by Rachel Magee
“Is it time to panic yet?”
Paige had already started to panic. In a few short hours, Georgia would walk down the aisle surrounded by her friends and family to…
“Wait.” Paige looked, a new idea forming in her mind. “Georgia’s cousin is staying in the condo right below ours, right? The one who snores?”
Hadley’s face scrunched up with confusion. “I think so. Why?”
“Her last-minute roommate, Sasha, went to cosmetology school.”
“You’re going to ask Sasha to help us out?” Georgia questioned.
Paige grabbed her phone off the table and headed for the front door. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. Wish me luck.”
She jogged down the steps, typing a quick text message as she went. This had to work. It was the last option. She paused to catch her breath, then knocked on the door.
After a painfully long wait, the door swung open to reveal Georgia’s cousin, still wearing her pajamas.
“Morning, Elle,” Paige said in her most cheerful voice. “Is Sasha here?”
Elle shot her a questioning look. “Sasha?”
“Mm-hmm.” Paige tried to stay optimistic, although she was starting to second guess her plan. “I need a favor. Well, technically, Georgia needs a favor.”
“What does Georgia need from Sasha?” Elle asked, sounding confused and perhaps a little offended.
Paige wanted to tell her she should feel blessed to be left out of helping with this little dilemma. But before she got the chance, Sasha passed by the door clutching a coffee cup in her hands. A glimmer of hope cut through some of Paige’s tension. Maybe this disaster was going to work out after all.
Paige waved to her. “Good morning, Sasha. I have a huge favor to ask you.”
“Sure. What do you need?”
She appeared to be dressed to go somewhere. Her long hair fell in perfect auburn waves. She wore a sundress that seemed to be custom tailored for her. The only indication that she wasn’t about to walk out the door were her pink bunny slippers. Paige hoped she was willing to change whatever plans had prompted her to get ready.
“The stylist Georgia hired to do her hair and makeup is sick. We’ve called everyone in the area, but no one has any availability.”
“That’s awful,” Elle said. “What’s she going to do?”
Nervousness fluttered in Paige’s gut and she clasped her hands in front of her to keep herself from fidgeting.
“Well, since Sasha has experience doing hair and makeup, I was hoping she could help us out?” She shifted her gaze to Sasha. “Georgia would be incredibly grateful. We all would be.” She bit her lip and held her breath. This was their final long shot to get someone to help them. If Sasha declined, Paige, Ciera, and Hadley would be in charge of Georgia’s hair. Paige didn’t even want to think about what it would look like.
“Just Georgia?”
The question made Paige’s spirits soar. The door hadn’t been slammed in her face, which she was embarrassed to admit she was fearing. Sasha had no reason to want to help them out. In fact, she had every reason to want to avoid Paige. But she hadn’t said no.
“If you take care of Georgia, the rest of us can do our own.”
“Right now?”
Paige couldn’t decide if that was a positive response or not.
“She has to be ready for the wedding at three-thirty. So whenever you think you need to start is fine. We’ll work around your schedule.”
Sasha shrugged and sipped her coffee. What did that mean? Was that a yes shrug or a you’re-on-your-own shrug? Paige was too afraid to ask. Vision of the coiffure disaster she would be responsible for if this task was left to her flashed in her mind.
“We’ll get you anything you need,” she begged. “Well, at least anything that you can find at the closest Walmart. Make us a list and Aiden will be here any second to go get everything on it.” She was desperate. Nervousness twisted in the pit of her stomach and she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, unable to stand still.
Sasha stared at the sky as if she were thinking about something. Finally, she took a sip of her coffee. “It would probably be easier if I just went with him. Does she have a picture of what she wants?”
Paige froze. “You’re saying yes?”
“Sure. I don’t have anything else to do today. Brody—”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She threw her arms around Sasha. She wanted to sing or to jump around, but since Sasha seemed a little caught off guard at the embrace, she forced herself to let go and step back. “You’re a life saver. Georgia will be so relieved.”
Sasha sipped her coffee again as if this was just another normal morning for her. Paige’s phone buzzed in her hand, diverting her attention.
“Aiden is on his way and you’re more than welcome to go with him. Do you want me to text you when he gets here?”
Sasha glanced down at her clothes. “Sure. I probably need to get ready. I can’t go out looking like this.”
Besides the bunny slippers, Sasha looked more than ready to show up at any event. With some blinged-out jewelry, she could have even passed as ready for the wedding. Paige tried not to think about the wildly messy bun that sat on top of her own head or the fact that the only beauty regimen she’d done so far this morning was brush her teeth.
“Take all the time you need. Why don’t you text us when you’re ready?”
Sasha flashed a friendly smile, one that made Paige wonder if they had misjudged her in the beginning. She tried to push away the thought before it made her think about Brody and what that would mean for trying to win him back. “What time should Georgia be ready for you?”
“She needs to be camera-ready at three-thirty.”
Well, wedding-ready, but Paige didn’t feel the need to correct her. Sasha pursed her lips together and looked up at the sky again. “If we start at one I’ll have plenty of time to do everyone’s hair and both hair and makeup for Georgia. Will that work?”
“That would be amazing. We’ll be ready at one o’clock.”
“Oh, and can you text me a picture of what she wants? That will help me know what I need to get.”
“I’ll go get it right now.”
Paige almost ran into Aiden when she left the condo.
“You rang, my dear?” His crooked grin made her heart do the strange flip-flop thing again. Or perhaps it was the intense relief of not having to spend the afternoon trying to help Georgia fix her hair for the most important day of her life.
“Thanks for getting here so fast. Am I keeping you from something?”
He followed her up the last flight of stairs to her condo.
“Only sitting in a cabana with a bunch of dudes trying to remind everyone else that they’re masters of the universe.”
“Have you told them how you are cornhole champion of Hilltop, Texas? Surely that would put you in the running.”
Aiden faked a look of disappointment. “I was just about to when I had to leave. Now they may never know.”
“On the bright side, you get to take Sasha to Walmart to buy her anything she needs in the beauty department.”
“Considering the alternative, it sounds amazing. But may I ask why?”
She stuck her head in the door to make sure all of her roommates were fully dressed before she opened it all the way for Aiden to follow her in. “There was a slight hair and makeup emergency, and Sasha is going to get us out of it.”
An hour and two hundred dollars later, Aiden delivered Sasha and a car full of hair products back to the condos. Ciera and Paige met them at the door.
Ciera grabbed Sasha’s hand. “We’re so glad you’re here. Come on in. Hadley just got lunch and you have to eat first.” The two girls disappeared into the condo.
Aiden was left standing on the front porch holding blue
bags full of Sasha’s purchases. He held them out to Paige.
“You now have things I didn’t even know were things.”
She took one of the bags from him and peeked into it.
“I probably don’t know what most of this stuff is.” She pulled one contraption out of the bag and held it up to examine it before she dropped it back in the bag. “Thanks for taking her to run the errand. I owe you big-time.”
“My pleasure. But I think you’re the one who saved the day.”
Paige waved off the compliment as she continued to rifle through the contents in the bag. “Georgia deserves for her day to be perfect. And apparently that requires buying one of these.” Paige held up something that looked like a strange mix between a curling iron and a hair dryer.
Aiden held up his hand in defense. “I don’t even pretend to know what kind of contraptions you ladies need.”
Paige pulled a lipstick out of the bag and read the label on the bottom. “As my mom would say, it’s all in the name of beauty.”
She dropped the lipstick back into the bag and took the other bag from him. “Thanks for stepping up to help us out of this mess.”
“Playing Uber driver was nothing. You’re a good friend to set this all up.”
Paige rifled through the contents of the second bag. “Georgia, Ciera, and Hadley are my best friends. This is a small thing compared to what any of them would do for me.”
Finally, she looked up from the bags. “I better get these inside. See you at the wedding?” With a smile, she disappeared into the condo.
He spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach club with the investors, trying to not think about Paige. But the more he tried to not think about her, the more he did. Everything reminded him of her. No one smiled the way she did or listened with the same attention as she gave. The conversations seemed a little duller without her around. Even the ocean’s sparkle didn’t seem as radiant.
She’d even given friendship a different meaning. The investors claimed to be friends. They claimed they started working together because of their friendship, but they didn’t have the kind of friendship Paige talked about. Aiden had the feeling that any one of them would throw any other under the bus if the money was right. It was a depressing thought.
He had a lot of friends. He liked to think of himself as a nice guy who was fun to be around. He never was short on invitations to do things or lacked people to call to hang out with him, but did he have someone who thought of him as his best friend?
His college buddies promised a good time when they were around, but he could go months without talking to them. He saw his golfing buddies at least once or twice a week, but he didn’t know much about them other than their favorite brand of ball and what kind of beer they drank.
A year ago, shoot, even last week, he would’ve said he was okay with that. It was the way he liked it. His life was about having fun, enjoying experiences, being active. Maybe it meant he never got too involved. He never had a business he couldn’t let go of. He never found himself in a relationship he couldn’t walk away from. If having fun meant keeping things casual, he was okay with it.
But this week he’d begun to rethink that decision. Paige had him wondering if keeping things casual was making him miss out.
It had been a day of chaos, but thanks to Sasha and Aiden, Paige thought everything was going to work out for Georgia’s perfect day. Both Ciera and Hadley had gotten their hair done, and then Sasha had taken a break from hair to do Georgia’s makeup. That way, according to Sasha, her face would be done when the photographer showed up to take pictures of her getting ready.
Now it was Paige’s turn.
“You’re up,” Sasha said and patted the swivel bar stool they had moved in front of the sliding glass window as their salon setup.
The thought of sitting in the “salon chair” had made her uncomfortable all day, mostly because she would be alone with Sasha. While they weren’t exactly enemies, they were certainly on opposing sides. Sasha had what Paige wanted, and this whole weekend had been about taking it back. Naturally, that made things a little awkward between them.
But she’d avoided it as long as possible. Paige reluctantly slid into the chair. The sooner they got started, the sooner she could get it over with. Plus, she had the lovely view of the ocean to focus on.
Sasha picked up a brush from the console table they had moved over to hold all her supplies and pulled it through Paige’s hair. Since the other three girls had all gone downstairs to greet some of their friends who had just arrived, the condo was extra quiet. The silence between them made Paige feel more uncomfortable than she already was. She needed to say something.
“Thanks again for doing this.”
“No problem. I was glad to have something to do today.” There was silence again as Sasha continued brushing Paige’s hair. She fidgeted with the hem of her shorts, trying to think of some common ground they could talk about.
“I hear you got a major role in a TV series. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” Sasha didn’t sound as excited as Paige would have expected. “It turns out it’s not quite the big deal my agent made it out to be. It’s for a small network, and so far they’ve only picked up the first eight episodes.” She picked up one of the curling irons and wrapped the first section of Paige’s hair around it.
“Still, you’re doing what you love, which is a great accomplishment.”
“In a way, I guess.” Sasha moved to the next section of hair. “Did you always want to be a wedding planner?”
Out of instinct Paige shook her head no, not remembering that she was connected to a scorching hot iron. It pulled her hair and burned her scalp. She froze in her place to avoid any more harm. Sasha released her hair from the wand.
“Oops. Sorry about that. I’ve never been very good at playing beauty shop. I’m guaranteed at least one burn every time the curling iron comes out,” Paige said.
Sasha giggled. “I had that problem when I was in school. I never realized how much I move my head when I talk until I had a curling wand attached to it.” She brushed out the piece of hair she had been working on and rewrapped it around the wand.
Paige realized it was the first time she’d heard Sasha laugh all weekend. It was an interesting fact that begged to be explored deeper, but today Paige didn’t want to go deeper—especially when it came to Sasha Kane. Or while she was sitting in this chair.
“To answer your question with words, no, I didn’t always want to be a wedding planner. I started off in the accounting department of guest services, but it turned out that I had a knack for planning events. And since I love weddings, this job was a perfect fit.”
Talking about the thing she loved to do lifted her spirits and she started feeling more confident in the salon chair. Just a smidge.
“You’re very good at it. You did a great job on my friend’s wedding, especially dealing with her impossible mother. Please tell me she was the most difficult woman you’ve ever encountered.”
Memories of some of the most difficult brides and mothers floated to the front of her mind. “She would make the list, but I have some stories.”
“After some of the actresses I have worked with, I can only imagine. I once worked with an actress who demanded that all her water be exactly forty-eight degrees. They had to bring in a wine cooler just to chill her water bottles.”
Was she starting to connect with Sasha? The idea was jolting and comforting at the same time. Instead of fighting it, she gave in to it and launched into one of her favorite demanding bride stories.
“I once had a bride who forbade any of her guests to carry loose change because it might jingle and distract from the wedding. We had to stand outside the doors with labeled baggies and collect it from everyone.” Paige visualized the decorated lockbox the bride had provided them to store the money. There was a picture of it in t
heir office just to remind her that no request was too ludicrous.
“Seriously? People forked over their change?” Sasha sprayed sections of her hair and wrapped it around a different kind of curling wand.
“All but two old crotchety men. Wedding guests are surprisingly compliant.”
“It’s probably because the atmosphere of love puts everyone in a good mood.”
“Love is a powerful thing.” Love had certainly caused her to do crazy things this weekend. Fake relationships. Three-step plans. Sitting in a chair letting “the other woman” do her hair for her best friend’s wedding.
Paige was so caught up in her own thoughts that she almost missed that Sasha got unusually quiet as well. The silence made her uneasy.
“I was hoping the love of this wedding would work its magic for me this weekend,” Sasha said.
It felt like the beginning of a deep, personal conversation. As the person working to end Sasha’s relationship, was she allowed to be part of this kind of conversation? It seemed like it should be illegal, like insider trading or something. Paige’s first instinct was to jump out of their makeshift salon chair and race out the door. But since she was connected to the storyteller by a hair-pulling, scalp-burning stick, she was forced to stay where she was and offer the most non-committal response she could think of. “Oh?”
Sasha let out a big sigh and twisted the next section of hair a little tighter than she had before. “When we first met in Europe, I thought we really connected. We were only together for a couple of days, but I felt like there was something there, you know?”
There was a pause as she released the pressure from the curl she was on and moved to the next strand. “Then when I found out I would be moving to the same area where he lived, I assumed it was kismet. He took me out on our first official date the same day I pulled into town.”
There was a pause, as if Sasha was considering what to say next. Or even if she should share anything else.
Do not engage, do not engage, do not engage.
While Paige could appreciate Sasha’s struggle, it wasn’t her job to help her ex-boyfriend’s new fling figure out why their relationship wasn’t working. Surely Sasha had other friends to talk this through with, didn’t she? Paige was only there to get her hair done, and all she had to do was sit still and stay quiet for just a little longer.
