Chapter 22

Back at work a few days later, Briana had come in to the hair and makeup area, rubbing her left hand and shaking her head.

"Everything okay?" Janine asked, concerned.

"Taking into consideration my hand hasn't been pulled off yet, yes," Briana joked.

"Oh yes, I heard you and your boss are official now. Congrats, honey."

"Thanks, Jan."

"Any ideas for your wedding?"

Briana sighed a little. "Well, it's going to be my second one, so I'm not having anything fancy."

"Well, in any case, I think it's going to be great. I'm happy for you two. And speak of the devil, here he comes. But what is with the hood on his head?"

Briana looked puzzled. "Your guess is as good as mine. I'll catch you later."

"Oh good, there you are," Brian said, a bit exasperated. "I got to talk to you. I have….kind of an emergency."

"Sure, I'm all ears," Briana nodded.

"Not here, in the other room."

"My God, this has to be important."

"You have no idea, kid."

Once they had gotten into the other room, Briana turned back to him. "So what's going on?"

Brian reluctantly removed his hood, revealing light blond roots and brownish-orange hair.

"What the hell…" she began.

"I'm going to fucking kill Paul," he replied.

"What on God's green earth did you guys do?"

"I needed just the roots done," Brian explained. "I went out and got some stuff; it was late and Paul said he'd come over and do them for me. Yeah, he did them all right. Dumb ass didn't even read the directions, hence this disastrous result."

"Which is exactly what you pay me for," Briana reminded him. "Jesus, Brian, this is going to be a mess to straighten up. And you're on the card tonight. Good God, what were you thinking?"

"It was midnight," he protested. "I didn't want to wake you up."

"I just hope you aren't going to say you two were on the wacky tobacky while this was going on."

"I wasn't," Brian shook his head. "Looking back, I'm not too sure about Paul, though."

Briana sighed, going through some of her supplies. "All right, get your ass in that chair. If we're going to straighten this out in time for your match tonight, I need to get to work."

"Thanks, baby. I owe you big time for this."

"You certainly do. No more calling your best friend for coloring jobs or next time I'm leaving you this way."

Later:

"He did what?" Tina asked when she and Briana spoke.

"You won't believe it unless you saw it for yourself, Tina," Briana replied, explaining the whole situation of Brian's bad dye job that she had managed to work out into a flattering dark blond.

"What possessed him to let Paul do that?"

"Supposedly he didn't want to wake me up at midnight. I have no idea why it couldn't wait until today since I had to straighten out Paul's disaster of handiwork anyway. You and I have seen some crazy botched jobs, Tina, but this one was the frosting on the cake. One would have thought he'd learned from the botched haircut Paul gave him last year long before I came into the picture."

"I think it's time to keep his buddy away from his hair."

"Exactly my sentiment," Briana agreed.

"And where is the victim right now?"

"Primping," Briana laughed. "I think he is more anal retentive about his hair than most of the divas."

"Don't know why," Tina said. "It's just going to get messed up in the ring."

"I know! He is just so silly about things sometimes."

She then glanced over. "Here he comes. I have to go. I'll check in with you next week."

"Right," Tina said. "Hopefully you won't have any more hair disaster stories, courtesy of Paul."

"Oh I will totally make sure of that," Briana replied firmly before ending the call and heading toward Brian to admire her handiwork.