Free Valentine's Day Is Killing Me by Mary Janice Davidson, Susanna Carr, Leslie Esdaile Page B

said. She had pretty eyes, kind eyes that held a hint of mischief. Her skin was flawless, even at her age, although a slight thickening of her middle told on her a bit. She extended her hand with a gentle smile.
    “I hope so,” Jocelyn said in a dejected tone. “My girls stood me up.”
    “Not to worry. Their loss.” Agnes glanced around the apartment and shook her head. “You went to so much trouble, too. Well, we’ll make lemonade out of lemons, like my momma taught me. Okay?”
    Jocelyn nodded, just to be polite. “You can hang your stuff up over there,” she said flatly, pointing toward a wrought-iron coatrack. “Would you like some wine, or some tea? Maybe some food? I’ve got all this junk in here, and it’ll go bad if we don’t chow down.”
    “Maybe later, and thank you so much. But right now, our focus is you,” Agnes said as she took off her heavy, raisin-colored cloth coat and carefully folded it over her arm, then set her bag down on the floor. She gave a slight nod to the other women to follow suit. “My specialty is skin care,” she said proudly. “We’ll start you off with a facial, hon. Then Mildred is gonna work the kinks out of your back with a full body massage,” she added, gesturing toward a short blonde who had laugh lines around her cat-green eyes.
    Mildred gave Jocelyn a little wave and a huge smile while taking off her navy pea coat. “I might be little, but I pack a punch,” she said, chuckling. “I’ll have you so loose we’ll be able to pour you in a glass when I’m done.”
    To that, all the ladies laughed, and a shy, older Asian woman chuckled behind her hand.
    “Let Sue-Lin do your feet last, because once she does, there’s nothing to do but go to sleep,” Agnes said, offering a slight bow of appreciation toward her colleague.
    Sue-Lin waved with the tips of her fingers and glanced down at Jocelyn’s feet. “You want designs? I brought airbrush, can make very pretty feet, especially big toe. Smooth, like baby’s butt. You need pretty feet. All ladies must have pretty feet. Hands, too.”
    “Okay,” Jocelyn said, laughing despite her mood. “Make it so, Ms. Sue-Lin.”
    “Now we talkin’,” the youngest woman in the group said. She flipped off her white leather coat with flair, showing off a stunningly fit body that belied her age. “Girl, don’t let this situation stress a sister, hear? I’ma have your head beat so tight when I get done, it’ll cut ’em to the bone. Yeah, let your girlfriends know they missed gettin’ their hair did by Kimika, ’kay? Call me Mika, though—I couldn’t work with Kimberly, so I changed it. Every woman needs change, from time to time. We’ll make this makeover night, since your girls weren’t acting right. It’ll be all right.”
    She strutted around in a tight circle as the other ladies laughed. Taking center stage in the middle of the apartment floor, she smoothed her hand over her slick Halle Berry cut that was a hue somewhere between strawberry blond and platinum, which offered an eclectic contrast to her almond-toned skin. “Now, if you want color —”
    “No, no, no no, no,” Jocelyn said quickly, imagining the possibilities. Maybe Ms. Kimberly, aka Kimika, could pull off Lil’ Kim, but she wasn’t ready for that dramatic a change. “Uh, if you could just make it a gradual transition.”
    Kimika laughed harder. “Oh, okay. The conservative type. My bad. But, uh, sis, we have got to lose the bun.”
    The older ladies smiled and nodded as Jocelyn’s hand self-consciously reached up to feel the offending hairstyle.
    “You have pretty eyes,” Agnes said, going to the coatrack. “You ever consider contacts?”
    “I’m a student,” Jocelyn said with a chuckle, moving to the coffee table to offer each woman a glass.
    “And? I don’t follow,” Mildred said with a shrug.
    “Glasses are easier and don’t dry out my eyes,” Jocelyn fussed, remembering how her girlfriends had stayed on her about the