Thankful Thursday! Thanks so much for all of the sales in January! It was a great month! I’m working hard on Episode Six. Remember, if you want the steamy sex scene at the end of Episode 5, you’ll have to buy it: The Beautician and the Billionaire Episode 5: The Captain.
Conor’s having a bad day, but I hope you’re having a good one. Please enjoy!
Conor stared out his office window. He couldn’t get Charisse off his mind. He wanted to spend the day with her, taking care of her, getting to know her better. But once again he was falling in love with a woman who didn’t want a partnership. He could already tell that her life would revolve around the salon and his life would revolve around whatever. They’d meet up occasionally for sex when they had the time.
He turned away from the window and strode towards his desk. Fine. He’d bury himself in his work, starting with Ma Charisse. The way that business was run needed a serious makeover. She didn’t want him to give it back to her, so he was going to run it as it should be run.
Over the intercom Jack’s voice said, “Charisse for you on line one.”
Without a second thought, he grabbed the phone. She must’ve changed her mind about going to work and wanted to see him. He hated how it ended yesterday.
“Charisse, are you feeling better?”
“How dare you tell Mei to schedule all of my appointments from yesterday with the other stylists today? That’s not how we do things here. Unless the customer requests it, we always give them the stylist they were originally scheduled with. Because it’s me it’s not as big of a deal, but if you’d done that to one of my lady luvs, she’d be out a day’s pay and worried about losing a client.”
The corner of Conor’s right eye twitched. “I was just trying to help. Frankly I expected a thank you. If someone wants their hair cut, they want it soon. People sometimes schedule these things around important dates. I didn’t know when you’d be back to work, and I didn’t want you to lose customers because they had to wait until next week.”
“Well you should’ve asked me.”
“You weren’t exactly in any condition to talk about it when I was making the arrangements. And I am the owner.”
Silence fell. He’d been too harsh. But he couldn’t bring himself to apologize. He’d made the right decision with the appointments.
At last she said, “Since you canceled all of my appointments today too, I’m spending my time working out the details of the loan. I’ll call you when everything is set.”
A thought pounded through his head that he’d been suppressing all morning. It wasn’t the time to ask, but with the way the relationship was going, he might not have a good opportunity. “Did you take the Plan B?”
Silence again. It was stupid. They’d just had sex one time, so it was very unlikely she’d get pregnant from it. And their relationship was falling apart, so he definitely shouldn’t want to start a family with her right now. But still…his emotions weren’t behaving.
“No. I’ll take it tonight.” She hung up.
He slammed the phone down. Had he driven her to take it? Maybe she’d been planning on a reconciliation with him. He hit his fist on his desk, making the pen holder rattle. After a deep breath, his anger calmed by a degree. She should take Plan B. She didn’t need a baby right now. She needed to focus on getting over the abuse.
But he couldn’t help but recall the surge of joy he’d had when he’d found out she still wanted children after everything that had happened to her. They’d be a great match if they could just get beyond the noise.
Thanks so much for reading!
Peaches and Pomagranates, Evelyn
Evelyn Aster 