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Or in the club with a special young lady whose untamed curls didn’t need dyeing.

It was like Tiffani read her mind. “How’s it going with that new girlfriend of yours? We still haven’t gone out together since you started dating her. What’s her name? Heidi?”

Delia was mildly amused at her friend’s confusion. “Helena. The West Coast military brat who will pay you to take her anywhere that’s not the Pacific Northwest.”

“Ha! Probably because she’s got a name like that. I’ve got a great-aunt named Helena. Or is it Helen? Basically the same thing.”

“Things are all right,” Delia said, going back to the original subject. “It’s a temporary affair. Probably will end by the time she has to go back to school in Washington.”

“The city’s not that far away if you want to see her on the weekends.”

“The other Washington, Tiff.”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s quite a ways away. What’s she doing going to school out there? Ha. This is what you get for dating co-eds.”

“From what I understand, she has a full-ride scholarship. Can’t say no to that. She only has to play for their soccer team or something.” Delia didn’t know the details. Helena didn’t divulge much more than necessary, and Delia was fine with that.

“Ooh, an athlete. Tell you what, when you two inevitably break up, send her my way for the rebound.”

“The way she acts, she’d take your offer this weekend.”

“Scandalous!”

And not happening. Delia wasn’t the jealous type, especially in these unserious affairs that lasted several weeks to a few months. If her younger girlfriend wanted to fool around with approved people, Delia could be convinced, as long as it went both ways. Or I get something else out of it. Like a great show and dibs on the second round. But she drew the line at her closer friends like Tiffani. Delia was a firm believer in not shitting where she ate. That included striking up relationships with her close friends as well. Sorry, Tiff. Her friend had tried it off and on over the years, but Delia knew it would never work out. What they had in common was the basis of a good friendship, but what differed only spelled trouble if they lived together.

“You don’t see yourself chasing after her, though?” Tiffani giggled as her stylist tickled her scalp. “You’re so unromantic.”

“She’s great for a fling,” Delia explained, “but very immature. I don’t see it lasting more than a year. She’ll inevitably want to wander to someone else, anyway. Doesn’t strike me as the type tied down into a relationship.”

“I see. How old is she again?”

Delia sighed. Although Greta Ingrid was famous for her fashionable hairdressing, the reason every woman of means knocked down her doors was because she never, ever spread their gossip around town. Anything Delia said in the salon would only be heard by those present.

“Twenty-one,” she said. “Which is already the lowest age I’m willing to go for dating. Well, hookups, really. I never planned on actually dating her for more than a few days.”

“That is pretty young…”

“Barely old enough to take into the clubs. Then again, that’s where I met her. At The Dark Hour. She seduced me, you know.”

“I do know! I also know that I missed it!”

“Yup. Fifteen minutes after you left, I was in a room with her, and… well, now we go out multiple times a week. She’s made herself quite comfortable in my apartment. She has a toothbrush there.”

“You’re practically moved in together.”

Delia whipped out her phone and hastily texted Tiffani something she didn’t want to say out loud, including in front of Greta, who was busy staring at the even lines of her client’s hair. When Delia was finished, she put her phone face down on her lap.

Tiffani was treated to a quick breakdown of the bucket list. No details that Helena would flay her for sharing, but enough to get the point across to a friend who was well-acquainted with the kinks that were distributed around town.

“At least you’ve got a hot young girlfriend to parade around. I’m still single as hell,” Tiffani said.

“Thought you were dating that girl from Harvard.”

“That lasted two whole weeks before she went back to her ex. Apparently, I wasn’t going to give her the future she wanted. What future? Honey, we were fooling around on the weekend. What future?”

“Would you have pursued an actual relationship with her, though? If she wanted it?”

“Probably not. Would you?”