Sara gets up and walks indoors. Then the man with the shower cap gets up a few seconds later and follows. The party’s not breaking up already, is it? But no one else seems to be moving. A couple of the men near where they were sitting share a joke, watching the man’s retreating back.
‘Oh, no,’ says her new friend. ‘Yours is really special. You should get some gold highlights put in.’
‘What a great idea, Melanie,’ says Tatiana. ‘We should get that sorted. Yes, Julia?’
Julia turns instantly on hearing her name. ‘Sorry, what?’
‘Gemma’s hair. Melanie thinks she’d rock gold highlights.’
‘Ooh, yes,’ says Julia. ‘Grand plan. And actually, if we took the whole colour up a couple of tones, that would be lovely. You’d look great blonde, with your skin. Colour combinations you don’t find in nature can really zing.’
‘Sort of light chestnut?’ asks Tatiana. ‘So the gold really stands out?’
‘Perfect,’ says Julia. ‘I’ll make an appointment tomorrow.’ And she turns away.
Gemma feels a bit embarrassed. She hasn’t let her mum make decisions about her appearance without consulting her since she was seven years old. But these women have her career in mind. They’re experts. It’s different.
How she’ll explain it to her mum is another question. She’ll want to know where she got the money from. I’ll say Naz did it, she thinks. Mum couldn’t tell a professional colour job if it bit her on the arse. Naz never minds. She’s brilliant at thinking on the hoof.