They walk into the salon holding hands like a couple who just arrived their honeymoon destination. She's smiling from ear to ear as he whispers something into her ears. They sit for a while, waiting for his turn to barb.
She knows that everyone in the room is looking at them- from the guys waiting for their turn to barb, to the girls working at the manicure and pedicure section- so she holds his arm tightly like a handbag, and gigles as they converse in an almost whisper.
"Bros, come over", the barber guy says, and Boyfriend goes to sit on the chair.
"Baby, how should he barb it? Should I trim the beard down? Should the hair be lower than this?" Boyfriend asks.
She stands and walks up to them, looking around to make sure that all eyes are on her. She's saturated with that mushy bossy egoistic feeling women have whenever they're the ones to determine the appearance of their man.
"Ehn.... Carve it like this, let this side not go down too much. Please bring down the mustache very well" she directs. "Please don't trim the front. Baby, your hairline is thinning down o."
Her orders are not clear and the Barber is getting pissed.
Barber gives a wry smile and says loudly "women sef! Shey last weekend you asked me to barb him a punk. Now you're giving another direction. Okay O! As you wish."
She's lost. She has never been to that salon before.
"Me? When?" She asks, looking at Boyfriend and Barber.
Boyfriend stares at barber, wondering why he couldn't just keep quiet.
"Please just barb it as she said,' Boyfriend says almost angrily. 'She wasn't the one I came with last weekend."
Babe opens her mouth wide in disbelief, "the person I came with was my cousin." he adds when he realizes that he has shot himself on the leg.
Everyone in the shop is looking at her. The girls are giggling, trying so hard not to laugh out loud. Do they know something she doesn't know? She wonders.
Then she gently walks back to her sit when she remembers that he wasn't even in town last weekend. He had told her that he travelled out of town to attend the wedding of his boss' younger brother.