“You’re going to want to be very still, Jen. You don’t want me to give you crooked bangs or to cut you, right?” I ask, gathering a large chunk of hair from the front of her head.
“Don’t you dare,” she growls, but doesn’t move.
“Be still,” I repeat in a sugary sweet voice, before I open the scissors over the large wad of hair, and begin to cut; the noise that the scissors make is music to my ears. When I'm done, she has bangs that are so short, that ninety percent of her forehead shows. “Wow, I never noticed how big your forehead is. Too bad you don’t like bangs; they could help to cover that shit up,” I tell her, shaking my head. “I'm sure your dad will be here soon; I better go,” I say, dropping her hair in the trashcan by the bed, taking the scissors with me.
“I'm going to fucking kill you.”
I shrug and walk out of the room closing the door behind me. Trevor is standing against the wall his head back, looking at the ceiling. Jen starts yelling from the other side of the door to untie her, so I yell back that her dad can do it when he gets here, causing her to start screaming at the top of her lungs. I have one last wicked idea.
I walk over to my purse where I had dropped it by the door when Trevor had carried me inside. I grab my phone, walk back into the bedroom, snap a few pictures of Jen, and grin when she thrashes around on the bed so hard, I think her wrists might snap. “There,” I say. “You’re always taking selfies when I see you and your posse in my store and at the bar. These will be a nice addition to your collection you no doubt have on Facebook. Don’t worry; I’ll tag ya.”
“Oh my God! Don’t you dare, Liz!” she hisses.
“Then if I were you, I would think twice about what you do after your dad comes to get you,” I taunt. That shuts her up.
When I walk back out of the bedroom, Trevor’s eyes come to mine. “I'm sorry, baby,” he whispers, pulling me into him. My arms go around his waist; we stay like that for a little while, just holding each other, then I look around, realizing that Lolly is missing.
“Where’s Lolly?’ I ask, running down the hall, yelling for her. She’s not anywhere in the house. I run back to our room, throwing the door open, causing it to slam into the wall. “Where is my dog?” I yell, moving towards the bed, ready to kill this bitch. She must see how serious I am because she answers right away.
“Th…the shed out back.” It takes everything in me not to smack her in the face, or suffocate her with a pillow.
“I got her, baby,” Trevor yells from the living room. I run and skid to a halt, seeing Lolly stumbling around.
“What’s wrong with her?” I get down on my knees; when she sees me, she stumbles in my direction, and then flops down in front of me. Laying my ear against her chest, I listen to her heart and make sure that she is breathing okay.
“Bitch, I'm calling the fucking cops!” I hear Trevor yell, and then Jen apologizing over and over again.
I can’t believe she did this! She broke in, drugged our dog, and then put her in the shed so that her friend could tie her to our bed. Trevor comes back into the living room with the phone to his ear, his eyes on me. He looks like he could kill someone. “Dad, I need you to come to my house, and bring someone with you. Jen broke in, drugged Lolly, and is tied to my bed.” His hand goes to his hair. With his chest heaving every time he looks at me, he seems to get angrier. “Fuck no! She did this shit herself, thinking that I would want her fucking ass,” he roars into his phone, making Lolly jump. He pulls the phone away from his ear, shoving it in his back pocket. I stand and walk towards him, wrapping myself around him. I hate that he’s feeling like this.
“Are you okay?”
“Fuck no,” he says, holding me tighter.
“Well, this has got to be the most interesting day that I have ever had,” I say, right before the doorbell starts going off. “That’s probably her dad.” I unwind myself from Trevor, but he stops me from going to the door with a hand in the back of my shirt.
“I’ll get it. You stay with Lolly.”
“Sure.”
He bends, kissing my forehead, then heads to the front door, while I go back to Lolly, who is still laying down next to one of the chairs in the living room. “You’ll be okay, girl.” When Trevor walks back into the living room, Jen’s dad is close behind him; his face is bright red, and he looks ready for murder.
“Ms. Hayes, I am very sorry that this happened. Please accept my deepest apologies, and know that something like this will never happen again.”
“All due respect, John, I'm pressing charges against Jen for what she did. Not only did she break into my house, but she drugged my dog, then had someone tie her to my and my fiancée’s bed,” Trevor says, his fists clenched at his sides.
“I understand,” Jen’s dad says, before turning at the sound of someone walking into the house.
“John.”
“James.” The two men greet each other.
“Where is she? I would like to speak with her,” Jen’s dad says. It’s plain to see that he’s holding absolute fury in check.
“She’s down the hall, the last door on the right. She only has a blanket covering her, sir,” I tell him. He looks taken aback, and then shakes his head, walking down the hall to his daughter.
“You all right, son?” James asks, looking at Trevor, whose jaw is so tight that I'm surprised it doesn’t break.
“Yeah, but I still want to press charges.”
“Alright, why don’t you and I go outside and talk for a few minutes, and you can tell me what exactly happened.”
“Sure. Just give me a minute with Liz and I’ll meet you out there.”
James nods before he comes to me, squatting down. “Hey, darlin’. You alright?” He asks softly, and I nod, thinking that I'm a big fat liar. “Sure you are.” He smiles, pulling me forward to kiss my forehead, then stands, walking out the door.
“You okay, baby?” Trevor asks, squatting the same way his dad had.
“Yeah, I'm just ready for this day to be over with,” I say, laying my head against Lolly’s side. Trevor’s hand runs over my cheek and back through my hair.
“Everyone will be gone soon.”
“Alright,” I whisper, trying not to think about what would have happened if I had walked in while Trevor was here alone with Jen. I would like to say that I am so secure in our relationship that I wouldn’t have assumed the worst; but the truth is, I, like a lot of women, would have jumped to conclusions, never thinking that this was some kind of sick setup.
“I'm going to be right outside talking to Dad.” He bends, kissing my cheek.
Ten minutes later, Trevor and his dad come back inside. Lolly is finally up and about, but still stumbling into things when she tries to walk.
“Are they still in the room?” James asks, looking down the hall.
“Yeah.” Just then, Jen comes down the hall, tears streaming down her face, her new bangs showing off her large forehead that she tries to cover with her hand. I bite my lip to keep from laughing at how bad she looks. Trevor, who is standing next to his dad, looks up when he hears her; his eyes go wide, then come to me. The look on his face makes me pull Lolly close and shove my face into her fur to muffle the sound of my laughter.
“Sheriff,” Jen’s dad says. I raise my head slightly so that I can see their interaction.
“Mr. Carlson, why don’t we talk outside?” James says, holding his hand out in front of him for Jen and her father to precede him. Jen hasn’t looked up; her dad places his hand against her lower back, leading her out of the house. When I hear the sound of the door closing, I can feel Trevor staring at me. I don’t look up; I just sit there and continue to pet Lolly.
“I didn’t know you wanted to be a hair dresser.”
“I didn’t.” I finally look up to see Trevor watching me closely. “Um…I may have gotten a wee bit angry.”
“Well, remind me when I piss you off to never leave any sharp objects laying around.”
“Don’t piss me off.” I shrug. He takes a step towards me, where I’m sitting on the floor, bending low so his mouth is next to my ear.
“You love my dick, baby. Maybe even more than I do. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the stunt you pulled today.”
“I already told you; I never said anything to Jules,” I growl, pissed off.
“I know you didn’t, and I was wrong to jump to conclusions. But you still turned off your phone, making it so I couldn’t get in touch with you; then you didn’t tell me about the visitor you had at the store.”
“Oh.”
“Oh.” He smirks. “What do you think your punishment should be?”
“You’re not punishing me.” My eyes narrow; his eyes drop to my mouth. He leans in, giving me a quick kiss.
“We’ll see,” he shrugs, standing back up.
“I’m serious, Trevor; you’re not punishing me,” I say, beginning to panic.
“When you get it, you won’t be thinking of it as a punishment.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“You guys okay?” James asks, walking in. My face turns bright red, wondering how much he might have heard.
“We’re good, Dad. Just making plans,” Trevor says, looking down and winking at me. My mouth drops open. I have never seen him wink, and he has a good one, unlike mine. Once, when I tried to wink at someone, they thought I had something in my eye and offered me Visine. If that’s not an ego-crusher, I don’t know what is.
“Mr. Carlson and Jen just left,” James says, walking into the kitchen, pulling out a note pad. Trevor holds out his hand, helping me up off the floor. He pulls me flush against him.
“I love you, baby.”
“Always?” I ask, standing on my tiptoes.
“Always.” Kissing my lips, then my forehead, he turns me around, scooting me towards the kitchen.
“So, you’re going to need to sign a few things and decide if you want to apply for a restraining order.”
“Do you think that will be necessary?” I ask, worrying my bottom lip.
“I never thought you would need to press charges against Jen Carlson; so the question you need to ask yourself is: can you trust Jen to leave you alone?”
“I don’t know,” I say quietly. This is just one more thing that I did not want to deal with right now. Trevor rubs circles along my back, his touch helping to calm me. “What do you think?” I ask, looking over my shoulder at Trevor.
“I want you safe. I know that a piece of paper is not going to stop her if she tries to do something stupid; but if we do this, she may back off.”
“She didn’t attack me. She was here trying to get you back; she just went about it in a really stupid way. How did she even get inside?” I ask.
“She claims to have a key.” James says looking at Trevor.
“You gave her a key?” I ask looking at Trevor as well.
