The Hairdresser Diaries (24 page)

“Does she have a name yet?” I asked.

“No, I was leaving that up to you.”

“How about you help me?” I suggested.

“Why don’t we try to think of one while we eat?”

I totally had forgotten about everything else after he handed me the puppy. I put her down on the pillows and moved over to the table where Cole had two covered dishes set up.

Cole had cooked a delicious steak dinner with all the trimmings.

The puppy didn’t stay on the pillows long once she got a whiff of our food. She crept up to my lap laying her nose on my knee.

“No puppy, my food. Did you feed her?” I asked.

“I just did before you got here. I was going to wait till after dinner to give her to you, but I didn’t think she’d stay quiet that long.”

I just smiled and scratched her ears.

We ate the fantastic meal that Cole cooked and lay down on the pillows with the puppy in between us trying to think of some names. Cole had already bought everything she could have possibly needed. Leash and collar, purple with diamonds on them—fake of course—food, dishes, a gazillion toys, and her own bed.

Cole lay back while I played with the puppy. He eventually ended up falling asleep while I was playing with her. He probably should have thought this through a little better.

When he woke up the puppy had calmed enough to lie down. Cole stretched and turned to look at me. “Is it my time to play now?” he asked. I giggled and motioned with my finger for him to come closer. He leaned in to give me a kiss when the puppy started growling. I started laughing. He looked at the puppy giving her a stern look and she backed down when I started to scratch her ears.

“Smart dog,” I said.

“She definitely is protective.”

“Don’t worry she’ll get use to you.” I smiled at him and he stood up and started cleaning up the table.

“You don’t have to do that now.”

“Why don’t you and the puppy go inside, put her to bed, and then you can show me my surprise.”

“Do I have to leave her alone on her first night in a new place?” I asked with a sad face. Cole looked at me like he was thinking maybe this dog wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“No, you don’t,” he smiled and kissed my forehead. I tried to help him clean up, but he insisted he would do it himself.

I took the puppy inside with me and looked through the Vicki’s bag and tried to decide on which one I wanted to wear tonight. I went with the red and black polka-dots one. I sprayed on some of my new body spray and put on some lotion. I also put on my high heels that hurt my feet after five minutes, but tonight it didn’t matter. I knew they wouldn’t be on that long. I threw on a robe to go outside; I did not want to risk my neighbors seeing me walk outside in lingerie.

The puppy had issues with the steps so I had to carry her down carefully without breaking my neck. Cole had already set up the puppy bed in the tent for her, hoping she’d sleep in it. I placed her in her bed. She was so worn out she fell asleep almost instantly.

Cole was already lying down with his hands rested behind his head. “I’m ready for my surprise now,” he said eagerly.

I stepped over him putting each foot on either side and slowly undid my robe, letting it fall off my shoulders, before I threw it to the side.

Cole’s eyes gaped wide.

“You Like?” I asked. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. The look on his face said enough. He sat up and reached with his left hand and grabbed the back of my calf. Then he did the same with the other, slowly bringing them up to the back of knees, and gently tugging until I was straddling him on the ground. His hands moved up my back, neck, and into my hair. I leaned back letting out a breath as he kissed my neck working his way down to my breasts, pulling the straps down, exposing them.

I pushed him back against the pillows and gave him a seductive smile as I unzipped his pants and pulled them off, then his shirt while I kissed every inch of his chest.

There was a fire burning in his eyes. The way he touched me and kissed me, it was like as if these were our last moments together.

He rolled over on top of me and kissed me passionately while trying to take my top off, but was having issues. “How do you get this off?” he asked frustrated.

“There’s a zipper in the back,” I said too late. He had ripped it apart tearing it off of me. If I didn’t think that was incredibly sexy I would have been pissed at him for destroying it since I just bought it. But at the moment that was the last thing on my mind.

As I lay there watching Cole sleep I kept thinking. How could I have deprived myself of something so great? To think, what if I never found the courage to tell him I loved him? I gently touched his cheek. He stirred ever so slightly and I just nestled myself against him knowing my life would never be the same now. What I had feared the most was now something I couldn’t live without.

When I woke up, I found that the puppy had sneaked out of her bed and was curled up next to Cole. Cole was still sleeping. I gently brushed my fingers over his lips, he twitched slightly. I started to kiss his neck slowly making my way up to his lips. This time, nothing, he didn’t move.

Hmm.

I took my hand and slowly moved it down his chest, torso, and stopped just short of below his waist. His lips curved into a slight smile. I moved my hand a little lower. He opened his eyes a peek—he thought I wasn’t looking. He was so busted. I smacked him on his stomach.

“Hey,” he choked a laugh.

“I knew you weren’t sleeping,” I said as I crawled on top of him and pressed my lips to his. “I see you found a new sleeping buddy.” I pointed to the puppy.

“She looked so lonely by herself all the way over there.” Yeah, the whole five feet away. “Did you think of name yet?”

“How about… Nala?” I said.

Cole looked at the puppy. “What do you think? You like Nala?” She looked up and tilted her head. “Is that a yes? No?” She stood up and licked his face. “I’ll take it as a yes.”

“See, she likes you,” I said as I leaned in for a kiss. Nala started to growl at me. “Hey, he’s mine,” I told her as she lay her head down on her paws.

“Jealous?” Cole asked.

“Shut up!” I pushed him back down on the pillows and laid my head on his chest. “So I was thinking…we should spend every night out here.”

“What about in the winter, we’ll freeze to death.”

“There are ways to keep warm,” I said yanking the sheets over both of us and pulling him up on his side accidentally causing Nala to fall over. She whimpered and I quickly picked her up placing her in between us, scratching her telling her I was sorry. Cole rolled his eyes and lay back down.

Once the puppy fell asleep I put her back in her bed and showed Cole just how we could stay warm in the winter. I think I had him convinced after the second time.

When the sun started to get too hot we made our way back inside. I fed Nala and told Cole he was on poop duty. He looked at me like I was kidding and I let him know I wasn’t. I reminded him he bought the dog, so he has to clean up after her. He tried to pull the

‘it was a gift so it’s yours’ bull crap, but my icy stare won him over.

Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart…

- Unknown

The next few weeks flew by. Cole and I spent every day together. We took turns spending the night at each other’s places. And of course Nala went with us everywhere we went and was allowed. The incident at work with Kayla blew over and things went back to normal. Although Kayla did keep her distance from me on days we worked together. And Kristi’s wedding was just over a month away and things were settling nicely.

As always, when I came home from work, Nala greeted me at the door.

“How’s my little baby,” I said to Nala.

“I’m fine thank you,” Cole said mocking me.

“Hello boyfriend.”

“Hello girlfriend.” Cole bent down and kissed me.

“What did my two favorite loves do today?” I asked.

“Well…Nala and I had a tug-of-war contest with my sock…she won.” I plopped down on the couch and patted it for Cole to sit next to me, but Nala beat him to it. I picked her up and put her on my lap. I took advantage while I could, soon I would not be able to do this.

“Why do you leave your socks lay around. I told you she would get them.” He was about to say something, but I already knew what it was. “And just because you can buy more is not an excuse.” He quickly closed his mouth.

“I forgot to tell you, Tommy and Jessie invited us out to dinner tomorrow, and they said they wanted to tell us something,” Cole told me.

“I wonder what it is. Did they say what it’s about?”

“No, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing bad.” I shrugged and rested my head on Cole’s shoulder. Jessie and Tommy started dating just after Cole and I met and have been together and happy ever since.

I told Cole I would meet him at his place before dinner with Jessie and Tommy. I already talked to Jessie and told her we would be a little late for dinner. I thought I would surprise Cole by showing up at his place wearing only lingerie under my coat.

I put on the aqua green corset I bought weeks ago, including the matching panties, thigh highs and garter belt. I slipped into a pair of heels, sprayed on some perfume, messed up my hair some to give it that tousled look, and put on my jacket—a knee length trench coat.

When I got to Cole’s Tommy was still there.

Crap.

“Hey Tatum,” he said thinking nothing of it.

“Hey Tommy…aren’t you supposed to be picking up Jessie?” I asked nervously.

“Yeah, I’m leaving now…I thought you guys were going to be running late?”

“Um, yeah, we have to do something real quick beforehand.” At least I wasn’t technically lying.

“Alright, Cole’s in the bathroom. Have a seat, take your coat off.”

“No, I’m good,” I said as Tommy grabbed his keys to leave.

“Okay, see you guys later.” I waved goodbye to him, thankfully, and knocked on the bathroom door. Cole opened it, he was shaving. I thought to wait until he was done, I didn’t want him to cut himself.

“Did it get cold out?” he asked looking at my jacket.

“No,” I said as he finished up shaving and turned to look at me.“I was thinking, I’m kinda not in the mood to go to dinner, do you think they’d care if we skipped it?”

“Yes, I think they would, and Tommy was real excited about tonight, so I think we should go.” He was completely oblivious.

“Well if you insist.” He turned back to the mirror to wipe off any excess shaving cream. “But I think I might be a little under dressed, what do you think?” I dropped my coat and leaned casually against the wall.

“I’m pretty sure whatever you have on is…” he stopped when he finally caught sight of what I was wearing. He grabbed me and pulled me into the bathroom closing the door behind me. “You are a very naughty girl,” Cole grinned ear to ear. He picked me up and threw me on the sink and I laughed.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Sorry, I laugh when I get excited.”

“Really,” he said with a devious glint in his eye. He grabbed my hips and that was it, but this time I wasn’t laughing.

The best thing about Cole, he was fun, exciting, and was always up for trying new things.

Five minutes later I heard a door slam.

“Cole stop.” He started nibbling on my neck and I started to laugh. “No I’m serious, stop. I think I heard someone come in.” He stopped and listened carefully.

We heard Tommy and Jessie in the kitchen.

Cole started to laugh and I put my finger to his mouth to keep him quiet, instead he bit my finger and I jerked back causing my foot to hit the doorknob. We both looked at each other started cracking up.

“Hello?” Tommy called.

“It’s just me Tom,” Cole yelled back.

“Is Tatum with you?” Jessie asked. I shook my head telling Cole to tell her no, but Jessie spoke again before he could. “I saw her car, so I know she’s here somewhere, just wanted to know why she had to make up some lie about running late.” There was no way around this so I thought I would show them.

“Cole move aside.” I jumped down off the sink and reached for the doorknob.

“What are you doing?” he asked putting his hand on the door.

“Trust me. This is the only way to get rid of them.”

“Would you at least put your underwear back on first?” he said picking them off the floor and handing them to me.

“Oh, yeah.” I smiled bashfully as I slid them back on and I braced myself. I opened the door, stepped out of the bathroom and walked down the hall where Jessie and Tommy stood in the living room.

“Do I really need to say more,” I said to Jessie, standing there, in lingerie.

“I see you went with the green one,” Jessie said trying not to look embarrassed. Tommy stood there, eyes gaping and jaw dropped. “I guess we’ll see you at the restaurant,” Jessie said and turned to walk away while Tommy stood still. She reached back and pulled him out the door.

I giggled to myself and walked back into the bathroom so Cole and I could finish what we started.

“Smooth move,” Cole said.

“Hey, at least I got rid of them and they won’t be calling wondering where we are.” He smiled and that was it.