Chapter Twenty-Three

Grant “I kind of like the pink,” I told her when I saw her a few minutes after I got out of the shower. “It’s like you have a cotton candy halo around your head.”

“Oh stop!” She patted at her hair, but it just wouldn’t lay flat. “I think that dye damaged it because it was on there so long. It made it kind of frizzy.”

“I’m sure there will be something at the salon that can fix it,” I reassured her as we walked in the direction of the hairdressers’. I stopped and picked up two coffees and then we were on our way.

The walk took fifteen minutes, but we were still early. Natalie let us in anyway, her eyes wide as she looked at Celia. “Girl, I have to teach you how to throw a hay-maker, don’t I?”

She tutted and fussed until she had Celia in a chair with a cover snapped around her neck to protect her clothes. She examined Celia’s hair carefully and asked questions before she finally offered any advice. “Right now, I’d tell you to leave it alone. The hair was really damaged by the dye they threw on you. And if it was on there for two hours, it’s really, really damaged your hair. I have some treatments I can put on that will help a little, but you’re back to square one and growing it out.”

“Can you make it look less like someone tossed dye on me?” Celia asked softly, her shoulders slumped with the news.

“Of course, honey. I can use some really gentle toners to give it a better color and add a few darker shades to the splotches to make it look even if you want me to. The good news is your hair is so light, most of it will wash it out in a few weeks. You’ll still have the damage to this part though.” Natalie waved her hands in several places and Celia shook her head.

“Whatever she needs, Natalie. I’m paying.”

“As you wish, Gr--”

“Keith!” I interrupted, panicked. “I’m Keith.”

She knew which one I was, fuck! How could I have forgotten that? She was the one that had always cut our hair. It had always been a mystery how could she tell us apart and one I’d forgotten about until she started to call me by my real name.

“Okay, Keith.” She turned her head so Celia couldn’t see me and narrowed her eyes. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she walks out of here with her head held high.”

“How do you feel about having pink hair for a while longer, baby?” I asked Celia and our eyes met in the mirror.

“Not bad actually. I’ve already had to cut off most of it, why not have a little fun with it while it’s this short anyway?”

“That’s the spirit,” Natalie said gustily, her eyes shining with laughter. “Don’t let the bastards get you down!”

“Not today, anyway,” Celia said, but I knew she wasn’t convinced.

She was being adventurous though, living a little while she could and I wasn’t about to say a thing to stop her. Besides, I liked the pink in her hair. It was a little wild to look at, but then I think it suited the new woman she was becoming and I hoped it was a sign that she would be open to the fact that she’d been in a relationship with three identical men over the last week. Fuck, how I hoped.

Natalie worked her magic with shampoos and conditioners, some kind of oil treatment, and then she began to mix together something out of a chemist’s daydream. She had several different bowls and a lot of foil, but two hours later, Celia’s hair was glossy, perfect, and a rather incredible shade of red. True red, not ginger, but cherry red with pink highlights. It was rather sexy I thought as I looked at her.

“Wow, that’s so… so fucking sexy!” I finally breathed when she turned around in her seat and stood up.

“You like, sir?” Natalie asked with a smirk and a wink.

Cheeky, I thought, and then looked at Celia. “It sounded hideous at first, but now, I really love it.”

I wasn’t sure staid, boring Colin would, but I knew Keith would for the same reason I did. Watching that head go down on us would be incredible to behold.

She walked up closer to the mirror, her face uncertain but as she brushed at strands and looked at the way Natalie styled it, she began to smile. She had a full-fledged grin by the time she turned back to me.

“I look so different,” she breathed happily. I think she was shocked at how different she looked. “So… grown up.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Natalie said, her own face wreathed in a happy smile. She’d worked for a few hours to produce the sultry look, and I was more than happy to pay whatever she asked.

“I love it, actually,” Celia said, and I could see a new confidence in her eyes. “I would have never dreamed of doing something like this, but now I can’t stop looking at it.”

I felt pleased that something good had come out of this, at last. The poor girl had come all this way after she’d been treated badly and she’d come out of it looking like a punk rock beauty queen. I think that might have been the moment I started to really fall in love with Celia.

I just stared at her as this emotion stirred to life in my chest. Something familiar but so different from anything I’d known before. I couldn’t say anything. I was speechless as she turned to me and kissed me with a shout of laughter.

“This is insane, but I love it. Thank you, Keith. Thank you so much!” She planted her mouth more firmly on mine, and I forgot we weren’t alone for a moment.

“Ahem. I need to get cleaned up for my next customer, Keith.” Natalie interrupted our love fest and tottered over to her cash register. She totaled up everything and I knew she left most of it off, but it was still a good chunk of change. I didn’t mind. Especially, if it put the smile back on Celia’s face, so be it.

I loved that smile.

In fact, it wasn’t just the smile that I was in love with but the woman too and everything about her.