Dead Fit - 18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

I left my house a quarter before ten on Saturday morning to pickup Ana and then we headed over to G1 Salon and Spa for her job shadowing experience.

G1 was one of Long Beach's high end salon and spas. Actually, G1 was Long Beach's only high end salon and spa. It was located on Naples, an extremely wealthy island of Long Beach, and the neighborhood where people could most likely afford the overpriced services. Needless to say, G1 wasn't a place I frequented.

“I’m a little nervous about this,” Ana said to me during our drive.

“Why? You’re just here to check things out and talk to employees. All you're doing is seeing what they do for a living. Just relax and use this as an opportunity to see what you like and don’t like. It’s not like you have to make a decision today.”

“When you put it like that, it doesn't seem so bad,” Ana said.

We entered the salon and a tall, thin African-American woman greeted Ana with a hug. Ana introduced the woman to me as Lanita, her friend from high school. Lanita shook my hand, then gestured towards some sofas in the reception area and invited me to make myself comfortable while Ana toured the facilities.

I picked up a magazine and idly flipped through the pages. Meanwhile, Ana went around the store talking to estheticians, stylists, manicurists, and massage therapists. Occasionally, I looked up to watch Ana speaking to salon employees. She looked as though she was thoroughly enjoying herself. I just hoped she was getting enough information to help her make a career decision.

After half an hour or so, an attractive blond woman in her early thirties came through the doors of the salon. She looked familiar to me and when I figured out how I knew her, I lit up with excitement. The woman was a friend of Brian's and I saw her at his party the previous weekend. After being snubbed by Todd, I made such an effort to avoid him for the rest of the night. Incidentally, I remembered seeing the woman and Todd together for an extensive period of time. This was my lucky day. If I could cozy up to her, she just may cough up some information about Todd.

The woman checked in at the front counter. Her stylist wasn’t quite ready for her, so the woman took a seat across from me in the reception area. She stared at me for a few moments, trying to figure out where she recognized me from. I took that as my cue to strike up a conversation. “Hi, I don’t know if you remember me, but I met you last week at Brian Davenport's party.”

“Oh yea, that's where I know you from. I knew you looked familiar.”

The woman was well-dressed. Her purse carried the unmistakable LV trademark of extravagantly-priced Louis Vuitton merchandise, and the sunglasses she was wearing in her hair were by Chanel. Another one of Brian's wealthy friends. The value of the clothes and accessories she had on at that moment probably eclipsed the value of my entire wardrobe.

“I'm sorry, I forgot your name,” I said.

“Kimberly, Kimberly Graves. And you are?”

“Jaysen Marshall.”

“Oh yes, Jaysen, now I remember meeting you.”

She wasn't a good liar, but I played along anyway. “It was a great party, huh?”

“Yea, Brian's always been known for his killer get-togethers.”

“I know we talked about it at the party, but how is it that you know Brian again?”

“I originally met Brian through Todd Evans. Do you know Todd?” I nodded and she continued, “It’s one of those friend-of-a-friend situations. I actually think I like Brian's friends better than Todd's. Some of Todd's friends can be a bunch of stiff shirts. You know?”

I nodded enthusiastically, figuring if I could make myself as agreeable as possible, she'd find me comfortable enough to speak her mind.

My strategy worked. Kimberly said, “Like did you meet that bag who worked for the hedge fund company? She was droning on and on about her portfolio and how well it was doing. Then she launched into how one of her kids just won a soccer tournament and another was going to skip a grade in school because he was so smart. I was thinking to myself, who really cares? This is a party, not a business meeting or a family reunion. But, that's Todd's friends for you. Competitive, career-driven, and boring.”

Wow, this woman had no social filter whatsoever. It was like the first thing that came to her mind was the first thing out of her mouth. This seemed like a good opportunity for me to take advantage of the moment and see what I could find out about Todd's financial advising business.

“I’ve always been amazed at how successful Todd is, for being so young, don’t you think?”

“Oh yea, Todd’s sharp. He’s a good financial advisor and he has clients who are from old money. He pretty much inherited all of his father’s clients when his father retired from the business. That’s the way it works in the real world. It all comes down to who you know. But he makes his clients money and that's all they care about.”

Kimberly was confirming what Ana and I already figured out. Todd really did seem like he was an honest businessman, which made the police investigation on him all the more perplexing. She leaned in towards me and whispered, as though anyone else in the lounge cared about our conversation, “But between you and me, he isn’t that young. He’s got to be in his late thirties, I’d say. Isn’t it amazing what a little nip and tuck will do for your appearance?”

“You think he’s had plastic surgery,” I asked, only half interested in the conversation. I already got the information I needed from her. Frankly, I didn't care if Todd had a nose-job or not.

“Sweetie, I don’t think; I know,” Kimberly replied. Then she said something that got me interested in our conversation again. “And I'm sure he did it to try to get Brian back.”

“Brian and Todd dated?”

“Oh yea, they were together for a while. When they broke up, Todd told everyone it was a mutual decision. But you want to know what I think?” Kimberly didn't even wait for me to respond, “I think Brian ended it because he got bored with Todd. I'm not one to pass judgment, but I have to say, I lost a little respect for Brian when their relationship ended.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, Todd was really into Brian. I remember when they first met, Todd used to give me updates. It was like both of them were just discovering love for the first time. It was all really cute, hearing him talk about their dates, meeting each others friends, taking vacations together. But there was so much more to their relationship, too. Todd was a mentor to Brian, helping him become more comfortable being gay, finding a circle of professional friends. He really helped Brian get his career established. To some extent, Todd put his neck on the line, introducing Brian to high profile business leaders. When Brian's popularity began to eclipse Todd's, that's when their relationship seemed to go downhill. Again, I'm not one to judge, but it seemed like once Brian got what he wanted, he was ready to move on.”

I felt a little defensive about her statement, but I wanted to keep her talking, so I played it cool. “Maybe they both got bored of each other and it really was a mutual decision, just like Todd said.”

“Oh, no. He's still smitten by Brian. He's never told me as much, but I can just see the way Todd looks at Brian. Believe me, he's still in love. Woman's intuition, sweetie.”

So it wasn't just my imagination, thinking that Todd looked longingly at Brian. Not that I found Kimberly to be all that credible, but it reassured me that I wasn't just a jealous lunatic.

I asked, “It all sounds like a terribly sad story. Any chance they may get back together?”

“No, I doubt it. As far as I've heard, Brian's not interested in Todd. Someone mentioned to me that he may even have a new flavor, but I don't want to be spreading gossip.”

I spoke to Kimberly for another five minutes about other guests at Brian's party, until her stylist was read to work on her. The stylist had a little swing in his hips when he walked and I could sense his eyes roaming my body as he greeted Kimberly. I felt like a piece of meat. It was flattering and creepy all at the same time. This must be how women feel when they walk past construction workers.

“Well, it was great to see you again. Tell me your name one more time,” Kim said.

“Justin, Justin Haskell,” I lied. In the rare chance she mentioned seeing me at the salon to either Brian or Todd, I'd hate to have her tell them my real name.

“Well, Justin, hope to see you at Brian's next party.”

“You can count on it.”

On television and in movies, beauty parlors always seemed to be a nice source for gossip. Who ever thought there could be truth behind it?

Ana was nowhere in sight by the time I finished my conversation with Kimberly, so I kicked back with the latest edition of GQ and flipped through the pages while I waited for her. I was trying to enjoy the eye candy in the magazine when I was interrupted by an ear-piercing shriek coming from the back of the salon. Other customers and I looked around at each other, then at the stylists, hoping someone would provide an explanation. There was no time for anyone to say anything, because another shriek, this time a bit more hysterical, resonated throughout the salon.

Suddenly, Ana came running towards the lobby with a horrified look on her face. She grabbed my hand and said, “We gotta go!”

“What’s wrong?”

“No time to explain now,” Ana shouted. She grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me to the entrance of G1. I looked back and saw Lanita running towards us with an angry expression on her face. Behind Lanita was a woman with hair covering her drape, tears running down her cheeks. I didn't get a good look at the woman, but I could've sworn she had patches of hair missing from her head.

We were running to my car when I heard Lanita scream, “Don’t you dare come back here ever again.” I was afraid to turn around to see what was happening, but in my head, I imagined Lanita’s fists pumping angrily in the air, emphasizing her threat.

When we got to my car, I slowed down to catch my breath, but Ana was still running like a madwoman. “Quit dilly-dallying! Get in your car and drive!”

My tires squealed as we peeled out of the parking lot. We were a full mile away from the salon when I finally had the nerve to ask Ana, “What was all that about?”

Ana's chest was still heaving from sprinting. She took a deep breath and proceeded with her story, “Well, I went to the back to observe Lanita color Miss Harrison's hair. She was in the middle of applying some bleach cream, when Lanita had to step away to answer a phone call. She didn't really have to answer a phone call, she just needed to take a drag of a cigarette. So Lanita told Miss Harrison that I was going to finish applying the bleach cream.”

I interrupted Ana, “Didn't Miss Harrison have a problem with you working on her hair, considering you've had absolutely no training?”

“That's what I thought was a little weird on Lanita's part. She introduced me as a stylist-in-training, which I guess wasn't a total lie. I mean, just because I'm in the really early phases of getting trained doesn't make me any less of a trainee, right? And besides, I thought about you again, and how great things have happened to you just by being in the right place at the right time and being willing to take risks.”

I rolled my eyes at Ana, giving her one of those, here we go again, looks.

Ana continued, “So, I went ahead and applied the cream to Miss Harrison's hair. I was totally being gentle, just like I saw Lanita doing. And while I was doing it, I got to thinking about how lucky I am to have a friend like Lanita, someone who was willing to help me figure out what I wanna do with my life. That's when I got a little misty-eyed and through my blurry vision, I kinda spread too much bleach on Miss Harrison's head. When Lanita finished getting her nicotine fix, she returned and saw what I had done. She totally freaked out, grabbed a towel, and tried to wipe away the bleach. And that's when Miss Harrison's hair started coming out. In clumps. It was a bad scene.”

The whole story was perversely funny to me. Bizarre things like this could only happen to Ana. She could tell I was holding back laughter, so she told me to just let it out. After a few seconds of my cackling, she joined in, too. When we finally settled down, I asked, “What are you going to do now?”

“I guess I should call Lanita sometime to apologize, huh?”

“Maybe you should give her a few days. Has this changed your mind about going back to school?”

“Well, I was having a good time up until the little incident with Miss Harrison's hair. I managed to figure out giving pedicures kinda grosses me out. Toes are disgusting. But at least massage therapy and hair styling are still in the running. I see you made a friend while waiting for me. You seemed to be having a good conversation with that woman sitting across from you. She wasn’t hitting on you, was she?”

“No, it wasn't anything like that. She was a woman I met a few weeks back.”

I was going to tell Ana about Kimberly's connection to Brian and Todd, but I wasn't in the mood to hear a lecture from her about how I should stop trying to conduct my own investigation and instead, leave it to the police to resolve.

I dropped Ana off back at her house. As she got out of my car, I tried to find some encouraging words to say to her. This was strike two for her, all in one week. If it were me, I would have given up by now. “Try not to let this get you down. I'm sure all of this happened for a reason.”

“Thanks for believing in me and supporting me, Jaysen. You're a great friend.” Ana pecked me on my cheek.

Right about now, I wasn't feeling like one.