“Aha,” I said when I located the huge wad of gum in her hair. The gooey brown substance was peanut butter. She had hoped the oil in the peanuts would break down the gum and help ease it out of her hair.
“I tried ice too,” she said. “Nothing worked. I had to wait until my mother-in-law finished work before I could come in. Billy’s been gone for a few days and…”
I filed away her statement about Billy to be dissected later. The only thing that mattered was finding a way to remove the gum and make her feel beautiful again. It didn’t take me long to figure out what had to happen. “Honey, I’m afraid I’m going to need to cut your hair.”
“Billy is going to be so mad at me,” she said tearfully.
I hated men who thought they had the right to tell their wives how to wear their hair. Were those assholes up and styling their women’s hair for them every day? It was the same story all the time. “My husband doesn’t like short hair.” “My husband only likes straight hair.” Well, the world never had and never would operate that way.
I kept my opinion about her asshole for a husband to myself and said, “I’m sorry, honey. If I could find another way…”
“Just do it,” she said. “It’ll grow back and if he had been home like he should’ve been then maybe it wouldn’t have happened. I never let the kids sleep with me when he’s home. I didn’t even know one of the little buggers had gum in their mouths. I’m just lucky and grateful that they didn’t choke on it.”
By the time I was finished, Laura loved her hair. She gave me a tight squeeze and a nice tip before she left my salon looking much happier than when she arrived. I just hoped her happiness stayed with her once Billy decided to drag his ass home from God knew where.
“It’s not my problem,” I told myself when I finally trudged upstairs at the end of the day. “Hey, babe,” I said when my eyes landed on Detective I Can Fuck Like a Machine.
Gabe looked up at me from where he sat on the couch watching his sports talk program. “Hey, yourself.” I noticed he was staring at me longer than normal, as if he was assessing me.
“What?” I asked.
“I kind of miss the streak of color you used to wear in your hair,” he replied.
I narrowed my eyes at him before I stomped to my bedroom to put on more comfortable clothes.
“What did I say?” I heard him ask in confusion.
“Men,” I said to Diva who was curled up on my bed.
“WHAT ABOUT MEN?”I asked Josh. He was so worked up about something he didn’t even hear me follow him. I leaned in the doorway and waited for the show to start. Little did he know, I wasn’t in the mood to participate in whatever little tantrum he wanted to throw.
“You’re always telling people how to wear their hair and shit,” he snarled over his shoulder.
“I’mnot always telling people how to wear their hair,” I told him. “I simply just made a comment that I missed the color streak in the front of your hair. You’re the guy telling people how to wear their hair.”
“I make suggestions, but I always leave it up to them.” He narrowed his eyes when he realized what he said wasn’t much different than what I said. “I see what you did there.”
“What’s really got you upset, babe?” I went to him and tugged him into my arms, earning a glare from Diva who was enjoying the loving she was getting from her human. I listened to him talk about his crazy day and how it ended with Laura Sampson’s visit.
“Where’s he been?” I asked when he got to the part where she said Billy had been gone for a few days. We knew damn well that he’d been in town because both of us saw him multiple times the previous days.
“I didn’t ask because it’s not my business.” Josh stepped away and began to take off his clothes. “These damn hair disasters make a man hangry.”
As hard as it was for me to do when his clothes started coming off, I took a step back. “I’ll make dinner. How’s spaghetti and garlic bread sound?”
He pursed his lips and tipped his head. “I have stuff to make spaghetti and garlic bread?”
“You do now because I stopped on the way home. It sounded really good to me, but if you’d rather…”
Josh held his hand up to stop me. “No. Spaghetti sounds great. Just let me finish getting my pjs on and I’ll help you.”
“I can handle spaghetti,” I tossed over my shoulder on my way to the kitchen.
I felt his presence in the kitchen before I heard him because my guy was like a ninja. Josh poured himself a glass of wine and leaned against the counter instead of going into the living room to watch TV. “Okay, you heard all about my day so let’s hear about yours. How’d it go with IA?”
I started to tell him about the interview, but didn’t get past their names before he interrupted.
“Wait! Their names are Officers Ronnie Cobb and Lonnie Popp?” he asked, as if I was joking. “What did Ronnie and Lonnie look like?”
