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Story: As It Was

“You have an ex?”
I thought about the five years we’d been together, and I’d only ever had a real orgasm a few times. How he hadn’t tried to get me backonce,only sent me emails about work.
“I do, but I’ll leave it at that. He doesn’t deserve any more of my attention.”
“Fair enough. So, the bar?”
“I’m definitely gonna be there. It’s time for me to have fun.”
I was tempted to go back to the farmhouse, but I walked around the square for a bit before running into Jackie. She was outside cleaning the glass door to her shop.
“Oh, hi!” she said with a smile. “I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“I guess Cain made you so mad you couldn’t help him anymore?”
“No, not that. We were busy in the strawberry fields.”
“We?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, I started, but I couldn’t finish it before it got cold.” I pulled my sweater tighter around me. “So, he had to help.”
“I thought he was gonna do it all.”
“No, it’s my project. Even if I did almost kill myself doing it.”
“I’m glad it’s done. But you do look like you could use a haircut.”
I looked at my reflection in the window of the shop. My hair had been in a bun ever since I’d started working.
“You know what? I think you’re right. Do you have an opening?”
“Yes,” she said with a bright smile. “Come on in.”
She sat me in a chair and bounced around the salon as if I’dtold her I was paying off all her bills, not just letting her cut my hair.
“Maybe we can just cut a few inches off.”
Jackie’s mouth twisted. “We could. Or ...” she mused as she grabbed my hair and pulled it back, leaving the length only to my collarbones. “We could do something bold.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t look good with short hair. Trevor had always hated it. But the second I thought of his name, I immediately wanted to cut it all off.
And the way Jackie held it told me I could look really good if I tried it.
“You’re right. We should do it.”
“It’ll feel so much lighter,” she said. “You don’t need all that weight with the work you’re doing.”
She was right in more ways than one.
“So, what are you doing to celebrate now that you’ve got everything planted?”
“At first, I slept for an entire day,” I replied as she started cutting. “But I just talked to Jade and was thinking about going to the bar.”
“Really? There’s a music night I think you would like.”
“That’s when I was planning on going.”

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