Cicely’s eyes narrow as she gets a better look at Avery’s face and the fading bruises. I see her fingers go white against the counter but her professional smile stays fixed in place as she reaches under it and brings out a stack of magazines and slides them across to Avery.
“Here ya go, sweetie. Take a seat at the first station right over there and look through these for inspiration. I’ll be right with you.”
Avery takes the offered magazines, sends me a nervous look but goes where she’s directed to. When she sits down and flips open the top one, I look back to Cicely and meet fire-filled eyes.
“Yeah, you want to fill me in on the situation I’m dealing with here?”
I pull my wallet out and slide my black Amex across. She makes no move to take it, just stares me down.
“No, it wasn’t me,” I tell her with a scowl. “She left him. This is the next step for her.” I tap the card when her stance softens. “Avery’s going to want to pay for this herself but that’s not happening. So, your salon is having a holiday special. You give her anything she wants and convince her to do all the things she won’t think of but goes towards a full makeover. Tip to toe, and it’s all going to come in at fifty dollars. The rest goes on this.”
A cagey smile spreads across her face. “I like how you think, mister.” She glances over to Avery briefly and then waves a tall stylish man in his twenties over and then turns back to me. “This will take hours for the full works. If you really want to go the distance, tip to toes as you said, then you need to do clothes too. How are you with women’s clothing? Do you have a good eye?”
She laughs at the fear I feel crossing my face.
“What’s up CC?” The young man asks while taking a good long look at me with approval in his eyes.
“Christian, your first client isn’t until noon. How would you like to play fairy godmama?”
His eyebrows shoot up wiggling the two hoops above his left eye.
“Girl, you know that’s my favorite trope! How can I help?”
CC laughs even more when my fear of women’s clothing turns into terror at the personal shopper she just assigned to me. She plucks my black card from the counter and swipes it and then hands it back with a gleam in her eye.
“Not me, him. Go ogle that angel at my station until you’ve nailed her sizes and then go with…” She looks at her screen, “Mr. Easton to outfit her from the skin out.”
Christian flutters his eyelashes at me.
“It would be my pleasure!”
A bead of sweat rolls down my spine. What the fuck have I gotten myself into?
Avery
I’m completely exhausted as we wait in line to pick up Chloe. My fingers keep reaching up to touch the ends of my new hair. I think…I think I’m happy with it but fear is a constant passenger that suppresses me. He would make me pay in the worst possible way if he saw what I’ve done. My new hair hits a few inches past my shoulders; I was too scared to go any shorter than that. With the weight of the length cut off, my natural curls have bounced up and it’s as glossy as midnight. That alone was a lot for me to take in but then there was eyebrow waxing, a makeup tutorial, and a mani-pedi. The last time I looked anything like this was for my prom in high school. I don’t recognize this woman. She looks stylish and polished, confident. I wish that my insides matched the outside more than anything.
I left the salon with two bags full of beauty products and makeup that they used on me and I know that the fifty dollars CC said the total bill came to was a lie. I might be out of touch from being locked away for so many years but I know all the services I had today were a heck of a lot more than that. I slide a peek at Easton but his face is set in a frown as he looks straight ahead out of the windshield. He paid for all of this and I don’t know how to bring it up without seeming ungrateful.
I lift a hand to chew on my nails but force myself to stop when I catch sight of the pretty sparkly nude polish on them. Geesh, I wish I understood men better. I can’t read Easton at all and it keeps me in a constant state of anxiety, worrying that I’m going to do something wrong and jeopardize our place with them. One minute he’s cold and blunt and the next he’s talking me down from a breakdown and paying for a makeover.
I came out of the salon hoping to see some approval for my new look on his face but all I got was a stony face and a curt, “Let’s go.”
I hate that I inconvenienced him today. He was forced to wait all day for my treatments to be done and I’m positive he’s annoyed that he didn’t make it to his office all day. The car moves up in the pick-up line and I dart a glance his way. The tense silence makes my skin crawl with nerves until I can’t stand it anymore.
“Mr…um, Easton, I mean. I just wanted to thank you for today and, and everything you’ve done for Chloe and me. I know it’s been a…hassle…with getting her into school, dropping her off and picking her up like this. Missing a day of work because of me. I promise you won’t have to do it again. I can…will handle everything going forward so as to not be a bother to you. But, thank you, thank you so much for, well, for everything!”
His head turns slowly my way and he hits me with his cold grey eyes that have darkened to slate causing me to swallow the lump forming in my throat.
“Avery, no one forces me to do anything. You are a bother to me but a bother Ichooseto handle. As for school drop-off and pick-up, one of us will be taking her every day. At least until your…situation is resolved, one of us will be escorting you everywhere you need to go.”
My mouth gapes open for a moment at his harsh words but then it snaps closed and I’m back to looking down at my lap. I can’t chew on my nails so I go to work on my bottom lip instead. I hate how insecure I am. Not being able to figure out if he’s mad at me or not just makes me feel like I’m still trapped. I don’t want to feel this way anymore.
The car slides forward bringing my head back up to look and there’s my baby. She’s grinning ear to ear as the monitor opens the back door of the car for her to get in and with a chirpy, “Hi!” buckles her in, waves and slams the door shut.
We pull away from the school and I turn in my seat to look back at her but she doesn’t give me a chance to ask how her day was.
“Mommy! I love this school! I have three new friends - Zandara, Peyton, and Emily. Miss Nicole, my teacher is sooooo nice! And we have a class pet! A hedgehog named Spike and…”
