‘That’s the thing though, I’m not even sure Iamlooking.’
‘Honey, we’re the same vintage and I’m tellin’ you, we have needs. You might have been able to bury them for a long time, but I’m willing to bet they’ve been stirring. You can’t keep denying the fact you are a woman in her prime. You are far too young to let yourself sit around collecting cobwebs.’
‘Charming image.’
Laurel shrugged. ‘It’s the truth. Besides, you don’t see men setting their age limits to their own age, do you? No siree. They have no problem dating a woman decades younger, so why the hell can’t you? Didn’t stop your ex, did it?’
Oh, that was a low blow. A fair point, but still, low.
Laurel changed the topic and they chatted about her kids and grandchildren, but Jenny pondered her advice about the age gap. Maybe there was a stigma of sorts attached to women and younger men and maybe it wasn’t exactly fair … but could she actually do it herself?
With Jenny’s hair washed and towelled off, Laurel pulled her chair over to sit behind her and tilted her head this way and that. ‘You’ve known me a long time now, correct?’ she asked, seemingly out of the blue, making Jenny chuckle at the unexpected comment.
‘I have.’
Laurel nodded. ‘So you trust me, right?’
Jenny eyed her cautiously in the mirror but nodded.
‘Okay. So, I’d really like you to trust me now and let me do something a little bit different with the cut today. I promise it won’t be anything extreme. Come on, live a little,’ Laurel said, playfully pushing her shoulder.
‘Oh, fine,’ Jenny said, blowing out a long breath.
Laurel gave a little squeal as she bounced up and down on her seat and clapped her hands. ‘This is going to be ah-mazing,’ she promised, her attention suddenly zeroed in on Jenny’s head as she went into some kind of creative trance.
Oh, God, what have I done?
Jenny paused and took a steadying breath before opening the front door and stepping inside. She hung her handbag on the hook and braced herself for the reaction she was about to get from her family.
‘Mum, have you seen any long-sleeve T-shirts for Sophie? I swear I washed some the other day but I can’t find them anywhere,’ Brittany said, walking towards a pile of clothes in a laundry basket on the lounge.
‘Ah, no. Can’t say I have,’ Jenny said, kinking an eyebrow as her daughter walked straight past her.
Chloe came running down the stairs and threw a general ‘Bye,’ over her shoulder, presumably in a rush and running late for her shift at the supermarket.
‘Mum, I can’t find my car keys,’ Savannah yelled, moments before she came hurtling through the room like a mini cyclone. ‘I’m going to be late.’
‘Have you looked on the key hook in the kitchen?’Where they’re supposed to be.
‘I looked there,’ Savannah muttered, and dropped the cushion she’d been lifting, to about face, and head back to the kitchen. Jenny heard some rummaging about then the clinking of keys. ‘Found them!’
‘Awesome,’ Jenny called.
‘Bye, Mum, love you.’
Jenny stood in the centre of the lounge room and listened to the house settle back into calm once again. She could hear the hallway clock ticking loudly.That went well, she thought, feeling a little despondent that no one had even noticed her new do, before heading upstairs to take a shower.
