My Masked Assassin

Chapter Twenty Eight: A Day At The Salon

"And THEN what happened, honey?"

"HE SHOOTS AT ME!" I cry out.

"Oh. My God."

"No he didn't!!"

"That is low-key romantic."

"How in the name of FUCK is that romantic, Jennifer!?"

"It's like, he wants her, and he's willing to kill her to do it!"

"You need psychiatric help."

"Are we even sure this man is even TRULY a man or a he!? It could very well be a woman!?"

"Woman aren't that straight forward honey. We would've killed the girl by now."

"Trueeeee!"

The salon was filled with all types of characters and personalities, all of us bustling and popping and sharing our various array of stories.

But, as usual, my stories always came out to be the best. No one can beat guns and mysteriously murderous men.

The thing I liked most about this salon is the sheer inclusivity of it/them all.

They accepted all forms of customers.

All.

Even the ostracized Italians, the endangered Asians, and the semi-new race of Caucasians.

All were welcomed here and I loved them for it!

Every now and again an Italian customer might get harassed by others, but it was never something too big. And the other customers around were always more than willing to lend a helping hand or tell those types of people off.

I was more physical in my approach.

So I was reserved only for when things got nasty and some muscle was needed.

"Hellooooo ladies!" Tom sang as he peeped his head into the room through the front door of the salon.

"Hello, Tom!"

Half the (horny) ladies in the room sang out in anticipation.

Is it me or did the room become more humid?

Tom had his eye closed with one hand over his face.

"Is it safe to come in?" He politely asked.

"All clear lover boy," the owner of the Salon, Cherry, snarkily says to him.

Her co-owner, Bobert, (yes, really, that's his name) sneakily eyes Tom as he walks into the salon.

Eeeeeeveryone at the Salon knew of Bobert's cute puppy dog crush on Tom, but we all also knew that Tom was a straight as they come so it was a tragic love story doomed to fail.

But word on the street was that Bobert ALSO had a long-standing hidden crush on Cherry, and was trying to use his unrequited crush on Tom to get over his unrequited love for Cherry.

The man's a strange enigma. I quietly think to myself.

"Are you almost done?" Next thing I know I see Tom's beautiful face with his equally beautiful blonde hair still out below the hairdryer I was under to ask me that question.

"Hmmm, should be just a couple more minutes," I say as I close the magazine I was reading and uncross my legs to sit upright.

"Don't worry about it, your basically done anyway."

Cherry rushes over and lifts the hairdryer from my head and rolls out all the rollers and vigorously begins to blow dry my hair.

"Cherry, chill. It's not like I'm going out on a date or anything," I chuckle to her as the woman maddeningly blows out my hair.

She turns around and openly eyes Tom's up and down, the looks back at me with a "cuff!" sound.

"So you say, sweetheart" she haphazardly waves her arms at me, dismissing my previously stated notions.

"Don't worry Cherry," Tom leans in and jokingly whispers to her, "One day she'll realize how perfect we are for each other and finally accept that she is, in fact, my wife."

"We can only hope that her, and someone else, realizes that..." Cherry says while eyeing something in Bobert's direction.

Tom gave her a dumb look and was about to ask who she was referring to when I jumped in and signalled hed just the fuck up.

It was also a well-known secret that Cherry liked Bobert back, but was much too prideful to come forward about it. But you'd be a dead man (or woman!) walking if you brought up the fact right in front of her to her face.

As Cherry was finishing up curling the ends of my hair, I look over and find out that Tom had already finished making payment for my services at the cash register, which Bobert was manning.

I wanted to protest but who could say no to free money?

We say our goodbyes, with several wondering eyes following Tom's every move, and exit the all-inclusive establishment to walk towards Tom's big black SUV parked on the curbside.

We got in and put on our seat belts as Tom manoeuvres his way out of the parking lot.

"Thanks for paying for my hair." I absently say as I struggled a bit with the seat belt, but finally got it to click before Tom had to set in.

Tom freezes at my words, probably thinking I wouldn't notice him paying.

"Oh come on! Did you really think I'd walk out without paying? Or magically 'forget' to?"

Tom shrugs.

"It has happened before-"

"ONCE! It happened ONCE before! Why can't your petty ass let anything go?" I snarkily ask him.

Tom simply laughs and chooses to drive the remaining way in silence.

He then slows down in front of an ice cream store.

"Tell you what? You pay me back by getting me ice cream?"

"DEAL!" I scream, fumbling again with the seat belt to hurriedly get out of the car and get him his ice cream.

"Ooooooh fucking SHIT!" I then hear Tom cry as I successfully freed myself from the clutches of the seat belt.

"What?" I calm ask and look back at him.

He swiftly hides himself behind his steering wheel.

"Hailey is in there."