Chapter 40
Astrid
One year later
“ Ugh, look at it!” I whine, fiddling with a strand of hair as I stare in the mirror.
It was so ratty .
“Okay, I give in. You were right.” I grimace, clutching onto a humongous knot and turning around to show the flaming red head stood behind me.
No, you’re not hearing that wrong. I was currently sat in the tub chair, caped up, and ready to get a haircut from… Maggie . I know what you’re thinking, the me of last year would rather have eaten her left arm than to converse with Maggie longer than she needed to, let alone allow her the power to either make or break her appearance. Naturally, I was still a little hesitant, but I’ve always had a bit of salon anxiety anyway. However, truthfully, a lot had changed in the past year.
A day or so after Theo and I went to Giovanni’s for our second-first date, (which was bloody glorious by the way), Maggie had asked if Theo and I could come over for dinner. Initially, I was staunchly against it, especially considering the events of last time. But Theo had sat me down to explain his conversation with her, and he promised me that she wanted to start afresh and believed with his whole heart that she was sincere this time. I scoffed at first, I didn’t think one dinner would solve nearly 3 years of borderline in-law bullying, but I saw the look on his face and knew I had to at least give it a try. After all, what did I have to lose?
When we arrived, it genuinely felt like I’d entered an alternate universe. She was absolutely beaming when she answered the door, a beam aimed towards me . It was a far-cry away from the scowl or eye-roll that I’d usually be graced with. She’d ended up cooking an entire three-course meal and was desperate to know whether I enjoyed it or not. Admittedly, as happy as I was that she was making an effort on my account, there was that small niggling voice that I just couldn’t shake, questioning whether this was all just for show and a means of keeping Theo appeased. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to feel that way, I was exhausted with all the fighting, but that lack of trust had practically been ingrained into me, and it was often her doing. Despite those feelings however, the night was actually quite…nice? Everyone was digging in to the banquet like there was no tomorrow, including me, who definitely hated to admit that her homemade sticky honey and garlic chicken was literally to die for, (and way better than mine but I didn’t want to go that far). When the boys had left the table to go and clear up, I was sat there licking the remnants of the sauce from my fingers when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I smirked as I craned my neck around, fully expecting to face some playful backlash from Theo about my dinner habits when I was immediately taken aback by the face who stared down at me. It was Maggie, who looked as pale as a ghost. My insides churned, instantly panicking that she felt unwell and was about to confess that she’d accidentally given us all food poisoning or something, when she finally whispered, “Can we talk?”
I felt even more sick then. I knew I needed to rip the plaster off sometime, but I guess I was just caught off guard. Nodding, I followed her into the living room where she shut the door. In truth, the devil on my shoulder did try and convince me that she was going to murder me and make it look like an accident, but thankfully it was overshadowed as soon as she gently ushered me to take a seat on the sofa next to her.
We’d probably spent at least an hour having a good chat, (and cry), about everything that had happened over the past 3 years, and it was safe to say, I believed Theo now when he said that she was sincere. I’d often pride myself on my ability to read people, and I could just feel everything that she was saying. I wasn’t going to lie to her, this wasn’t a one and done kind of thing. We both knew that it was going to take time to rebuild the trust that we once had with one another, and that it was very much going to be a case of baby steps. But one thing was for certain though, I wanted to retire my title of the queen of grudge-holding. It used to be a trait that I thought would protect me, one I wore fiercely like a shield. However, I’d seen first-hand how much damage could be done by holding onto a grudge for too long, and I didn’t ever want to make those same mistakes again. After all, all it caused was unhappiness and I’d had my fair share of that. We ultimately decided that even though we knew that things would likely never go back to the way they were when I first started dating Theo, that wasn’t a bad thing. We didn’t want to live in the past anymore, life was too short. Instead, we agreed to dedicate some time to spend together, whether that be a cup of tea one evening after work, or a day out on a Saturday, we knew we had to start somewhere. We were just about to hug it out, much to my surprise, when we heard a bang against the door of the living room, followed by some muffling sounds. I darted an eye at the door, only to see the silhouettes of three people all piled against it. Were they eavesdropping ? Rolling my eyes and snorting, I nudged Maggie and pointed towards the door so that she could see the guilty culprits. She chuckled, putting a finger to her mouth and tip-toed over to the door. Before I can even stand up, she swung the door open, causing Theo, Danny, and Graham to all plummet onto the floor in a heap.
“Having fun there?” She grins sarcastically as they all turn crimson and fumble about as they try to stand up.
I crossed my arms and tutted playfully at Theo, “didn’t have you down as a nosey-Nora, Theodore.”
Since that night, and over the past year, it was safe to say that Maggie and I had rekindled what was once lost. A part of me worried that I’d never been able to forgive her, or that she wouldn’t be able to forgive me, but the more time we spent together, the easier it became. Wednesday nights had become dedicated to cuppa and gossip nights, every Saturday fortnight, we went out for cocktails, and back in August, we even booked one of those ‘flash deal’ weekend getaways and hopped on the Eurostar to Brussels. I meant this from the bottom of my heart, I was so grateful. It sounded soppy, but I missed my own parents so much. They came and visited back in June for a week, and we facetimed a whole lot more now than we ever did before, but it still wasn’t enough. That was another huge reason as to why I was so glad that I had Maggie, the real Maggie back in my life again. It also meant that I got to see a whole lot more of Graham too, and let’s face it, he’d always been a sweetheart anyway.
So now I was here, literally putting all this newfound trust in Maggie’s hands as she picks up the brush and starts combing through the knots.
“I really do take that back. I shouldn’t have called it ratty” she says, her mouth drooping.
“But it is though, isn’t it?” I snort, hopefully giving her permission to laugh too.
Her lip curls upwards, “maybe a little bit.”
Once she finishes brushing, I’m honestly surprised I have any hair left. That poor brush has gone through it . It’s bristles are all bent and there’s clumps of knots tangled within it.
Swallowing down the lump in my throat and casting any worries to the wind, I know what I want to do.
“Let’s cut it how it used to be.”
Maggie raises an eyebrow, “You want to donate it again?”
I stare at myself in the mirror and nod through a smile. I absolutely loved my old hair, plus, I was doing something special in the process.
“I only grew it back out because I got so lazy and self-defeated.” I add. That was true. To me, this hair represented the past, a part of me that grew tired and gave up on just about everything, including myself. I wasn’t that girl anymore; I was so much more. “Let’s do it.”
Maggie smiles, “a kind thing to do for both you and others. Sounds like a win-win to me.” She grabs the hairband and gently ties my hair into a ponytail. “God, I’m going to have to crouch down for this.”
I laugh, my hair was beyond butt-length now. I spent less and less time twisting it into pretty braids and more time trying to avoid sitting on it every time I went to the toilet.
“Ready?” she winks, pulling it down to where we agreed and measuring it with a ruler.
My stomach somersaults with those final few bouts of nerves and second-guessing, as I clutch onto the sides of the seat. It really wasn’t that deep. If I could cope with trying to somewhat style Theo’s hair for a few months, I could almost definitely deal with this. No. I needed this. It was fresh starts all round.
I squeal, “Ready!”
After a few heavy snips, Maggie places the ponytail on the table. I feel so much lighter already, figuratively and literally, considering I had well over ten inches cut off. Not wasting any time, she washes my hair, evens it out, blow- dries it, and then curls it into the most beautiful beach waves that bounced on my shoulders.
“So, what do you think?” she beams, staring back at me in the mirror.
I could cry right now. I know it was so stupid, but I just absolutely loved it. I finally felt like me .
“I’m just glad you didn’t sabotage me” I wink, causing her to guffaw and lightly slap my arm through the cape. I grin, “it’s perfect.”
Taking the cape off me and running a final hand through my hair, she smiles knowingly, “I think I know a certain someone who will love it.”
I couldn’t wait to show Theo tonight and surprise him.
He’d gone out with Billy, Rowan and a few of his workmates to the pub for the afternoon, but he promised me that we were doing a ‘special’ Freaky Friday tonight to celebrate my promotion at work. I still worked as a reception teacher at the school, and I continued to love every minute. Yaz was still the best TA to grace the land, and Deborah was still…well, Deborah. The one thing that had changed however, was my title. You were now officially looking at the head of the early years department! I’m honestly surprised that they gave me the job, you know, after the whole ‘ginger shit’ and temporary suspension debacle, but I definitely wasn’t complaining. These little kiddos were my world, and being able to have even more opportunity to encourage and nurture their future, meant everything to me.
I didn’t know what a ‘special’ Freaky Friday meant, or what it entailed, but I was secretly hoping that there might be an innuendo somewhere…I’d just come off the worst period known to man, sue me for wanting to get a bit freaky . After that night at Giovanni’s we decided almost instantly that we were going to incorporate these nights back into our routine, and honestly, I’d missed doing them so much. Even though we were both twenty-five now, it still filled me with the same absolute buzz that it did back when we were seventeen. The way we both still audibly grimaced and squirmed at the monstrosity we’d put on the screen, knowing that if anyone walked in and saw what we were watching, they’d change their view on us forever. The way we’d share popcorn and inadvertently experience a ‘romcom’ moment where we’d both go to grab some at the same time and end up touching hands, or the way that as soon as the credits rolled, we’d get into some hour-long debate about the ethics of what we’d just watched. I loved it.
Brushing off the strays of hair from my jumper, I stand up and offer Maggie some money.
“No, no.” she says, shaking her head and gesturing me to put my purse back in my bag. “You’re family .” Hearing those words after so long genuinely made my cheeks ache from smiling so much.
I wrap my arms around her. “Thank you!” I chirp, before turning around to head out the door.
“Oh and Astrid.” She says, her smile glimmering with warmth, “Enjoy tonight.”
I can’t help but feel that she knows something that I don’t.
Either way, I return her smile and open the door.
I honestly had no clue what would make this Freaky Friday so ‘special’, maybe he’d bought a movie that was so weird, it had been banned in multiple countries and we were breaking some sort of law, maybe he’d splashed out on some champagne to pop, maybe he’d hired a chef and we were going to have a 3-course meal instead of popcorn to really hype up the promotion celebrations, or maybe he was just going to give me the best sex of my life. Either way, at this rate, I didn’t even care whether he’d just bought a different brand of bloody popcorn, I was just so excited to spend time with him.