Page 113 of Between Desire and Denial
“Not set until I get to see that little brat’s face.”
As Zen walked Melly back to her seat, she said, “You know, Melly, not all of us were sure we’d fit in here. I’m sure Olive felt the same.”
“Yes, well, that’s all I mean by it. She gets it.” Melly laughed and rolled her eyes, still looking at her phone.
Didn’t she realize no one here fit in perfectly? We were all shapes jamming ourselves into the wrong indentations. The problem was she was so judgmental that we kept trying to do it. “You’re of course right. This community is so lucky to have you.”
And then Madi turned to me and asked, “Can you just blow dry her quick? I need to make a call.”
Melly smirked at the idea of me having to work on her hair, but I did so with joy. I wanted to be the one to spin her in the chair and see the look on her face up close.
It was wrong of me to smile now. To even start giggling under the sound of the blow dryer. She wasn’t paying attention to me though. I was just the help pretty much. She didn’t care if I was staying at Dimitri’s house either. In her mind, she’d steal him away sooner or later. She’d wear down my confidence enough that I’d leave.
Except being in this town had built me back up in a way I hadn’t realized I needed.
I turned the chair and smiled at her. “Voila, Melly. I hope you enjoy the color. It suits your soul.”
Her scream was brutal, like she was dying. I didn’t expect her to do much more than that. Yet, I’m pretty sure when Dimitri and the rest of the town got to the salon after hearing the screaming, we were on the floor, fighting.
Lucille was cheering me on with the delicate gold-rimmed china teacup we’d given her to sip out of. And then when Dimitri rushed forward to grab me, she said, “Melly deserved it.”
Melly scrambled to her feet and brushed off her outfit as I tried to right my sweater even though Dimitri had me in his arms. “You’re a classless wannabe, Olive,” she spit out.
“Watch it,” Dimitri said in a low voice.
“Dimitri!” Melly whined and immediately tears sprouted in her eyes. “She did this to me. My hair! You don’t want to be with someone like that.”
Dimitri started backing out of the salon as I wiggled in his arms. “Oh, I’m already with her. I intend to have children with her, fight with her, experience her explosions with her. I’m all in… with her. Don’t forget it.”
With that, he carried me out of the salon while I whacked at his back. “Let me go. I don’t need anyone to fight my battles. And I’m not letting her push me into pools anymore.” The rage flowing through me was doing the perfect job of it instead.
“Do I even want to know?” he asked as he hiked me higher up on to his shoulder.
“Can you please put me down?”
“Not happening, Honeybee. You’ve got some explaining to do. What happened to just going to work? Want to talk about that?”
“Well, I try to keep my emotions at bay, but we all have a temper,” I admitted through clenched teeth. I knew this was a bit outrageous, even I could confess to that. “I’m stressed. I might be getting a migraine. There’s way too much going on.”
“You don’t say?” He sighed. I couldn’t see whether or not he was mad, but I felt his muscles tighten under my waist. Trying to wiggle out of his grip hadn’t helped, but maybe if I rolled just the right way, I could fall into the grass and save some of my dignity.
Yet, when I shoved up on his back and cranked my body that way, his arm tightened around my legs and his other hand landed loudly and firmly on my ass.
I gasped at him spanking me. “Are you kidding right now?”
“Stop trying to outmaneuver me. It won’t happen.”
“Just let me down. Everyone is looking at us.”
“Everyone’s already heard about you at the salon. There’s no getting around that. So, me walking you back to our place is the least of our problems.”
And it really, truly was. When we got there, he still didn’t put me down. He walked me all the way to our bedroom and then said, “Take a shower. Cool off.”
And he left me in there like I was a child being scolded by her parents and told to think about her actions.
After showering, I pulled on a sweater and was about to sit down to practice a bit of calligraphy when I heard a loud bang. Immediately, I jumped and ran to the window to see what was wrong.
The whole house shook with the pounding, and when I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, I ran down the stairs and whipped open the front door.
