Alex Blake wasn't the type of woman who spent a lot of money on makeup, skin products, clothes or jewellery, but there was one feature in her appearance that she spent a lot of money on. Her hair. Special shampoos and conditioners, vitamin treatments, very particular expensive brands of hairsprays that didn't do damage to the hair but rather preserved it. She had however never dyed it, not once in her life. Even the highlights she sometimes sported were natural, brought on by the summer sun. And she had always told herself that she wouldn't mind going grey, as long as she kept the thick, shiny quality of her hair.
But when she had found her first grey hair that morning (and had pulled it out by the root and thrown it in the trashcan), she had been more unsettled than she ever thought possible.
In fact, she had been so distracted that when driving to work she had missed a turn, leading her to make a highly illegal U-turn on a busy street, and, when people honked at her, she even raised her middle finger in response. It was not at all like her, but this little onset of road rage was almost therapeutic, and made her feel a lot better for a while. She couldn't shake it however, the thought kept sneaking its way back into her mind. Grey hairs. Okay, so it did come rather late to her, which she should be grateful for, and it was inevitable, and there were ways to keep it from showing… but it still bothered her.
JJ, reading the newspaper on her phone next to her, snorted.
"Did you know there's a fourth book to that bondage series now? It's called Grey."
Blake pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Please just shut up, JJ."
"Why, what did I say? Bondage? Grey?"
Blake groaned and hid her face in both hands.
"I found my first grey hair this morning, okay?"
"Your first?!"
"Hey, I don't like your tone. It's implying that I'm old."
JJ patted her shoulder.
"I didn't mean it that way. I found my first grey when Henry was six months, okay? I haven't gotten any more of them since, though." She tilted her head and looked at her co-worker. "Besides, you would probably look pretty amazing as a silver fox lady."
"Not likely, but thank you, JJ. I needed to hear that."
She turned back to the computer screen and as she did, JJ spotted another silvery hair in the midst of the shifting shades of black coffee and red copper. And she smiled to herself, deciding that Blake didn't need to deal with the shock of grey number two on the same day. So she kept her mouth shut. But her eyes kept wandering back to the thin line of perfect silver and she thought - in awe:
Leave it to Alex Blake, the eternal perfectionist, to even get a perfect shade of grey in her hair.