We stood on the sidewalk in front of the school, and I picked up my little niece and settled her on my hip, which was awkward because of her backpack.
"So you ate spicy stuff and it gave you a tummy ache?"
She shook her head. "I didn't eat it," she said.
"What'd you eat?"
"My milk. Pawt of it. It tasted funny, too."
"Does your tummy hurt because you're hungry?"
She nodded.
"You should have asked your teacher for a snack," I said, feeling sick for my little niece for going hungry all afternoon.
"She gave us goldfish, but I don't like the pizza ones. They'we too spicy."
"Isabel, you can't go whole days without eating something. You need to have your mom bring some snacks up here for you." I wrinkled my nose at her and buried my face in her chest, making her giggle. "Or you can grow a thicker tongue."
"How do you gwow a thickew tongue?"
I laughed at my own choice of words. "I guess I was thinking about thick skin when I said that. I should have said you need to get a 'tougher' tongue instead. You know, so you can take the spiciness."
I set Isabel to her feet. "Do you think you feel up to going to a wedding? If I get you something to eat first?"
"What wedding?"
"Two of my friends from S&S."
"Is the pewson fwom the hospital show thew too?" she asked, taking me by surprise. She had apparently been listening when Tabitha and I talked about my run-in with Ethan the night before.
"I think he might actually be there," I said. I gave her a serious expression. "But if he is, you can't say I like him or anything. You can't even tell him I was talking about him. You have to just act like it's the first time you're meeting him and you don't know anything about him, okay?"
Isabel tilted her head in an intensely curious way as if she really wanted to do what I was asking, but she wasn't quite sure what that was.
"Just don't worry about it," I said. "Just be yourself. You probably won't even see that man anyway."
I took her hand and we walked to the convenience store on the corner where I bought her some food before we took a cab back to S&S.
It was necessary to have a key in order to get the elevator to take you out to the penthouse level. I was going to call Zoe who could unlock it from a button in her apartment, but I ran into Luis, the maintenance guy, who had a key and was willing to let us go up.
I held Isabel's hand as I knocked on Lane's apartment door. Zoe called for me to come in, and I opened the door to find all of the girls were up to their ears in hairstyling tools over at the dining room table.
"We voted!" Lu called as soon as we walked in. "Hi there, Isabel," she added.
My niece stared at Lu with her big brown eyes and waved shyly.
"Hi, Isabel," Zoe said.
"You know Zoe and Lu," I said.
Isabel nodded at me, but otherwise didn't say anything. "Tell them 'hello'," I said, giving her hand a little squeeze.
"Hello," she said softly.
"Hi," Zoe said. "Thank you for coming to my wedding."
This drew a smile from Isabel who began tugging me toward the table. "Do you want to have your hair done?" Whitney asked, as we walked that way. She said it in a motherly tone that made it obvious she was talking to Isabel and not me.
Isabel nodded.
"Say, 'yes, please'," I said.
"Yes, please," Isabel said in her soft, gentle voice.
"Aww, what nice manners," Whitney said. "I was thinking Ms. Becca could do your hair because I want to get my hands on your aunt." Whitney raised her eyebrows at me like she had some mischievous plans, and I made a mock fearful expression. She reached down and grabbed a nearby flatiron, clamping it together a few times like she was some kind of shellfish and the flatiron was her claw.
I laughed at her. "You want to straighten it?" I asked.
She nodded in a hilarious almost bloodthirsty way.
"It'll take forever!" I said. "We don't have time."
"That's what Zoe said you'd say. She said you never style it straight."
"I don't because it takes like two hours to do it in small enough sections to make it stay."
Whitney shook her head confidently like she had some secret. "I'll get it done," she said, glancing at a nonexistent watch on her wrist. "You've never used this iron if it takes you that long to straighten it."
I had been fed that same line a few other times when a new flatiron hit the shelves and was the latest, greatest thing. I shrugged. "You're welcome to try."
Chapter 4
Whitney was just finishing up with Zoe's beautiful braids, and she moved to a nearby chair, patting the back of it to tell me I should come over. "We should get going. The flatiron's already hot." She glanced at Isabel. "Becca will be ready for you in just a minute, sweetie," she said.
I looked down at my little niece before I went to sit down. "You can sit over here and finish your cheese and crackers while you wait."
"Lane has some cherries in the fridge if she wants them," Zoe said.
Isabel's face lit up, making it obvious to all of us that she was very interested in the cherries.
"I saw them in here this morning," Zoe said as she made her way to the kitchen. "Lane washed them and everything."
Isabel followed Zoe to the kitchen as Whitney fastened a cape around my neck and expertly pinned up the top portion of my unruly curls. She sprayed the bottom section with some unknown but nice-smelling substance before brushing it gently, starting at the ends. Before I knew it, she was going to town with the flatiron, working quickly and efficiently, section-by-section, beginning at the nape of my neck and working her way up.
Isabel quietly munched her snacks while the rest of us talked. We discussed the wedding mostly, but also other things. Lu mentioned again that Ethan planned on being there, and when she did, both Whitney and Becca got excited. They were both staying for the wedding since they were friends with Zoe, and they were unashamed about showing how much they were looking forward to Ethan Prescott being there.
They were so openly pumped that Lu said, "He's checking Macy out."
"What?" Whitney asked, manually tilting my head to the side in a comical way so she could stare down at me.
I laughed at her expression.
"Are you going out with Ethan Prescott?" she asked in a completely shocked tone that made me continue to chuckle.
"No," I said.
"He's checking her out, though," Lu said.
I wanted to deny the fact that there was anything between Ethan and me, but I also didn't want the lovely hairdressers to think he was fair game.
"I'm already nervous enough as it is," I said, hoping they got the idea that I was interested without making it seem like I had my hopes up.
Zoe excused herself to get changed while Whitney finished a section on the right side of my head. As she finished, she tossed the straight hair over my shoulder so I could take a look. I hadn't seen myself in a mirror, so the hair she had just tossed over my shoulder was my first sight of the finished result.
Becca was looking at me when Whitney did it, and I watched as she closely inspected her friend's work. "I can not believe how different you look!" Becca said. "Your hair is so long!"
Isabel looked up at me when she heard Becca's words, and I saw the look of surprise on her face. My hair usually rested right above my shoulders in a big mass of curls, but now it was completely straight and it hung well past my shoulders. I picked it up and ran my fingers through it, laughing at how different and silky it felt.
"Oh my gosh, it's been like two years since the last time I straightened it. This is crazy."
"What time is it?" Whitney asked.
Becca looked at her watch. "Five-forty."
Whitney gestured at Becca who had just finished with Isabel's hair and was cleaning up her mess. "Can you come here real quick and finish this front section?" Whitney asked. "I see some stuff that needs to be blended back here."
>
Becca nodded and came over with open arms to take the brush and flatiron from Whitney.
"Blended? What's that mean?" I asked, seeing that Becca was coming over to help in a hurry.
"I'm almost done getting you straightened," Whitney said. "Becca's gonna take over and finish that last little section while I blend these layers a little bit. Every little thing shows when your hair's straight like this, and I want to make sure your layers are blended well. Don't worry, whatever I do will make it look better curly, too."
"Wait, are you giving me a haircut?"
"Yes," Whitney said, with no hesitation. She combed through my dry hair and began cutting without my permission. "Believe me, you'd thank me if you could see what was going on back here. Having curly hair always hides imperfections in haircuts, and now that it's straight, you can see every little thing. I'm not cutting a lot. I'm just tidying it up for you."
"I'm sorry you're having to do all this. It's probably pretty bad because I cut on it myself."
"No wonder," Whitney said with a smile in her voice.
Becca had been tugging away at the front of my hair while Whitney worked on the back, but within a few minutes, Becca finished and set down the iron. "She's all yours," she said.
"Thank you," Whitney returned in a no-nonsense way that said she was still trying restore order on the back of my head. She vigorously parted sections of my straight hair with her comb, cutting and texturing with her scissors. I just sat there and tried to be still.
"Okay, we're getting there," Whitney said after about five more minutes of intense silence. She came around to face me, combing and measuring my hair to make sure everything was even. "This looks so good," she said, seeming happy with her work.
Hairdressing was one of those magical professions where you can toot your own horn and it comes across as a compliment to the client. Whitney obviously loved what she had done, which made me feel great.
"This is good," she mumbled, smiling as she scrutinized how the hair fell when she combed it different ways.
"I'm unplugging this flatiron if you're done with it," Becca said.
"I'm good with this," Whitney said. "She's done. Thanks for helping."
"I only have thirty dollars on me," I said. "But I can get more if—"
"Zoe already paid us," Whitney said. "I told her not to worry about it—that we'd do it as a wedding present, but Mom said she already sent money to the shop's PayPal."
Zoe picked that moment to come back into the room. She had gone into Lane's bedroom a few minutes before, and she came out wearing this beautiful, simple white dress. It was short but had long sleeves, and she layered it with a pair of white capri leggings and some white sandals. It was whimsical just like Zoe herself.
I was the first one to spot her. "Aww, you look adorable!" I called.
Everyone else looked at Zoe when I said that, and they all made various sounds of approval.
"What a beautiful bride," Lu said.
"Thank you," Zoe said with a smile and a slight bow. She scanned all of us with a sweet smile before she stopped on me, staring straight at me in absolute amazement.
"Who is that?" she asked. "Who is this strange vixen?"
"Is it that different?" I asked, running my fingers through the silky smoothness of my hair.
Zoe stared at me in amazement "Yes it is."
"Whitney's a miracle worker," I said. "She even gave me a whole haircut."
"A partial haircut," Whitney said. "But it looks good. We got a lot done."
Isabel had been waiting for me to finish because she came up to me right when Whitney took off the cape. "You look beautiful, Aunt Macy," she said, sweetly.
"Awww," Whitney cooed.
"Thank you," I said. "Should I look at it?"
"Have you not seen it?" Zoe asked with a shocked expression. "Get the woman a mirror!"
I stared at myself for what must have been ten or twenty seconds before I could say anything. I knew I needed to remark on Whitney's work and thank her for doing it, so I tried to form words, but I just couldn’t make it happen. "This," I said finally. "It's so good. How'd you do this?"
"Quickly and with lots of heat."
"It's wonderful. Thank you so much. I'm giving you that thirty bucks on top of whatever Zoe gave you. I can't believe you cut it and everything."
***
The next thing I knew, we were on the second floor, standing and sitting around the studio at the simple, impromptu ceremony where Lane and Zoe tied the knot. Everything happened so quickly that I didn't have time to talk to Ethan at all. He was there, and we had smiled at each other a couple of times, but he stuck by Joe and a few of the other guys mostly. Theo had dropped everything and flown to New York to be there, and Ethan and Joe been engrossed in conversation with Theo pretty much the whole time.
There were at least fifty people, which was more than I thought on such last minute notice. Isabel stuck right by me like my shadow, quietly watching the whole thing. The ceremony was short and sweet, and right after it was done, Carol and some others began carting in the gourmet pizzas from Alfonzo's along with plates and serving utensils. It was surprisingly well run for something that had been thrown together the same day.
I made a plate for myself and one for Isabel, who was excited about the cheese pizza. We took a spot by the wall and were still standing there when Lu walked over to stand next to me with Ethan in tow. She knew he was following her, and she smiled at me conspiratorially as she positioned herself against the wall next to us.
"Did you like the restaurant we went to last night?" she asked.
Ethan nodded as he looked into crowd of people who were standing all around the studio. "Joe said your friend was gonna be here," he said.
"My friends are here," Lu said.
"The one from last night," Ethan clarified. "The one with the curly hair. Macy."
Lu turned on her heel and pointed straight at me with a confused look on her face. "You mean this Macy?" she asked.
I glanced at Ethan who stared at me with an expression that shifted from neutral to confused and then back to neutral again before he finally smiled. "Are you the girl from last night?" he asked, staring straight into my eyes.
I smiled. "I don't know if I'm the person you're thinking of, but I was at a restaurant with you last night…"
I saw his smile broaden when he realized who I was. "What are you doing?" he said, seeming suddenly playful. "Have you been here this whole time and I didn't even know it was you? I was looking for you." He glanced at Isabel who was cozied up by my side, and before I had time to address anything he had said, he added, "Who's this? Is this your little girl?" He stared at me, and I smiled.
"She's my sister's," I said. "This is Isabel."
Ethan stooped down so that he could be on Isabel's level, and on instinct I did the same, leaving Lu as the only one standing up. I glanced at her, only to find that she winked at me as she walked away.
"Hello there, Isabel. My name is Ethan."
She smiled at him but didn't say anything.
"Say 'hi' to Ethan," I said.
"Hi," she said shyly.
He grinned at her as he gestured to her plate. "Were you thinking about sharing that pizza with me?" he asked with a very interested glance at her cheese pizza. "Cause I didn't get a slice yet, and yours looks pretty delicious!"
Isabel giggled in that low, guttural way kids do when they thought something was silly. "I didn't get peppewoni because it's too spicy," she said.
Ethan scowled and shook his head. "I can't stand spicy pepperoni."
"All peppewoni is spicy," she informed him seriously.
"How about you give me a bite of that tasty cheese pizza, and then I'll take you over there to get a whole new slice."
Isabel let out a giddy chuckle as she held out her hand with the slice of pizza extended for Ethan to bite. Ethan held his mouth open like he was about to chomp into it, but then he glanced at me like he thought better of it. "Is this okay
?" he asked.
I nodded, and he looked at Isabel. "I really am gonna take a bite of this," he warned.
She giggled and nodded, and Ethan leaned forward, taking about half of her slice in one huge bite.
"I love Alfonzo's Pizza!" he exclaimed in a growling voice that reminded me of the cookie monster.
This caused Isabel to crack up in a giggle so precious and uncontrollable that Ethan and I laughed as well. Ethan had already chewed and swallowed the pizza by the time we stood up, and I found myself standing face-to-face with him.
"I'll get her another slice of cheese pizza," he promised.
"It's just right over there," I said, gesturing to the closest table. "I can get it." We both glanced at Isabel who continued to giggle absentmindedly as she took a bite of her half-eaten pizza.
"My mom and Aunt Macy saw you on TV," she said when she glanced up and noticed that we were looking at her.
"Is that so?" Ethan asked.
"Uh-huh."
"Do they watch my show?"
"Uh-huh, they do, but I don’t because it's inappwopwiate."
"Yeah, there's some pretty gnarly hospital stuff," he said. "But don't worry, it's just fake."
"What's gnawly?"
"Kinda gross, I guess" he said.
"Why are you on a gwoss show?" she asked.
"He's not," I said answering for Ethan. "It's just that some parts show fake medical stuff, Isabel. Like surgery."
Chapter 5
"Are you freakin' serious, Macy?" Mia's eyes were huge as she made her way to the place where I was standing with Isabel at my side. The studio wasn't quite big enough for the fifty or sixty guests who were at the wedding, so Mia was mostly just mouthing the words so that she wouldn't be announcing it to everyone standing around. I could clearly see her say the words, and her intensity made me smile.
"Did he just take a bite of your little niece's—did that man just take a bite of your pizza?" Mia asked, shifting to focus on Isabel who nodded.
"He went to get me anothew one wight now!" Isabel smiled and held her hands out as if someone was about to hand her something, and Mia and I turned to find Ethan standing there.
Suddenly Starstruck (Shower & Shelter Artist Collective Book 4) Page 3