Reina | September 30th, 2013 | 2:59 PM
I curled the last part of my customer's full sew-in then set the wand down and swung the chair around towards the mirror.
"What do you think Heather?" I asked one of my favorite, loyal customers.
She smiled wide as she looked in the mirror and played with her curls. "It looks beautiful as always Reina, thank you so much."
"No problem." I smiled as I looked at my work, I did a damn good job. "That's gunna be seventy dollars."
She nodded and began searching for the money when she lowly muttered, "Shit."
"What's wrong?"
"Reina I'm so sorry... I had to pay my car note the other day and that basically wiped out my fund. I thought I had more but they charged me with late fees and shit."
I held up my hand, "Don't worry about it H."
"Say what?"
"Keep your money, this is on the house, okay?" I knew Heather was having a hard time financially because the father of her three kids left her high and dry and she's working one full-time and two part-time jobs to try and make ends meet. "Matter of fact, take this." I grabbed three hundred dollars out of my pocket and handed it to her. She instantly began shaking her head, "Reina no, I can't take this."
"Heather, you are a great mother to those children and I know times are hard right now, please just take it. It's a gift from me to you and you never have to pay me back, us mother's gotta look out for each other."
She jumped up from out of her chair and started hugging me, "Thank you so much Rei, you're the best seriously."
I laughed, "No problem Heather." I swept up my area and checked on my other employees then headed back to my office where Gabby was playing with my iPad on her little daybed.
"Hey babygirl, whatcha doing?"
"Hi mommy. I just FaceTimed with daddy. He said he's coming to take me to get ice cream."
"Okay, that sounds fun."
"You want to come with us?"
"I can't Gabby, I have to do people's hair."
"Okay." She paused for a moment. "Mommy?"
"Yes baby?"
"When I grow up, I wanna be just like you."
I smiled, "Why Gabby?"
"Cause, when you do someone's hair, you make people feel pretty and they feel good inside. I wanna do people's hair and make them feel good too."
"Aw Gabby," I sat down next to her and put her on my lap, "I don't want you to be a hair dresser like me, I want you to go to college and do so much more with your life."
"No." She shook her head, "Why didn't you go there?"
"College?" She nodded and I answered her, "Because babygirl, at the time you were in my belly, getting ready to come out and when you finally did, I wanted to spend all my time with you so I did. But you, I want you to go to college because you know, that's the only way you can become a princess."
She gasped, putting her hands over her mouth (what a melodramatic), "I thought I was already a princess."
"You're a junior princess right now. When you go to college you learn so much that you transform into a princess and whatever else you wanna be. You can be a doctor, an artist, a lawyer, whatever makes you happy."
