Page 164 of Choose the Bears

Natalie’s focus shifted to us.

“You could try shorter.” Jane patted her chic bob. “It can be more practical for small children.”

“Or go crazy with a bit of colour.” Meryl had some streaks of it in her long, dark locks.

“What do you want?” Ingrid took charge, putting her hands on her hips as she demanded an answer. “It’s your hair, your decision.”

“Maybe shorter…” she said.

The hairdresser moved then, undoing Nat’s messy bun and then experimenting with some different lengths.

“I was thinking a mum haircut.” Nat’s eyes found mine. “Not anything frumpy. Something stylish, but easy enough that you can wash it and go without needing to style it. Something that makes you feel good about yourself without a lot of effort.”

“Is that a thing?” Nat asked the hairdresser.

“Sure, it’s a thing.” The woman smiled as she pulled out one of those plastic capes. “That’s what we do for most of our clientele. You’ve got little babies?” Nat nodded. “Then your days of spending hours with the straightener are over for a while. Let’s try something like this…”

Half an hour later,Nat emerged with shorter hair that now fell in loose waves around her face. The many layers softened the hard planes of her cheekbones, making her look about ten years younger and she flushed when she saw the end result.

“What do you think?” the hairdresser asked, showing my bestie the back of her head with a hand mirror.

“I…” I think we all leaned forward, on tenterhooks waiting for her reply, something she noted with a smile. “I love it. If this is mum hair now, I’m down with it.”

“Woo hoo!” People in the salon turned to stare as I threw my hands in the air, right as Jane went to pay the receptionist. I didn’t care. They didn’t matter, but Nat did. Those little pink circles in her cheeks, I felt like I hadn’t seen them for so long. “Pretty damn awesome for a ranga.”

I went to ruffle her newly cut hair but Nat’s hand shot out, stopping me in my tracks.

“I know what you’re doing.”

Her tone was quiet, pitched just for me.

“Making you look less like some swamp hag?” I asked, hunching over and affecting a monstrous pose. “Stopping small children from crying out when they saw you? You know, that might be why those kids of yours wail so much.”

Instead of listening to my stupid reply, she swept in and hugged me tight.

“That makeover you did on me in year 9?”

“Oh yeah.” Nat and I had watched Grease religiously when we were kids and she totally had a Sandy moment the next day at school. Boys turned to watch my bestie walk past in her newly hand tailored uniform and the cool girls’ eyes narrowed, seeing they now had competition. “That.”

“Thank you. Really.” She held me at arm’s length, staring into my eyes. “So now we?—”

“Move onto the next phase of Operation Mum.”

“What?”

That quizzical look was everything I was after, so I dragged her outside with a cackle, towards the soccer mum van.

Chapter 88

Natalie

“What the hell is Operation Mum?” I asked as everyone piled into the van. Holly just smirked as I slid behind the wheel, a glance at the ladies in the back getting me nowhere. “I’m gonna need answers or so help me?—”

“You’ll turn this car around?” Holly cackled. “Now you’re getting into it. We’re heading to that big shopping complex?—”

“Why?”

“Because I’d really, really appreciate it.” She tucked her hands under her chin and fluttered her eyelids at me.

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