I look over at Emily and her hair has been cut to her shoulders which to me was shorter than I asked as well. What is wrong with this lady? How long has she been doing hair?
“Sorry. I didn’t know it was going to go this bad. We can leave if you want...”
“No, I’d rather just go ahead and move on to something else. I can’t stand to look at myself in this damn mirror.”
When the stylist comes back, I try to come up with the nicest way to change my mind. There’s no way I’m going home with a pixie cut.
“I’ve changed my mind. No cut or highlights for me. Maybe next time,” I say, getting up out of the chair, heading for the hills.
“Would you like to go ahead and book an appointment?”
“No, not sure when I’ll be back. But thank you.” There is no way I’d ever get mine done here after watching the crap job done on Emily and my mom.
We move to getting our nails done, which thankfully is a better experience. Nothing goes wrong, and Emily makes my mom laugh the entire time.
The massages are the best. It’s been so long since I’ve had one, like back when Chris and I first got together. The lady that did my massage is finding every single achy spot and fixing it for me. If I was ever rich, I’d come here like once a week just to relax. How much is this costing Damon anyway?
Once we leave the spa, we decide to go have lunch at a little diner off Ninth Terrace called Lucy’s. My mom asks me all kinds of questions. Does Damon treat me well? Does he treat Emily like his own? Do I see a future for us?
And honestly I just want to tell her that I’ve never been treated better by a man in my life. He and Emily share a bond that I couldn’t be happier with. As for the future, I hope I’m lucky enough to be married to him someday. And possibly have kids together. I can see a long and fruitful life with him and that scares me.
My mom knows how important having a loving husband and stepdad for Emily is and I know that she’s being critical of Damon but there really is no reason. He’s great to both of us and we are extremely lucky for him to come into our lives when he did.
Damon wants to have kids and it’s a big deal for him. Before Carol passed away, his dream was to become a father and that was taken away from him. He still has a chance.
“How can you be so sure when you’ve only been together for such a short time?”
“The big difference in this scenario, Mom, is that we lived together. We haven’t had a single fight besides the night that he told me he wanted to be with me. And only because I wanted to make sure he was one hundred percent ready for a relationship after losing his wife.”
I guess my mom didn’t know that his wife had passed or that he was married previously but being in his house made it obvious. He has pictures of them together everywhere and I won’t dare ask him to take those down even if we get married. She is a big part of the person that he became and the person that he wants to be.
She is now directing her attention to Emily and wanting to know what Emily thinks of Damon. News flash, Mom, she loves him. Anyone that watches them together can tell. They are stuck at each other’s hips. From the day they met they have been like best friends. He cares for her like his own and that speaks volumes for him as a man and as a future husband.
Emily smiles. “I love watching Animal Planet with him. Going to the zoo. Coloring. He plays with me, and sometimes even plays dolls with me. I hope he can be my dad someday.”
At least we’re both on the same page when it comes to Damon. It isn’t like I want to get married next week or next month, maybe not even next year, but I couldn’t be happier.
Once our food arrives, the conversation stops, and it gives me time to think about what the next step in our relationship will be. Since we already live together, does that mean that the next step is engagement? Is that something that I’m ready for? I mean it isn’t like I wouldn’t say yes if he asked me to marry him today because I would, but am I one of those crazy girls who got engaged after three to six months with someone?
I guess maybe I am, but not so much like the other girls. There is a big difference between a normal relationship and my relationship with Damon. The major one is that we lived together from day one of meeting each other and our happiness only grew more and more every passing day. We already know each other's schedule and what each other likes and dislikes. Normally you don’t find that out until deciding to move in together and that’s usually when most people have their problems. That’s when most people begin to fight and realize that maybe that person is not who they are meant to be with. But that isn’t me and the person I’m meant to be with is most definitely Damon.
After I pay for lunch, we head to the fire station to pick Damon up. I wonder how long it’ll take for my mom to say something about her fucked-up haircut. Or if Damon would be the first to say something?
When we pull up, Damon and Liam are waiting outside. Please don’t mention her hair or all hell will break loose.
“Hey, girls, how’d your spa day go?” Liam asks.
Don’t ask! Leave it to Liam to ask an open-ended question like that. My mom is not great about thinking before she speaks, and Damon did a nice thing for us. He didn’t know our experience would be like that, and I don’t want him to feel bad since he orchestrated the whole day for us.
My mom begins to answer but I cut her off. “It went great.”
Liam walks around to the back seat and speaks with Emily as Damon gets in the car. I thought he’d want to drive, but instead he climbs in the passenger seat and gives me a kiss.
“Hopefully your day went way better than mine. We had two fires today, no casualties, but both homes were unsalvageable. We might have some new people moving into the duplexes. I gave them my phone number just in case.”
“The duplexes?” my mom asks.
Here is something that will make my mother like him more. It will show her how caring and passionate he is toward helping others.