Wild Nights(21)

Meeting Blaze, the way it happened, was completely insane and unromantic. I never thought he’d track me down, and as creepy as it was, I was beginning to believe he really just liked me. I had heard all sorts of crazy love stories and how-we-met stories before. I knew people did ridiculously illogical things all in the name of finding love. Maybe Blaze just wanted someone to love? Maybe he was as lonely as I was?

I tried to make sense of everything in my head as I drove to work. The sun seemed a little brighter that day and the birds seemed to be chirping a little more. Everything was in Technicolor.

The fact that Blaze wouldn’t leave was starting to bother me less and less. I truly believed he just wanted to spend a little more time with me, and I was okay with that. As long as I kept my guard up and didn’t let it down too much, I’d be fine. I knew I still needed to figure him out, but I wasn’t going to discard him just yet. I was too intrigued.

“What’s up with you today?” Tess asked as I walked in. “It’s like you have stars in your eyes or something.”

“Yeah, you walked in here with a giant smile on your face,” Raquel chimed in. “I’ve never seen you smile before nine a.m. before.”

“It’s nothing,” I said as I tried to wave them off.

“I don’t buy it for one second,” Tess said as she looked me up and down. She stood with her hand on one hip and her other hand holding a sharp pair of shears in the air.

“Tess, your client is here,” the receptionist interrupted. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. “Molly, so is yours.”

We slipped on our aprons, greeted our clients and got busy. I couldn’t have been more grateful to have a booked schedule that day. I crossed my fingers and hoped that no one cancelled or no-showed. I didn’t want to explain to Tess and Raquel that for the first time in over a year, I didn’t feel lonely.

They would never understand why I was giving Blaze a chance. They were too by-the-book. They were too proper. Their husbands worked in banking and I.T. They had fabulously boring lives with kids and SUVs and houses in the suburbs. I loved them both, but their judgments had no bearings in my life.

“What’s up with you today?” My third client of the day asked. She was a saucy, middle-aged, redheaded mother of four who always told it like it was. “You dating someone? You seem like you’re in that honeymoon phase right now.”

My cheeks reddened. “No, I’m not dating anyone.”

I glanced around the room to make sure Tess and Raquel weren’t in earshot. Fortunately they were both out of sight.

“There’s this guy,” I started as a smile spread across my face.

“I knew it!” my client shouted.

“Shh!” I hushed her with a laugh. “He’s crazy about me, but I can’t figure him out. I don’t know if he’s crazy in a good way or crazy in a bad way.”

“Molly, sweetie, listen,” my client began. “When I first met my husband twenty years ago, he was so freaking annoying. He was clingy. He was obsessed with me. He showed up at my parents’ ice cream shop all the time hoping to catch me when I was working. He was seriously crazy about me.”

“Go on,” I said, curious.

“I finally gave him a chance and realized he was really sweet,” she said with a sincere smile. She clasped her hand over her heart. “And he’s been the most amazing father and husband I could’ve ever dreamed of.”

“That’s really sweet,” I said. “Wow.”

“Just imagine where I’d be now had I not given him a shot,” she said with raised eyebrows. “Who knows what asshole I’d be with now? Heck, I might even be on husband number three for all I know.”

I laughed as I snipped away and clumps of red hair fell to the ground. Many of my clients told me I was like their own personal therapist, but sometimes they were like my own personal therapist too.

“I’m telling you, Jim was a creeper at first,” she laughed. “He did some creepy things. But he was just a boy in love.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Raquel taking back her next client, so I quickly tried to change the subject.

“Anyway,” I said. “Maybe I’ll have an update for you next time. How are the kids? Isn’t your oldest graduating from high school this year?”

“Oh! Yeah,” she said as her face lit up. “I have to show you Hannah’s senior pictures. You’re going to die.”

I was relieved to change the subject, but for the rest of the day, her words really resonated with me. She was living proof that sometimes people do crazy things all in the name of love.