As she pulled into the dusty gravel parking lot of The Mane Spot, Lexi took a deep breath and wondered if her boss Rae would have sympathy for her power outage story. She hadn’t had much in the past for Lexi’s other unbelievable yet completely true excuses, including: forgetting to set her clock forward for daylight savings, getting spit up on by her newborn niece, and having to wait in the car while that ten-foot alligator sat in the middle of the one-lane road outside her housing complex for twenty minutes.
As she opened the creaky wooden door covered in one too many coats of paint, everyone in the salon looked at her simultaneously. “So sorry I’m late,” she said breathlessly.
Rae looked over and squinted, making the leathered wrinkles on her face even more prominent. “Did last night’s birthday party just end?” she asked with a throaty laugh.
Lexi ran to her station, passing her coworker Brianna who looked a little green—she had been at last night’s festivities, too. The two shot each other a sympathetic look as Lexi threw her bag on the floor. “Nah, I’m too old to stay out past midnight,” she bantered, surprised Rae wasn’t pissed. “The storm caused a power outage—my alarm didn’t go off. Sorry!”
“No worries,” Rae said. “Your client is here, though.” She pointed to Mrs. Dorothy—an eighty-year-old woman who had come in for her weekly wash—sitting on the green pleather couch reading an old issue of Southern Living magazine featuring a pot of mac ’n’ cheese on the cover. Lexi’s stomach growled, reminding her the last thing she’d eaten was those black bean tacos the night before.
“Let’s get you shampooed,” she said with a forgive-me smile, gesturing Dorothy to the sink in the back of the salon. The Mane Spot ran the gamut in terms of clientele. Three coworkers’ chairs were occupied by a middle-aged woman whose hair was covered in pieces of foil; a quiet man wearing coveralls and work boots; and a tattooed woman in her sixties who apparently just had all her hair chopped off, as evidenced by the puddle of brown fluff accumulating on the floor around her.
At the sink, Mrs. Dorothy chatted about her cat’s health and the pecan pie she had made for her grandson’s birthday while Lexi massaged her scalp with a sudsy citrus shampoo. As she half listened to her client, she stared blankly at the crack in the wall that had been there since she started working at the salon over three years ago.
Lexi took a deep breath, inhaling the clean scent of the hair product mixed with the familiar smells of the musty, old building. She wondered if she’d still be staring at that crack when she was Rae’s age. If every day would be exactly the same for the rest of her life. Then she shook off the thought and got back to work.
* * *
Seven hours later, after a string of boring customers and bad hair that needed fixing, the door opened, and Lexi’s day took a sudden turn for the worse.
“Sur-prise!” Seth’s mom Nancy towered over her in three-inch heels. She was wearing a crisp white linen button-down with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of jeans that were designed to look old and worn but probably cost more than Lexi’s entire wardrobe. Lexi suddenly felt ashamed of her gray “hangover” dress and fraying sandals. She would’ve dressed nicer if she’d known Nancy was visiting.
“Oh… hi.” As Lexi leaned in for a stiff hug, she got a whiff of Nancy’s magnolia-scented perfume. “What are you doing here? I thought you went to La Bella’s.” It was The Mane Spot’s rival salon in the nicer part of town.
“I wanted to see you.” Nancy ran her fingers through her honey-hued hair. “Thought we could catch up while I get a blowout. Pat and I are going to the Gator Ball tonight.” It was the big annual fund-raiser in town where the rich folks paid five hundred dollars a plate—supposedly to save the alligators, but really it was an excuse to put on a fancy dress and get drunk off mint juleps.
“Oh, that’s fun,” Lexi said, flustered. She always felt so awkward and nervous around Nancy, like the woman was secretly judging everything about her. “Come with me.”
Nancy sat in the chair and tilted her head back in the sink. “So, did you hear the news about Mackenzie Rogers?” she asked in a gossipy tone.
Lexi knew Mackenzie from high school. The girl was known for her straight As, football-star boyfriend, and prom-queen popularity—she had everything Lexi wanted in high school. After Mackenzie went away to Tulane for college, Lexi thought she’d never see her again, but it turned out she was Nancy’s best friend’s daughter. The way her future mother-in-law talked about her made Lexi think Mackenzie was the daughter Nancy had always wanted. Instead, she was stuck with Lexi.
“She’s engaged!” Nancy said gleefully, snapping Lexi back to reality. “So exciting, right? You’ll both be planning your weddings at the same time!” She paused for a reaction.
Lexi forced a smile. “That’s great!”
As Nancy cooed over details—the country club! the band!—Lexi couldn’t help but feel the familiar sharp edge of envy for Mackenzie’s black-tie affair.
Lexi had made her peace with her quiet and homespun wedding. But as Nancy rattled on—she’s going to Paris in February to shop for a dress with her mom—Lexi suddenly had a pit in her stomach. She realized she was embarrassed for Nancy to come to her and Seth’s wedding. She almost wished she could uninvite her. She pictured Nancy sipping punch at the budget reception with judgment oozing from every pore.
Nancy locked eyes with her, as if she was privy to her innermost thoughts. “Please let me help you with the wedding,” she begged. “I know Seth is adamant about not letting us pay for anything, but maybe you could convince him.” She blinked her long eyelashes twice and smiled. “I just want it to be special.”
It took all her restraint for Lexi not to squeeze Nancy’s head with her fingers, which were currently lathering up the woman’s hair. “It’s going to be special,” Lexi affirmed. “Anyway, Seth and I really want to pay for this ourselves,” she said. “But thank you for the offer.”
Nancy let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know why my boy is so stubborn about money,” she said, shaking her head while Lexi wrapped it in a towel. “You should have seen his brothers’ weddings.” Lexi hadn’t been dating Seth when his older two brothers got married, but she had heard stories and seen pictures. One was at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans and the other was at the Old Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge.
“I’m sorry,” Lexi said to Nancy as they walked over to the chair. She gulped, not sure who she felt sorrier for. As she thought about mansions and country clubs, Lexi burned with jealousy.
She deftly twirled the round brush and methodically dried Nancy’s warm blond locks while they continued to make small talk. Lexi noticed the physical pain from the tequila was finally gone, but there was a gnawing in her stomach now.
After Lexi applied the smoothing serum to finish off the look, Nancy shook her perfectly blown-out hair and grinned as she looked at herself in the mirror. “You did a nice job,” she said, reaching into her snakeskin bag and handing Lexi a ten-dollar bill. “Tell my son hello for me.” She kissed her on the cheek and clicked her heels through the tiny salon, stopping at the reception desk to pay on her way out.