Part Two
Now
Five
Gineva
Nine years later
The long, boring drive home from the seminar I just gave has me dragging ass as I pull up to my apartment. If I can get all my shit gathered up in one trip, I’ll be a happy camper. I seriously don’t think I have the energy to walk back to my car a second time, so I fill my arms to the brim, navigate my keys and giant cup, and make the balancing act walk. I barely get the door to my place closed before my phone goes off.
Shit. I rush to put everything down and dig through the black hole that is my purse until I finally fish out my phone. Glitter fans across the caller ID, and I smile.
“Hey, Sway.” I put the phone on speaker, knowing I can’t talk to this man with it held directly to my ear.
“Gin! Oh, sweet child, I’m so glad you picked up. I know it’s late, but Sway has some big problems. Huge problems, child, and I need you. Like, yesterday.” There’s a mild slur to his normally flamboyant tone.
“Sway? Have you been drinking?”
“Gin!” His hiccup fills the room through the speaker. “I’m in big trouble at the salon.” He sobs uncontrollably, and I have no idea how to help him through the phone.
“Sway, just calm down and talk to me. Tell me what you need so I can help.”
“The money. It’s going out faster than it’s coming in and I don’t know what to do.” He continues to sob into the phone.
Sway came to one of my small business seminars two years back. I specialize in salons, a niche I came across when helping my sister Luciana start her own. Now my job is to grow, develop, and save salons across the country. Sway and I had a long talk after the seminar about everything he needed to change in order to up his revenue, but the man is obsessed with hope and happiness, and it sounds as though his budget has finally taken the plunge.
“You do know what to do. I told you exactly what to do two years ago.”
“I know, sweet child, but I can’t! You don’t understand. Sway can’t be ruthless like you.”
“So what do you want me to do?” If he won’t follow my advice, I can’t really fix the problem.
“Well…” He blows his nose right into the phone. “I wondered if you would be able to come and do it for me? I mean, isn’t that your specialty?” He sounds so desperate that it’s hard to even dream of saying no.
“Yes,” I say cautiously, “that is my specialty.” I’m going to have to be firm with my dear friend if he really wants the situation fixed though. “Are you prepared to let me do what needs to be done?”
His whimper, followed by a long stretch of silence, answers my question. He has no choice. Things must be really bad.
I sigh. “All right, let me look at my calendar and see what I can do.”
“Oh, Gin! Sweet, sweet Gin, I can’t thank you enough.”
“I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of extra money to pay me, if you’re this deep.” I usually never work pro bono, but to hear Sway this way literally hurts my heart. I can’t imagine not jumping in to help. “I’ll make you a deal. You feed me and let me stay at your house, and I’ll see if we can’t get Sway’s back in the black again.”
“EEK! Oh, girl, just leave it to me. I’ll have it all ready. You’ll be tucked in and fed every night. I’ll even cuddle you, sweet child. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Cuddle me? That’s funny.
***
Two weeks later, I pull up to Sway’s and know I’m in the right place when I see the sidewalk is painted gold and covered in glitter. I can’t help but laugh. Though my smile immediately drops when I think about what I’ll have to do once I walk through the front door.
It’s official—I’m the fun crusher. I’m the one who comes in to straighten shit out. And from what I hear, some of the girls in this joint sorta come and go as they please. Now I get to be the one to tell them that shit like that is about to end.
Especially if they want to keep their jobs.
I head in, and no sooner do I open the front door than I’m being attacked by hugs and kisses.
“Gin!” Sway’s feminine perfume hits my nose as his lips hit my cheek. “You’re here! Look, girls, Gin is here!”
I glance around to see a couple of hair stylists. One’s behind her chair, working on a foil weave. Another is sitting in her own chair, reading a magazine with a dull expression.
My eyes narrow in on her, and I calculate all the things she should be doing instead of sitting on her ass. But first things first. “Let’s head to your office.”
Sway starts to guide me to the back. The smell hits me first, then I locate an area where glitter paint is drying on the floor.
“Sway! What the hell! You can’t paint the floor during business hours. What are you planning on doing if State Board walks in?”
He turns toward me, and the beautifully put-together fifty-something man looks totally dumbstruck. His head swivels toward the paint, then back toward me. “I’m just spreading around a little joy. Who’s gonna punish me for that? Besides, it’s just a touch-up job, so it’s considered maintenance, you silly thing.”
Oh God. This is worse than I thought. But I decide to ignore his comment for now. We’ve got bigger problems. We make our way to his little office on the back side of the dispensary and I go straight for the chair behind his desk. I wake up the sleeping screen, which a burst of glitter fans across, and pull up QuickBooks. Then I groan.
“Sweet child, for such a small little thing, you have a lot of anger in you. When was the last time you got some good lovin’ from a man?”
I continue to ignore him, instead opening his statements and reports to find his credit card balances are so high, I don’t even know where the ceiling is. I click. And I click and I click and I click.
“Sway!” I can’t believe my eyes. “You spent damn near five thousand dollars at the hobby store over the last six months? What the fuck?”
“Child, relax. That’s Sway’s glitter and paint budget. I can’t spread the joy without it.”
“And what about all of these extra checks made out to Tammy Jo Green?”
“Oh, that’s the new girl. Her clientele hasn’t picked up yet and she needs some extra, so I’ve been giving her some money.”
“Which one is Tammy Jo?” He better not say what I think he’s going to say.
“She’s the one who was reading a magazine when you walked in.”
That’s it. I’ve been here five whole minutes and have already heard enough. The fun-crusher in me is now activated and in full effect. I can tell from a glance around and an overview of the books why this business is heading south fast.
One of the problems is that the man sitting across the desk from me has to be one of the most giving people I’ve ever met, and based on everything I’m seeing on this spreadsheet, I’m afraid he’s getting taken advantage of. In a way that could close the doors of this shop if we don’t get things turned around.
“Okay, Sway, I need to know.” I level him with my stare. “Do you want me to save this salon or not?”
“Of course, child, that’s why you’re here.”
“Well then, you’d better tighten that gold belt around your waist and get ready… because shit’s about to get real.”