“It’s a nervous thing.”
“Then put your hands behind your back,” she snapped, slapping my hand away from its journey back to my mouth. “Now, makeup shopping.”
Sighing, I gave in. “Fine, we’ll go shopping online for makeup. And by that, I mean, I’ll give you my card, and you can shop for me. I’ll also take any tip you can give me for embracing the full head-to-toe beauty of which you speak.”
Squealing, she clapped her hands. “This is like my dream. I mean, honey, you are naturally beautiful.” When I rolled my eyes, she put her hand in my face.
“Mala, mala. No, don’t give me that shit. You’re gorgeous, and your natural beauty reeled Jinx in, so isn’t that proof enough to get it into your head?” To make her point, she flicked me in the head with her finger.
“Ow,” I cried, holding my forehead where she’d flicked it. “Do you have to do that?”
“You pay attention more when I do it and don’t listen to the negative Nancy voices in your head,” she pointed out. “Now, as I was saying, you doing this doesn’t mean you have to do it every day like I do. All you’re doing is working on skills and tricks for when you need them or want to jazz it up a little.”
Eyeing the makeup, I breathed, “I don’t have to do this every day? Oh, thank God.”
“Natural beauty is rare, but if you wanted to do it, you could. I just know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t anyway, so I’m giving you a pass.”
“Gratitude,” I said sarcastically, leaning a hip against the counter. “I need something else while you’re here.”
Nodding vigorously, she lifted her phone back up. “You need me to book an appointment at the hair salon? I’ll get one for my hair at the same time to keep you company.”
“Not what I was thinking of, but I’ll consider it.” I’d managed appointments like that before with no issues and having her with me would help. “But not what I was thinking of.”
“Clothes?”
Wincing, I wiggled my head. “I wasn’t thinking of that either, but you’re right there, too. So long,” I warned, “as it's online.”
“I’m not a rookie, of course it’ll be online. What were you thinking of, then?”
“I need to learn how to uh…” I blushed and looked to the side. “How do I seduce Jordan?”
Maddie’s mouth dropped open as she stared at me, but then she threw her head back and burst out laughing. “You think—” she stopped to laugh again. “You think you need to seduce him?”
“Well, yeah?”
Slapping her hand on the surface, she snorted a couple of times. “Oh shit, that’s a good one,” she wheezed, wiping under her eyes. “Honey, I’m going to school you in men. Some of them require seduction. We have to either be coy, or we just downright ignore their existence until they can’t take it.”
“You do that?”
“Hell no,” she cried. “If they can’t summon up the balls to just ask me out, I leave them to it until they find them. I don’t have time for games in life, and I don’t see the point in doing it, either.”
Rubbing my forehead, I muttered, “I’m so confused.”
“I’m a whole new breed of woman. Anyway, other times, a woman so special and so beautiful comes along, and the man sees the rarity in her right off the bat. That woman could be covered in chickenpox, poison oak, or scarred, and he’ll still think she hung the moon, and consider himself the luckiest son of a bitch in the world.”
“So, am I playing coy, or am I ignoring his existence?”
Grabbing my face, she shook it gently. “My bestie, you’re the last one. All you have to do is breathe and he’ll want you. Every woman wishes and waits for the day we meet that man—the man who’ll make it feel like the oxygen’s sucked out of the room, and who’ll make our hearts go boom.
“Some are fortunate,” she tucked some strands that’d fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear, “and they find that man. Some aren’t, but they still find someone who loves them. But the ones who do are so very lucky, because they make the same thing happen for the man, and he’d walk over coals to keep her safe.”
Looking around the room, I mulled it over. Did we have that? I think we might. “He does keep me safe.”
Nodding, she said through a smile, “Hell yeah, he does.”
“And I do feel my heart boom.”
“And the oxygen?” When I nodded, she grinned widely at me. “I’m so fucking happy for you, bloom from another womb. I wished for this for you, wished for someone to give you everything back again, but also to give the world you back again. You’re far too precious and amazing for the world not to see you, and I truly pity anyone who hasn’t had the honor of meeting you yet.”