Page 31 of Love Bank
I wasn’t ready to share that with anyone. And maybe I also just didn’t want to share the muscle-bound goodness that was Bain Sutter. I had him all to myself for now and I wanted to keep it that way. I’d analyze the ridiculousness of that thought later.
Lenora shut off the blow-dryer and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Are you ready for the unveiling?”
They’d kept me away from the mirror for three hours now while they did all kinds of things to the area above my neck. While I was excited to see what they’d done, I was also seventy-five percent sure that whatever changed wouldn’t make much difference. I’d had bouts where I’d tried makeup before and it never really did much for me. It always felt like I was wearing a mask or trying to be someone I wasn’t.
“Close your eyes!” Hazel demanded.
I squeezed them shut and coached myself on what to say. They’d been so sweet to spend this time on me, and no matter whether I liked it or not, I’d say all the nice things they expected.
Amelia spun me around and I felt them all huddling behind my back. I fluttered my eyes open and peered into the oval mirror I always looked into when I got ready in the morning.
The creature staring back at me looked like me, but like a Sim version of me. My skin appeared airbrushed. My eyebrows were arched perfectly like I’d seen on a women’s fashion magazine cover the other day at the grocery store. My lips were full and lush and just barely a deeper color than my natural shade.
And my hair.
My jaw dropped open and all the words I intended to say flew out the bathroom door and into the ether. This wasn’t a time for words. This was a time for staring. And stare I did.
My brown, lifeless hair now had subtle streaks of blonde throughout, as if I’d just come back from holiday somewhere tropical where all I did was lie out on a beach chair and drink mojitos while the sun kissed my skin and hair. Lenora had trimmed it too, then blow-dried it so it lay flat and shiny, not a frizzed-out piece to be found. It swung easily, and for the first time in forever, I didn’t want to just sweep it back and into a bun to get it off my neck.
“Well? What do you think?”
I tore my gaze from my own reflection and saw Lenora looking over my shoulder with her lips pulled back and her teeth bared, like she was bracing herself for my wrath. She’d mistaken my silence. The heat was back again, this time roaring in with a vengeance, turning my vision into a swimming pool of three blobs behind me. I spun quickly and pulled them all into a hug, my arms barely making it around them before the waterworks started. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a good cry. Looked like today was the day.
“Good cry or bad cry?” Amelia asked somewhere to my left.
“Good,” I warbled out in between sobs. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary. I was ugly crying in front of my new friends, ruining the makeup they’d worked so hard on. I really was shitty at this friendship thing.
Their arms just tightened around me as they let me cry. A hand rubbed my back until the sobs quieted and eventually stopped altogether. A tissue appeared under my face and I let go of their necks to wipe my face and blow my nose.
“Sounds like that was really needed, huh?” Hazel cracked a joke and my mouth trembled into some semblance of a smile.
“I’m so sorry. I ruined your makeup.” I couldn’t even meet their eyes.
“Hey. Makeup is easy.” Lenora put her hands on my shoulders again and waited until I looked up at her. “We all take turns having good cries. Trust me. Gonna take a lot more than some tears to push us away.”
“Now have a seat.” Amelia pushed me back down to the toilet and I dutifully went, letting them reapply everything they’d already put on.
When they were done, they rushed me to my bedroom to get dressed.
“Time for the retail therapy at Hell Girl,” Lenora announced.
“My clothes are fine,” I said with a smile, opening my closet to find something casual. I usually got my clothes at the big box stores a few towns over, not the trendy little boutique in town.
“Oh girl, you don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Amelia took one finger and ran it down the length of the wool skirts hung up in my closet. “Haven’t you ever wanted to wear something that caught the eye of every man in the room?”
I grimaced. “Ew. No.”
I turned away to pull on some khaki slacks and a cute floral blouse with puffy sleeves that let the wind through the thin material. Although if I thought about Amelia’s question, I wouldn’t mind catching Bain’s eye. Not that I liked the guy or even tolerated him. It would just be nice to know he saw me as an attractive female. Which made no sense because I couldn’t stand the guy. Maybe walking in on him fisting the mister had addled my brain. Putting him and The Cock firmly out of my head, I slipped my feet into some ballet flats and looked over at the girls.
“Ready.”
Amelia put her hands on her hips, looked me up and down, and raised that damn eyebrow again.
“You sure about that?”
12
Bain
