Fat Cat Liar

“I pride myself on self control. When I come under pressure, I don’t buckle, never giving in. But with you, it’s vaporized.”

“Did I mention I love Sundays?” I repeat my statement from earlier.

“Yeah, baby, you have.”

“You know what sucks about next weekend?”

“What?”

“We won’t be able to do this.”

He lifts his head, his expression soft. “It means a lot you’d invite me to the Nerd Herd retreat.”

“Hold your praise until after the weekend. If Jonas and Enrique start in on trying to convince you to be a part of their trial sperm program, you won’t have anywhere to run.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be able to handle them.”

I throw my arms around his neck and smile wide. “I know you can. But I’ve got your back.”

He chuckles, gripping my waist and bringing his mouth to mine. “I doubt you’re a match for those two.”

“I’ve been known to whip them into shape if needed.”

“That I’d pay to see.”

“Get ready then, because next weekend may get crazy.”

“Looking forward to it.”

•8•8•

“To us, and our long overdue girls night.” Bessie raises her glass of wine.

“And to Haley, congratulations on officially losing your mind and going to work for Greer,” Jenny adds.

As we toast, I notice Haley smiling proudly.

“I have to agree. With our upcoming schedule, you may run back to the salon screaming for your old job back,” I tell her, laughing.

“Never! I haven’t been this excited in forever. I can’t wait to dig in next week.” Haley wiggles her eyebrows. “Especially since Greyson Lynch is coming on Tuesday.”

“Lucky bitch. I’m jealous,” Jenny mutters.

“Eat your heart out. Maybe I’ll take pity on you and send you a picture of him in the tux Greer had fitted.” Haley eggs her on.

“What’s the plan now that you have a full-time employee?” Bessie asks.

Everyone has been curious exactly what hiring Haley meant to my business. I’ve been vague with sharing my plans until I knew she was comfortable. The last few weeks, we have spent hours going over my vision and she is one hundred percent on board with the changes. She also knows my neurotic thought process and intense OCD tendencies. I may not even be able to hand over complete responsibility of certain aspects, but she’s patient enough to work with it.

“Well, next week, Haley and I are going to jumpstart a new marketing plan. We’re going to work on growing the business.”

“No way. Are you kidding?” Jenny’s eyes bulge at my announcement. “You’ve always been a word of mouth and referral based business.”

“That’s not changing, but I’m going to modernize. Branding, logos, a website, stuff like that. The holidays are around the corner, and we’re thinking about having a client appreciation party to introduce Haley. Little things that I haven’t been able to do because I’ve always run a one-woman operation. Now, I can do them.”

“We’ll keep things as they are with the client interaction. Greer is the face of her business. I’ll still do the styling when needed, but she can take on new clients since I’ll be doing a lot of the administrative things. From the outside, it will remain seamless, but on the internal side, she’s got help,” Haley assures them.

“This is so wonderful, Greer.” Bessie bounces in her seat. “What does Lawson think?”