“Nope, it's okay. It's all okay.”
“But it's not, I’m crying. I’m under attack, why would…why would Cassandra do this to me? She was a person I could look up to. Someone who helped me, guided me. Why?”
“We don’t know yet, but we will soon.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” It was the only promise he could make.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime. Anytime, seriously.” He didn’t want to go into depth about how literally he meant what he said, but hopefully, she’d know.
“I need to go see the girls. We are taking my braids out tonight, so I might not sleep here tonight; we’ll get done late and I don’t want to bother you.”
She’s taking out her hair? What does that entail? How long does something like that actually take?
“It's fine if you do. I want you to bother me. You can come to bed whenever,” he said, hoping to convince her to sleep there with him. It was incredibly comforting to have her by his side. Not only because it made her easier to protect but also because he simply wanted her there. She brought the warmth and comfort he’d missed since he’d started being an assassin, something he’d never thought he’d get back.
“We’ll see. How do I look — do I look like I was crying?”
“I’m sure the girls won’t care about that, Flora.”
“I do,” Flora said, wiping her face.
“Yes, you look like you were crying,” Dylan admitted, giving her a pointed look.
“Okay where is the bathroom?”
“One is connected to this room, right there,” he said, pointing toward the bathroom.
“Flora, how long does it take to 'take out your hair'?” he asked, pulling out his phone.
“My braids are waist-length, so normally six to seven hours?”
Six to seven hours? So he had six to seven hours to do what? What could he do in that time without her? Should he just go with her to take her hair out? No, she needed this time with Luxe and Willow…without him. Disappointed, he rolled over shuffling under the blankets after kicking off his shoes.
“What are you doing after you take them out?”
“I’ll let my hair rest for a few days before I put them back in.”
“Oh, okay,” he said, an idea coming to him. If she’s going to put them back in, maybe he could help her. If they take so long to take out, they must take as long to put back in, right?
Dylan opened up YouTube and began his research by looking up braiding videos. Typing ‘braiding’ in the search bar didn’t work. Those braids didn’t look like Flora’s. He tried again, typing 'box braids'; he was sure he’d heard Eddie using that lingo. Still too many different types of braiding videos came up. One had six different ways you could start a box braid and he was getting nowhere.
“What kind of braids do you have?” Dylan asked, scrolling through videos.
“Knotless braids are what I’m doing the next go round. Something less straining since the break between styles is so short, why?” she asked, walking out of the bathroom and patting her face with a paper towel.
“Just wondering,” he mumbled, typing 'knotless braids' in the search engine. That finally limited the types of videos that came up, thank God.
“Okay, can you walk me to their room?” Flora asked, a little bag she filled with hair products hanging off her shoulder.
“You could bring the party here?” Dylan suggested, knowing damn well what her answer would be.
“Dylan,” she said pointedly with a laugh.
“Let’s go.” Dylan jumped up from the bed, saving the video tutorials for later.
