Free About Last Night by Belle Aurora

forty-minutes.
    After spending most of my weekend with Bill and Terry, we were becoming fast friends. I found myself telling them things I had never told other people. In a single evening, I told them about my crush on Quinn and how it began. I told them about my being so overweight that I started to develop health issues. And finally, I told them about my being a virgin. I blamed the wine.
    Terry seemed to be locked in a state of shock, whereas Bill seemed to accept everything with a soft smile and nod, never interrupting. Terry, however, interrupted, and always managed to do this in a most dramatic way. The common curses used were, “Shut up!” and a gasped, “Oh, my God, no!” He would sometimes add a, “Nuh-uh. I don’t believe it!” or a “You’re kidding! Tell me you’re kidding!”
    Terry had made me a project. And while this would normally have me running for the hills, I didn’t mind so much, knowing Bill would be there to manage the Terry situation.
    Take last night for example. The guys had dragged me away from my computer long enough to get me nice and tipsy on wine before Terry pulled out a pharmacy bag. My gut sank. I didn’t even want to know what was in there.
    Smiling like the Mona Lisa, Terry pulled two boxes out of the bag and held one up. And I choked on my own saliva. Coughing, I shook my head and wheezed out a firm, “No!”
    Terry’s smile vanished. He came to kneel by my spot on the sofa, tilting his head in a most pathetic way and begging, “Oh, please? Why not?”
    I held the box in my hand and gave him a look that said, ‘You know why!’
    Terry stood, feigning innocence. “I don’t see the problem.”
    I fought down my argument, simply uttering, “It’s fire-engine red. I’m starting work on Monday for a very professional events management company, Terry. I need to meet with clients and talk to them in an expert sense. I am not dyeing my hair fire-engine red.”
    Bill took the other box and handed it to me. I glared up at him. “You’re in on this? You’re meant to be the practical one!”
    He grinned, and it was so gorgeous that I forgot my name. Then he spoke in that English accent I loved so much. “I chose this one. I think it’ll suit your coloring much better. Not to mention the fact your warm brown eyes are beautiful right now, but with this color, they will pop so hard men everywhere will need to cover their eyes when you pass.” He smiled down at me. “Did you know you have a small amount of green hidden in your eyes, and when you smile, it comes out to play?”
    That was it. I was sold. I turned to Terry and whispered, “You are a very lucky man.”
    Terry sighed while looked up at Bill lovingly. “Don’t I know it, sister.”
    When I looked down at the box in my hands, I was pleasantly surprised. So, with a curt nod of approval and a loud “Yay!” from Terry, I was whisked off into their bathroom, where I had petroleum jelly rubbed into my forehead, ears, and neck, and then Terry snapped on a pair of gloves and got to work.
    Thirty minutes passed. I was bent over the tub and washed, conditioned, and rinsed, and then Terry spent an insane amount of time blow-drying my hair. After he deemed my hair ‘Ah- mah -zing!’, I was finally allowed to see the difference. And what a difference it was. I could hardly believe my eyes.
    How on earth could going from a dull brown to reddy-brown auburn make such a change? My skin looked as if it had more color and glow, my face looked sharper with my cheekbones more pronounced, and Bill, the sweetheart, was right. It made the slight green in my eyes look more apparent. So when Bill saw this, he stood behind me in the mirror, grinning, and then leaned down to my ear and muttered, “Pop.”
    And I almost lost use of my legs. Bill was a seriously attractive man. He knew it, but he didn’t care about it, and he never—and I mean never —used it to his advantage. And that made me love him even more.
    I loved my new color,