AllFreeNovel
Share Us
An hour later, Jack parked his Ford Ranger in its assigned parking space and entered his apartment. With a deep sigh, he made straight for the fridge, removing a Leatherback beer, and opening it. The apartment was modern and brand new, and he still smelled fresh paint each time he entered. His sketchpad lay on the kitchen table, open to his current work. Jack had started drawing a yellow-tail damsel fish but hadn’t quite captured its essence and had continued sketching a living reef around it, hoping to coax the figure to life. It was still a work in progress. But he was beat—no sketching tonight.
Jack opened the sliding-glass door and sat in a chair on his ground-floor patio to enjoy the major reason he had rented the place. It cost more than he should spend, but some things were priceless. Even in the dark, he could easily picture the sweeping ocean view in front of him, and he closed his eyes, taking a long pull as the waves brushed against the beach.
He was doing his best to make a new start in St. Croix. But coming home to a lonely apartment got to him. Staring at the hypnotic push and pull of the waves, he forced himself to look at the bright side. “It beats a miserable marriage.”
CHAPTER 4
November...
A cold Charleston rain drummed against the glass windows of the salon. Eight stations lined the walls, but only Sara was working that morning. She flung a plastic cape around her client’s torso and wrapped a length of tissue around her neck. Penny heaved a big sigh and met Sara’s eyes in the mirror. “I can’t stand it anymore. Chop it all off.”
More than ten years of experience made Sara a master at hiding her reactions to clients, even as she thought, Oh, God. Not this again! She gave Penny a warm smile. “We’ve been through this, remember? I refused to cut it off a year ago, and you thanked me for it. You just need something a little different.”
“This is beyond redemption.”
Sara laughed, running her hands through the woman’s mousy brown hair. It hung well past her shoulders, stringy and sulking. “It’s not that bad,” she lied. “Tell you what—I’ll give you a long A-line cut and flat iron it. When you come back next time, if you still want it shorter, we can cut it then.”
Forty-five minutes later, she ran her flat iron through the last section of Penny’s hair as the woman beamed in the mirror. “Sara, you’re a genius! I love it.”
“Thank you, madam. Just doing my job.” Sara grinned, admitting this one might be a winner, even with Penny’s thin hair.
Then a thundercloud walked through the front door in the form of Mathilde, the salon’s owner. Her glossy dark-blonde hair was twisted into a chignon, and she wore a dark-gray suit with a pencil skirt. Scowling, she trudged toward the offices in the back without even glancing at Sara.
Say goodbye to my good mood...
As soon as she said farewell to Penny, receiving a generous tip to boot, Mathilde called out behind her. “Sara, I need to see you for a moment.”
Suppressing a sigh, she fixed a pleasant smile on her face and approached her boss at the back of the room. “Good morning, Mathilde.”
“Hardly. Jenny called in sick.”
Again? Oh, Jenny, I’m gonna kill you.
“I’m going to need you to work in her clients who haven’t cancelled.”
“I’ve got a pretty full schedule.”
The salon owner rifled through the mail, her red manicured fingernails flashing. “We all have our problems, don’t we? It’s time to be a team player, Sara. I’m sure you can find a way to work some more people in.” She turned around, then thew over her shoulder, “And clean up your station. It looks like a pigsty.”
That’s because you called me back here before I had a chance to clean up, you bitch! But she kept her mouth shut. Mathilde was nearly to her office anyway and had clearly ended the conversation. Sara shot daggers at Jenny’s station as she swept her own. This was the third time in two weeks she had called in. And she wasn’t faking it—Mathilde made Jenny so nervous and miserable, it literally made her ill.
The bell over the door jingled as two women walked in. One was her own client, and the other was Jenny’s. With a bright smile to welcome both, Sara planned how to handle both at the same time, as well as the onslaught to come.
By 4 p.m., Sara was wiped out. She’d managed to accommodate everyone, using two stations at once for most of the day. Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she finished ringing up her most recent client, and she waved off the small crowd waiting in hard plastic chairs, pleading a restroom break. Locking the bathroom door behind her, Sara slumped against it as she pulled out her phone. The text was from her best friend Marissa.
Marissa: Meet for drinks @ 5:30?
Sara: Oh, God, yes!!!!
Marissa: Good day, huh? LOL.
Sara: I can’t even... Meet you at Tendrils?
Marissa: First round’s on me!
Sara pocketed her phone and closed her eyes, leaning against the door. “Ok, now you’ve got a light at the end of the tunnel. Just get through the next hour. You can do this.” With a groan, she opened the door, holding her head proudly as she marched to work through the last of the crowd.
* * *
