Chapter Twenty-seven
Most of the businesses were excited to participate, and were offering up all sorts of goods in an auction, as well as willing to donate a percentage of their profits. I had face painters ready to go, and Autumn and Helen brought over a truckload of goods to sell. They were supposed to take a ton of pictures and live tweet from the party. We hadn’t really gotten along any better since I claimed Jake in front of them, but today they were my bitches. Or minions, whichever you wanted to call them. People started filling up the streets, and in no time the fundraiser was a huge success. I walked through my salon and saw everyone was smiling and having a ball. I went into my office to grab a painting that Jake had sent with the girls. Casey had done it, and I was trying to figure out where I should put it.
“Cammy?” Mary’s voice asked softly from my door. I turned towards her to see her glancing back out towards her hair station.
“What’s up?” I inquired, setting the painting down.
“There’s a chick here who keeps asking about you. She’s being all shady.” My feet swiftly moved over to where she was and peeked out to her spot. I wanted to laugh at what I saw.
Marlene Debarue. That little skank.
She was sitting in the chair in a black designer trench coat, and black sunglasses on. I would recognize her hair and facial structure anywhere.
“What has she been asking?” I was curious as hell. Jake warned her to stay away from me. She obviously wasn’t ready to give up, but was trying to sneak around in her little disguise.
“She asked if this was Cammy’s salon. If you were dating Jake, and did I like my job. I told her yes to the first one and excused myself to the bathroom. She is wanting a conditioning treatment to help bring out the shine in her blonde hair, and will probably keep digging. What do you want me to do?”
If I had an evil laugh, I would be doing it right now.
“I got this, Mary. Just get her a cooling eye pillow. I’m taking over after that.” I smiled mischievously. You did not fuck with Cammy Jennings. And Marlene was about to figure that out.
“Poor girl,” Mary muttered, but did as she was told. I knew what I had in mind was naughty, but honestly, she couldn’t do shit. Especially after today, I was the community’s sweetheart. Plus, I wasn’t afraid of her. I watched as Mary got Marlene a cooling eye pillow on her face and got her wrapped up for a treatment. The pillow would help with those bags under her eyes. Man, I was a bitch.
Moving quietly over to their station, I prepared my tools; while I listened to her ask questions about me. I motioned for Mary to scoot out of there and I took over, changing my voice to sound similar to Mary’s.
“So you do like your job then?” Marlene prodded. I dipped the brush into the liquid in the cup and started coating her hair.
“Well, between you and me, Cammy can be quite the slave driver sometimes.” I was so going to enjoy this.
For the next twenty minutes, I continued to talk shit about myself to Marlene, who I was pretty positive was trying to find dirt on me to blackmail me in some way so I would leave Jake. As if. I had her sit under the heat for another ten minutes and finally washed all the caked-on crud out of her hair. After rinsing, drying, and doing a really beautiful style on her. It was time for the reveal.
“Your hair is so gorgeous. The shine is so perfect.” I took a step back and took her eye pillow off for the big reveal.
Her ear-piercing scream made my insides all giddy. Payback was a bitch.
“Oh my God, what have you done?” she shrieked and finally looked at me. I smirked at her.
“I think you look great. I think it brings out the jealous snake that is on the inside. Green is definitely your color.” Oh yeah, I totally went there.
“You are dead,” she seethed. I just rolled my eyes.
“Whatever you’re thinking of doing, just stop that little thought right there. This is over. You are done, leave. You know you can’t touch me, and you know you don’t want to fuck with Jake, either. Stop acting like a spoiled bitch whose favorite toy belongs to someone else. Move on. Oh, and because I am not a complete bitch and I do think you have nice hair, the green will wash out in a week. But now you know not to fuck with me.”
A few of my girls yelled out, “That’s right, girl,” and “uh huh!”
Marlene looked around and I saw that she knew what I said was true. She was a brat, and there wasn’t anything she could do. She screamed in frustration before grabbing her sunglasses and stomping out the door. Good riddance. A couple of the people who were in earshot of us started clapping at her departure.
“Back to the party, people!” I hooted and cleaned up the mess at Mary’s station.
Everyone loved the fundraiser and when Jake showed up for a few minutes, I couldn’t help but run into his arms and kiss the shit out of him. This was a magical day, and I was having a blast. Someone snapped a picture while we were lip-locked, but I didn’t care. Hell, they could put us in the newspaper. I gave no fucks about it.
The party went on until 5p.m. and when it was all said and done, we had raised almost forty-five thousand dollars. We had a few large donations, and the auction was a hit. I was blown away by everyone’s generosity and willingness to help. It really said something about how everyone really can come together to do good in the world.
Once everything was cleaned up, and the salon was shut down, Jake and I went out for pizza.
“I am starving!” I groaned, while taking a bite. I hadn’t really eaten all day. It had been crazy, and I just didn’t think about it.
“It’s been a while since I ate pizza,” Jake commented.
“Well if I ever move in, you’ll just have to get used to it because pizza is a staple in my life.” True story, bro. He didn’t say anything to that comment. He wanted me to move in, but he knew I knew his opinion on the matter and he knew mine. No sense in battling it out now, especially not after the great day we had.
“Casey hasn’t been feeling well today.” I stopped eating and looked at him. She wasn’t feeling well?
“What’s wrong?”
“Looks to be just a cold. We are keeping a close eye on her though. With her compromised immune system, things could escalate quickly, but Doc thinks she’ll get over it soon.” I heard what he said, but I was still worried. From the moment I laid eyes on that baby tiger, she had captured my heart. I’d hate to see her sick. Poor girl.
“Okay, I think I’m going to stay on the rescue to help out until she gets better. Anything I can do.” I wanted to be there. I hated it when I was sick, so I bet she wasn’t too happy either.
“Sounds good.” We went back to eating our food, then drove to the rescue. I already had clothes and my cosmetics in his house, so I didn’t need to grab anything. Once we were parked, I headed straight to Casey’s habitat. She was running around, but I heard a sneeze here and there. She looked fine, so it eased my nerves. Jake joined me shortly, carrying some chairs with him, so we could sit near her and chat. It was nice. I told both her and Jake about the fundraiser, and how amazing it was. I told him about Marlene, which he got mad about at first, until I told him about dyeing her hair green. It wasn’t permanent, so I didn’t care. She totally deserved it. Hannah came and checked Casey out and said she was okay, and told us to go get some rest. I wanted to watch her and make sure she did all right throughout the night, but I knew she would be fine. No one died of colds. Except aliens who weren’t used to our bacteria, but she was no alien.
