Page 103 of Why Cruise

“You failed biology?” I asked, my attention diverted from my nails. The drill buzzed in the background, acting like white noise.

He held up two fingers. “Only two F’s in my entire life: biology and biochem. I wasn’t instantly good at them, so I decided I didn’t care and never went to class.”

“Oh well, that’s not really responsible.”

“Wrecked my GPA. So what is a skin barrier and alpha acid?”

“Alpha hydroxy acid. It’s a chemical exfoliant. Really great at breaking down calluses and smoothing out your skin, but that’s not what you need.”

“Oh, and what do I need?”

“A good nail tech. And maybe my repair cream.”

“What brand is that? I’ll see if Todd the Butler can get it.”

I shrugged my shoulder. “No, I mean my cream. It’s my own formulation.”

He narrowed his eyes like I was speaking a foreign language. With the hand the tech wasn’t working, I pulled the scent balm out of my wristlet.

“I experiment with skincare,” I said, shrugging my shoulder again. “This is scent balm. It’s actually really hydrating, but it can help when there are too many scents around and it messes up your head a little.”

“Like a scent blocker?”

I laughed. I’d had this exact same conversation with Theo. “Not really. It’s not a blocker or a neutralizer. That’s a pheromone thing and takes, I don’t know, real chemicals, not things you can buy online. This has neroli oil and coffee beanextract in it. So think of it this way, it gets you to focus on your own scent, so the other scents around you are less distracting.”

He leaned in to take a sniff.

“Do you want to try it out?” I asked.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Why would I want to smell my scent when I could smell yours?”

The sound of the drill stopped. I inspected my nails. They were perfect short ovals that just hit the end of my fingertips.

“What do you want to do for polish?” She fanned out her selection of Ohaiyo Nails gel colors.

I pulled my hands into my lap. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m snapping at everybody.”

Justice tilted my face up.

“My brain isn’t working right. Somehow picking out nail color seems like too much.”

He smiled and asked the nail tech if she had a dark blue, maybe with some sparkles.

“We could do a cat eye,” she said.

“What, like a cartoon cat eye? How is that sparkly?”

The nail tech and I looked at each other and then broke into giggles.

“Cat eye is a style of nail polish that has micro glitter, think metal dust, suspended in it. You use a magnet to align the particles into different configurations that you flash cure under a UV light to hold its shape.”

“Here,” the tech said, swiping a coat of silver cat eye across my nail. She then used a magnet to draw the glitter to the surface and move it around.

“No fucking way.” Justice leaned over, taking the opportunity to put his hand on the back of my neck. I melted.

“This is really going to blow his mind.” She winked at me and pulled out another tool. She held it above my nail and a littleheart appeared as the specially shaped magnet manipulated the glitter.

“Fuck me.” Justice had genuine wonder in his voice. “That’s a little too cutesy.”

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