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myself to load it down with a ton of products and hair spray so it never moves. Sometimes, though, it moves too much.”
    To her surprise, she felt his fingers play with the ends of it.
    Robert liked her hair, too. He couldn’t resist allowing himself a touch of the soft waves. He liked the color, too. It reminded him of autumn leaves. With the right cut she wouldn’t need hairspray.
    “That’s not all,” he said. “You might as well tell me the rest of it.”
    “No, it’s not all,” she said with a sigh, and it all came pouring out.
    As it did, Robert’s anger rose.
    *****
     
    For Emily it was a catharsis. She’d imagined herself going back to her apartment to cry alone, with only her cat – another bone of contention between her and Dan – for company. Suddenly she wondered what it was she’d seen in him. And what he’d seen in her.
    As she talked, Robert’s fingers were busy on his Blackberry. She didn’t mind, she knew he was a busy man, but she also knew he was listening by the occasional glances he shot her.
    “We need to take a short detour,” he said. “Do you mind?”
    She shook her head. He was giving her a ride home. “No, of course not.”
    He gave an address to the driver, his fingers still busy on his Blackberry.
    Sinking down into the leather seat, she sipped gratefully and carefully at the wine. It wouldn’t do to get drunk in front of Robert, either.
    The limousine slid into a spot in front of a building she didn’t recognize.
    “Join me?” Robert said.
    “I look a wreck,” she protested. “I can just hail a cab and go home.”
    “Don’t be silly. They won’t care. Indulge me,” he said, as Eliot opened the door for them, angling an umbrella against the wind and rain.
    Robert slid out and held a hand out for her. She could hardly turn him down, given the circumstances.
    The minute she stepped inside the doors and the familiar smells wrapped around her, she knew where she was. And wanted to hide, her hand going to her hair both to hold it back and hide it.
    A man hurried from the interior.
    “The works… hair, makeup, mani-pedi,” Robert said. “Don’t mess with her hair too much – I like it just the way it is, just shape it up.”
    The other man had plunged his fingers into her hair.
    “Oh, dear heavens, no. Look at these waves. They’re natural, aren’t they?”
    Emily nodded, bewildered and caught off-guard.
    “Women pay me hundreds of dollars to get what you have naturally,” the stylist said sadly, then added almost avidly. “God, look at this color.” He looked at Robert. “Leave her to me.”
    “We don’t have much time,” Robert said. “We have another stop, then dinner and a play.”
    Emily just stared at him.
    “What? I can’t accept that,” she stammered in protest.
    “Of course you can,” Robert said, lifting her hand to kiss the back. “It’s nothing for me. Pocket change. It’ll be fun.”
    Emily couldn’t help melting a little as she felt his lips touch her skin.
    “Just go with it, Emily. Indulge me.”
    Neither wanting to argue with him – not in front of all these people – nor knowing how to politely back out, she went along with it. She could tell Robert knew she was caught and was taking advantage of it. It was also obvious that he knew she knew. He wasn’t hiding anything.
    He was also enjoying it.
    Nor did she have much choice about the matter; the stylist was already sweeping her along before him before she had a chance to protest.
    Robert supervised every moment while his fingers danced on his Blackberry.
    “I don’t want her to look like a porcelain doll,” he said to the makeup stylist without looking up. “Just enhance what she already has.”
    To Emily’s relief what she saw in the mirror when they were done was still her, but her hair was no longer in her eyes, and her features had only been enhanced.
    Robert nodded in satisfaction. “Perfect.”
    She was beginning to feel like Cinderella, with Robert as her