Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Returning Client

Sunny strolled over to my chair, as if he had nothing else in the world to do. I on the other hand wanted to get finished with him as quickly as possible.
"How is everything going,CeCe?"
"Fine, thank you, & you?" I draped the cape around his neck as quickly as possible, picked up my shears & comb, starting to section his hair off. We chatted about general stuff, how fast the summer went by, where he went on vacation. I told him about my trip to Italy, & how beautiful it was. The holidays coming upon us. Thankfully, the cut was dried & finished before I knew it.
"Same price?" he asked, handing me a hundred dollar bill at the desk.
"Yes."
"Keep the change,CeCe." Smiling, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Why doesn't he leave?
"Can I take you out sometime?" His eyes were serious & for the first time I noticed just how dark brown they were.
"Thank you Sunny." I smiled at him, hoping that I looked sincere, "But I have a firm rule against dating clients."
"Oh?" His voiced lifted with surprise. "Why is that? You must get asked out all of the time!"
"Well, you see," I responded with a little blush,"When you date your clients, then they expect free haircuts while your seeing them. So that's a lose of income for both me & the salon. Then when you stop seeing them, they stop coming to you for their haircuts, & that's another lose of income for me & the salon."
"Oh," Sunny responded frowning. "Your more interested in the money & work then."
"I guess you can say that." I surprised myself that I told this man my true reasons for not dating clients. Maybe, it would turn him off & he would stop coming to the salon, I thought to myself. Michele & Josef were glancing over at me, so I knew they heard what I had just said.
Sunny shook his head slightly, smiling at me. "Well, I expect that your going to be a very wealthy woman some day."
"I'm already wealthy," I was being snippy now, but he was getting on my nerves.
"Good, good." He started walking towards the door, stopped & turned to me. "But one day, you will go out with me!"
He turned & left the salon. I stood there another moment, watching him hail a taxi. The nerve! I couldn't wait to clean up & go across the street for a drink. What an unusual day!
Beverly showed up with the clean-up crew. All of us were exhausted from all of the activity from the day.
"I'm going across the street for a martini." I announced to everyone.
"Me too." said Josef.
"Me three", chirped Agnes.
"Us five," shouted Vidal, as everyone burst into laughter.
Vidal held the door open as all of us strolled into the bar.
"Hey, Sasoon Gang!" George greeted us, "Usual for everybody?"
When I got home that night, feeling more than a little tipsy, I thought about Sunnys' statement to me. Yes, I was 'almost' wealthy, yes my career & money was a huge part of my life. I'll be twenty one this coming Spring, & I'm making more money than I ever thought of making. I make about four hundred dollars a day in tips alone. I'm paying my mothers rent & living expenses, I make sure that my son wants for nothing. I'm happy where I'm at! My next goal is to go to law school & have my son live with me. As I crawled into bed, I smiled. Yes! My son living with me.

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