Page 43 of Somewhere We Belong

“Bye!” I yelled way too loudly.

I took my time cleaning my station, giving me time to come up with an excuse. I wanted to use my shoulder as an excuse, but I didn’t need people hovering over me or telling me to take an extra week off. When I had nothing else to clean, I sucked it up and walked out the front.

It wasn’t Theodore, it was worse. Colt was sitting on the sofa looking around. My heart hammered in my chest so hard I thought I might pass out. Did he know? He wouldn’t say anything here, right?

Colt looked at me before I could call his name. We stared at each other until I finally found my voice.

“Ready?” I asked, waving him over.

He nodded, getting up and following me to my chair, sat down, and looked at me expectantly.

“What would you like?” I tried to keep my voice even and act as normal as possible.

What if Theodore hadn’t told them? Oh god, what if I blurted it out? I was going to be sick.

“I like this,” he said, holding out his phone with a picture of some famous actor.

“Ok.” I took the phone from him, zoomed in and easing into my stylist role.

I asked him a few questions, until I knew what he wanted. If I kept my professionalism, then I could get through this haircut, no problem. The entire time I felt his eyes on me, his gaze never faltering and a few times it looked like he wanted to say something,

By the end of the haircut, I was ready to deny anything and everything he accused me of. I took Colt to get his hairshampooed and the moment I started washing his hair he struck.

“Nova.” His timber aroused goosebumps along my arms.

I hummed, not knowing what to say, and too afraid to say anything for fear I might just blurt out everything that had happened.

“I just want to say sorry,” he said softly. “I had no right to treat you like I did.”

“Ok…” I didn’t know what to say since I was not expecting this.

If I was being honest, I forgot I was mad at him, it was trivial compared to the fact that I had kissed his boyfriend and once he found out, there would be no nice Colt.

“My mom was a single mom, and I wished she had been half the mother you are to Sol,” he said as he looked up at me. “I was upset for the wrong things. I took it out on you. You do what you can, and I have no right to judge anything you do. I’m sorry.”

His words were sincere, he looked remorseful, and I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear him say this.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “Why does it feel like you hate me?”

Colt shook his head. “I don’t hate you, this is a me problem not you, even though it doesn’t help that you antagonize me.”

‘Well, it doesn’t help that you are an ass,” I quipped back,

“Ok, I’ll own up to being an ass,” he chuckled.

I immediately liked this side of Colt, but guilt had me feeling even more awful.

“Ok, sounds good,” I said, continuing to wash his hair.

He studied me as I tried not to look at him too often because I swear he would be able to see the guilt on my face. I towel-dried his hair, cleaning up quickly, then headed back to my station. I styled his hair, feeling his gaze boring into me.

“Have a great date tomorrow, Nova!” Gladis yelled from across the salon.

My cheeks grew red as I waved at her, feeling not just Colt’s eyes on me, but most of the people in the salon.

Fucking Gladis.

I willed my cheeks to lose their color before I looked at Colt who had no emotion on his face.

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