“Her name’s really Mrs. Tingle?”
Gathering as many cups as she could carry, Jacinda nodded. “Yup, lucky, right? I want to change my name to that legally.”
“What’s a purple rinse?”
“It’s like the purple shampoo you can buy, except it’s more watery and takes out the brassy tones in gray and white hair. Our older customers love it, and I remember even my grandma getting it done every couple of weeks,” Evie explained, balling up the napkins and throwing them in the garbage.
Huh, learn something new every day. “I don’t know how you guys do it. I can only just blow dry my hair.”
Tugging on a strand of it, Jacinda winked. “We’ll take care of the hair on your head. You take care of the hair on your—”
“Jacinda,” Sayla snapped. “I swear, one day your brain-to-mouth filter’s going to engage.”
“Today isn’t that day,” she volleyed back, then leaned into my side and whispered, “Seriously, you deal with the south of the border, we’ll deal with the north.”
Oh, God, Carter was going to see my South. What if he ran away screaming when he saw it? I mean, I hadn’t even seen it face-on, just from the top looking down. What if it was weird?
Mentally crossing my fingers, I said a quick prayer that it wasn’t hideous or deformed and made a mental note to make sure I kept on top of shaving all of the crucial areas of my body. It’d be my luck the one day I didn’t do it would be the day things progressed, so if I just shaved the hell out of my body from now on, I’d be okay.
The thing was, I wanted Carter in my life, and those kisses had played on repeat in my head since they’d happened two days ago. I’d even been tempted to unbox the toys Jacinda had given me, but I was too afraid of Shanti running into my room in the middle of the night asking if I’d bought her a robot if she heard it.
Seeing how happy Heidi was with Bond and the permanent twinkle in her eye gave me hope that one day I’d get what she had. She hadn’t wanted a man in her life until after Nemi had gone to college, but he’d been the exception to her rule. I didn’t have that same oath, I just hadn’t expected someone would want to take me on, and the fact it was Carter, the guy I’d known since I was a kid…
I wanted badly to take that risk and make the jump. If that meant shaving my body bald every day, it was a small price to pay.
For the second time in as many days, I found myself under my desk, this time trying to wedge a piece of cardboard under the leg to stop it from moving every time I pressed on it. Yes, I’d had the same desk since I’d started the job three years ago, but I swear it hadn’t been doing this the whole time. It’d started yesterday morning, and it was pissing me off.
I’d just begun to wedge the folded-up cardboard under the leg I suspected was responsible, when the voice I loved to hear sounded above me. “Nome?”
Hitting my head the first time had hurt and sucked. Hitting it in the same place for a second time felt like someone had smacked me with a baseball bat.
I so wanted to act like it was just a tap, but I whined like a bitch instead. “Son of a biscuit basher.”
“Shit, are you okay?”
Crawling back out with one hand on my head and wary eyes focused on the underside of my desk so I didn’t bang my head accidentally again, I muttered, “With any luck, I’ll either tenderize the wood with my head or I’ll suffer nerve damage.”
Watching me closely, Carter held his hand out and helped me to my feet. What a gentleman.
“Do you need an ice pack?”
“No,” I snorted, shaking my head with a chuckle. At this point, common sense was filtering back into my brain, and everything I did and said now was to cover up my embarrassment. Hell, I could have blood running down my neck, and I’d still downplay it.
Shit, there wasn’t blood coming out of it, was there?
Lifting a hand up and acting like I was pushing my hair away from my face, I gave the area a cursory skim and discreetly looked at my hand as I pulled it away. No blood—aces.
“Are you sure you don’t need an ice pack? There’s some ibuprofen in the locker room, do you need me to—”
Holding my hands up to cut him off, I blurted out, “It’s cool, I’ve got Midol in my purse, and nothing gets rid of pain and cramps like that stuff.”
Holy shilacka-lacka, I couldn’t believe I’d just said that!