Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
T he moment Lucy opened her bedroom door the next morning, she felt Joel’s absence. The eerie silence was one she recognized from a different time, and she knew instantly he was gone. Not just away from the apartment, but away from her. Funny how his absence had always been more noticeable than his presence.
Why did she care? This wasn’t four years ago, and he wasn’t bound to her anymore. The scent of coffee coaxed her down the hall and into the kitchen. A box of fresh pastries sat next to a steaming pot, a sticky note curled off the side.
Had to leave unexpectedly for business.
Hope to be back in a day or two.
I’ll be in touch.
Joel.
The car fob sat beside the box with another sticky that read: The car is yours.
With her disappointment tasting a lot like bitterness, she reminded herself that this time was different. Different because he owed her nothing. She had no agency over his comings and goings anymore, no right to feel slighted.
So why did she? Maybe because they’d been living together less than twenty-four hours and already he was gone, damn it.
To distract herself, she poured a massive cup of coffee, and tugged the sticky note off the pastry box, staring at the neat handwritten words. In the past, she might have sent him a cheeky text reminding him of a little thing called an iPhone, which was a perfectly good option to communicate. Especially for moneybags, such as he was. But their time for cheeky banter and teasing was history. This was fake, and she’d do better to remember that.
Truthfully, she used to love the little notes. When they’d last lived together, he’d left them all over his San Francisco penthouse. What had started out as little love notes had morphed into messages for her and the baby. A note on a glass of water with her prenatal vitamin beside it reading: for mama and Lights (they’d nicknamed their unborn baby Lights because they conceived in Vegas, sue them.) Or on the bathroom mirror that read: can’t wait to see you naked tonight.
They’d lived together for sixteen weeks, and he’d left a sticky note somewhere every day. Apparently, he was back at it.
Lucy drank her coffee, ate her almond croissants, and went on with her day. Then another day. She filled her days being bombarded with wedding planning family while also trying to work remotely. Even though she was technically on holiday, she told herself she didn’t want to fall behind…and she hated the thought of Nico having his hands on Barone & Sons unchecked while she and her father were in Portland .
Each morning she’d woken to an empty apartment, and no new sticky notes of explanation.
She wasn’t sure if his two days had turned into two weeks or if he’d be walking through the door any minute. What she did know was that caring where Joel was and when he was coming back was not a habit she wanted to get back into, so on the Wednesday morning, the third day of his absence, she ditched her laptop, grabbed the fob to the Taycan and left him a sticky note telling him she’d be home by dinner.
Refocusing her mental energy, she navigated her way through a city she didn’t know very well in a vehicle that cost more than her annual income. And that was saying something, considering she earned a very healthy salary at her father’s company.
The massive diamond on her hand blinked back at her as she gripped the steering wheel. When they’d made the spontaneous decision to get married four years ago, they’d stopped at a souvenir shop beside the chapel, and Joel had bought a simple silver band with hearts engraved around it. It had cost twenty dollars, but she’d treasured that ring.
The day she finally removed it, she’d cried so hard her stomach ached the next day.
Thanks to the GPS goddess, Lucy arrived at Natalie’s salon fifteen minutes later. Natalie’s Hair and Beauty was tucked between a coffee shop and a local clothing boutique. The sleek store front and trendy signage was eye catching and inviting, and Lucy felt a surge of pride for her younger cousin. While most twenty-something’s were dabbling in dead-end jobs, traveling, or generally trying to figure life out, Natalie had taken her talent, combined it with her guts and created a business that had turned out to be both popular and successful .
As Lucy walked in the front door, she admired the glossy, elegant décor. Natalie had done a bit of a redesign since Lucy had last visited and there was an elite, sophisticated air to the space. All but one of the five well-lit stations were occupied. Stylists worked and chattered at each chair.
“Good morning,” a young man greeted her cheerfully from behind the front desk. One side of his head was shaved, while a glossy dark-purple sheet of hair fell down the other side. He tapped on the MacBook in front of him, his nails matching the color of his hair. “Do you have an appointment or are you a walk-in?”
“Neither. I’m here to see my cousin, Natalie. I have no appointment, but she said she’d give me a trim, so I guess I’m a walk in.”
The stylist gave her hair a once over, his professional eye probably picking apart everything including how she’d finger combed her hair before pulling it into a ponytail secured with a rubber band.
After a moment of blank faced scrutiny, he grinned widely. “You must be Luciana! Nat said you’d be stopping in. I see the family resemblance now.” He pushed off his chair and held out his hand. “I’m Colin. Nice to meet you.” He pumped Lucy’s hand a couple of times. “She went to the cafe to pick up a round of treats and lattes, but she won’t be long. Come, you should definitely sit in her chair. She’ll die when she sees you in it.”
“Well, die is a bit of an exag—” But Lucy didn’t bother finishing her sentence, as Colin was already several paces ahead of her.
He patted the chair, and Lucy took his lead, plopping onto the seat. He met her gaze in the mirror. “Do you mind?” he asked, gesturing to her ponytail.
Lucy nodded. “Go for it. ”
Colin’s grimace deepened as he gingerly tried to unwrap the rubber band. “God Lord, honey, I should have used scissors.”
The tie snagged on her hair, and she winced.
“You know these things are meant to tie up bundles of mail and not your stunning mane, right?”
“Yeah.” Lucy winced again as he tugged. “I grabbed it out of my—” Her what? Roommate, friend, husband? “My fiancé’s junk drawer this morning. I couldn’t find my scrunchy and got desperate. It’s scorching today, and I wanted it off my neck.”
“Scrunchy,” he muttered through a chuckle. He squinted at her hair as he untangled the last of the elastic and let her locks tumble down around her shoulders. He caught her gaze in the mirror with a satisfied smile. “Promise me you’ll never put a rubber band into this glorious hair ever again. It’s criminal.”
Lucy laughed. “Promise.”
“So, you’re engaged? Are you seeing Nat for an up-do consultation?”
“She’s seeing me, because I’m her favorite cousin,” Natalie said as she came up behind Colin holding a massive pink cardboard box. “And if she doesn’t let me do her up-do for her wedding, she will be disowned.” She shimmied her hips until they nudged against Colin. “Shoo. You don’t get to stand in my spot.”
Colin playfully stuck out his tongue at Natalie as he relieved her of the box and pried it open. “I’ve so been waiting for this.” He presented the box to Lucy.
Inside was an array of fancy donuts. One was topped with full-sized Oreos, another was covered in thick chocolate shavings, and one appeared to have bacon bits sprinkled on the icing. Every one of them were frosted to the hilt with bright, shimmering sugar.
“Bride gets first pick,” Colin said with a smile.
Another stylist approached them. Beautiful braids cascaded down her back. Some were black, and others were dyed turquoise with a stunning ombre effect where they faded to a lighter shade at the tip. They almost shimmered, like a mermaid tale.
“The gooey fudge is my favorite.” She reached into the box, and Lucy’s mouth fell open. The woman had the longest bright-pink fingernails she’s ever seen, but she plucked out a donut with caramel icing without any difficulty, so she must have been used to them. “I’ll leave it for you, bride,” she said with a wink.
“Oh, I?—”
All eyes were on her, the donut box looming in front of her.
“I think I’ll pass. Need to fit into the wedding dress and all.”
Turquoise braids threw back her head and laughed, a loud sound that reminded Lucy of a late-night lounge singer. “Oh bestie, you don’t fit the dress. The dress fits you. Take the fudge, you won’t regret it.”
Lucy’s gaze shifted to Natalie, who nodded at her.
Conceding, Lucy dug into the box. When everyone had a donut in hand, the three stylists circled behind Lucy’s chair and stared at her head.
“Okay, people,” Natalie said. “We have an engagement party in five days. What are we doing?”
“Keep her hair down,” Colin said with a decisive nod.
“Oh no, with this volume and natural curl, it needs to be up like a crown on her beautiful head,” mermaid hair insisted. “She’s a queen. She should look like one. ”
“Really, Brit? I was thinking about an elegant, understated twist. After all, this is Lucy.” Natalie took a huge bite of her sugar encrusted jelly donut.
Mermaid hair, Brit, slammed Natalie with a look that made Lucy’s bite her lip. “What do you mean ‘this is Lucy’? Lucy is a bride. Brides are Queens. Queens wear crowns .”
“Yeah, but Lucy is understated. She’s not one for the limelight. Are you, Lu?”
Three sets of eyes stared at her expectantly. Lucy knew her cousin meant it kindly and not to insult her. This refrain was familiar in their families. Lucy, the understated one, the good girl, the obedient daughter.
And she was an out of the limelight kind of girl, because that’s who her family expected her to be. It was partly her own fault she’d let their perception of her eclipse her real identity and ambition, but that wasn’t why she couldn’t imagine being the queen Brit was describing.
She liked a little bling and glamour as much as the next Italian girl, but she couldn’t afford to lose sight of the fact that her engagement to Joel was not the real thing. This wasn’t some special occasion where she bought her dream dress and had her dream day with all her dream trimmings. She was nobody’s queen. Sitting in this chair with three hair artists assessing her like she was a lump of clay for their molding suddenly felt ridiculously farcical.
“Natalie’s right. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. It’s just another day.”
Brit’s eyeballs practically bugged out. “Just another day? Just another day?!” She tipped back her head and released a loud breath. “Why do you send me the difficult ones?” she asked the ceiling. Then she straightened and lifted a single finger, her long fingernail sharp and pointy. “No. ”
She waggled her finger from side to side, and Lucy followed it in the mirror like she was being hypnotized.
“This is not just another day. This is your day. This is the beginning of a new era. An era where you are a queen and you look like one, talk like one, and live like one. ” Brit’s voice rose above the other noise in the salon. She waved her hands animatedly, putting most of the Italians Lucy had ever met to shame. “Bestie, look at me.”
Lucy’s gaze snapped up, obeying Brit’s commanding voice.
Colin murmured under his breath, “Here she goes.” Then he squeezed Lucy’s shoulder in a supportive gesture.
Natalie came around on her other side to hold her hand. Brit straightened to her fullest height behind the chair, filling the whole space of the mirror. Lucy felt like she was in the presence of a genie who’d been released from a thousand years trapped in a bottle.
“I’m telling you that you are going to manifest your greatest self. You will manifest queen energy, aura, and hair fit for royalty.” Brit snapped her three-inch nails with a loud resonating snap .
Two women appeared beside her.
“Jess, Lynn, this is Queen Lucy. We are doing full hair and makeup today. Think big, think power, think badass bitch who makes a man the kind of Mister who wants to spend the rest of his days worshipping the ground she walks on.”
Jess and Lynn started arranging trays with brushes, color palettes and hair styling supplies.
Brit raked her nails under Lucy’s hair, gathering the mass and propping it on top of Lucy’s head. “Think goddess who owns her fine-ass curves. Who drinks champagne and eats charcuterie. Who wears Dolce and Gabbana like it’s her job. We’re gonna immerse her in beauty Queen energy so thick her man and every other person in the room won’t be able to look anywhere else.” Brit met Lucy’s gaze in the mirror. “Are you waxed or lasered?”
“Uh…” She was pretty sure that neither was the wrong answer.
Sure enough, Brit closed her eyes and gave a small shake of her head, then turned to the stylist on her right. “Jess, clear your afternoon, looks like we need the works.”
Lucy looked helplessly at her cousin, who shrugged.
“This is why I give her a chair, hon. She works magic like no one in this city. By the time she’s done with you, you’ll see a version of yourself you never knew existed.”