As soon as she walked out of her suite, she started yelling.

“Who the fuck is servicing this bitch?”

Her shop wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small either. There were four suites in the building and three seats in the open area. Every seat was occupied, and she charged reasonable booth rent.

“Who you talking about?” I heard one girl ask.

“If her name is Perris, that’s me,” a soft voice said.

She was the newest girl. On the camera, I watched Elle walk over to the door and push it open, nearly knocking Perris off the sidewalk. She walked in and looked around.

“Everybody come out here! Look like I got to make a bigger poster or something! Everybody see this bitch! We do not service her here.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t know,” the girl pleaded.

“You are new, so I’m going to let you skate by, but cancel this appointment and I’ll give you your deposit back.”

“For real, Elle? I really need my hair done,” Perris pleaded.

“Girl, you wasn’t begging when you was fucking on my best friend—yo’ cousin’s—husband. Get yo’ hoe ass out of here before I clean my floor with your face. Dumb bitch.”

Elle came back in the room with a pissed look on her face. She watched the camera until Perris left the shop.

“I really can’t believe this bitch! Girl, I am going to make you fight that hoe before we die and I don’t give a damn what you or ya wack ass mama, or ya wack grandma got to say.”

“Elle.”

“I’m sorry, but you know how I feel about them. Whew. Let me calm down before I fuck around and comb your hair out. You want me to flat iron it or wear your natural hair?”

I didn’t respond.

“See, I hate how you get when you see her. You just shut down and for no damn reason.Sheshould be the one scared to show her face around here, not you.”

Citrus Grove was small as hell, but I’d been doing my best to stay away from places I knew she’d be. Elle was right, seeing her shouldn’t throw me off the way it does. It still hurt to see my family member with my ex, and walking around like they didn’t do anything wrong.

“I’m okay. Pretty soon, I won’t have to see her anyway.”

She smiled really big. “That’s my girl.”

I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Maybe a new beginning was what I needed.

Saturday night had come so fast. Since leaving Elle’s shop, I’d been on autopilot as each hour passed. The moment I realized that the new beginning I needed would start in New York, I started having mini panic attacks. I was twenty-six years old and had never lived in another city. Don’t get me wrong, me and Elle traveled a lot and we had fun, but neither she nor I had any plans to live anywhere else, but here. Everywhere we wanted to go was only a plane ride away. So, to think about living in New York, had my heart racing.

The knocks on the door got my attention.

“Grey, it’s a man in a black car in front of the house talking about he picking you up. Where are you going?” My dad said outside the door.

“On a date.”

Although me and my dad are close, I hadn’t told him about Diesel. Well, that wasn’t anything that I’d tell either of them. Both my mom and Grams would probably think that he was the devil if they knew the type of shit he was on.

“On a date?” he perked up.

“Yeah, I’ll be right out.”

There wasn’t a need to pick out anything to wear because earlier in the day, a man dropped a box off for me. I even had to sign for it. Inside was a mustard color thin strapped silk dress that stopped right below my knees and a pair of brown strappy heels. This dress had me feeling so fucking majestic. My triple Ds were sitting perfectly. This dress probably fed into his sick fetishes. Turning around, I stared at my ass in the mirror and it looked good as fuck. I never felt so fucking beautiful. There was even some jewelry in the box, a bracelet and necklace set. He had incredibly good taste. After grabbing the manual and my purse, I opened my door to my dad standing there with a worried look on his face until he backed away, looking me up and down.

“You look so pretty, Grey. Where are you going? And who is this man?”