Broken Hearts, Fences and Other Things to Mend Read Online Free PDF Page B

wouldn’t be available for the rest of the summer. I’d
    stocked up on fl ip- fl ops, canceled the fl ight to Colombia, and re-
    turned all the gear I’d gotten for the trip (well, technically, I asked
    my mom to return it, since the thought of going back to Target
    was still too traumatizing).
    My dad was happy I would be spending the summer with him,
    and my mom and Walter were happy that they wouldn’t have to
    convince a laird to take me in. The only person who wasn’t pleased
    with my summer plans was my BFF. Sophie had taken great ex-
    ception to the fact that I was now deserting her for the whole
    summer, especially since I’d spent the bulk of the last week re-
    fusing, for various reasons, to leave my kitchen and/or room. So
    when she’d pressed me to take a late- afternoon train, so that we
    could spend my last day in Putnam together, I’d agreed without
    even suspecting an ulterior motive.
    Which was foolish, because it was how I found myself sitting
    in an all- white salon with a frightening Swedish hairdresser. So-
    phie had a theory that you needed a make over after a breakup.
    She thought that you had to do something, right away, to sepa-
    rate yourself in a very clear way from the person you’d been when
    in the relationship (it probably didn’t help that Sophie adored
    make overs and that both her parents were shrinks). In her opin-
    ion, the more serious the relationship, the more signifi cant the
    make over had to be. This meant that after most of her own break-
    ups, Sophie simply changed her nail polish color or bought a new
    lip gloss. But because Teddy and I had been together so long, and
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    because I still wasn’t quite able to say his name without bursting
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    into tears, Sophie decided that drastic mea sures were needed,
    and had booked me an appointment without my knowledge or
    consent.
    “You need a change,” she said, sitting in the swivel chair next
    to mine. “I’m telling you. You’ll feel better once you do it.”
    “I don’t think short hair is the way to go,” I said, brushing
    some droplets off my face. Sophie had hustled me into the salon
    with such skill and stealth that I hadn’t even realized what was
    happening until my hair was being washed.
    “Okay, maybe not short,” she relented, giving herself a push
    and spinning around once in her chair. “But a change. A real one.
    Okay, Gem?”
    I stared back at my refl ection and saw only who I’d been for
    the last two years— Teddy Callaway’s girlfriend. Maybe a change
    wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. “Okay,” I said, taking
    one last look at myself. Sophie motioned Sigrid over and I let out
    a breath. “Let’s do it.”
    O O O
    Two hours later, a stranger stared back at me. The hair that
    had always been light brown was now a bright auburn. My
    one- length, slightly shaggy hair had been cut to just beneath my
    shoulders, with long, sideswept bangs. I looked nothing like my-
    self. I certainly didn’t look like the girl who’d been dumped in the
    gardening aisle of Target. Or the girl who’d been dumped again
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    in the parking lot of a pizza place. I ran my hands over my new
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    bangs as Sigrid fi nished up.
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    “You fi nd new man with this hair,” she pronounced as she gave
    a fi nal snip. Sophie had told her the whole story of my breakup as
    I’d gotten my color applied. Sigrid hadn’t been that impressed
    with Teddy, starting with his name. “Like the bear?” she’d asked.
    “No. Is no good.” I’d tried to explain that it was a nickname for Ed-
    ward (which he never went by), but this hadn’t seemed to make a
    difference. After hearing the story, she’d said something in Swedish,
    then pronounced me better off without him, telling me that I was too
    young to