Chapter 6
EJ
That haircut was the fastest hour of his life. He and Savannah talked nonstop as she worked, and then he found himself at the end of the haircut, wishing they could start over.
"My next customer's already here, I saw her pull up, and I'm slammed until seven tonight. I'm sorry to say goodbye so quickly." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's three o'clock. I assume you're staying the night, right? You're not going back today, are you?"
"No," he said, since he knew she was about to try to make plans with him. He had been fully intending on driving back right now, and he felt a sense of relief when she asked, so he lied.
"Would you want to have dinner or just catch up a little more after I'm done here?"
"Y-yes," he said, feeling like he could not get the word out fast enough. Seeing her standing there. It all felt right. She felt right.
"Okay, great. Can you come back here at seven? Would that work for you?"
"Yes," he said, not hesitating.
She beamed. "Awesome! Come on, I'll walk you out front."
EJ followed Savannah to the foyer where three women were waiting, along with the receptionist.
"Hey there, Jeannie," Savannah said to one of the women. "You're welcome to go set your stuff down at my station if you like. I'll be with you in just a second."
The lady smiled, nodded, and began to stand up, and Savannah moved to the front desk and turned her attention to the girl working there.
"Bree, EJ's already taken care of for today. This is my friend EJ from Chicago!" she added, leaning in and speaking to Bree with quiet excitement.
Bree beamed and glanced at EJ, looking him over. "That's amazing! You guys knew each other when you were kids?"
EJ's heart raced at the thought that she had been talking about him. "Yes, we did," he said, answering with an easy smile. "We hung out a whole summer one time."
One of the ladies who was waiting stood up and came toward the desk.
EJ was closest to her, and he braced himself a little when she walked up, thinking she had recognized him, but she was focused on getting something out of the candy bowl.
If this were Chicago, and there were this many strangers in one room, someone would have already called him Double Decker or Eddie Decker's son.
Someone would've already asked for a picture.
But no one here seemed to recognize him or care.
"I'm going to get started on Jeannie," she said, glancing at EJ. "I'll see you a little later."
She gave him a wave and moved to start taking off to meet her customer. EJ waved at her and then glanced at the receptionist.
"I guess you're all taken care of here. It was nice seeing you again, Mr. Paul." Bree said.
"You too. Thank you."
EJ started to say something to her about paying for the haircut, but he didn't want to complicate things, and he would work it out with Savannah later. Besides, it made him feel good not to be treated like a normal customer. He didn't want to be a normal customer.
EJ left the salon and went to a nearby department store where he bought sweats, socks, underwear, a toothbrush, two protein bars, an iced coffee, and a bottled water.
He also bought a duffle bag so that he had something to carry inside the hotel besides the plastic bags from the store.
EJ had no idea where she lived, so he made reservations at a nice hotel that was close to her salon.
EJ had things to take care of to manage the impromptu night away, but he was on top of everything at work, and it wasn't that big of a deal for him to stay the night. He would drive back to Chicago first thing in the morning. He was honestly a little relieved not to face that drive again tonight.
He spent some time shopping and then working remotely from his hotel before he showered and put on the same clothes so that he could go pick her up. He was hungry by then and ready to go to dinner, so he hoped that was what was happening, even though they didn't have concrete plans.
Bree was not behind the desk when he got there.
It was empty in the front, and EJ cautiously walked toward the back.
Music was playing, and it was quite a bit louder than it was the last time he was in there.
The sound stopped abruptly just as he was about to turn the corner to the room where her chair was located.
The sudden change startled EJ and caused him to stop short of the room, but then he heard her talking.
"When are you leaving for Italy?" she asked.
"Ten days," a man's voice said. It sounded as though they were getting louder. "I'll be gone for your birthday."
EJ definitely heard their voices getting closer. He was an athlete, and he easily shuffled back toward the lobby so that they didn't bump into him in the hallway. He made it to the lobby just in time for them to show up and everything to look completely normal.
"Oh, EJ! Yay! Gabe, this is my good friend from childhood, EJ. EJ, this is Gabe, my good friend from…" She trailed off and glanced at Gabe. "Five or six years ago? Something like that?"
Gabe nodded and put a hand out to shake EJ's. He was a middle-aged man, around EJ's dad's age but smaller, and he stuck out his chest when he shook EJ's hand. There was something protective in the way he stared at EJ.
"Gabe's one of my very best friends. He's my investor and landlord."
"Business partner," Gabe corrected.
"Business partner," she said proudly. "He made all this possible," she said, gesturing around them to the warmly decorated reception area.
"Savannah did all of it. I just helped her find this place and gave her a budget to remodel it. And business is good. How many employees do you have now?"
"Six, but two of them are part-time." She touched Gabe's shoulder. "We'll get one more in before you leave for your trip."
"Okay. Where are you two headed tonight?"
"I don't know," she said, glancing at EJ. "I'm hungry, that's all I know. I'm starving. Are you hungry?"
"Yes," he said to her.
She glanced at Gabe with a smile and shrug. "It looks like we're going to get something to eat. EJ's passing through town, so he's just here for the night. I don't know what we'll get into."
"Well, if you eat at one of my places, you can put it on my tab. I'll sponsor dinner with an old friend. They'll call me to check in about it, but I'll okay it."
"Oh, that's okay," she said. "Thank you, but we'll get dinner."
"Yes, I'll get dinner," EJ said, wondering who in the world this guy was.
"All right, well, if you change your mind, you know what to do, sweetheart."
"Yes, thank you so much."
Gabe hugged her and then shook EJ's hand with a smile.
He left before them, and it took Savannah a couple of minutes to clean her station.
She went to a different room and spoke to another stylist, and then they walked out together.
She smiled at him once they made their way outside.
It was still light out, but the sun was low in the sky.
"We can still go to one of Gabe's restaurants, even if we don't let him pay for it. There's one right there." She pointed at the building on the corner, which looked to be a trendy, hipster steakhouse.
"Yeah, I'm up for eating anything," he said. "Just pick your favorite place and we'll go there."
They stood on the sidewalk while she decided. "I think I want Mexican," she said. "Are you okay with that?"
"Of course. I love Mexican."
She gestured with a thumb over her shoulder. "My car is parked in the back."
"My truck's right here," he said, pointing down the street at his truck, which was only about four cars away from them.
Savannah got into his truck, and within ten minutes, he was sitting across from her at a tiny booth for two at a small, colorful Mexican restaurant.
Their server took their orders and walked away, and she smiled at him and shook her head dazedly. "I still cannot believe it's you," she said, staring at him. "What's been going on in your life?" She dipped a chip in salsa and ate it, waiting for his answer.
"I work a lot," he said. "I told you about my gym. Now it's your turn."
She tilted her head at him, making a look of protest.
He shrugged. "I tell you something, you tell me something. Let's go back-and-forth."
"Ok, fine. But all you've said is that you work a lot. I work a lot too. Be more specific. Give me something more interesting than that if you're going first."
"Our gyms are gigantic," he said. "They aren't like a regular gym—I'd compare it to a YMCA but bigger.
The whole thing was the brainchild of my brother, and we had the right investors to execute it.
It's thriving now, both of them are, and it's humbling to think about owning and running such a place.
It is bigger than anything I've ever been a part of—in charge of, at least."
"That's amazing. Congratulations, EJ. I’m happy for you.
I'm humbled, too, because I can say the same thing for myself," she said.
Her smile was so precious and easy that it caused some sort of primal possessive desire to rise in him.
Those lips. She was chewing chips for goodness' sake.
This should not have been attractive. He had to glance away.
"Do you mean with your salon?" he asked.
"Yes. It's so much bigger and more beautiful than anything I've ever imagined owning.
It all happened like a story book, really.
In the moment, I guess it wasn't so fun, but looking back on it, I can appreciate how one thing prepared me for another, and here I am.
" She smiled at him like the things she just said made perfect sense.
"I guess what I was saying was pretty vague, too," he said. "But what makes it like a story book? And what wasn't so fun in the moment?"
She smiled at him and made a little silly face. "This could take a minute."
He gave a shrug and took a bite of a chip.
"I was with a guy for a long time," was the first thing she said, and EJ had to work to remain reactionless. He held the calm, interested expression while she continued. "It was a bad relationship."
"Were you married?"
"No, we never got married, but we might as well have been. We were… he was… let's just say that I've chosen a different path for myself now."
"One which doesn't include that guy?" EJ asked.
She smiled and shook her head. "One which doesn't include any guy," she said with calm assurance.
It felt like a punch in the gut to EJ. "I started dating Christian the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school.
I was fourteen, about to be fifteen. Christian was seventeen, about to be eighteen—a senior—just graduating.
Anyway, we were together for almost eight years.
I thought it was good at first, but it was never good.
I was controlled and manipulated, and it took me a long time to notice it, and then once I did, it took me a while to work up a plan to leave him.
I had done a program in high school where I graduated with my cosmetology license, and I worked in a retirement community, cutting and styling hair in an on-campus salon they had.
I knew I wanted to do something better and different with my job, and I was being controlled and held back.
Christian wouldn't let me work in a regular salon because he said…
it doesn't matter what he said. And anyway, I was working there, doing hair for all the retired people when I met Gabe. "
"The man I just met?"
"Yeah. It was just like you were saying with the investor.
Gabe was there one week when his dad was getting a haircut, and then we started talking.
He and I get along really well. I got close with his dad, too.
Gabe started coming up there on the days when his dad would get a haircut, and we got to know each other.
He knew things were bad with Christian, but he didn't know how bad until I showed up with bruises.
" She shook her head a little as if to shake something off.
"Anyway, Gabe was there for me. He knew my whole life story, and he knew I had goals and ambitions of opening a real hair salon one day.
I had a vision for it, and I would share that vision with him long before I knew that he had any money.
I actually didn't even know he had money until the day he offered to invest in my salon.
He came to me with a business proposal where he would purchase the house where my salon is and give me a budget to furnish it and get it ready.
It took eight months, and I did all of it behind Christian's back because he would've gone crazy on me.
So anyway, I made friends with the right person, obviously.
He invested in me with absolutely no interest. He stands to gain nothing but my friendship.
I'm paying him back, and at the rate I'm going, I'll have it all done in ten years—the house and salon will officially be mine. "
"So this man just did all that, no strings attached?" EJ asked. "And what happened to the ex? Didn't he come after you?"
"The only string attached is free haircuts for life. That was his one request, which is obviously more than reasonable. That's what was happening just now."
"How often do you cut his hair?"
"Every two weeks unless, you know, he'll be leaving to go out of town."
"And he's no relation to you? You just met him at an old folks' home?"
"Yes. And as far as what became of my ex, he's still around.
He lives in Cleveland. That's where I was living.
Gabe's dad was in a home there. Gabe lives here in Pittsburgh, though, and he thought it would be good for me to just start over here so that Christian would leave me alone.
It worked. I haven't seen or heard from him in over a year.
Gabe may have threatened him, I'm not sure, but either way, he's off my radar. "
"What happens if you can't keep your end of the bargain about the haircuts?" he asked.
She put a finger in the air while she chewed her chip and then said, "What would cause that?"
"What if you decide you don't wanna do hair anymore? What if you move?"
"Why would I do either of those things?" she asked, smirking at him. "Gabe's amazing. He's given me independence and the ability to plan for my future. He heard everything I was saying while I was hurting, and then he just made my dreams all come true."
"What about an apartment?" he asked.
"Oh, it's part of the house," she said.
"You live at the salon?"
"Yes. It's a duplex, so the third floor is my apartment."