Statuesque

“Kayla! Kayla, Tom’s here!” Ren’s voice floated up from downstairs.

“I’ll be down in just a minute! Tell him to wait!” In the room at the end of the hall, Kayla began hurriedly to take down her curlers.

Sprawled out on Kayla’s bed, Fred regarded her with amusement.

“Tell him to wait? You know he’s going to wait with Ren down there. She’ll be flirting with him.”

“If that’s so,” Kayla said wryly, “I’ll never have him come to the door to pick me up ever again. Ren acts like Tom’s heaven’s gift to the earth.”

“I know someone else who acts the same way,” Fred said teasingly.

“Don’t be an asshole, Freddie.”

“When you wake up at six o’clock on Sunday morning to wash and set your hair before going to the beach, I’d say that’s a sign of something.”

Kayla shot her friend an irritated glance and dumped a handful of clips into the tray on the dressing table. The frustrating thing was that Fred, as usual, was right. It was ridiculous to take pains with your hair when you date was to go swimming. Still, here she was, taking down the curls, relieved to find them falling in the right direction, wondering if Tom would like her bangs curled forward over her forehead instead of pushed aside in the way he was used to.

You’re an idiot, Kayla Roman, she told herself helplessly, letting a man you hardly know turn you inside out like this. True, you’re not exactly a glamor girl, but with Ren’s lingerie show in a couple of weeks, you’ll be a model and that certainly counts for something. There will be plenty of nice-looking guys, parties, and dinners, and you’ll get asked to them. Why do you have to go all soft in the head about some skinny rocker who likes cheese pizza and has more jewelry than you.

She knew as she asked the question that she would have no answer for it, and she reached for a comb, smiling ruefully at her reflection in the mirror before her. From the moment she kissed Tom, sitting in his beat-up car at the curb in front of her house, the glow of the streetlights bright against his blue eyes, all the other men she had ever known had faded into nothing. It had taken her three days to carefully plan a phone call. It was the first time she had ever done such a thing, and she had worried that he might decide that she was too forward and never make any effort to go out with her at all.

The worry had been unnecessary, for he had turned up at Scrappe the same night. She had glanced up from the table she was clearing and had seen him there in the doorway, and relief had washed through her. It had taken her a moment to steady herself enough to cross the room to him and say lightly, “Tom, hello!”

“Hello, miss,” he had regarded her with mock seriousness. “I’m looking for a beautiful gal with big brown eyes and lovely blond hair. Has she been in here tonight?”

“Not that I’ve noticed,” Kayla told him happily. “but if you’ll sit down, I’ll bring you something to drink, and maybe we can wait for her together.”

They had sat over hot chocolate and talked that evening until Holly had finally told them that she had to lock the doors for the night.When she thought back on it, Kayla realized that it was she and not Tom who had done most of the talking. He had sat across from her, smiling and interested, asking questions, laughing at her stories, seeming fascinated by the antics of her and Fred. He had volunteered little, however, about his own background. Even now, after knowing him for a month, she knew only that he has lived in Birch Falls all his life and he lives with his younger sister; Georgine was her name.

Still, she thought reasonably, it wasn’t as though they had spent a lot of time alone together where confidences would come out easily. Their working hours did not coincide. The only time they really had to date was on weekdays after work. Tom had gigs on the weekends with his band and Kayla had fittings with Ren at her lingerie shop on Jackson Street, which happened to be across the street and seven shops down from The Galaxy, a club that Tom played every Sunday night.

Giving the curls a final pat and glancing around for a T-shirt to pull over her bikini, Kayla had a feeling that it was going to be a good night.

“See you later,” she said briskly to Fred.