Chapter 18 Rory #2
“I just feel...” She let her head slump forward, breaking eye contact with Gemma. “I feel like a fraud, going into a barber when I’m a woman. What if the guys take the piss out of me, what if I don’t fit in, what if…”
Her voice trailed off and she stared at the cracks in the pavement.
“What if you do fit in?” Gemma asked. “Or what if they just don’t care that you’re a woman?
Not everyone sees gender as binary. To them, you may be just another paying customer.
I can’t believe that Isaac would recommend someone who’s going to make you feel bad.
Now we could stand here all afternoon catastrophising, or you could walk through the door and find out.
I won’t leave you until you feel safe, and if you want to go home, we can do that too. ”
Rory gave Gemma’s hand a grateful squeeze and turned towards the barbers’ shop.
Looking through the window, she could see a couple of guys lounging in the chairs in front of the mirrors and gulped.
She wasn’t sure where this insecurity came from.
She used to be fearless about heading into new situations and new experiences.
But that was a decade ago, she realised, and the last impulsive thing she had done was to seduce Gemma into her bed at Michelle’s party.
With one last deep breath, she mentally pulled up her big-girl pants and walked into the shop.
The shop was simply decorated with a laminate floor and wood panelling on the walls.
A neon sign hung on the back wall. On one side, three barbers’ chairs stood in front of large mirrors.
A younger man lounged in one, hardly looking up from his phone, whilst in the other a tattooed guy sat until he noticed them enter through the door.
Rory gripped Gemma’s hand and looked between the two of them.
“Hi, is one of you Craig?” She used all her legal training to keep her voice neutral and steady despite her heart thumping against her ribcage and her knees feeling wobbly.
The tattooed guy unfolded himself from the chair, and she looked up at him.
“Yeah, that's me. You Rory?”
She nodded.
“Awesome. Isaac said he’d recommended me.”
She nodded again.
“Guess I’ll have to buy him a beer next time I see him.” He chuckled, and the deepness of his laugh rumbled in his chest. “Come and take a seat and tell me what you’re thinking.”
Rory sat in the chair and appreciated the no-nonsense style Craig had.
The last time she’d had her hair cut, it had been fifteen minutes of tea, magazines and fluff before someone even spoke to her about what she wanted.
Then the hairdresser had scrunched her face into a scowl at the thought of cutting off Rory’s chestnut tresses and said it wouldn’t suit her at all to go any shorter than she was already.
Of course, that had been a salon recommended by Darcy, and this was a different prospect altogether.
She swallowed a couple of times and fixed Craig with a decent look.
“I want to cut my hair short.” She said over the thrumming of blood in her ears.
“Okay, mate.” He picked up her ponytail and loosened the hair tie.
He gathered up her hair, which was still slightly damp from the shower she’d had at the gym, and held it up.
“What are you thinking?” He cocked his head to one side.
“I can see you rocking a short back and sides with a floppy bit at the front.”
Rory gazed at him. Was that it? No fanfare, no arguments or judgement. Just “okay mate” and then immediately suggesting the look she wanted.
“Uh, yeah.” She spluttered out. Tapping her phone screen, she pulled up a picture of a hairstyle she liked. “Do you think this would work?”
Craig looked over her shoulder at the picture on her phone. It showed one of the influencers she had found on Instagram.
“So, a high taper fade with volume on top?” Craig asked her through the mirror.
“Um, I guess,” She shrugged, feeling woefully unprepared, despite the research she had done.
He laughed, and the rest of her tension melted away
“Is this the first time you’re going short?”
“Yep.” She swallowed a few times, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat.
“Cool, how about we start you at a grade four at the back and I’ll style the top longer so you can play with it.
” He moved her long hair around. “Until we remove all this, I won’t know how your hair lies, so I might not get exactly what you want first time, but I will do my best to get it how you want. ”
She stared at him and then at Gemma. Gemma’s eyes held unshed tears over a smile. This care and acceptance was something else.
“Do you mind if Sammy here takes some before and after pics?” Craig asked.
Rory nodded her agreement as Sammy quickly started snapping pictures as Craig reached for a brush. He tidied her long hair up for the last time and deftly made it into a plait.
“This sounds a silly question, but go with me,” he caught her eyes in the mirror. “What do you want to do with your hair once it’s cut off?”
Rory blinked in surprise. Did he think she wanted to take it home with her? Or was he going to mount it on the wall of his shop like a trophy? Here sits the last of Rory Davies’ femininity?
Craig snorted and smiled. “I just ask because there’s a charity that takes hair and makes it into wigs for kids. Yours is lovely, and I can send it to them. It’ll make a big difference to someone’s life.”
Rory relaxed again. “Yes, that sounds nice.”
“Awesome.” Craig held out the scissors to Gemma. “You want to do the honours?”
Gemma stood forward and took the scissors.
Her eyes caught Rory’s through the mirror, and for a moment the world slid away.
Everything they had been through in the last few weeks – the talks, the shopping trip, the visits to the gym, all of Gemma’s research – came down to this.
This was the moment. Rory felt something shift in her chest. As she gazed into Gemma’s eyes and then to Gemma’s hands as she cut away her hair, Rory realised that despite her best efforts, she was falling in love with Gemma.