Free The Curl Up and Dye by Sharon Sala Page B

know what happened. That’s what’s so awful. One minute we were fine, and the next thing he just shut down. I asked him if it was something I said, but he got all weird and said something about me getting on with my life and… and… I don’t know. I just can’t get him to talk to me anymore.”
    The women looked at each other, then at Lily, then back at each other again. They’d already discussed the fact that they thought Mike was sweet on her.
    The twins came closer. One handed Lily a handful of tissues, while the other one went to get a wet hand towel to wipe the mascara running down her cheeks.
    Lily wiped her eyes, unaware she was smearing the mascara even more, and then blew her nose.
    Ruby laid down the blow-dryer and spun the chair around so that Lily was facing her.
    “You and Mike have been friends too long to let something like this get out of hand. Let’s see if we can figure out what might have set him off. Sometimes it takes a disinterested party to get the gist of misunderstandings.”
    Lily waited as Vera moved into work mode and began cleaning the mascara off Lily’s cheeks.
    “There now, sugar. You’ll be just fine and no one will know the difference.”
    Ruby pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Lily.
    “You said you two were talking. What about?”
    Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. Just stuff.”
    “Think. Think hard. It might be the answer you need.”
    Lily closed her eyes, picturing the moment she opened the door to his room and went in.
    “He was complaining about the broth and Jell-O on his tray. I put some salt in the broth and stirred it up, and then he said it was better and drank it.”
    “That’s good. What happened next?”
    “I asked him if he’d talked to his parents. He said he had and that Faith’s husband sent a chopper for them because the roads were impassable, then flew them here in his company jet. I made a comment about Faith hitting the jackpot or something like that.”
    Ruby frowned. “What did Mike say?”
    “Something stupid, that he guessed all women wanted to marry rich men. I told him that wasn’t so. That most of us just wanted to marry a man we loved.”
    Ruby leaned back. “And what did he say then?”
    “Oh… I think something to the effect that he thought I’d taken myself off the market and wasn’t interested in that. I asked him why he would say something so stupid.”
    Vest and Vera looked at each other, arching their eyebrows knowingly as Mabel Jean scooted closer to Ruby.
    “Then what?”
    “I don’t exactly remember. I’ve tried and tried to think what it might have been that I said, but nothing made sense.”
    “Try. What did you say next?”
    Lily sighed and closed her eyes again, picturing Mike’s face.
    “I think it was when he said I never showed interest in men, and he didn’t think I was interested in dating anymore.”
    “And what did you say to that?” Ruby asked.
    “Oh, I just popped off. I said he obviously wasn’t paying attention or didn’t know everything about me, or something like that.”
    Ruby sighed.
    The twins elbowed each other.
    Mabel Jean patted Lily’s knee.
    They all got it. Trouble was, just because they knew didn’t mean they should blurt it out to Lily. She needed to figure this out on her own.
    Ruby glanced at the others and shook her head, then picked up the blow-dryer to finish the job.
    “So, basically you told Mike you were already dating. Wow! I didn’t know this. Who’s the lucky guy?”
    Lily frowned. “No, I didn’t.”
    Ruby pretended surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought that’s what you meant.”
    Lily frowned. Surely Mike hadn’t thought that, too. But even if he had, why would he act so weird? It wasn’t like they had those kinds of feelings for each other.
    “Well, I didn’t mean that,” Lily said, and glanced at the time. “We need to hurry so I don’t get back late.”
    “Sure thing, honey. Just a few more minutes here and we’ll have you looking like a