Chapter 35 Measuring Time
Chapter thirty-five
Measuring Time
Nyomi
"I just know one thing, Nika." Deja tugged gently at a section of my hair. "You need to get them people back those champagne glasses you took from the flight."
Nika rolled her eyes. "Man, ain't nobody even asked about those glasses now. Those are my glasses at this point."
Everyone laughed.
All of the Fangs had been hanging around the whole time, watching everything with fascination. Yoichi and Satoshi sat in chairs by the door and had put their guns up.
Rin remained by the wall, in clear eyesight of Deja.
Kaoru was closer to the viewing area where he could glance down and check the theater every few minutes making sure no threats entered below.
Regardless, the Fangs looked intrigued by the hair braiding process and our conversations.
"You are so cheap." Deja combed through the hair. “Like you are just drowning in a poverty mindset. If you switched to an abundance mindset, you would actually be attracting money.”
Nika rolled her eyes. “Here you go with that white people shit—”
“Girl, it’s about energy, not about white people.”
I chuckled.
Deja had been working her magic on my hair for over an hour now. Her fingers moved in a smooth rhythm, parting, pulling, and weaving.
She'd decided on goddess braids.
"You're becoming a goddess," she'd told me earlier. "So you need goddess braids."
“Goddess braids?”
“They’re like the stylistic evolution of traditional box braids.”
“Okay.”
“The base is the same. You know. Individual sectioned braids installed with extension hair, but the defining feature is the left-out curly human hair throughout the style. With that addition, it creates more movement and softness.”
“Then, let’s go with it.”
“Perfect.” Deja clicked her tongue softly, let go of my hair, and got in front of me, studying my face. “Hmmm.”
She leaned back slightly, tilted her head, and examined me the way a painter studies a canvas. “Your base is perfect. But we’re not leaving it flat.”
“Flat?”
“Monochrome,” she corrected. “We’re adding copper curls.”
“Copper?”
“Yeah. Copper with depth. Auburn-copper. Warm but. . .rich since you’re living that rich life now and on fire.”
Nika snorted. “Here she go with that look-maxing shit.”
Deja ignored her. “Like me, you have deep brown skin with warm undertones. So we want the hair to complement that with golden undertones. You get me?”
“Uh. . .sure.” I shrugged.
“So we want you looking good in something designer and walking along the beach and when the light hits you, you glow bronze. If I add burgundy, it’ll be pretty, but it’ll sit heavy. If I add cherry red, it’ll compete with your glow and we don’t want that.”
“Yeah.” I still wasn’t quite sure, but I always trusted her.
She clicked her tongue again. “Yes. Your pretty face doesn’t need competition. It needs amplification.”
“Alright amplify the shit out of me.”
Zo laughed on my side.
“Copper will pull the gold out of your skin. It’ll catch sunlight. It’ll soften your features without washing you out. And because the copper will be woven in as curls—not full braids—it’ll look intentional, not like a bitch is trying too hard.”
Nika shook her head. “She been watching too many YouTube videos.”
“I am a look-maxxer, baby.” Deja snapped her fingers. “I’m all about optimizing what we already have.”
She returned to getting behind me and parting my hair with her fingers.
“Dark brown skin can carry drama, but the key is saturation and undertone. For example, you don’t ever go pastel.
That’s mistake number one. Strawberry red?
Absolutely not. That’ll make you look dusty. I hate when a bitch looks dusty.”
Pretty high from the earlier joint, I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t want to look dusty for my man.”
“Facts. I’m trying to have him see you and want to yank his dick out to give it to you.” Deja laughed.
Nika high fived her. “Have his ass kidnap us again so we can give her a new hairstyle.”
“Exactly, bitch. Exactly. I’m trying to make coming to Japan a thing now.” She pointed to Nika. “Get the copper out the bag. Damn. You act like you’re on vacation or something.”
Nika loudly sighed and headed to the bags of hair.
“Brown skin don’t ever just be brown. There’s so many differences.
For example, if your skin had cool undertones—like blue or neutral—then I would say go ruby.
Deep wine. Even a blue-based cherry red.
That makes your teeth pop and skin look glassy even when that shit is ashy as fuck.
” She grabbed a can and started spraying something on my hair.
“But you? You’re warm and sun-kissed. Copper is going to look like it grew out your scalp. ”
Once Deja got to work, lovely scents melted into me—that familiar blend of coconut oil and shea butter warming between her palms before she touched my hair and soothed my scalp.
My shoulders instantly dropped an inch, and some of the tension eased.
Underneath the scent was the faint chemical sweetness of the edge control she'd popped open earlier, the one that smelled like vanilla and childhood Saturday mornings when I wasn’t allowed to move my head and time stretched out slow as honey.
Her fingertips gently massaged my scalp as she sectioned off another part, and my eyes nearly rolled back. She was always talking about activating the cuticles to trigger more hair growth.
Every now and then I would get a glimpse of a braid that fell in front of my face and noticed through half-closed eyes that they were thinner than my usual style, yet with flowing curly volume.
"Nika isn't just cheap with taking the champagne glasses." Zo rolled up another joint. "Tell them about the newspaper."
Deja loudly sighed. "Nika is so cheap that she doesn't even buy toilet paper. She goes around collecting old newspapers from hospitals and nursing homes, and then she uses them for toilet tissue."
Nika frowned. “That’s recycling. Now why are you coming after me, when I’m trying to save the planet for the future kids in the world?”
Kaoru had been silent most of the time as he stood near the wall, but finally he spoke, “Newspaper?”
"Yep," Deja chuckled. "She uses sheets of the newspaper and then puts them in bags and throws them away because she don't even want to flush the toilet too much, so she can keep the water bill down."
"I flush the toilet sometimes. Shoot. You’re just jealous my bill is never three figures like yours." Nika now sat on the side eating a muffin the staff had put out.
"Nika is so cheap," Deja continued, "that she reuses tomato sauce.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean she reuses it?”
“When her kids eat spaghetti or anything with sauce, she'll scoop whatever's left on the plates right back into the jar for later."
“Ewww.” I scrunched up my face in disgust. “Come on now, Nika.”
Zo stopped rolling the joint. “Hold on. When I came to your house three years ago and you gave me that lasagna. . .that wasn’t reused tomato sauce? Right?”
Nika held out her hands. “When you cook the sauce again all the germs go away.”
Zo looked like he was about to vomit.
“Nika!” I widened my eyes. “You and I would be fighting in the street. I’m talking fists and hair dragging all over the block.”
“Girl, if you can’t twerk, you damn sure can’t fight.” Nika waved me away. “Now none of my kids or me have ever gotten sick, and neither any of my dinner guests.”
Deja sucked her teeth. “That’s why you will never find my sexy ass eating anything out Nika’s house.
Girl, I won’t even have a glass of water.
If I’m thirsty, I would rather almost die from dehydration and have the ambulance come get me, because only God knows what she done did to the water.
Might have got it out the back of the toilet bowl or something, thinking she saving money on the water bill. ”
“Now, that’s just crazy.” Nika rolled her eyes. “You’re doing too much.”
Zo still had not returned to rolling the joint. “I almost died. I’m basically a survivor of some sort. I need a pinned ribbon to put on my shirt.”
"And speaking of her making lasagna.” Deja finished a braid and placed it in front of me. “Do you know that Nika uses her dishwasher as an oven?"
I blinked. "Now I know you are lying to me. Right?"
Shocked, Kaoru spoke again, "How is that even possible?"
“Okay. When I explain this to you, you’re going to be like.
. .Nika, you are so fucking genius.” Nika put the muffin down and faced Kaoru.
"The dishwasher has a heat cycle for drying. So you just put your regular dishes in there, but then you put your lasagna, chicken, or your pot roast on the top rack. Make sure the pan is covered in foil so it doesn’t get wet during the washing process.
And when the dry cycle comes on, boom, the food gets cooked. "
There was a beat of silence.
Then everyone burst out laughing.
Zo shook his head. "You are absolutely insane."
"I'm resourceful," Nika corrected.
Zo was laughing so hard he had to put the weed paper down.
Even Rin, who'd been leaning against the wall the entire time staring at Deja, had a faint smile on his face.
Actually, it wasn't faint anymore. He was fully smiling now. And it made him look less bored and more. . .dangerous.
I smiled despite myself. This was exactly what I needed.
Distraction.
Laughter.
Normalcy.
Below us, the movie was almost done. I could hear kids laughing down in the theater. The sound of it made my chest ache.
So far, everyone on the island was happy and safe.
The kids’ laughter rose some more.
I swallowed.
Kenji wanted kids. He'd told me that with the afterglow of fire play in his eyes.
I wasn't sure if I was ready. We'd never had a real conversation about it—the kind where couples sat down and talked timelines, plans, and whether their love was stable enough to build a life inside of.
And then there was the Kiko chick. The woman who might already be carrying his twins. A truth that sat in my chest like a splinter I couldn't reach.