Busy morning, indeed. Anna shovelled in the eggs and chewed quietly.
“What’s wrong?”
She grimaced. “Is it possible if we stop at a pharmacy first? I need to get something.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I…”
Matt leant forward. “Are you sick?”
“No, no. It’s just that I… God, this is embarrassing.”
He waited with concern in his face.
“I wasn’t sexually active so I’m not on birth control. And last night, we didn’t use any…” Her words evaporated when she realised how stupid she had been. Twenty-six years old and she was still retarded in the safe-sex department.
“Don’t worry. You won’t get pregnant by sleeping with me or my brothers. Least, not before the Claiming.”
“The what?”
Matt sipped his coffee and put the mug in the sink. “Eat your breakfast. I need to make a phone call to the boutique.”
“Mr. Martel!”
“Eat your breakfast, Anna.”
Matt left her baffled. The Claiming? What did that even mean? Were he and his brothers scheming something she didn’t know about?
Anna ate her breakfast in silence, thinking about what Matt had let slip out. It bugged the hell out of her that the triplets had some tricks up their sleeves. Whatever it was, they were up to no good. She finished her breakfast and cleaned up Matt’s cooking mess. She was washing the dishes in the sink when he came back.
“Are you ready? You have an appointment with Ströger in forty minutes.”
“Ströger?” The name was familiar, like the salon brand shampoo she had always wanted to try but was too wary of the price.
“Edmund Ströger. He’ll take you in personally.”
“You mean, Edmund Ströger the famous stylist?”
“Who else? We have to do something about your hair. Black isn’t a new blonde, Anna, and you’ll look much lovelier with your natural hair colour.”
Damn designer.
Fifteen minutes later, they zoomed towards Manhattan to Ströger’s famous spa. The stylist himself welcomed them as soon as they walked through the doorway.
“So this is the special girl you told me about?” Edmund Ströger eyed her from head to toe.
Special girl? What the heck is he talking about? Anna turned to Matt for an answer.
Matt gestured uncaringly. “I trust you’ll work your magic, Ed.” He sat on a sofa, opened his laptop, and immediately busied himself with it.
Ströger herded her to a VIP room and told her to sit. Two of his assistants stripped her of her clothes.
Ströger didn’t only change her hair back to blonde, but he also ordered the assistants to wax her entire body, give her a manicure and pedicure, pluck her eyebrows and trim her hair in a new chic style. After they finished, another Ströger beautician came and put makeup on Anna. She didn’t recognise herself anymore when Ströger came to inspect his assistants’ work.
He called Matt in and announced he was done working his magic. “What do you think, Mr. Martel?”
“You’ve definitely outdone yourself.”