Love & Lies

Chapter Twenty-one

Jessie's muscles relaxed as she sat in the comfortable black vinyl-padded seat waiting for her turn watching the row of three people lying down in the reclining chairs with the most peaceful, content faces as the hair washers scrubbed and massaged their scalps.  Not that Brendan would care of course, but she figured getting her trim today was perfect because her hair would be one less thing to do for tonight.

As one customer lounged on the last chair by the hair basin, Jessie nearly was going to fall asleep from her own empathy as the hair washer instructed the that customer to sit upright and proceeded to massage her back with a towel.  From passing the storefront a bunch of times, Jessie knew this Chinese salon was going to be great, but was glad to have seemingly hit the jackpot after the week she had.  She was just thankful that all that had been in her mailbox was a circulatory and a take-out menu that day she received the bizarre grocery bag.  Nothing else came of it.

"Miss?" Jessie heard a female voice ask from behind her while touching her shoulder. 

Not realizing she had been in a world of her own, Jessie tensed a bit as she turned around.  A rather tall, young stylist with her silky black hair twisted in a fancy side ponytail smiled at her.  "You can go stand by chair number three," she told her.  "You're next."

Jessie relaxed and returned her smile before thanking the young woman and doing what she was instructed to do.  When Jessie finally climbed in the black leather chair, she sighed contentedly before being helped to recline back so the hair washer could carefully place her head in the bowl.  As Jessie felt the perfectly warm water hit her scalp while she felt the lady's fingers stroke her hair, she sighed out all her worries.

While she was lucky to not have found anything by her stalker afterall in the mailbox, this was the first time she left her co-op since Monday.  In addition to wanting her hair to look nice for later, she figured this would be the perfect time to test the waters so close to her home.  

"Married?" she heard the lady ask as she turned off the water.

Puzzled at first, Jessie immediately remembered she was wearing a couple of rings on both hands.  "No," she replied. 

Things with Jordan were back to being fine, but Jessie still kept what happened in the diner in her mind.  He was acting like it never happened, which was great, and even brought up how he could not wait for her to come to his parents' on Thanksgiving.  However, this personality defect of going cold and becoming distant was something that made her uneasy.   Stalker aside, she wondered if Jordan was going to do something horrible when she finally revealed who she was to him?

As she felt the shampoo hit her hair and felt the most amazing fingers run through her scalp, Jessie immediately forgot about everything and could only imagine the smile on her face as she closed her eyes.  I guess given the situations I have put myself into, I will be coming here a lot, she half-joked to herself.

 Although she at one time had worn wigs, the experience brought back some good memories when she went au natural to an event in the now "old days."  She smiled to herself as she remembered the time she treated Clair and Holly to a Girls' Day at an upscale hotel her team booked her.  "Such nice hair," she heard what sounded like a voice from another dimension from behind her basin.

"Thanks," Jessie nearly mumbled in relaxation as she felt her head being slightly lifted to have her neck massaged.

She was nearly oblivious to her surroundings when five minutes later, the lady was coaxing her gently by patting her shoulders to sit up.  As she opened her eyes slowly, she was amazed by how relaxed both her body and mind were.  The lady quickly wrapped her hair in a towel before proceeding to lightly massage her back.  This is going to be such an awesome day, Jessie thought.