Page 34 of Sweet Christmas Wish
“Excellent choice,” Sarah said, wrapping the croissant in wax paper and taking the cash Louise offered her.
“Keep the change,” Louise said over her shoulder, already heading out the door.
“Thank you, Louise!” Sarah called after her, but Louise was already gone.
“She’s always been quite the character,” Will said, grabbing a rag and wiping down the counter as he talked. “I can’t believe she actually tried one of my ‘new-fangled’ coffees. She’s always been so proud of the fact that she only drinks hers black.”
Instead of responding, Sarah was looking down at her phone, her face suddenly serious.
“Is everything okay?”
Sarah looked up at him, shaking her head. “You know the ice storm coming in tonight?”
Will nodded.
“As a precaution, Michelle’s flight has been delayed. She won’t be making it into town like she’d planned.”
Will finished wiping down the counter before he responded, buying himself some time. He didn’t want Sarah to see the relief that had washed over him at her words. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Michelle—he did. At the same time, though, he desperately needed some time to sort through his complicated emotions about Sarah.
“That’s too bad,” he finally said.
Sarah nodded without comment, but he could feel her eyes burning into him, watching for his reaction. Thankfully, another wave of customers walked in the door, saving him from coming up with anything else to say.
* * *
Sarah stared at her reflection in the mirror, filled with a mounting horror. It took everything within her not to scream at the top of her lungs, but maybe she wouldn’t have been able to either way—her lungs felt like they were completely restricted.
She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that if she closed them and opened them again, she would realize she had just been seeing things. She cracked open one eyelid, groaning aloud when she saw that same hideously awful reflection staring back at her. Beside her, Lacy’s reflection appeared, her face pale with dread.
“My… hair…” Sarah choked out, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. “Oh, no. What’s happened to my beautiful hair?”
She and Lacy had gotten together after work to dye Sarah’s hair. At first, it had felt like a girls’ night, all laughter and wine and pop music blaring in the background. Sarah had been giddy with excitement, ready to color her hair for the first time in her life. And if Will liked it better than her natural blonde, well, so much the better.
She and Lacy had danced around the kitchen, dancing and singing along to the music, using hairbrushes as microphones while the dye set. It had been the best of girls’ nights, all friendship and talking about boys and celebrating another work week over.
Now, though, all the happiness from a few minutes before had evaporated, leaving behind only a blind panic. Sarah’s once-beautiful blonde hair was now a ghastly, attention-grabbing orange, nothing like the dark mahogany the box had promised.
“Look at my hair!” Sarah screeched, unable to tear her eyes away from her reflection. “What did we do wrong?”
Lacy grabbed the box of dye, her eyes racing back and forth as she read through the instructions again. “I don’t know! I thought we did everything right!”
“Well, something has gone wrong! Look at me, I’m a monster!”
“Come on, maybe it’s not that bad,” Lacy said pleadingly, but she trailed off as she looked up and took in Sarah’s hair once more.
“Itisthat bad! I look like a circus clown! I look like a freaking carrot!” Sarah dropped her face into her hands, breathing fast and hard. Her head swam a little and she forced herself to take slower breaths, realizing she was beginning to hyperventilate.
“I’m so sorry…”
“Maybe we missed a step!” Sarah said, looking up with new hope. “Yeah, maybe we skipped a step or there’s still another step on the box we haven’t taken yet!”
Lacy shook her head, handing Sarah the box. “See for yourself. I’ve read the instructions over and over and we did everything it said. I have no idea what went wrong.”
Sarah slumped, the momentary hope fading away. She turned away from the mirror, not wanting to see the monstrosity that was her reflection. “What do I do now?” she wailed. “I can’t walk around like this.”
“Okay, let’s take a breath. Tomorrow is Sunday, which means the bakery is closed, so we have some time to figure out how to fix your hair before…”
“Before Will sees it,” Sarah finished for her, entirely miserable. She dropped her head into her hands once more, hot tears beginning to squeeze out of the corners of her eyes. She crumpled in on herself, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.
