Page 56 of Still Love You

"So you don't think I should cut it?"

"It's your hair. You can do what you want. I'm just used to seeing you with it like this."

"If you like it that much, I'll leave it. I was just going to cut it so it wouldn't keep falling on my face when I'm trying to work. Sometimes I pull it back, but it doesn't stay."

She tilts her head, eyeing me. "Hmm. It would be interesting to see you with shorter hair. I love it long but maybe it's time for a change. Can I go with you?"

"Where?"

"To get your hair cut."

"Are you going to tell them what to do? Because I have no idea what to tell them. I've had this same haircut forever."

"I can help with that." She pulls my hair back. "You can't go too short. It'd be too much of a change. And I'd like to still be able to see your natural wave. This is going to be so much fun! Let's go tonight. I'm sure I could get an appointment somewhere."

"Tonight? That's kind of soon."

"Do you need more time to think about it? It is a big deal to change your hair. Sometimes it takes me months to decide what to do with mine."

I don't care about my hair. I only said that because I'd rather be alone with Willow tonight to see if she'd like to act out some of her dream. But that probably won't happen so I might as well cut my hair.

"Let's go tonight," I say.

"You sure?"

"Positive. Come over early. You can eat at my house. We've got some vegan chicken nuggets that aren't too bad if you cover them with barbecue sauce."

"We have those too. They're good." She jumps off the truck bed. "Just call me when you're ready and I'll head over."

I'd rather take her out for dinner but I have almost no cash and I can't keep asking my mom or Martin for it. They have no problem giving me money but I feel like a kid when I take it. I'd rather earn my own.

"You leaving?" I lift the truck gate up. 

"Yeah. You need to get to work and I need to return the car to your mom."

"Thanks for lunch." I wrap my arms loosely around her waist.

"I know lunch wasn't very good but I wanted to see you." She's being very open about her feelings today. She was last night too.

"What are you doing this afternoon?"

"I was thinking of helping my mom with the farm stuff so she wouldn't have to do it tonight. She's really tired when she gets home from work."

"What farm stuff?" I ask, hoping I don't sound as anxious as I feel.

"Orders, payments, billings. That type of stuff. It would actually be good experience. I want to run a business and the farm is a business. Maybe I could be more involved with it this summer. Run the business side of the things. Help with the accounting."

"Willow, really? This is your summer break. You should be relaxing, having fun, not looking at spreadsheets."

"Spreadsheets! That's a great idea. My parents use this archaic system for tracking everything. Spreadsheets would be so much better. I'm going to go home right now and make some. I'll start with orders, then move on to payments. Within a few weeks, I could have everything organized into neat and orderly spreadsheets."

Shit. What the hell did I just do? I mention spreadsheets, thinking nothing of it, and now Willow's all fired up and ready to start digging through her parents' files. And when she sees the financial records and unpaid bills, she'll know what's going on. The girl lives to organize things so I don't know how I'm going to talk her out of this.

She's still talking, getting even more excited. "My parents can do searches, run variable analysis, or multiple variable analysis, and they can—"

"Willow, stop." I hold her arms. "Your parents will never do any of that. They don't want spreadsheets. They have a system that works for them and you shouldn't mess with it."

"But it's not a system. It's a disorganized mess. Just pieces of paper in folders. And the folders aren't even labeled!" She tosses her hands up. "Who doesn't label folders?"

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