He patted the chair, and Lucy took his lead, plopping onto the seat. He met her gaze in the mirror. “Do you mind?” he asked, gesturing to her ponytail.
Lucy nodded. “Go for it.”
Colin’s grimace deepened as he gingerly tried to unwrap the rubber band. “God Lord, honey, I should have used scissors.”
The tie snagged on her hair, and she winced.
“You know these things are meant to tie up bundles of mail and not your stunning mane, right?”
“Yeah.” Lucy winced again as he tugged. “I grabbed it out of my—” Her what? Roommate, friend, husband? “My fiancé’s junk drawer this morning. I couldn’t find my scrunchy and got desperate. It’s scorching today, and I wanted it off my neck.”
“Scrunchy,” he muttered through a chuckle. He squinted at her hair as he untangled the last of the elastic and let her locks tumble down around her shoulders. He caught her gaze in the mirror with a satisfied smile. “Promise me you’ll never put a rubber band into this glorious hair ever again. It’s criminal.”
Lucy laughed. “Promise.”
“So, you’re engaged? Are you seeing Nat for an up-do consultation?”
“She’s seeing me, because I’m her favorite cousin,” Natalie said as she came up behind Colin holding a massive pink cardboard box. “And if she doesn’t let me do her up-do for her wedding, she will be disowned.” She shimmied her hips until they nudged against Colin. “Shoo. You don’t get to stand in my spot.”
Colin playfully stuck out his tongue at Natalie as he relieved her of the box and pried it open. “I’ve so been waiting for this.” He presented the box to Lucy.
Inside was an array of fancy donuts. One was topped with full-sized Oreos, another was covered in thick chocolate shavings, and one appeared to have bacon bits sprinkledon the icing. Every one of them were frosted to the hilt with bright, shimmering sugar.
“Bride gets first pick,” Colin said with a smile.
Another stylist approached them. Beautiful braids cascaded down her back. Some were black, and others were dyed turquoise with a stunning ombre effect where they faded to a lighter shade at the tip. They almost shimmered, like a mermaid tale.
“The gooey fudge is my favorite.” She reached into the box, and Lucy’s mouth fell open. The woman had the longest bright-pink fingernails she’s ever seen, but she plucked out a donut with caramel icing without any difficulty, so she must have been used to them. “I’ll leave it for you, bride,” she said with a wink.
“Oh, I?—”
All eyes were on her, the donut box looming in front of her.
“I think I’ll pass. Need to fit into the wedding dress and all.”
Turquoise braids threw back her head and laughed, a loud sound that reminded Lucy of a late-night lounge singer. “Oh bestie, you don’t fit the dress. The dress fits you. Take the fudge, you won’t regret it.”
Lucy’s gaze shifted to Natalie, who nodded at her.
Conceding, Lucy dug into the box. When everyone had a donut in hand, the three stylists circled behind Lucy’s chair and stared at her head.
“Okay, people,” Natalie said. “We have an engagement party in five days. What are we doing?”
“Keep her hair down,” Colin said with a decisive nod.
“Oh no, with this volume and natural curl, it needs to be up like a crown on her beautiful head,” mermaid hair insisted. “She’s a queen. She should look like one.”
“Really, Brit? I was thinking about an elegant, understated twist. After all, this is Lucy.” Natalie took a huge bite of her sugar encrusted jelly donut.
Mermaid hair, Brit, slammed Natalie with a look that made Lucy’s bite her lip. “What do you mean ‘this is Lucy’? Lucy is abride. BridesareQueens.Queens wearcrowns.”
“Yeah, but Lucy is understated. She’s not one for the limelight. Are you, Lu?”
Three sets of eyes stared at her expectantly. Lucy knew her cousin meant it kindly and not to insult her. This refrain was familiar in their families. Lucy, the understated one, the good girl, the obedient daughter.
And she was an out of the limelight kind of girl, because that’s who her family expected her to be. It was partly her own fault she’d let their perception of her eclipse her real identity and ambition, but that wasn’t why she couldn’t imagine being the queen Brit was describing.
She liked a little bling and glamour as much as the next Italian girl, but she couldn’t afford to lose sight of the fact that her engagement to Joel was not the real thing. This wasn’t some special occasion where she bought her dream dress and had her dream day with all her dream trimmings. She was nobody’s queen. Sitting in this chair with three hair artists assessing her like she was a lump of clay for their molding suddenly felt ridiculously farcical.
