“Probably,” Tabby agreed while secretly wondering if Toby had been freaked out by her previously hairy pussy.
Adrie informed her that time was running out before ‘your next appointment,’ so she drank tea and ate papaya in The Pearlescent Room while Adrie finished her pedicure. Then it was back onto the bed for the threading and eyelash stuff.
“Thank you,” she told Adrie when they were finally done. “If you ever want a tattoo, I’ll give you an amazing discount.”
“Thank you, Tabby, and please, sleep more.”
Considering who she was meeting tonight, Tabby very much doubted that would happen, but she smiled and nodded nonetheless.
“Here. This is where you’re going for your next appointment,” the emotionless receptionist said when Tabby floated out of The Pearlescent Room. She shoved a card at her, and Tabby took it. The paper was cream-coloured and thick, folded into half, and as she stared at it, the world stopped spinning.
Jo.
Jo had found her.
Jo had sent her another message.
“Are you okay?” The receptionist asked.
“I… I…” Tabby opened the card with fingers that felt like old capsicum slices. She read an address for a place called ‘Steel Gloss’ in Armadale, but it didn’t help. Her brain was teeming with thoughts of Jo in her tattooing chair, asking if she knew where single men over forty-five drank.
“Oh my God,” the receptionist gasped. “You’regreen.”
“Shit,” Tabby mumbled. “I was supposed to be a golden goddess.”
The receptionist gave a shocked laugh and it was the realisation that this hot, cyborg lady was an actual person that pulled her out of her head.
“Sorry,” she said. “I just… tough week.”
“Let me get you some free samples,” the woman said, as though she were prescribing diazepam. “I’ll grab some mineral water, too.”
Rehydrated and thoroughly embarrassed, Tabby left the day spa in a black taxi Toby had arranged for her. She slumped into the leather seats, trying to forget the white card and her mother.
“You okay?” The driver said, watching her in the rearview mirror.
Tabby nodded, wishing she was invisible.
Steel Gloss turned out to be an upscale hairdressing salon with an industrial, almost grunge aesthetic. The hairdressers circling the red vinyl chairs were young, wiry, and heavily tattooed, and she was directed to a Scottish twenty-year-old with catlike green eyes.
“Nice t’meetcha,” the woman said. “I’m Neve and I’ll be taking care of your hair and your makeup today.”
“Hairandmakeup?”
“Ya, we’re a full-service salon. Bridal parties and the like.” Neve flashed her a smile. “So, what d’you want done w’ya hair? Blue again?”
Tabby studied herself in the water-flecked mirror. Her skin looked dewy, and her nails were perfect, but her hair was limp. Mouse-brown almost to her ears. “I… don’t know.”
“I’ll getcha wine, and you can have a think.”
A burst of raucous laughter had Tabby looking into the corner of the studio. A group of women sat having their hair styled. They were all wearing white sashes, and Tabby realised they had to be having a hen’s party. They were all well dressed with designer handbags at their feet. The kind of women who added group beauty treatments onto a night out the way she added hot apple pies to a McDonald’s order. But they looked happy. Really happy.
She thought of her sisters and wondered if they’d ever do anything as goofy as a bachelorette party. Nix hadn’t wanted one, and Sam wasn’t getting married, so that left her. The girl is currently haunting her own house like Casper, the irrelevant ghost. Shaking off the unhelpful thoughts, she returned to her reflection. What colour did she want her hair to be? It had been an unnatural shade since she was fifteen, bleaching it in the sink with Nix’s help. Candy pink, maybe? Lavender?
She pulled her fringe away from her face and realised there was a reason she hadn’t re-dyed her hair in months. One she couldn’t admit to herself, let alone to anyone who did hair in Brunswick.
“Here’s y’wine,” Neve said, returning with a flute of bubbles. “Thoughts on colour?”
Tabby swallowed a mouthful of sparkling wine, and the lightness helped make up her mind. “I think… I think I want to go dark.”
