SALUBRIOUS

SB40

Nasiem Fareed

12:41 pm - March 4th 2024

Nas was making it his business to call Dakota whenever he got a break. Currently, he'd just finished a client and had about an hour before his next one, so he decided to finally indulge in the bag of chips that he pulled out of the vending machine earlier. "Hey, baby." Dakota's voice came through the phone, innately making Nas smile. "What you doing?" Nas quizzed while opening his chips.

"Finna get my hair done." Dakota answered, Nas shook his head as if his girlfriend could see him. "What you getting, bae?" Nas asked, tossing a couple chips into his mouth.

"A regular sew in...middle part." Dakota answered. Nas smiled while nodding his head in approval, as that was one of his favorite styles on Dakota. "Put yo' money up and come get mine." Nas instructed, scoring a small chuckle from Dakota.

"For my hair?" She questioned, "For your hair—come get it before my client come." Nas echoed. Dakota was good to him and he wanted show his appreciation for her in any way that he could. Whatever he knew would make her day, Nas did it.

"I can't—my appointment in like 7 minutes, and I'm already down the street." Dakota replied. Nas looked at the top of his phone to get the time, he tossed a couple more chips into his mouth before getting up and grabbing his keys. "Imma bring it to you, baby." He announced.

"Thank you." Dakota replied. Nas could hear the smile all throughout her voice, which was always ultimately the goal. Nas locked the shop before heading over to his car. "Send me the location." He instructed while putting on his seatbelt and starting up his car.

- 1:15 pm

Nas was slowly starting to realize how his fear of running into his mother and being face to face with her was interfering with his life. He sat outside of the salon, second guessing going inside. Like he did when he felt like the place he was going to catered to his mother's audience. Savannah always kept her hair done and passed the tip down to Fatima, which meant Nas was likely to run into her as well at a place like this  and it brought a great deal of anxiety over him.

Nas hated how often he was faced with this problem. He sighed while rubbing his hand over his face. Not showing up for Dakota wasn't an option, so he pushed his asinine worry to the back of his mind and turned his car off. Before making it to the salon, he stopped at Starbucks and got Dakota a cheese danish, since he knew how much she liked them.

Nas swung the door open and let himself into the salon, inviting the aroma of hot hairstyling tools and hair products to his nose. After a quick scan around the salon, Nas spotted Dakota. An attempt to head in that direction was made before he was halted by someone standing in front of him, causing him to look down.

"Can I help you with something?" The woman questioned, a light chuckle fell from her mouth once she noticed the irritated look on Nas' face. "Sorry, I'm the receptionist. I was asking if you're here specifically for one of our stylists." She added.

"I'm here for my girl." Nas replied before walking away. Once he was in Dakota's view, she dropped her phone and smiled, watching him as he got closer and closer. "Wassup." Nas greeted, leaning over to kiss her lips.

"I got you a danish." He announced while handing over the white and green pastry bag. He then pulled the money out of his pocket and handed it over as well. He gave her a bit more than she needed, just because. "Thank you, Love." Dakota smiled. Her hair was far from finished. From the looks of it, she'd just finished getting it washed. The stylist had her hair put in 4 sections, going through to detangle each section.

"My bad—how you doing, ma'am?" Nas greeted Dakota's hairstylist. "Hey, Nas...you don't remember me?" She replied, causing Nas to furrow his eyebrows together in bewilderment. He eyed her, but he couldn't recall how they might've known each other.