Page 24 of Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon
‘So, Mary,’ she says into the mirror, where Mary’s eyes meet hers. ‘What are we doing today?’
‘Mmm.’ Mary moves her head from side to side while not breaking her gaze into the mirror. It has a rather odd effect. ‘Not sure. Time for a change, maybe?’
Mary tried a fringe last year, then decided she didn’t like it. She’s been growing it out. Her hair’s been long forever so cutting some of it to make a fringe was a big step.
‘What sort of change?’ Evie asks, not wanting to guess.
‘Off.’ Mary nods once, definitively. ‘Chop it off.’
‘What?’ Evie says, and detects Trudy’s head turning in their direction. Yes, Trudy would understand the import of this.
‘Yep.’ Another nod. ‘I want the Lady Di.’
That’s the other haircut they’ve been asked for over the past few years. It also requires blow-drying, which the clients say they understand but don’t really. It requires thick hair too, which the princess has and Mary does not. Moreover, Mary has always struck Evie as the no-nonsense type whose plain hairstyle suits her.
‘Why?’ Evie says.
‘Less work,’ Mary says.
‘Um …’ Evie turns in Trudy’s direction and raises her eyebrows. Trudy responds in kind.
‘It’s not actually,’ Evie goes on. ‘What you have now just needs a shampoo and a condition and you’re done. That Diana haircut needs blow-drying to look good. You don’t blow-dry at the moment, do you?’
‘No.’
‘Do you really want to start?’
‘Hubby tells me I’ll look good with it.’
And there it is: wait long enough and the client tends to cough up the truth. So many times a lady will come in wanting something done that is ostensibly for her and it turns out that the husband wants it, usually because he’s bored of her or he fancies a particular celebrity. Evie wants to point out that Mary’s husband is no oil painting, yet here he is telling her what to do with her hair. She wishes she could ask Mary what her husband would look good with, but that likely wouldn’t end anywhere positive, so like everyone who works in a service job she keeps her thoughts to herself and tries to figure out a way to make this right for the client.
‘All right. Well. If you’re sure …’ Evie stares at Mary in the mirror, hoping she’s making her point.
In response Mary pulls out a photo of Diana around the time she gave birth to Prince Harry, when her hair was long and thick from the pregnancy and she had these big, dramatic layers. It is not a look Mary will ever achieve. Especially since Diana matched it with eyeliner and lots of mascara. No wonder she’s called ‘Dynasty Di’.
‘I want that,’ Mary says and Evie thinks she can hear Trudy sighing from across the salon.
The next thing Evie knows Sam is beside her, his hip bumping hers as he bends over to look at the photo, and Evie wonders if he did it purposely, as if he wanted to touch her, and if that’s the case she really wants to know, because she’ll tuck it into a corner of her mind and pull out the memory when she’s feeling down on herself. This beautiful man touched her on purpose. This man who looks like the man she’s long had a crush on – Paul McCartney – with his doe eyes and thick hair, come to life right here in Terrigal.
Evie feels her heart rate quickening and she swallows and looks away. Oh dear. Maybe Trudy was right – sheshouldbe careful. Because this feels like desire, and she knows from reading romance novels that desire is inconvenient and essential and overwhelming and amazing, and she also knows that she has never felt it like this before.
‘Darl,’ Sam says, still bent over the photo.
When he calls the clients darl they titter, as Mary does now.
Then he straightens and puts a hand on Mary’s head. ‘I’m going to be blunt, darl,’ he says. ‘I’d love to see you keep this hair long.’
Mary opens her mouth and he holds up a hand.
‘I don’t care what hubby says. If he wants you to have short hair you can put it in a French roll from time to time, okay?’He winks. ‘Long hair is something a lot of ladies want and can’t grow, isn’t that right, Evie?’
Now he’s turned to her, gazing into her eyes, and Evie swallows again.
‘Um, yes,’ she says.
‘So we don’t lose the long if we don’t have to, Mary.’ He pats her head. ‘But if you want to make some sort of change I’m sure Evie can work out something.’ He smiles at Evie as if she’s hung the moon, then goes back to his client.
‘Isn’t he lovely,’ Mary whispers, looking like a giddy schoolgirl.
