Exposed (Madame X, #2)(80)

I have to let out a nervous breath. “I think so.” I straighten my spine. “Yes, I’m ready.” I close my eyes as Mei spins the chair around.

“Okay,” Mei says, “now look.”

I open my eyes, and my breath leaves me in a whoosh. Short, messy. Perfect. It’s boy-short. Pulled forward into my eyes, long narrow V-shaped points draping down in front of my ears. The cut accentuates my exotic features, makes my already large, dark eyes appear dramatically larger, highlights my high, sharp cheekbones, heart-shaped face, my lush, kissable lips.

“Can I do makeup on you?” Mei asks.

“Sure?” I shrug. “I don’t usually wear much.”

“Not much. You don’t need much.” She opens a cabinet under her station and pulls out her purse, lays cases and tins and brushes and tubes out on the counter of her station.

Spins me away from the mirror yet again, brushes blush on my cheeks, runs eyeliner under my eye, smears eye shadow on my eyelids, lip stain on my lips. I don’t wear much makeup, never have. I was always told that I don’t need it, that natural beauty such as mine is best appreciated with little or no adornment.

When Mei is done, she turns me around, and yet again I am left breathless, speechless. My eyes are enormous, their natural almond shape and dark irises emphasized and highlighted. My eyes are . . . hypnotic, this way. My cheekbones look razor sharp now, my lips even fuller, darker red. The overall effect is subtle, but dramatic. Smoky, mysterious. Sultry. Sensual.

“My god, Mei.” I am near tears. “I look like . . . I don’t even know. Not even myself, anymore.”

“Is it good? You are crying, but I don’t know if it is a good cry or not.”

“No, it’s perfect. I love it. It’s perfect. I can’t believe this is me I’m looking at, right now.”

I turn my head this way and that. Examine myself from different angles. I really, truly do not even recognize myself. I look edgy, modern, sexy, exotic. Nothing like the formal, Old World aristocratic beauty I used to look like. Used to be. I love the messiness of it. The wind could ruffle it and muss it, and it wouldn’t ruin the look. I could run my hands through it, and it wouldn’t look worse. I do so, feather my fingers through my hair, marveling at the lack of weight sliding through my fingers. I push all the hair to one side, draping it all over to the left, and my look changes slightly. To the right, the same, a subtle change in the way the look sits on me. Brush it forward again and mess it up.

“See? You get it.” Mei smiles at me. “Mess it up. Play with it. You could slick it back, too. That would look badass, very dramatic, very different. It makes you look beautiful, a new you. Still woman, not butch at all, just short, and edgy. Different.” She unbuttons the cape and pulls it off me so the loose hair falls to the floor at my feet.

I rise to my feet and lean into her, wrap her up in a hug. She stiffens at first, clearly not comfortable with such affection, then somewhat awkwardly hugs me back.

She pushes me away after a second. “Oh-kay, hug time over now.”

“Sorry. I’m just . . . thank you, Mei. Thank you so much. I love it.”

“I’m very glad.” She glances at Logan. “Any friend of Logan is a friend of mine. You come back any time. We have girl talk, drink too much wine, and bitch about stupid boys.”

“I’d like that.”

“Good. You come here Friday night. I close at seven, we have a good time together.” She gathers her makeup into her hands, glances at me. “You have your own makeup?”

I shake my head. “No, like I said, I’ve never worn much makeup. Some eyeliner, lipstick, that’s about it. Nothing this dramatic.” I don’t mention that I don’t own anything, much less something so frivolous as makeup.

“It’s a good look for you. Makes you look mysterious. A little intimidating, I think.” She yanks a plastic grocery bag out of a cabinet in her station, dumps the makeup into it. “For you. I have more. You practice. Come Friday, I teach you, if you want.”

“Thanks, Mei. I—”

She ushers us to the door, waving her hands as if herding chickens, cutting off my thanks. “Now, go. Go. I have another client soon, and I have to clean up.”

We’re outside in the late-morning sun, walking to Logan’s SUV. When we’re in his truck and waiting at a stoplight, I turn to him. “So. What do you think, Logan?”

He looks at me long and hard. “It’s an incredible transformation, Isabel. You are absolutely gorgeous. There’s nothing you could do to ever make yourself look anything other than stunning. But this look? It’s perfect for you. Like Mei said, it makes you look even more mysterious than you already are.”

“How do you know Mei?” I ask.

“Oh. Um. Well, I hired her to do some programming for me. She’s actually an insanely talented computer programmer too, like seriously one of the best I’ve ever met. So she worked for me programming our website and debugging some of our systems as a freelance contractor. But then when that was done, we stayed friends.”

“Just friends?”

He eyes me. “Jealous?”

I blush. “Maybe a little. It’s an unusual emotion, for me. I don’t know how to process it.”

He just laughs. “We went out once. I went to kiss her at the end of the date and we were both just like . . . nah, it’s not there. We’ve been friends since.” A glance at me. “Jealousy is totally natural and normal, by the way. Just be honest about it with yourself and with me.”