Kote Holmes

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Alice touched a hand to her hair, twisting a curl around her finger. It sprang upwards in a little spiral when she let it go. She’d found a styling tutorial online and so far it seemed to be working. On the counter in front of her lay an entire pharmacy worth of curly hair products that she had tried in the past few months as she prodded and poked her way through learning how to style her curly hair.

“Now, repeat that for the rest of your hair,” the video said. Alice looked at the size of that one tiny ringlet and then the cloud of the rest of her hair. She sighed and sectioned off another piece of hair to style. She paused the video and got to work. As she coated each section in curl cream and gel, she watched the light outside of her bathroom window fade.

“There has got to be a faster way to do this,” Alice grumbled to her reflection as she wrapped the last section around her fingers. She let it slide off with a spring and then scrunched it to her scalp. With one final twist, she let it go. She smelt like an ice cream shop as she tied her bonnet over the coconut coated concoction that used to be her frizzy hair. “This better work.”

With the bonnet tied up at the top of her head, she brushed her teeth and left the bathroom, tumbling into her bed. Her shift tomorrow started at 11 so she wouldn’t have mush time to fix it tomorrow if it didn’t work this time.

Alice woke up and rolled over, reaching for her phone. 8am, ugh. She rolled onto her back, spread eagle across her empty double bed. She could still smell coconut, which she hoped was a good sign for her hair. As she stared at the ceiling, willing herself to get up, she realised that her bonnet had fallen off at some point in the night. Both of her hands flew to her hair and found it somehow both a dry frizzy mess and oil slicked down.

“Ugh, not again.” With a disaffected sigh, Alice reached over and grabbed a claw clip from her nightstand. She forced her mass of crusty hair into the clip and then padded, barefoot, into the kitchen to gather herself with a cup of coffee and a granola bar. “One of these days I’ll find a way to tame this mess.”

As the coffee brewed, Alice munched on her granola bar and thought about the butch from her last shift. Had she been flirting with her? Was Margie right? Or was it that Teddy was just naturally flirty with everyone?

Alice could admit to herself that Teddy had been attractive; short floppy brown hair, that dress shirt with it’s rolled up sleeves and enough confidence to make anyone swoon. Alice was a goner. But, she was also a professional. She knew that a customer on a date was not an appropriate flirtation partner. No matter what Margie said, Alice had not been flirting. She hoped. Her coffee machine beeped its cheery little tune at her, breaking her train of thought before it could spiral any further. She sighed, grabbed the mug from under it and burned herself on the first sip. Sticking her tongue out to try and cool it down, Alice leant back against the counter and cupped the mug between her hands.

With her fresh coffee procured and warming both her hands and her heart, Alice got herself ready. The handsome butch almost gone from her mind until she arrived at work.

Margie had a stupidly large grin on her face as Alice walked up to her.

“What’s got you all giddy?” Alice asked, tying her apron around her back.

“The homewreckers here!” Margie called through the passthrough instead of answering Alice.

There were some parts of the beginning of this book where I found myself rolling my eyes, the simplistic explanations seemed a little too simple, the terminology a little outdated, but as I listened to the later chapters I realised that this was on purpose.