Chapter Seven
Ruby
“What was all that about?” Alayna asks once the bell on the door jingles with her latest client’s departure.
I busy myself with straightening the shampoo bottles on the shelf behind me, avoiding her gaze. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” But I am sure. Sure that I must’ve been staring at Dash a little too hard. Hard enough for my friend to notice.
“I’m talking about the sparks that ignited between you and that handsome stranger a few minutes ago.” Al moves into my line of sight, leaning back against the shelves, arms crossed. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I mean.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Girl,” she says with a laugh. “You two were staring at each other in the mirror like neither one of you wanted to look away, not to mention the obvious flirting.”
My stomach bottoms out. Oh, Lord. Please tell me I wasn’t flirting.
“You’re seeing things, Al,” I lie. “Besides, you couldn’t possibly have witnessed all that from your station.”
Her position behind us likely gave her the perfect vantage point to see all that she mentioned, but I’m going to gaslight her until the cows come home if I must. I simply cannot admit that I might’ve embarrassed myself by awkwardly flirting with the hot and talented Dash DiFranco.
“Oh, come on.” She laughs again. “You can deny it all you want, but I know attraction when I see it.”
Fine. It’s not like she knows who he is…
“All right. I’ll admit that he was cute,” I say, adjusting the last of the bottles. “And nice.”
“Cute and nice.” Alayna’s smiles lights up to megawatt status. “I bet it hurt to be so complimentary of the opposite sex, didn’t it?”
I roll my eyes, bumping her hip with mine as I move past her. “I have nothing against men; you know that.”
“So you say.” She follows behind me. “But I have yet to see you accept a date from one.”
Annoyed, I whirl to face her. “You say that like I get asked out all the time. You’re the one who gets approached by good-looking guys regularly.”
“Okay, you might not get asked out all the time, but I’ve seen guys hit on you here plenty. You’re just not picking up what they’re laying down.”
I suppress another eye roll, releasing a sigh instead. “If a guy wants to ask me out, he should just do it. Not hint around. I’m not the best at reading between the lines.”
Besides, what woman running a business has time for that?
“Are you saying you’d go out with a guy if he straight-up asked you?” Alayna’s fists rest on her narrow hips.
“If he was attractive and we had things in common…”
“If an attractive guy who you had potential things in common with asked you out, you’d accept?”
What is she getting at? I hardly know, but at this point, I just want to drop the subject.
“Yes,” I huff. “I’d accept.”
A slow, conniving sort of smirk curls at the corner of Al’s mouth. “Glad to hear it. Because when you ran to the bathroom after your hot, broad-shouldered client left, he walked back in here and handed me this.” Al opens up her palm, revealing a white, folded-up note.
“What is that?”
“His number,” she says with an arched eyebrow. “And something else.”
My stomach suddenly brims with a slurry of mixed emotions. Excitement. Terror. Hope. And an ungodly amount of dread.
“Aren’t you going to read it?” Alayna wiggles the note in front of me. “Now’s your chance to make good on your word, Miss Ruby.”
Miss Ruby. She only uses that nickname when she’s pretending to be a good, obedient little employee instead of my pushy, knows-what’s-good-for-me-better-than-I-do best friend.
“Fine.” I snatch the note from her and open it with shaky fingers.
Ruby with the tinsel,
I know I said I wasn’t trying to hit on you earlier. And I wasn’t. Then.
But if you’re free and interested, here’s my number. I’d love to see you again.
Dashiell
All the emotions from earlier twist together so tightly I can’t seem to draw in a full breath. Dashiell DiFranco wants to see me again?
“So…” Al’s voice cuts through my internal panic. “When are you going to call him?”
“Uh…I, um…”
“Ruby.”
I blink at my best friend. “Hm?”
“When are you going to call him?”
My spine stiffens. Folding the note back up, I tuck it into my pocket. “Who says I’m going to call him?”
“Um, you did? Less than a minute ago when you said—”
“I said I’d accept an invitation for a date.” I pat my front jeans pocket where I stuffed the note and flash a victorious grin. “That’s not what this is.”
“The heck it isn’t!” Alayna drops her hands. “Ruby, he likes you!”
A scoffing laugh ekes out of me as I turn and head back to my station. “He doesn’t even know me, Al. That guy,” I say as if I don’t know exactly who he is, “is probably just trying to get a free service.”
He wouldn’t be the first client to try and flirt his way into getting a free haircut.
Do I already know Dash isn’t trying to do that with me? Yes. Because he isn’t even from here. And he way overpaid.
But can I give that information away to Alayna? Heck to the no.
“He wasn’t,” she says with the full force of her voice. “He was trying to ask you out. That you won’t acknowledge his sweet little attempt is, frankly, rude.”
I gasp. “I am not rude, Alayna.”
“You’re being rude right now.” She studies me from heel to head.
“I just can’t figure out why you’re being like this.
You’ve said before that you’d like to settle down with a man someday.
You talk about how nice it would be to cuddle a baby of your own whenever a mom with kids in tow comes into the salon, and we both know you’re lonely. ”
That last phrase steals all the breath from me as if it grew spikes and punctured a lung.
“I am not lonely. I have my family and…well, you.” Even I realize how flat that sounds. I look down at the floor, pursing my lips to keep the sudden urge to cry at bay.
Alayna lets out a deep sigh. “I’m sorry, Ruby, I didn’t mean—”
“You’re fine,” I say and clear my throat. “You’re right. I…I say a lot of things and don’t follow through with them.”
I can’t bring myself to meet her eyes during the silence that follows.
She rests a hand on my upper arm. “Ruby, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to sound so harsh.”
I finally meet her gaze. “I know you mean well.”
Al’s mouth turns down into a depressing frown. “It’s just hard for me to see you like this. Your mom is on the mend now and Beckett needs you less and less. But you still haven’t allowed yourself any time for you.”
My brows cinch together, but before I can ask her to expound on that, she adds, “Before your mom had her stroke, your life was taking flight. You finished all the online business courses, did all the hard work of learning to become a people person by working day in and day out with the public, and saw your dream realized by starting this business. And I am so very proud of you.”
I do my best to blink back tears as she continues.
“Then the stroke happened. And naturally, you disappeared into your family life. Which was understandable at the time, but…now that’s all over and you still haven’t quite come back, Ruby. I miss the determined girl who had hope for love in her future.”
A tear manages to slip free, so I take a quick step back. “I’m sorry. Putting myself out there is just hard.”
“I know,” she says. “Most worthwhile things are, though.”
Dash’s statement from earlier comes to mind. Shoving it away, I send my friend a look.
“You make flirting and talking with guys seem so easy, Al. You never run out of things to say in a conversation. You’re not awkward and you always know what to do with your hands.”
She laughs and wiggles her fingers in the air. “My hands?”
“Yes! What do I even do with these things when they’re not cutting hair?!” I lift my useless phalanges in a helpless gesture before my friend grabs them and gives them a squeeze.
“You are way overthinking this—”
“I know! It’s what I do.”
With a shake of her head, Alayna smiles softly. “Listen, I’m not saying you have to call this guy or else. All I’m saying is…be open to what comes next—and maybe let yourself have fun for once. Let the girl who worked hard for this moment enjoy it. Is that too much for your best friend to ask?”
“No, of course not.” I pull her into a hug. “Thank you for trying to help.”
“Always,” she whispers into my hair before giving me a big squeeze and pulling away. “Now, I’ve got to sweep up my station before my boss gets on to me.”
I scoff. “Seriously. I hear that lady is a tyrant.”
We both laugh as we get back to work. Except this time, it’s a lot harder to shake off my interaction with Dash, knowing he left me his phone number. Not that I’m going to call him because I’m not.
I can’t.
Even if all the stars aligned and I wasn’t an awkward turtle type person who’d rather retreat into her shell than interact with a real, live man, there’s still the fact that he lives across the country in a world away from my own.
What would be the point of going out—or worse—hitting it off?
I can’t help but wonder why he left his number for me in the first place. Is he looking for some type of fling? I’m barely the relationship type, let alone the temporary relationship type. If that’s what he’s after, there’s no reason for me to call.
Still, a spark of…something…ignites in my chest at the thought of it all. Self-approval, maybe? The satisfaction that even if I am an awkward turtley girly, I was able to catch the notice of a practically perfect famous hockey player?
I smile to myself as I organize my station. Until I realize that avoiding Dash at the game on Friday might prove harder than I originally thought.
***
“No one cares about what you’re wearing, Ruby! It’s only a hockey game!” Beckett yells, his incessant pounding nearly rattling the bathroom door.
“I care!” I yell back like a child. What is it about younger brothers that makes even the most mature women stoop to their level?
With a huff, I squeeze the top of my messy ponytail a little tighter. If only I had just a touch more volume…Frustrated, I drop my hands. Why does it take so much effort to look effortless?