Page 41 of Holly Freakin' Hughes

“Oh,knock it off. Old people hate being called adorable, like we’re fucking kittensor something,” Esther snapped, but I caught that little smile on her face asshe studied her hair in the mirror.

“Oh,hell no, Esther. You’re no kitten—you’re acougar,” I teased as I wentcross-eyed, watching the stylist cut away at my new set of bangs.

“Thehell does that mean?” Esther asked, and Liz and I laughed along with thegiggles of our respective stylists.

Lizhad her long mid-back length hair chopped to her shoulders in a cute layered bobwith angled bangs that framed her rounded face perfectly. The rest of my hairwas trimmed to a few inches below my shoulders and I asked for long layers withsome angled pieces around my face, and I’d say the job had been donesufficiently. I could have cried looking at the sleek glossiness of my hair,giving life to something that had turned so dull.

Ihoped Ben would like it, despite not having the slightest clue who the hell Beneven was or if I’d even like him in the first place.

Wepaid, treating Esther to the treatment we had talked her into, and she insistedon treating us to lunch. Remembering theburgerI hadeaten at the Golden Carousel, I made the suggestion as our dining destination.Without any other cravings among the carful of women, they agreed that somediner food sounded good, and Liz traveled down Main Street until we came by theshiny exterior and she turned her Explorer into the parking lot.

Birdywelcomed us when we walked in. I recognized her immediately, but thanks to mynew hair and the lovely blackened-brown bruise that seemed to swallow a quarterof my face, she didn’t seem to recognize me at all. Not even a double take, andI thanked God for that.

Shesat us in a booth and doled out the menus, giving us a grin and a few minutesto look over the menus.

“Ihaven’t been to a diner in years,” Esther mused with a smile, sliding a thickpair of glasses onto her nose before looking the menu over.

“Esther,have you goneanywherein years?” Liz teased, peering at her over her ownmenu.

“Roberttakes me out to Brooklyn for the holidays, Elizabeth. You know that. Don’t be awiseass.” Her voice suggested she was irritated, but she smiled and looked upat us, her eyes magnified at least four times through the lenses. “This has beena really nice day, girls. Harry’s going todiewhen he sees my hair.”

Ithought about pointing out the obvious, but …

Nah.Not worth it.

Afterseveral minutes of silence with our noses shoved in the laminated pages of ourmenus, Birdy returned to the table and asked if we were ready. We ordered threeunsweetened iced teas, two turkey club wraps, and a chicken salad sandwich—allwith fries on the side, thank you very much.

Birdybeamed at the order and slipped her note pad back into the pocket of her apron.“An easy one. Thank you, ladies. I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

Sheturned and as she walked towards the kitchen, I heard her voice, shrill withexcitement, as she greeted someone that had just walked in, and dammit if mystomach didn’t do a somersault. But it wasn’t Brandon, I noticed, pretending tostretch my neck out to the side as I looked to see who had entered. Close call.

Orwas it?

Imean, did itreallymatter if he walked in that very second and noticedme sitting there with my sister and friend? Did itreallymatter if theymet him and had a face to put to the name? The more I thought about it, themore it actually didn’t seem like the worst thing to happen. When I thoughtabout it evenmore, I found myself actually wishing he’d show up. Thathe could just walk in there as I willed him to, walk up to the booth, and beamat the sight of me in the way that he did

Butin the span of forty minutes, Birdy brought our food over, we ate throughvibrant conversation, and Esther paid the bill; never once did he walk in. Thedisappointment was hard to ignore as we left the diner, and because my life hadbeen proving to be the plot of a romantic comedy, we turned the corner to findourselves face-to-face with the very person I had been hoping for. His owncompanion gabbed his ear off as he fell silent at the sight of me, and a smirkcurled at the corners of his mouth.

“Youhave to be kidding me,” he said, bringing his friend to silence with the raiseof a finger. “So, you’re telling me that not only do I have to find myself anew bookstore, but I have to find a new diner too?”

“Maybe,but I was here first, so itsortalooks likeyou’rethe stalker, actually.” I apologetically grimaced, and smiled when he steppedforward to kiss me on the cheek. “Hello to you, too.”

Theman he was with raised an eyebrow to Brandon, silently exchanging a look that Irecognized, “Who the hell are these people?”Oddly enough, the twoladies flanking my sides were giving me a very similar look, narrowed eyespassing between Brandon and me.

Speakingup first, Brandon turned to the lanky man with the beak-like nose and beadyeyes hiding behind a little pair of wire-rimmed glasses. “Nick, this is Holly.Holly, Nick.”

Iwatched as the man’s expression changed from one of suspicion to one of instantknowing as his mouth dropped open, nodding slowly. “Ohh,riiight.” He turned to me, and extended a handwith some of the longest fingers I had ever seen. “Very nice to meet you.Brandon talks about you.” His hand engulfed mine, and we shook as he added, “Alot.”

“Thankyou very much for that, Nicholas,” Brandon said with a flush of his cheeks.

Atthe mention of his name, Liz and Esther simultaneously turned to look up athim, uttering what could have been a rehearsed “ohh.”I knew my cheeks had to be burning brighter than a goddamn tomato on fire. Iintroduced them to him and he graciously shook their hands with a smile thatcould have made any woman swoon, and they undoubtedly were.

Esthernoticed one of Brandon’s tattoos peeking out from the sleeve of his leatherjacket. She reached out with wrinkled old hands, sliding the sleeve up as faras it would allow, while his crystal blue eyes widened with shocked amusement.I stood there, completely mortified, as she peered up at him and asked, “Yougot any others?”

“Indeed,I do,” he said, glancing up at me with his half-smile.

“Oh,yeah? Well, let’s see ‘em,” Esther said, as shedropped his hand and looked up expectantly.

Nickand Brandon both laughed with surprise, and he replied, “Sure, but you have tobuy me dinner first.”

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