Hart & Stocker

by Max Ellendale

  "Hey." Dax smirked, her discomfort over the vibrant greeting evident.

  "C'mon. Let's get you set up." Jordan urged me over to the sink where one of her girls prepared the towels. "I know just what I want to do to you."

  "Thanks." I laughed as I followed her. "That sounds scary." Dax followed suit and waited until I settled in the chair.

  "And just what are we going to do with this untouched mane of deep brown?" Jordan swung around Dax, before using her pinky finger to run through the length of her hair. "Girl, we've got to get some layers in you."

  "Er...I'm okay." Dax's eyes widened as Jordan bounced around her, almost as vibrant as her pink and purple highlights nestled in the thick braid of black.

  "No way. You're here, we're taking care of you." Jordan pointed to the sink. "You're next."

  "Uh...Really. I'm fine." Dax stared at her, her hands tucked deeply in the pockets of her bomber jacket.

  "Don't argue with me, Stocker. Even if I get a blowout outta you, it's on." Jordan cocked a brow and finally, Dax chuckled.

  "Maybe…"

  "I know just the thing." Jordan pointed a single finger in the air. "A little Sweet Vee will warm you up."

  Despite the fact that my head was in the sink, I laughed at the expression on Dax's face as she was literally bombarded by the situation. Her submission made me curious, but I reminded myself that she knew some of these women already.

  "Jordan," Vee scolded while sweeping up the area around the second chair. "Quit harassing her already."

  "Aw, c'mon." Jordan pouted, folding her arms across her apron. "Just a blowout, Daxy?"

  "Seriously? You did not just call me that." Dax scowled, huffing after as she glanced to Vee.

  "Ignore her." Vee approached, her hands on Dax's shoulders as she steered her away. "Let's escape."

  "Thank you." To my surprise, Dax laughed as she let Vee urge her back toward the front of the shop.

  In less than five minutes, I found myself in Jordan's chair, getting my hair fondled and ear talked off. Somehow, Vee managed to convince Dax to get a blowout, and she was bent backward over the sink, her hair tended to by only Vee.

  "Do they know each other?" I asked under my breath while Jordan began combing my hair.

  "Dax and Vee?" She nodded. "From their support group. Vee hates it though, so don't bring it up. Alice makes her go," she said, keeping her voice soft.

  "I won't. Explains why Dax is letting her get so close."

  "It does. How've you been? You haven't been here in over a year. I checked the book. Also, we're doing balayage on you today."

  "Will it look nice?"

  "Oh yeah." She nodded, her grin everlasting. "Your hair already has that I spend a lot of time in the sun look to it so this will be great."

  "I trust you."

  "Well, be careful with that trust. I might turn you into a baby dyke with a pixie cut."

  "Don't you dare." I laughed and nudged her knee with my foot.

  Jordan's pure joy in pushing people out of their comfort zones emanated from her in every interaction. Not just with me, but with any of the customers who expressed nervousness or worry. After she finished the balayage treatment, I sat there for a long time watching the day-to-day functions of the salon. Women, for the most part, came and went with ease. A few men came in for cuts as well. Cin, with her silver hair and undercut, had the busiest chair of the day. A woman with pink and turquoise curls worked on manicures at the tables behind the chairs.

  Dax appeared in front of me, a sardonic smirk on her face that didn't match the soft feminine fringe that cradled her pretty face. With her hair blown out, and long layers feathering her shoulders, the small change choked me up as I gazed up at her.

  "Hi, pretty honey." I grinned as I wiggled my fingers at her. Instead of coming toward me, she slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans; her jacket long gone. "Did Vee do that to you?"

  "Yeah. Do you hate it?"

  "I love it. Come here." I couldn't get up from the chair with the smock and towels around me.

  "Are you sure? Because I hate it." She stepped between my knees and I placed my hands on her hips.

  "You're beautiful, Dax. And you don't hate it because you wouldn't have shown me if you did. It's okay to like how you look, because I certainly do." I leaned forward and kissed her stomach above her belly button. Only then did she remove her hands from her pockets and stroke my cheeks.

  "Not used to it," she said, her gaze locked on mine.

  "It takes time." I pulled her toward me as far as she could go then squeezed her with my knees. "Know what I like best about your looks?"

  She shook her head, rubbing her hands up and down my forearms while I continued to hold her waist. "No…"

  "That you're the perfect mix of femme beauty, and cute tomboy. It makes me swoon. Every day. And then when you're naked, it's all woman and my insides melt." I confessed my desire for her physicality in ways I hadn't before. Telling her why I loved her because of how she made me feel was something I did often. Complimenting her body and looks always made her a little uncomfortable, but today she was able to hear it.

  "You like my underwear. I know." She chuckled at that and I laughed.

  "I do. I love all of you. Inside and out." I kissed her stomach again and she pinched my chin between her thumb and forefinger.

  "I love all of you, too. Sexy Cowgirl." She smiled before closing the distance between us to claim my lips.

  Jordan reappeared, interrupting our syrupy confessions, and ran a comb through my prepped hair.

  "Alrighty, sex kittens. Let's get this show on the road," she said, grinning at Dax. "Will, your girl is hot."

  "Tell me about it." I grinned, leaning back in the chair while Dax slid up to sit on the empty counter space beside the blow dryer. She crossed her legs at the ankles, and the buckles of her motorcycle boots clinked when they touched. I snaked my phone out of my pocket and snapped a picture of her.

  "Hey." She frowned at me and made to snatch the phone but I hid it under the smock.

  "Nope. I get to keep it."

  Jordan chuckled at the two of us while she began sectioning off my hair. Vee joined us a moment later, coming to stand beside Dax. She reached up and tugged a few strands of her hair to make it fall over her shoulder.

  "It's a good cut on you," she said, not an ounce of hesitation in touching someone who to me seemed volatile when cornered after I first met her. It told me that Dax must've known her for awhile.

  "Psh. What does some ex-detective know about my hair?" Dax spat, though the smirk that tugged the corner of her mouth told me of the jest in her statement. My stomach clenched until Vee's response.

  "About as much as an ex-cop knows about being a marshal." Vee laughed and Dax gave her shoulder a shove. "What did Willa bribe you with in order to get you to come here?"

  "Nothing. I swear." I laughed while watching them as Jordan worked on my hair. Scissors snipped by my ears though I trusted she wouldn't sheer me like a sheep.

  "She doesn't know it yet, but we made a trade." Dax glanced at me, her brows lifting.

  "What have we traded?"

  "I spend the day as a mermaid for you, and you spend the evening as a wildrose for me." Dax swung her legs, a mischievous smile melting over her lips.

  "No way. We're not going there," I protested, feeling my mouth turn into a frown.

  "Why not?" asked Vee.

  "She's a Kari survivor," offered Jordan. The restraint caused by the smock made me grumpy because I couldn't free my hands to swat them.

  "Who isn't?" Vee crossed her arms, shaking her head. "After what she did to Allie, it's hard to look past it."

  "So should I connect the chart for all of you? Willa doesn't know the whole story," said Jordan.

  "Who's Allie?" I asked.

  "Alice from group," offered Dax. "You met her with Jordan last time."

  "Oh. Right. She seemed familiar."

  "She should've been." Jordan took a deep breath. "K
ari was cheating on her with you, and on you with her, and on both of you with Jeremy." She paused her snipping to squeeze my shoulder. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make you flinch."

  "It's okay." My gaze fell on Dax and she offered me a sad smile.

  "Alice is our best friend," said Vee, nodding toward Jordan. "So we get it. Neither of you knew."

  "I was only with her for a few months, but just learning of all that lying and hiding made me sick," I said, focusing on my girlfriend whose supportive gaze never left mine. "I feel worse for Alice. Wasn't she with her for awhile?"

  "A few years, yeah." Vee nodded, cringing.

  "They've moved past it. Alice is happily, ridiculously happily, married with a cute little girl and a great life. And Kari is pretty much blackballed in the community. Though we all still patron her bar." Jordan moved to the other side of my head while I watched her in the mirror.

  "She should come with a warning label," I said, taking a deep breath. I hadn't talked about Kari in detail for a long time. Part of me wondered if the injury over her cheating wasn't as great as the timing of it being exposed around when I lost my dad suddenly.

  "She does now," said Vee. "There's a Pride party there tonight so most of us are going."

  "You want to go to that?" My gaze landed on Dax, though her expression soured suddenly.

  "My plans were to have a drink and show off my arm candy. Pride party?" She pretended to gag.

  "Aw, come on, spoil sport." Jordan swatted her knee when she moved to stand in front of me then. "It'll be fun."

  "It's family friendly." Vee pointed to Finn who bounced down the walkway and plopped into the chair of the woman giving manicures. "Finn's coming. Half of it is outside on the patio for a barbeque."

  "I'm more of a farm girl…" I said, smirking at the irony. Four hours ago, I was a Seattle transplant on a farm.

  "Is she kidding?" Jordan looked at Dax, pointing her comb in my direction.

  "She's excuse-ing." Dax laughed, swinging her legs again.

  "I see this. A few years ago, you were Seattle chic." Jordan perked up suddenly. "I have an idea."

  "Oh no." I groaned and the other two women laughed.

  "Oh yes. It's on." Jordan grinned then returned to finishing my cut. "The two of you take a hike while I work on Willa. We got an idea to flesh out."

  Vee glanced to Dax, shrugging. "Hungry? It's about lunch time."

  "Sure." Dax slid from her perch, her eyes on me the whole time. "Is it unwise to trust Jordan with you?"

  "Um...yes?" I gulped, glancing between them. "She has just as many connections to her as Kari."

  "Do not. Eve has the second most. I'm third. And besides, I've been in a committed relationship for three years so ha." Jordan waved them off. "Go on. Bye."

  Vee laughed and Dax followed her, an unapologetic smile curving her lips as she looked at me from over her shoulder.

  "Dax, I swear—"

  "Bye, baby." She snickered and I pouted my way into the game.

  ***

  "This is absurd." I sighed as Jordan tossed a navy blue blouse at me while I stood in her bedroom in the apartment above the salon.

  "Put it on. Dax will love it."

  "Do you do this to all your customers?" I pulled the shirt on then buttoned it up the front. It fit me loosely enough to offset the tighter black jeans she forced me in.

  "Only the ones who need reminders that flannel is ugly." She dropped a pair of black heels down in front of me. "Try these. They're your size."

  "I haven't worn heels in a long time." I stepped into them, noting the skin of my knees that peeked out through the tears in the jeans. "Whose clothes are these?"

  "Ainsley's shoes, my jeans, Vee's shirt." She moved behind me and ran her fingers through my hair. "I love this cut and color on you. Beach wavy layers, sun kissed hue. Girl, you're smoking."

  "Why am I putting on this show again?" I asked, huffing when I looked at myself in the mirror. It took a moment for me to see myself, until I recognized my old self. A wave of warmth rolled over my shoulders, and heat flushed my cheeks.

  "Yeah." Jordan squeezed my shoulder. "That's why. I heard you tell Dax that it's okay for her to like how she looks. Same for you."

  "Are you some sort of hairdresser therapist or whatever?" I brushed down the front of the shirt, until Jordan instructed me to tuck it in the front of the jeans. I did so, and drew in a deep breath.

  "Both." She gave my shoulders a squeeze. "That tiny bit of eyeliner and mascara was all you needed. It's cute the two of you both have green eyes."

  "We fell in love with each other for that reason," I teased.

  "Go down and see her. She seems like an anxious person…"

  "She's very anxious." Again, I drew another deep breath. "You're sure about this? I really don't want to see Kari."

  "Let Dax handle Kari. You just be you. All of you. Farm girl and city girl together." Jordan ran a finger through my hair. "I'm an artist for sure," she said as she admired her work.

  "You're something else, Jordan, that's for sure."

  It took me a few paces to find my footing in the heels and I carried my own clothes down in a bag. Without the boots I'd grown extremely attached to over the years, a sense of vulnerability humbled my demeanor.

  In the evening, the salon had no more customers and I noticed Finnley turned off the neon sign up front that read Open. Only the other girls who worked there remained behind with Dax.

  "Daxy, I got something for you," Jordan's sing-song announced. Dax turned away from the conversation she had with Vee, her hands tucked in her back pockets, toward Jordan. "Throwback Willa for your pleasure." She waved her hands in front of me and I swatted her.

  Dax's eyebrows lifted when her eyes widened, and the way she stared at me drained her face of any stress or worry it carried. My cheeks heated to a flush, and I set my bag down beside where I left my purse on Jordan's chair.

  "Do I look ridiculous?" I asked when my girlfriend came to stand in front of me.

  "Are you insane?" Her smile met her eyes and she ran her fingers through her hair. "Wow."

  "Is that an insane wow?" I nearly whined as I reached for her.

  She laughed, biting her bottom lip as she hugged me. "You're sexy as fuck. How's that?"

  "Dax." I squeaked and buried my face against her shoulder. "I feel silly."

  "You're beautiful, baby. You're always beautiful. Tonight, you're absolutely fuckable on top of that." She laughed softly while rubbing my back, then she ran her fingers through my hair. "Like that?"

  "I like you. I like making you smile." I leaned back and cupped her cheeks. "If wearing other people's clothes gives your pickle a tickle, I'm okay with it."

  Jordan snickered beside us, and glanced to Vee. She shrugged, her eyes bright with emotion that matched how I felt.

  "Mom, Scarlett's here," Finnley announced, unlocking the front door. "Let's go!"

  "Finn, wait for us." Vee hurried over to her and held the door until everyone funneled ahead. Dax and I headed out with them and over to her car.

  "See you there?" asked Jordan as everyone piled into the SUV belonging to Scarlett. Vee sat in the front, while Grace, Cin, and Finnley climbed in the back seats.

  Dax glanced to me, and I bit my lip.

  "We'll text you," said Dax, nodding to her before opening the passenger side door for me.

  "Okay. Consider it, Will!" Jordan joined the others in Scarlett's car and they headed off.

  Dax and I tucked ourselves into her car and I drew in a deep breath. "I'm not sure, honey…"

  "I know. We don't have to. I'm perfectly happy slipping my hand down the front of those tight jeans and toying with your clit for the two hour drive home." Dax grinned as she said it and my insides shuddered at the promise.

  "My God."

  "It's been awhile." She leaned over the seat and kissed me gently, her hand wandering down my front. "You tell me what you want to do, baby. I'm not wedded to the idea of going anywhere. Only to the i
dea of being with you."

  My stomach fluttered under her caress, and I leaned into her affections. It had been awhile since we'd connected and my want for her, in our sound moments, never ceased. "What would you have done years ago before everything happened?"

  "About going out?" She shrugged. "I went there all the time to have fun."

  "And after?"

  "Still went, but for different reasons. Mainly to get wasted and hook up."

  "Now?"

  "The idea of going anywhere with you is all that matters," she said, giving my hand a squeeze before shifting the car into reverse.

  "Let's go for one drink at least...and see from there," I agreed, gnawing on my cheek out of nerves. Some part of me knew that Dax wanted to go or else she wouldn't have suggested it.

  We headed out from the parking lot of the salon and toward Wildrose. Dax kept a firm grip on my thigh, close to the apex, which stirred rumblings in the places I wanted her hand to fall.

  Wildrose in June appeared on the street like a giant rainbow ball of happiness. People flooded the streets in brightly colored outfits, feathers, banners, and other rainbow paraphernalia. Dax parked in the garage across the street and held her hand to me when we hit the sidewalk. I took it, giving it a squeeze as she led the way into the bar.

  I expected the usual club feel, but like Vee promised, it was more of a family affair. A group of kids whacked piñatas in one corner, and a buffet of food filled another. Dax led us out the open back door onto the patio where music thumped. Two dozen people lingered, holding colorful drinks that matched their outfits. Most of them were women, some men.

  Dax pointed to the bar in the far corner where Jordan and her girlfriend stood beside Vee and her daughter, who chowed down on some cotton candy. We pushed ourselves to sit on the stools, and Dax turned to me, her knee between my thighs as we faced each other.

  "What frilly girly drink are you in the mood for?" she asked.

  "How about a mango margarita?" I laughed and the bartender, a young woman with two sleeves of tattoos got to work. "What about you, honey?"

  "Maybe a mixed drink. Staying away from the whiskey for the time being."

  "Good." I kissed her cheek and her proximity to me remained possessively close. I didn't mind it at all. Dax ordered an equally girly drink with coconut rum, and we sat together observing the rest of the queer folks have their fun. "So how many of these women have you boned?" I asked, pointing around the area as a few bikini-clad women joined the fray.