Nazanin Hessabi of Iran

"So, Nana, what's a gal like you doing working in a place like this?" Raymond Davidson said to the female barber as he sat in the comfortable leathery swivel chair, and he looked at his reflection in the wall-to-wall mirror. A big and tall, dark-skinned and ruggedly handsome young man smiled back at him. Raymond nodded at his reflection, aware of the barber patiently waiting while standing behind him.

Absentmindedly, Raymond ran his hand through his thick dark hair. For many reasons, Raymond felt uneasy about doing away with it. Also, what if it didn't come back? He'd been growing out his hair for just about three years now, and done everything from cornrows to dreadlocks with it, but now it was time for a trim. In a few weeks he'd graduate from the University of Ottawa and wanted to look his best.

Graduation had been looming on the horizon for a long time, and Raymond simply couldn't wait. His father Joel Davidson would be there, along with his older sister Nadine who lived in the City of Montreal, Quebec, with her husband Jean-Claude and their son Nicolas. Raymond had spent five long years studying accounting and dreamed of working for the Canada Revenue Agency. In a place like Ottawa, the competition for jobs would be fierce, hence the need for Raymond to update his look and his resume...

When Raymond walked into Top Styles Barber Shop, the old-school spot in the Vanier area of Ottawa, he definitely wasn't expecting to see...her. He'd been coming to the Trinidadian-owned barber shop ever since he could remember. At first, his father, Joel Davidson took him to the shop, and then Raymond started coming on his own. This was where Raymond got well acquainted with Old Man Joe, the ever-smiling, silver-haired Trinidadian guy who ran the shop with his son Jerome.

Over the years, Raymond got to know the shop and its owners really well, and to him, Top Styles was home away from home. The one place where brothers from all over the place liked to congregate. Sometimes Raymond came in just to talk to the guys, watch TV and chill. Before leaving, he'd always pay for his stay, usually by buying drinks from the vending machine. It cost a bit more than the drinks Raymond usually bought at the Dollar Store or at Wal-Mart, but he didn't mind.

"Black folks need to start spending their money in their own community," Raymond's father Joel told him, on many occasions. That's why he instructed his son Raymond to always buy something whenever he came to chill at the shop. Old Man Joe had a business to run and Raymond understood that. All of those reasons explained Raymond's shock when he came into the store and didn't see the Old Man Joe or his son Jerome, but instead there was this older, Arab-looking lady cutting hair. Had Raymond walked into the wrong place?

"Old Joe the owner is sick, and in his absence, I'm running the shop," said Nazanin "Nana" Hessabi, replying at last to Raymond's odd question and snatching him out of his internal monologue. Casually the female barber in question she pursed her lips, waiting for the inevitable barb about someone from her Persian background working in a barbershop. It never came. Raymond looked at Nana and nodded sagely, and then selected a style from the picture catalog that Nana handed him.

"Alright, ma'am, I've selected the bald fade style," Raymond said, and Nana nodded, and then laughed. Raymond bit down a hasty reply and forced himself to be cool. It's one thing for him to show up at his favorite barber shop and find the owner absent and some random foreign gal working there like she owned the place. It was another thing for the foreign gal in question to laugh at him...

"I'm not laughing at you, my friend, I just don't like the ma'am stuff, I'm not that old," Nana said, smiling, and Raymond nodded and forced a smile. He knew better than to ask about the lady's age, since everyone knew most women were sensitive about this sort of thing. Raymond couldn't understand what the fuss was about. He was twenty three years old, and damn proud of it. In a few weeks he'd have his accounting degree from the University of Ottawa and hit the work force...

"No worries, Nana, you look good," Raymond said, and he flashed her a bright grin in the mirror. Nana smiled at him and winked, and then took out the scissors. Raymond felt a pang of regret about slicing off his locks, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Nana seemed to pick up on his malaise and stopped immediately, a concerned look on her kind of beautiful face.

"Is everything alright?"Nana asked, and Raymond sighed, and then explained himself. He didn't want to do away with his locks completely, and asked Nana to trim the sides, and the back, leaving enough hair on top for a stylish Mohawk. Upon hearing that, Nana beamed and smiled understandingly. Raymond smiled in relief as Nana put away the scissors, and took the razor.

"Hmm, Raymond, I must say, a lot of you brothers look so beautiful with long hair, I'm glad you picked the Mohawk, Raymond," Nana said, half an hour later, as she handed Raymond a small handheld mirror. Raymond nodded and turned his head this way and that, admiring his new haircut. He looked like a cross between Hollywood legend Mr. T and that Black British boxer, world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Not a bad look, not at all.

"You do outstanding work, Nana, thank you," Raymond said, and Nana smiled and bowed her head gently. When her eyes met his, Raymond's heart skipped a beat for reasons unknown. The young man thanked the lady barber for her services, and she handed him the interact machine to effect the payment. The barbershop typically charged fifteen dollars per haircut for male adults, but Raymond paid twenty, and smiled at Nana.

"Thanks, my handsome friend, come back anytime, here's my card," Nana said, and she swiftly pulled a crisp card out of her pocket and handed it to Raymond. The young man took it, smiled and nodded. Grabbing his coat and backpack, Raymond headed out. He walked along McArthur Street, and caught the number fourteen bus heading to the Saint Laurent Shopping Center. It was Friday night, and Raymond had nothing better to do than chill at the mall and holler at the pretty ladies...

Raymond started his afternoon by grabbing a bite at the Manchu Wok place in the mall food court, and then, about an hour later, he went on the prowl. He spotted a tall, dark-skinned, big-bottomed gal with short hair walking out of Macy's, and approached her. Love me some chocolate, Raymond thought lustfully. She cussed him out quite loudly and in between cuss words, told him she was married. Just my damn luck, Raymond thought grimly.

Annoyed, Raymond walked away, and then tried to holler at another gal, this one a plump, dark-haired chick who looked Latin. She was sitting on the bench near Payless Shoes, holding a big shopping bag and looking ripe for the plucking. Imagine Raymond's surprise when, as he was trying to spit game at her, another woman arrived, a short-haired, tattooed, masculine woman. The masculine chick kissed the plump Latina and they walked away, laughing. Raymond stood there, feeling dejected.

"Well, that was painful to watch," came a feminine voice, and Raymond turned, and got the third surprise of the hour as he found himself staring at a familiar visage. Nana stood there, wearing a Black leather jacket over a Black tank top and Black leather pants, with a motorcycle helmet in her left hand. Raymond smiled nervously. So, Nana was a biker chick AND a barber?

"Hey, Nana, what's up?" Raymond asked nervously, wondering how much of his latest striking out she'd witnessed. Women talked to each other and Raymond didn't need word of his latest mishaps spreading around the City of Ottawa. That's what happened after his relationship with a Haitian chick named Melanie Dupuis ended a little over a year ago. She went around bad-mouthing Raymond all over town, which put his dating chances in the toilet.

"Hey, Raymond, right? I just left the shop, Jerome came, and he told me I could leave early so here I am, shopping," Nana said, and Raymond nodded, praying to whatever guardian angel he might have that she didn't blab this to any of the guys at the shop. Seriously, that would be too damn bad. Raymond had enough to worry about without his buddies getting on his case over crap like that.

"Cool, I didn't know you liked motorcycles, I do too, but my Pops would never let me buy one," Raymond said, and Nana nodded, then looked him up and down. She smiled at him, and then casually invited him to come chill with her while she shopped around for a bit. Raymond had little to do, so he didn't mind hanging out with Nana. The lady looked good, and she seemed like interesting company.

"You know why you struck out with the first chick, Raymond? Your approach was alright but you went after the wrong element," Nana said to Raymond, a little while later, as they walked out of a clothing store. Raymond looked at Nana, feeling honestly mystified by her words. What in hell did she mean by that?

"To be fair, Nana, I don't have a type and I'm not looking for a relationship right now, them girls are too much drama, I'd rather focus on graduating and getting a good job," Raymond said with a shrug and a smile. Nana looked at him, a neutral expression on her lovely face. What was going on inside that lovely head of hers? Only heaven knows, as far as Raymond could tell.

"So, what are you looking for?" Nana asked, pressing on with her previous argument and licking her lips, a gesture which totally registered with Raymond, who watched her intently. Raymond thought about Nana's words, and found himself puzzled. What did he want? A relationship? A wife and family? A stellar career and lots of money and respect? All of the above, eventually.

"Right now, I'm mystified by the woman in front of me," Raymond said smartly, and he grinned and nodded at Nana. The biker gal pursed her lips, and flashed him a sexy wink. This Nana gal looks like she's definitely a lot of fun, too bad most women from her part of the world don't like the brothers, Raymond thought, silently mulling things over.

"What about me mystifies you, handsome?" Nana asked, and suddenly she was standing very close to Raymond, who found that a bit intimidating, but nevertheless stood his ground. Raymond had always been somewhat shy with the ladies, but he was also the product of a Caribbean upbringing, and his innate masculinity rose to the occasion. He looked into Nana's eyes, and something passed between them.

"All of you," Raymond replied, and from the way Nana smiled at him, and drew even closer, he could tell that this was the right answer. Nana crossed the distance between them, and pressed her lips firmly against his. Raymond was surprised by this gesture, but you couldn't tell by the way he kissed her back. He and Nana exchanged their first kiss, right in front of Aldo Accessories.

"Let's go home and find out if you can handle the rest of me," Nana said, flashing Raymond a fearless smile that sent a chill down his spine...and warmed up his lower regions. The two of them left the mall and headed for the parking lot. Nana handed Raymond her spare helmet, pink no less, and he strapped it on and got behind her. Hot damn that woman's got a booty, Raymond thought as he sat behind her.

As it turns out, Nana lived in a brownstone building in the Donald Street area of Vanier, pretty close to the barber shop, come to think of it. They went into her apartment, and once there, didn't do a lot of talking. This suited Raymond just fine because he always considered pre-sex chit chat to be unnecessary and awkward as hell, but he wasn't the type of brother to skip foreplay...

"You're a seriously beautiful woman," Raymond said as he sat on Nana's couch, and watched the lovely lady disrobe. Nana grinned, drinking in the mesmerized look on the younger man's dark, handsome face as she took off her top, followed by her leather pants. Stark naked, the tall, bronze-skinned and dark-haired, curvy yet fit, forty-something Persian beauty stood before Raymond, hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I know that, now show me what you can do," Nana said, a challenge in her voice, and Raymond rose to the challenge in every way. Rising from the couch, he went to Nana and kissed her tenderly, then grasped her ass cheeks, something he'd been wanting to do ever since he saw her in them leather pants at the mall. Nana smiled, pleased by Raymond's boldness. Maybe there's hope for this brother after all, Nana thought.

"Relax, gorgeous, you seem tense," Raymond whispered, and Nana cocked an eyebrow as he pulled her close, and drew her back to the couch. Raymond kissed her lips and caressed her breasts while sliding his hand between her thighs. Nana gasped but didn't stop Raymond as he began fingering her pussy, even as he sucked on her breasts. This brother shows promise, Nana thought as Raymond began pleasure her.

"Raymond, don't love me tender, fuck me hard, if you can," Nana said in a sexy, husky voice that set Raymond on edge. She sat on his lap, and felt him harden under her. Raymond caressed Nana's ass cheeks, and pinched them, causing her to wince. Without further ado, they did their thing. Raymond barely had time to roll a condom on his dick before Nana impaled herself on his rod and began riding him...

"It's been a while, huh?" Raymond said, watching Nana's breasts sway this way and that as the Amazonian gal rode him, her pussy gripping his dick like a vise as they began to fuck. As Nana and Raymond got down and dirty, they moved from the living room to the kitchen. He bent her over the kitchen counter and gripped her hips as he rammed his dick into her, and Nana's passionate screams mingled with Raymond's groans.

"Fuck, I fucking needed that," Nana said, exhaling sharply as she lay on the couch, glowing with that special afterglow that usually followed good sex. Raymond nodded, and Nana winked slyly and grabbed his dick, which was still sore from pounding her pussy for hours. The young man watched as she leaned over and took him into her mouth, then sucked him till he was hard again.

"Damn, you're one freaky woman, I can dig it," Raymond said, and Nana laughed, then wiped her mouth after fellating him. She rose from the couch and reached for her purse, pulling out a carton of cigarettes and a lighter. Raymond watched as Nana lit up a cigarette, and shook his head when she offered him one. Nana shrugged and lit up, then leaned against the couch, resting her hand on Raymond's thigh.

"Hmm, I feel good, handsome, and if you want, we can have fun together once in a while, no strings attached, but you have to be discrete," Nana said, looking right into Raymond's soulful brown eyes. Raymond smiled and nodded, not believing his luck. Nevertheless, he played it cool because he sensed that a no-nonsense lady like Nana wouldn't like any amateurish behavior.

"I'm totally down with that," Raymond said, and he and Nana hung out for a bit, then he put his clothes on and began the brief trek back to Coventry Road, where he happened to rent a place. Right before Raymond left Nana's place, however, the gorgeous Persian lady gave him a hug, and squeezed his butt. Raymond kissed her on the lips, flashed her a cool wink then skedaddled. Walking home, Raymond felt absolutely fantastic. Dammit, he couldn't wait to see Nana again!