Page 64 of Forbidden Romeo
“It’s not stupid. Think about it… everyone’s hair is different. Mine might go flat by intermission, but a wig’s styling will last for days.”
“Or mine would frizz out and become a total puff ball by the end,” Jill grumbles, pausing to lean over my shoulder and inspect her fiery red corkscrew curls in the mirror.
“Don’t you start with me.” I reach up and tug on the ends of one of her curls, smiling at her reflection as it bounces back into her jaw when I release it. “I know a dozen women who would kill to have your hair.”
“Oh please,” she rolls her eyes and goes back to curling my hair.
“I’m serious!” I try to pull away from her styling, but she gently pins me back down in my chair by the shoulders.
“I know. And I’m seriously going to burn you if you don’t sit still!”
“Why are we doing this if I’m in a wig for tonight?”
“Because. After the show, your wig will come off and you’re going to want to look pretty for all those pictures.”
I smile at my best friend and sit still despite the nervous jitters buzzing through my veins.
“You’re coming tonight, right?” I ask.
She nods, twisting my hair around the barrel of the iron. “Nolan and I are seeing it together.”
I battle to smother my smile and lose. “You and Nolan, huh? Again?”
She grabs a bobby pin from the pile on the table and starts pinning my curls so that they’ll fit comfortably beneath my wig. “He’s actually helping me with a script I’m writing.”
I spin around to face my best friend. “I didn’t know you were writing a play!”
She gives me a humble shrug but won’t meet my eyes. “It’s very premature.”
“But you’ll let me read it?”
After a pause, she finally looks at me. “Eventually. What about Megan and Jamie? Are they coming to see the show tonight?”
It’s my turn to give an evasive shrug. “They were supposed to, but I don’t think Holden has heard from Megan since that article went live.”
“Actually… I have.”
I gasp and my head whips towards the doorway of my dressing room where Holden is standing with red-rimmed eyes, messy hair, and a five o'clock shadow dusting his jaw.”They’re not coming,” he says, raking his fingers through his hair.
Jill clears her throat and quickly gathers her bag from the chair beside me. She gives me a quick hug. “Break legs tonight,” she whispers. “I’ll see you after.” On her way out the door, she pauses to kiss Holden on the cheek. “You, too.”
Once she’s gone, I get up and shut the door behind her. “What’s going on?”
Holden slumps into my makeup chair, wiping his palm down his weary face. “She just said she needed to rethink this whole blended family thing. That she and Jamie were doing just fine without us.”
There was a time I thought the same thing about myself and Holden; that I didn’t need him; that I was just fine without him. If Holden didn’t look so tortured at the moment, I might have even laughed, it was so painfully true.
We lapse into a tense silence. There’s nothing I can say to comfort him and there’s nothing he can say that will change his situation.
Instead, I cross over to Holden and sink into his lap, trailing my fingers gently through his silky hair.
He regards me silently, his eyes, dark pools of amber.
Around Holden, this kind of silence is dangerous.
This kind of silence relaxes my defenses.
It makes me see the vulnerability shining in his eyes rather than hearing his excuses.