit, you know, a little modern style?" She had some kind of a vision for my head. It had to be better than my vision. Suddenly, I had two women touching my head all over, discussing their plans. I was a mannequin again.

I am not ashamed to mention the fear I felt when Talia came at me with a razor. I was white knuckling the arms of the chair and gritting my teeth as her hand approached. The blade looked hellishly sharp and she looked virginally young. I didn't move a millimeter as she started shaping my brows. It was an agonizingly slow process and I prayed the whole time I wouldn't see bright spurts of red liquid shooting up.

"I'm really quite good at this," Talia commented, when I inadvertently sucked in my breath, "it's been a long time since I have cut off anyone's nose." Jennie laughed. I remained perfectly still. It turns out Talia was right, she was very good at it. Not a nick or even a bad scrape. My nose was where it belonged when Talia applied a hot towel to clean my face. Talia's eyes went wide when she removed the towel.

"I know you." Talia's smile grew. "You're that promise girl." I think my face was already red from the hot towel. At least I hoped so. I raised my finger to my lips and formed the international quiet symbol. "You're the promise girl," she repeated in a whisper. I nodded my head. "Can I get an autograph?" she asked. I rolled my eyes. Jennie thought the whole thing was hilarious. Talia didn't wait for an answer, she grabbed a marker and I ended up signing her blow dryer. It was my first autograph, and hopefully my last.

Talia went to work on my hair. Large clumps were falling down onto the cape she had covered me with. I felt she was touching me more than necessary. Her fingers would slide along my neck and up behind my ear. She would lightly fluff my hair as she cut, her fingers not flicking, but combing along my scalp, almost petting me. At first I thought they were accidental. Their frequency increased and it began to feel like foreplay.

Jennie moved closer to me, examining the length being cut off. She absently placed her hand over mine. Like magic, Talia stopped the stroking. It was some kind of a secret nonverbal communication. Jennie stepped back again, but Talia never returned to the caressing. It was strictly hair cutting from then on and I was thankful for it.

I was able to stop the hair spray. Both ladies thought it would be a perfect finale. I thought it would be a pain in the ass. I didn't want to spend my mornings fussing with my hair. If my hair wanted to jump out of place, well that's everyone else's problem. I can't see it anyway.