Until Jinx - Happily Ever Alpha World

“It’s an intensive conditioner. You wash your hair, then add this in. You need to leave it a good amount of time, so shave your legs, exfoliate your body, do the same to your face, then wash the mask out. Wa-la, beautiful hair.”

“It’s not taking layers off my hair, too, is it?”

Placing a large tub next to a bottle on the coffee table, she shook her head and looked back in the box.

“Oh, this stuff is the shitake. You spray it in after you wash your hair, and you’ll have no tangles or knots at all. It also stops static in your hair—which, FYI, you’ll know about now. Those sheets under your head when you’re sliding across them do something bad to the follicles, right?” She winked and tapped the side of her nose.

For once, I didn’t blush. I didn’t glare or cringe, either. No, I grabbed the bottle out of her hand and almost cried with relief. Things had gone from waking up knot-free to waking up with scary hair. It’d been hell to deal with for the exact reason Maddie had just said and because of the amount of time Jordan spent with his hands in it. Side note—yum. If this worked like she said… It was a game changer.

“It really does what you’re saying?” I asked her hopefully, holding it against my chest. “You’re not just saying that because you know I’ll want to use it?”

Leaning back against the cushions, she grinned, knowing full well how bad my hair got. “Oh, I’m not kidding at all. And when you try it and see how right I am, you’ll then believe in the power of the brand and want to use all of the products right here.”

If she was right, I’d buy everything they sold and bathe in the stuff.

My excitement and happiness were short-lived, though, because after we’d unpacked everything and she was putting it in what looked like a professional studio makeup case, she suddenly clapped her hands, making both me and the boys jump.

“What am I thinking?” she cried and started pulling tubes out. “Go to the bathroom and wash your face with these, then come back, and we’ll try some of this out.”

She’d put a weird lump in my hand next to the tubes, so I lifted it to eye height and tilted my head to the side to examine it. It was like someone had gotten a foam ball and cut it in half.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a Konjac sponge.” Her tone made it sound like that was self-explanatory. “Make sure you run it under water before you put the facial soap on it, though.”

Running my thumb over the top of it, I winced at the thought of it rubbing my face. Now that would take layers off.

“Maddie, why am I scrubbing my face raw with this, only to then scrub it with this stuff here that says exfoliating wash?” Then I remembered the other bottle I’d looked at before. “And adding the exfoliating lotion stuff afterward.”

“It’s good for your skin. You clean it, clean the pores, and increase your skin's drainage, while also increasing the blood flow under it. Trust me, it leaves you with perfection.”

My skin’s drainage? What even was that? No, it’d leave you with just muscles and ligaments and maybe some cartilage blowing in the breeze. Who did this to themselves voluntarily?

Seeing how dubious I was at the prospect, she leaned forward and pressed her palms together like she was praying. “Will you at least try it? For me?”

It was the pouting lower lip and puppy dog eyes that did it. Mento and Bash had done a number on me since I’d adopted them with their version of that look, and it’s all I could see now when I was about to say no.

“Fine,” I huffed, standing up with the torture items pressed against my chest. “But when I come back looking like something out of a horror movie, you’re paying for reconstructive surgery.”

Not giving her a chance to say anything, I spun on my heel and walked toward the bathroom. I had to be twenty types of fool for doing this, but for all my arguing and fear, I was kind of excited about it all.

I didn’t want to change myself for Jordan, but I wanted to continue improving like I had in every other area of my life because of him and Maddie. If that meant my feet being eaten away until all that was left was bone, fine. If it meant taking thirty layers of skin off my face with a rock and acid… okay, that wasn’t fine, but I’d try it once.

It took me twenty-five minutes to do it all. Admittedly I panicked when the sponge was about to touch my skin, only to blow out a breath when it felt relatively soft as I swept it in circles like it said to on the packet. I might have to work up to the acid thing, but there was some of it in the exfoliating wash I used after the ordinary face soap, so that counted.