Page 83 of Hash

“I’d be doing you a favor. Bye, baby doll.” Hash flicks his hand up in a single-hand wave as he climbs into my car.

He doesn’t pull away from the curb until he sees me walk into the salon.

“That man is just so dreamy.” Frankie sighs as she gazes out the window until the taillights of my car disappear down the street.

“I think you’re forgetting I didn’t find him like this.” I laugh.

“Where’s he taking your car?” Frankie asks as she follows me into the back room.

“He’s taking it to the club’s garage to give it a tune-up. He’ll be back to pick me up.”

“Maybe he will accidentally wreck it so you can get something new.”

“I wish. I can’t afford a new car right now.”

I’ve been eyeing something a little bigger so there’s more room in the backseat with the car seat and everything, but I can’t swing the payments right now.

“Alright, bitch,” Frankie says as she crosses her arms and leans up against the counter. “Spill. I need all the tea from Saturday because I got a not so nice message from Jason Sunday morning. I’m assuming Hash saw you guys.”

I snort. “That’s one way of putting it. Hash just happened to also be eating dinner at Bella Vita and saw me having dinner with Jason. Frankie, he lost his ever-loving mind. I thought he was going to drag Jason out of the restaurant by his shirt collar and beat his ass in the parking lot.”

“No.” Frankie gasps, her eyes widening. “Why would Hash be eating there? Oh shit.” She snaps her fingers. “I forgot Matteo Adduci owns that place. I’ve heard he’s friends with the club.”

I don’t know much about what goes on with the club because Hash has never shared, but it makes sense.

“What did Jason say?” I ask.

He’s such a fucking tool. I don’t feel bad Hash slammed his face into his plate now.

“Bitch, he crashed out. He wrote three paragraphs about how you used him to make your boyfriend jealous and he didn’t sign up for this, which then led into you not being worth that expensive of a date because you didn’t have the right air to be eating at a five-star restaurant. Whatever that means. I told him to get bent for you.”

“He was such a douchebag.” I roll my eyes and shake my head. “Honestly, as much as that moment of Hash finding me on a date sucked, he kind of saved me because I was two seconds away from stabbing the salad fork in my eye. A trip to the emergency room by ambulance sounded like a better time than having to listen to him talk about himself for another minute.”

“That bad?” Frankie winces.

“It was so bad,” I groan. “You’re never allowed to pick another date for me again.”

“Well, obviously,” Frankie says with wide eyes. “I would like to live, please and thank you.”

“Hash wouldn’t kill you.” I laugh before it slowly dies out. “At least I think.”

Frankie grabs a mixing bowl and brush out of the cabinet to get ready for her next client. “That right there is not a good enough answer for me,” she says as she points the brush at me while she’s talking. “You two are going to live happily ever after. It’s sickening really.”

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes as I walk out of the back room and head to mine to get set up for the day.

“Why do you keep looking out the window?” Frankie asks. “I thought you had one more client.”

“I do,” I respond as I watch the cars driving by and people walking past on the sidewalk.

“You think he’s not going to show up?”

“No, I know he’ll show up. It’s not that. Ever since he dropped me off, I’ve had this weird feeling that something bad is going to happen.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t shake this feeling in my gut,” I tell her.

I probably sound as crazy as I look, but something just doesn’t feel right. You know when you feel an immense sense of dread, but you can’t figure out what it’s from so you just go through the motions and wait for it to happen?