After Nikki’s visit the atmosphere of the salon had remained in disarray for the rest of the morning. Tia had disappeared on “business” soon after Nikki’s little visit, so the shop was all a buzz with opinions about how each person would have handled it if it had happened to her. It was nonstop conversations about what would have been done or said and with vivid descriptions, if any of them had been in either Nikki or Tia’s shoes. The stylists on the other hand were discussing other employment options, as it seemed that they all might soon be unemployed. Just holding in the knowledge of what had occurred until Tia left had been almost enough to cause poor Trish to burst. Both she and Will had alerted their closest twenty or so personal friends of what had gone on. Clients who were actual witnesses to the incident filled in arriving customers on what they’d just missed. While those conversations continued, another one began to bubble and boil over right under the dryers.
Two complete strangers sat talking, virtually yelling over the sound of the dryers about whatelse, but their children. Everything was going fine until one of the young mothers named Sasha reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet filled with of pictures of her little girl, Cree. The second mother, Robin, gasped in disbelief and said, “that looks just like my baby.” Robin reached in her bag and pulled out a wallet sized photo album filled with what at first glance looked like the same child.
“Oh my God,” a stunned Sasha replied, “they look almost like twins. How old is your baby?” She said as she flipped through the pages of Robin’s travel size photo album.
“She’s almost two. She’ll be two on the 15th of this month.” She said smiling as she watched this young mother go through the pictures of her precious daughter. She gushed with motherly pride as Sasha seemed to melt with every turn of page but then, Sasha stopped and her face went blank as she stared at the family picture at the end of the album. “How old is your little girl?” Robin asked to break the silence.
As if she were lost in a daze she said, “almost…two...Is this…Jay Harrison?” She handed the book back Robin with her finger pointing to a man holding the little girl in of photos.
“Huh?” Robin responded and started to become a little uneasy as this woman she didn’t even know, questioned her about her husband. A blank look washed over her face and a sinking feeling settled into the pit of her stomach, so she quickly snatched the book away from this stranger. She closed her book and placed it in the empty dryer seat on the other side of her. She became defensive and snapped, “why?”
“Because that’s Cree’s father,” and with that being said, all attention surrounding these two particular dryers shifted from talk of Tia and Nikki to the loud conversation that was brewing in the back of the shop. Any time two women share paternity of their children there are issues, but to share paternity and not know it…scandalous and then to find out in the hair salon. Talk about getting a girl’s dandruff up.
“What?!” Robin shot back in a disbelieving tone and with that question, the hoods on the hair dryers came up. Which, in a salon, is code for there is about to be some “drama in here.” Robin continued to grow angrier as every word spilled out of her mouth, “What do you mean her father? Girl this is my husband! We’ve been married for almost two years. He ain’t got no babies other than mine!”
“Husband?” Sasha gasped as she rummaged through her purse again and pulled out a “family photo” of herself, her daughter and what appeared to be the same man in Robin’s family photo and to make matters worst he was wearing the same blue button front shirt and yellow tie in both pictures. “Jay is my ex-boyfriend. We broke up because he wouldn’t set a date.”
Robin stared at the photo, seemingly losing touch with the world around her. Rage began to build up in her as she stared at the picture of her life being mirrored by someone else. She caught the end of Sasha’s statement and quickly shot back, “ Date for what?”
Robin held her breath as she listened to the words that she didn’t want to hear spew out of Sasha’s trap, “To get married! We were engaged and had been for a year before we broke up.” The words were like acid to Robin’s ears and she felt her chest tightening as this complete stranger made accusations against her husband.
Robin instantly went into marriage protection mode. She handed the photo back to Sasha, who was visibly upset. “You a damn lie!” Robin insisted in complete denial of anything Sasha had said to her. This wasn’t just some boyfriend she was talking about. This was Robin’s husband and she was willing to stand and defend her marriage against anything and anyone. She couldn’t believe the nerve of this tramp, to sit there in the salon accusing her husband, of being the father of her child. Robin didn’t want to cause a scene in public, but she wasn’t going to stand for such a blatant act of disrespect from this woman either.
“What?” Sasha replied, as she too wanted to protect her relationship even though she had supposedly broken up with this guy. This was the father of her child, as well as, her ex-fiancé whom she still had every intention of marrying. Even though they were going through a rough patch right now, she was still in love with him. She viewed their break up as the time apart necessary for them to continue the steps towards marriage. She was confident that they would eventually get back together because they were in love and wanted to be together as a family.
“I said…you a damn lie.” Robin repeated in calm calculated tone and with that said she stood up, which prompted Sasha stand up also, each in her defensive stance. Each in disbelief of what the other had said. Each with the idea that she was the love of this man’s life and that her family was the only family he had or wanted. Neither ready to back down from her belief that her man would never cheat on her. The tension between the two was reaching sweltering heights, almost to the point that either someone had to back down or take it one step further.
“I don’t even know you. What do I have to lie to you for? I have been with Jay for almost two years and you said you’ve been married to him for two years “allegedly”, so it should be obvious that he’s been messing around with both of us at the same time and has kids with both of us, ” and with that Sasha’s hand went to her hips, “I’m just as shocked as you are. I thought this man was about to marry me and you’re in here saying that he’s already married to you.” Sasha could tell by Robin’s wrinkled brow and flared nostrils that she was not in the mood to listen to reason. She glanced at the enormous wedding set on Robin’s left finger and realized that she, herself, was in fact the other woman. Envy fueled by frustration caused her to smartly remark, “Besides if Jay is your husband, then the first thing you need to do is take this up with him.” An almost unanimous “hmmmm” went through the shop.
Mark stepped in to try to resolve the situation, but it was all but over before he could get a word in. “Pffft. Girl, I don’t know you from a can a paint. For all I know, you’re in here lying because you want my man but that’s not even about to happen.” Robin then grabbed her photo album from the dryer’s seat and decided she’d respond to Sasha’s last comment with a smart remark of her own saying, “…and if this “is” true, then judging by the fact that you got pregnant by having unprotected sex with a man that you weren’t even married to…the first thing I need to do is get an AIDS test and then I’ll deal with him. You! You’re lucky that I’m a saved woman now.” With that Robin pulled her smock off, grabbed her purse and left the salon…rollers and all. Sasha under the gaze of seemingly disapproving eyes took her seat back under her dryer. She was embarrassed by all of the unwanted attention and decided to call the one person responsible for her new found shame. She dialed Jay’s number on her cell phone only to reach his voicemail on which she left an urgent message to get in contact with her as soon as possible.
