“Nope,” Dominic answered for me and her eyes went to him. “Tell you what, my lovely, couple places in Chantelle, they do decent work. Maybe they can fit you in. Lexie here will book you now, though, so if they can’t, I can take you in a couple of weeks. You just call, you get in in Chantelle.”
“Everyone in Carnal gets their hair done by you or Kayeleen. I can’t go to Chantelle,” she told him.
“Precious, listen,” Dominic returned, his voice getting tight, he was losing patience. “I’d love to help you but I’ve said I can’t and I can’t. Sorry your man isn’t gonna be happy but, Misty, I told you before, you need me, you call two, three weeks in advance. I got a bunch of biker bitches who have standing appointments. They do not change. And you do not ask those bitches to change. Now, you work with Lexie here, get yourself a standing appointment so you can avoid disappointment. You can’t get in at Chantelle, go to the drugstore, buy a bottle and I’ll sort out the damage when you get in.” The bell over the door went, my eyes moved to it and Dominic kept talking. “There she is, my one o’clock. Hello you!” he called then back to Misty he said, “Lexie will set you up. Enjoy Chace’s thing, darling.” Then to his customer. “Get over here, gorgeous. Let’s touch up that beauty.” And then he bustled away as his biker babe client moved toward him while eyeing Misty with unconcealed disdain at the same time eyeing me with unconcealed curiosity.
I ignored this, settled in my roller chair and grabbed a gel pen with a fine tip and flowers printed on the sides of it that wrote in purple ink, the only thing in Dominic’s pen holder which also happened to be purple (as was much of the interior of the salon not to mention the sign outside) but the pen holder also had glittered white butterflies on it (as did the outside sign).
I pulled off the cap and positioned the tip on the schedule book.
“So,” I said, smiling brightly up at bitch-face Misty, “two weeks Thursday? Two o’clock?”
Her eyes slid down to me. “Uh…”
“Then standing appointment every six weeks?” I asked.
“Um…” she mumbled.
I tipped my head to the side.
She bit her lip.
“Thursday? Two weeks? Two o’clock?” I prompted.
“I, uh… okay,” she said.
“Excellent,” I bent my head and wrote her name in, missing out the “bitch-face” part (for obvious reasons). Once done, I looked back at her, still smiling and asked, “Does Dominic have your number?”
“Yes, um… I think so.”
“Okay then, you need an appointment card?”
“Uh, no, I’ll remember.”
She wouldn’t, the idiot. She didn’t remember Chace’s big thing on Tuesday night, no way she’d remember an appointment with Dominic.
However, this could also mean that she had no intention of taking the appointment. Seeing as I worked there, she was probably thinking she’d make her standing appointment in Chantelle, no matter that everyone in Carnal took advantage of a talent that should be in New York or LA but was in a small town in the Colorado Mountains because his g*y partner happened to be a mountain man.
I didn’t care whether she missed it or moved stylists, either way worked for me. Though I hoped for the latter as that would mean I’d have less chance of seeing her again.
“All righty,” I said. “Then we’ll see you in a couple of weeks.”
She stared at me. Then she bit her lip. Then, for some totally insane reason, she went for it.
“You’re Ty’s new wife, aren’t you?”
Bitch, bitch, bitch.
How f**king dare she mention Ty to me.
Bitch!
“Yep,” I replied on another dazzling smile.
“I, uh…” her eyes slid beyond me to where Dominic was whispering under his breath with his client then back to me where she said softly, “Do you know who I am?”
“You mean do I know you were the one who was f**king Ty’s brains out when someone in LA was committing murder?” I asked back and watched her blanch. “Oh yeah, I know who you are.”
She lifted a hand and I saw it was trembling before she tucked hair behind her ear and dropped it.