Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (12 page)

“Oh yeah,” he said, glancing skyward. “Look, I enjoyed this afternoon. Maybe we can do it again sometime.”

Sometime?
she thought.
When is sometime?
But her face remained the picture of calm. “That would be nice. You have my number.” She forced a smile but turned to leave fast. “Bye, Dan. Thanks,” she called from over her shoulder, but he was already putting his helmet on.

Jessie walked into her block and pushed the door closed with her back. She shook her head in confused misery and groaned. “He hates me.”

Chapter Eight

Falling in Love

“He loves you,” Ely announced when her roommate walked into their dorm moments later and grumbled about Dan’s apparent lack of interest. Josh was there, too. He was having what Jessie reckoned was a post-sex cigarette along with a bottle of beer. He was dressed, but his hair was wet and slicked back, so she was pretty sure he just got out of the shower. As usual, Ely lay on her bed while Josh sat on the floor next to her with his head resting beside his girlfriend’s hand so she could stroke him.

“You’ll get us evicted one of these days.” Jessie glared at him and pointed to his cigarette. “You know how much I hate those things.” She opened the bedroom window next to her desk to clear the smoke. “And no, Ely, I don’t think Dan loves me. He didn’t seem to be that interested in the date from the start. But his motorbike was nice.”

“He has a bike? What kind is it?” Now Josh was sitting upright and listening to the girl talk.

Jessie shrugged and sat down on the chair next to her desk. “It was big and black, but there was a bit of red on the top. I think I saw the Bugatti name on it. Is that good?”

He groaned and reached for his crotch in ecstasy, so Ely thumped him. “Hey, I thought I was the only thing that had that effect on you.”

Josh winked at his girlfriend and smiled. “Still. I’d like to get me a bike.”

Ely shook her long dark hair with the vehemence of a five-year-old. “Not while you’re with me, you don’t. You know they call them organ donor machines, right?”

“Huh?”

“The people who drive motorcycles end up being organ donors real fast—as in dead real fast.”

Jessie nodded. “It was terrifying to see the ground whizz by so close to me and at that speed. I know it must be dangerous, but I have to admit it was bloody exciting.”

“They’re way cheaper than cars.” Josh nodded in approval, but Ely wrung her hands together.
 

“So are bicycles, and you don’t see me rushing out to buy one of those.” Then she gave him a smirk that made Jessie feel uncomfortable. “No, Josh, you have a car. It might be a wreck, but it’s good enough for what we need.”
 

Jessie guessed they did more than drive in the old banger. Suddenly she needed to get out of the room.

“I think I’ll head over to the library,” she said, grabbing her pile of notes and her laptop. “I need to catch up on some work.”

“Don’t go,” Ely said.

“I have to. I feel like a spare wheel around you two lovebirds.”

Ely laughed. “What’s wrong with being a spare wheel? Ever heard of a tricycle? Best bikes ever made!”

“Outside of the Bugatti,” Josh mumbled, and his girlfriend smacked the top of his head.
 

“I’m serious. You can’t go anywhere.” Ely got off her bed and stood in the middle of the bedroom between Josh and Jessie. “I have to tell you about my new business plan. It’s so cool. It’s going to make me a million bucks.”

Jessie was surprised. She knew her roomie was a natural business woman. Ely was already making a tidy profit on bootleg Bollinger and prohibition pinot grigio, but she hadn’t been talking about any other business ideas.

“What you talkin’ about, baby?” It seemed to be news to her boyfriend, too.
 

Josh was so laid-back Jessie wondered if he and her friend would really make it as a couple. Ely was a party girl, but she was also, in her own way, very ambitious. The problem was her parents were pointing her in the wrong direction. The Southern belle was not cut out for college life. She was too much of a free a spirit. Whoever thought she should do psychology was so misguided.
 

Jessie knew Ely had already received a few warnings from various teachers for nonattendance, and the sole reason her homework was up to scratch was because Jessie did most of it. She thought Ely shouldn’t be in college at all, but she kept these thoughts to herself. Ely’s parents ran a very successful hair product company. Briskin Hair Care was one of the biggest brand names in the country. Not only did they sell in the States, they were available in the UK, too. Jessie hadn’t made the connection between her roommate and the hair care giant until Ely told her about it. At the time, she’d seemed embarrassed to admit her parents’ success.

“It’s hardly something to be ashamed about,” Jessie had said, suppressing the envy. She’d already had a pretty good idea Ely’s family was wealthy, but to own Briskin Hair Care? That put them in a whole new league of wealth. They were as big as L’Oreal.

“Now, I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but hear me out. This could really work, and if it does, it’ll change the way we shop forever.” Her eyes were bright, and she was on fire with her idea in a way Jessie had never seen.
 

“Okay.” Ely got off the bed to make a proper presentation. She wore dark blue denim jeans tucked into her perennial cowboy boots and a blue-gray checkered shirt hung loose. Ready to begin, she stood with her legs slightly apart, her hands on her hips, and looked at her little audience. Then she took a deep breath. “Do you remember when we were kids? We used to get our water from the faucet, but now everybody drinks bottled water.”
 

She looked from Jessie to Josh, waiting for agreement, so they both smiled and nodded. “Well, every now and then something comes along we
think
we don’t need, but then we think, ‘Hey, why haven’t I been using this all my life?’ Okay, I have one of those products.”

Josh took Ely’s place on the bed, fluffed up her pillows, and lay down. “Where you going with this, babe? You’re being a bit vague.”

“Honey, I know you have a low boredom threshold, but stay with me for a little longer. Please try to engage! I’m talking about shampoos. I know it’s the family business, but I can really add something new and exciting.”

Inside Jessie winced. Everybody knew the shampoo market was overstocked with a zillion products.

“There ain’t nothing you can add to that business that your daddy hasn’t thought of already, darlin’.”

“Well,” she said, looking coquettish. “There was a time when we just had shampoo, and then along came conditioner. Size of the market was doubled over night.” Her Southern drawl became more pronounced as her conviction grew. “Between the three of us, I can tell y’all the size of my daddy’s business doubled back then. Next we developed a product range for all the different hair types, and I gotta tell you, the market exploded again.” She began to pace the floor as she talked. “For the past five years, give or take, there have been no real leaps forward. Sure, we’re always tweakin’ and addin’ new things, but there hasn’t really been anything big, anything new, in a long time. Well, I have an idea, and believe me, it’s big.”

She stopped walking and turned toward Josh and Jessie, who were both listening and intrigued. “I see this product being launched through the medium of television, so I’m just gonna go ahead and sing the commercial I see hitting your screens in the not too distant future.” She scanned the room. “Wait a minute. I need to hold something, like it’s my new product.” Her eyes fell on her wide paddle hairbrush and she grabbed it. “Okay, pretend this is a bottle of my new shampoo.” She held it up and gave a huge smile. Josh and Jessie nodded and tried to stay patient.

She took a big breath, composed herself, and held the hairbrush upright in front of her with two hands. Pretending it was a bottle of her new shampoo, Ely launched into her little singsong rhyme.

“Straight hair, curly hair, dry hair, colored hair.

Blond hair, black hair, blue-gray-green hair.

Dead head, bed head, stick it in the air head.

Any hair left? I hear you wonder.

Yes, you bet—the hair Down Under!”

Then, with one hand, she pointed to her crotch. After a second of disbelief, both Josh and Jessie started to laugh, but Ely continued to sing.

“Every kinda hair needs its own kind of care,

This ain't no different just ’cause it’s there.”

Both Josh and Jessie were howling with laughter. Then Ely stopped singing and switched to what she obviously thought was a television announcer’s voice.

“Down Under is the new shampoo for you.

There’s Bruce for the boys and Sheila for the girls.

’Specially made for those delicate curls.”

Josh rolled off the bed, unable to contain himself, and Jessie was wiping her eyes because she was crying with laughter.

“Well, what do you think? It’s great, right?”
 

“Oh, it’s great all right.” Jessie laughed, still trying to compose herself.

Josh looked like he wanted to speak but was still cracking up. “Down under hair is not delicate.”
 

“That’s ’cause you’re not using the right shampoo. Don’t y’all see? That’s what’s so cool about this new product. One of the primary purchasing forces in any market is fear. If I scare the market enough into realizing they’ve been using the wrong shampoo on their nether regions since forever, they’ll buy it by the truckload. Fear is a great sales tool.” Then she stopped for breath. “Of course, humor is, too. That’s why I came up with my little song and dance.”

Jessie spoke next. “Ely, you don’t seriously think this is going to work, do you? TV stations wouldn’t let that ad on the screens.”

“Yes they would, and even if they didn’t, I could make a music video and have it go viral, then sell it on the Internet. What about the name Down Under? You don’t think I’ll upset the Australians?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Josh couldn’t stop laughing. “They might be bummed!”
 

He howled again, and Jessie joined in. “Won’t be long before the market bottoms out,” she said.
 

Ely wasn’t impressed. “Go on, laugh all you like. People did the same when bottled water came out first, and now it’s a billion dollar industry.”

“I’m sorry, Ely, it’s just the whole concept . . . well, it’s nuts.” Jessie tried to calm herself down, but when Josh heard her say
nuts
, he started laughing again.
 

“Cleanest nuts in South Carolina, mind you. Anyway, you’ll have to take a haircut on the pricing structure,” he said.

“Ha-ha,” Ely said, sounding sad. “I thought you two would have more foresight.”

“Nah, just foreskin.” Josh couldn’t seem to stop himself.

“Yeah? Well, many a genius was ridiculed in the beginning, so stick it. I think it’s a great idea, and I know it can make me money.”

“It might.” Jessie crossed the room and put her arm around Ely’s shoulders. “If you get people to take it seriously.”

“Ely.” Josh coughed and sat up on the bed. “I’m with Jessie. Maybe you could make a go of it. Who knows? One day, the company could even go pubic. Sorry, I mean public.”

Ely had heard enough. “Okay, forget I ever mentioned it. You know, I don’t need your approval. I can do this by myself.” She threw the hairbrush at the floor and ran out of the room. Jessie looked to Josh, who was still recovering.

“One of us has to go after her. You or me?”

Josh rose to his feet slowly. “Relax. You women . . . so darn dramatic. I’ll go get her. God, it was funny, though. What’s she gonna do next? Armpit hair shampoo?” He shook his head in bewilderment and then loped out the door after his girlfriend.

It was only when she was alone that Jessie noticed her cell phone was flashing. She’d received a text from Maria Sanchez. “She wants me three mornings a week!” Jessie squealed out loud even though she was now alone. That money would help offset her living expenses. She thought about her class timetable. It was doable, depending on the mornings Maria wanted. It might mean a little rearranging of homework, but most of her classes were in the afternoons, so she could do it.
 

“When do you want me to start?” she said aloud as she typed the words into her phone.
 

It only took a few minutes to get Maria’s reply.
 

How about Monday?