Page 36 of No More Hiding

“Oh no, you don’t,” Cat said when she went to walk to her client. Jenna was talking to her.

“What?”

“Please. You’re on your phone texting away. You were frowning, then grinning. Then you laughed and now you’re smiling. Only a man can do that. So spill it.”

There was no getting out of this and part of her wanted to share. “I’ve got a date on Friday night.”

“You do? With who? Oh wait. The mountain man with the new puppy?”

“Yes. Brent,” she said. She didn’t want him referred to that way. Especially if he came in the shop and she wouldn’t put anything past Cat when she was in one of her moods.

“How did this come about?” Cat asked.

“I have a client,” she said. “It’s not the time.”

“It’s totally the time,” Cat said. “Go get Penny. She’ll enjoy this conversation with the rest of us.”

She’d forgotten that Penny was someone that was referred by a client of Cat’s. The two girls had come in together a year ago and since then, she had returned to Vivian every three months for toner on her lightened long locks and a trim.

She sighed, knowing there was no way out of this.

“Did I hear you say you had a date?” Jenna asked when she walked from the front.

“You’ve got some mighty big ears,” she said.

“They go with my growing butt.”

She laughed. “Your butt is just fine.”

“It was better when I was sixteen. Now it’s expanding with every chip I put in my mouth.”

“Then maybe you should put an apple in your mouth rather than a chip,” Hannah said. “And who has a date?”

Great, she was going to be the center of attention.

“I don’t like apples,” Jenna told Hannah. “Not unless they are in a pie. And Vivian has a date. We need to find out with who and when though.”

“The mountain man,” Cat said.

“Brent,” she corrected. “And he doesn’t look like that anymore. He’s kept his beard trimmed too.”

“Which means you’ve been seeing him more and not telling us?” Jenna asked with her hands on her hips. They weren’t big like Jenna said but she had curves. She liked to eat and she’d have to decide how to balance that if she wanted.

“I don’t have to tell you guys everything. Penny, are we doing the usual today?”

“Yes,” Penny said. “Tone down my brassiness and trim. Now catch me up with the dude you’re dating.”

“Not dating. I have a date,” she said.

“If you’ve seen him more than once that’s kind of like dating,” Hannah said.

Vivian fought the urge to roll her eyes. “To catch Penny up… As the rest of you know, he came in for a haircut.”

“Looking like he’d been held hostage in the cave of a foreign country for a year,” Cat said.

“He did,” she said. “Then he left after everyone embarrassed him.”

“Aw,” Hannah said. “Did he say that? Now I feel bad.”