Love Actually (Love By Design 5)
Page 15
n the same tone.
“Hey, I’d like to point out, I’m oh for two here.” Noah said good naturedly and I chuckled.
Tommy smirked and added, “I’d offer to set you up with someone but…”
“No thanks, I’ll go back to swiping right thank you very much.” Noah grumbled making Gemma and Tommy laugh before leaving us alone again.
I sighed. This is what best friends and family were for. “He’s not going to beat your ass.”
“Of course not, but that little assistant of yours is like a rabid puppy. We good here, Ms. Cox?”
“Yeah, we’re fine.” I clapped his back and went back to running my hands in his hair testing out the length before cutting it. His eyes rolled in his head and I gave a chunk of hair a good yank reminding him to quit being a perv.
“Hmmm.” I looked back at Gemma who was giving Noah a gesture in the mirror that suggested she would do something sinister. I waved her away. She was kidding and it was kind of funny.
“Seriously, Lou, I had no idea. I went to her bakery, thought she was hot and asked her out. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“Noah, it’s not like we were together. She’s maybe bi and I’m not and that’s okay. People are free to love who they want.”
“Well, my old prom date is still hot and maybe someday I’ll meet a girl who isn’t claimed or preoccupied, or whatever it is that makes me not what they want.”
Poor Noah. He really did strike out in the dating department.
“Okay, mate. You want me to cut your hair or what?”
He turned his head in the mirror. “Yeah, those barbers are savages.”
“I could give you a mohawk, see if that improves your dating life.” I added with a wink.
“Go for it babe. I don’t have anything to lose.”
We laugh as I clipped the sides of his head leaving a tuft of short soft hair on the top. “Oh this looks sexy now.”
“Come on, take it off.” His brow furrowed. He was genuinely not okay with the mohawk.
“Oh no, you asked for it.”
“Alright, but seriously, I need you to know that whatever you do, if it doesn’t end well, you call me.” I adored his warning.
I scoffed as I clipped the top off giving him a short crew cut.
Noah reached for me, his hand circling my wrist gently. “I feel terrible I wasn’t working that night Syd went off the rails.”
A vision of my cute little house torn apart, cushions ripped, food smashed against walls.
“It’s not your fault.” I shook it off with a false smile that hurt my cheeks.
“But Warner should have arrested her. She trashed your house, was probably high and pushed you.”
“Yeah, well not everyone sees the facts the same way.” I cleaned up his cut trying to not recall that night. I knew Syd was a little wild and could go off the rails, but I hadn’t expected her to go nuts thinking I was fooling around and then sleep with someone else in retaliation and steal my money. I didn’t need that level of unstable in my life.
8
Carmen
“Hey, it’s the girl from the salon!” Kristen Calloway slid into the booth next to me as I sat with Taylor and her fiancé Hunter. Another guy I hadn’t met before joined us and we ordered drinks and food as well settled in.
“Excellent, so ya’ll have sort of met before?” Taylor smiled.