Mission Pretty Possible Chapter 17.6 (Patreon)

I’m going to be sick. Just grip the chair, Ethan. Grip it until your knuckles snap.

“So,” the stylist, a bubbly woman named Tanya with neon-pink nails, chirped, running her hands through the black wig. “Sam said we’re doing a total overhaul? What’s wrong with her current look?”

Ethan opened his mouth to speak, to offer a low, reasonable explanation, but Sam cut in, leaning against the counter with a dramatic sigh.

“Oh, honey, the dark is tragic,” Sam declared, waving a hand dismissively at Ethan’s reflection. “It’s giving ‘librarian who lost her cat.’ Elena here needs a reset. She’s starting a new job, she’s single, and she needs to stop hiding behind all this… gloomy curtain.”

“I’m not hiding,” Ethan muttered, though his voice came out higher than he intended, his throat tight. “I just like the black. It’s low profile.”

“Low profile is for criminals and ugly people, sweetie. You are neither,” Sam shot back. He nodded to Tanya. “Take it off. Let’s see the canvas.”

Ethan froze. Take it off?

Claire, sitting in the guest chair with a magazine, offered a sympathetic but firm smile. “It has to happen, Elena. Just let them work.”