.

One day Mrs Greaves arrived at the salon for an appointment, so Mary looked after her and styled her hair, enjoying the chat about Richard amongst other things.

"I thought Ritchie was going to come into the salon today actually, seeing as I was popping in," she said as Mary was dressing the back of her hair "but he had this sudden urge to check out the travel prices. He’s got this thing about America. I don’t reckon on it too much myself, but he loves it."

After Mrs Greaves had left, the girls had a break and sat in the back room gossiping.

"I can’t believe he’s gonna go swannin’ off to America again!" Cilla exclaimed as she poured the tea.

"Does he go often?"

"Oh yeah, always sunning himself on some golden beach in Miami or whatever."

Pat sighed, "I wish I was sunning myself on a beach. I’m not bothered where, just somewhere hot."

They all sat there thinking about it. Pat and Cilla sat chatting away about fancy foreign locations, but Mary was imagining Richard on a beach somewhere in Miami with the sun beating down. He’d be wearing blue shorts and dark sunglasses. Drinking scotch and coke with some American girl with curves to die for. She stopped the daydream right there and went back to work to prepare the salon for the next customers.

.

Richard arrived at closing time to help pack everything up, Cilla and Pat took the opportunity to leave early and go do a spot of shopping.

"I’m afraid I can’t stay long," he apologised "I’m going to a do tonight and I haven’t even washed my hair yet. Can you manage on your own?"

"Yeah sure, there’s nothing much left to do really... D’you want me to wash and dry your hair for you before you leave? It’ll be much quicker if I do it."

"Oh it’s OK, you’ll be fed up of doing people’s hair all day"

"No, I don’t mind, honest." She said meaning it. She’d been dying to get her hands on his hair since she’d started, and this was the perfect excuse. "I’ll have it done in no time".

"Well, if you’re sure, it’d be a help. Then I can see if I’ve employed a good hairdresser or not." he grinned jokingly.

Mary took his jacket off him, admiring the gentle shoulders covered by his crisp white shirt. "You’ll have to undo the top button of your shirt so that I can put the towel on right. I don’t want to get you soaking wet." She was imagining the beach again, and the waves splashing against him as he strode into the sea. Mary tried to shake herself back to reality and watched him loosening his tie and undoing the button. She could feel the smooth texture of the skin on the back of his neck as she slowly tucked the towel in.

"Am I all ready now?" He asked turning round.

She led him to the sinks and motioned for him to sit down on the chair with his back to the basin as she waited for the water to heat up. He shuffled back a bit to get comfortable and she ran her fingers through his hair to pull the fringe back from his eyes, shivering slightly at the thought of what she was doing.

"Is this warm enough?" Mary asked, letting the water fall on to the back of his head and biting her bottom lip as she ran her fingers through his hair again. Richard nodded slightly, closing his eyes for a second.

Be professional, she thought, carrying out a procedure that she had done a million times over. But this wasn’t like normal. She thrilled at every motion of her hand on his head, being extra gentle with every movement so that she could feel each sensation in her finger tips. She closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before letting the water fall onto his head again to rinse away the conditioner. Mary stroked the water and conditioner down from the hairline towards the basin and quickly glanced down at his face.

The blue eyes were looking back at her. He must have seen every expression on her face as she stroked her fingers through his wet hair. Mary felt weak and panicked slightly, but his eyes were soft and gentle.

She felt his arm gently brushing against hers as he reached out and rested his hand on her arm just below her shoulder. Mary dropped the shower spray from her hand in shock and gasped as he lead her away from the sink and gently pulled her onto his knee. The chair was sloped to lean him back against the basin, and the decline made her slide further down his lap towards him. She felt faint, light headed and almost cold with a kind of fear, tensing up as his hand slipped across her back. His lips gently touching hers as she collapsed into a strange kind of dream. His kiss was warm and tender, and his arms were holding her close. Mary slipped her arms around him and felt as though she’d died and gone to heaven. But the sudden sensation of water trickling down over her feet brought her back into reality and she pulled herself away from him to see the shower spray gushing all over the floor.

Richard rushed to help, and she almost fell to the floor as he scrambled out of the chair. Their hands reached out for the same towel to try and mop up the water, and they looked up into each others eyes. Momentarily stunned before carrying on to stop the water flooding everywhere. Mary turned off the tap and sighed heavily, passing a dry towel to Richard who was knelt on the floor furiously drying up all the last splashes of water and struggling to push all the wet hair out of his eyes.

Mary giggled and helped him to his feet. He held her in his arms and kissed her once again, more passionately. Richard stopped, stared deep into her eyes and then suddenly remembered that he was meant to be in a hurry.

Look, I’m meant to be going to the opening night of a club that my friend’s just bought, will you come with me?" He seemed strangely unsure that she would accept the offer.

"Of course!" Mary exclaimed almost dancing inside "But I’ll have to get changed."

"Great! I’ll nip home, get ready and come straight back here to pick you up. Is that OK?"

She nodded and ran to get his jacket for him. He kissed her quickly before heading for the door. "Here!" She called, throwing Richard a towel. Water was dripping down the back of his neck as he clumsily struggled to fasten up his collar.

"I won’t be long." He promised, shutting the door behind him. She hoped he wouldn’t be long, she wasn’t sure how she’d manage without him.

.

Mary wandered up the stairs to her flat in a daze. Struggling to find a particular outfit in her wardrobe, and singing as she brushed her hair. She’d never felt so happy before, and her mind was hazy. It was as though it were all unreal. But she could hear the sound of his footsteps running up the stairs, and the noise as he banged hurriedly on the door. She raced over to open it, and before she had time to speak he’d whisked her up in his arms and was kissing her passionately.

Mary gasped for breath "Steady on, it won’t go out of fashion!" she giggled blissfully. It deffinately wasn't going to loose popularity round here with the way he kissed, that was for certain!

Richard took hold of her hand and led her outside. She almost forgot to lock the door behind her.

"It’s only in the centre of town, I thought we’d walk."

to be continued...