Years ago when I lost the kid that I had cut my hair to one of those Beauty parlor/tanning spa/ bikini waxing/head shop boutiques in L A, my now business partner Darrold, who was my friend at that time, recommended that I try his barber, Paula.
When I found out that she was in the same little strip mall between Bay Realty, an empty store front and the Quick-Copy that I use to plot my project blueprints, I decided to give her a try and the rest is history.
Over the years, Paula has exclusively cut my hair, mainly because she does a great job and because it's a barbershop and not a beauty parlor. Though she sticks to the tradition of walk in only, no one by appointment, she still lets me call ahead to check out how busy she is before I make the drive over the Bay Area drawbridge just to sit and wait on her,
Paula is a big woman, not fat like the BBW wives of porn, just large, well proportioned, with big round breasts, big hair, quite voluptuous and most find her attractive. She is always well dressed in a crisp looking top that she wears on the outside of tight yoga pants that accentuate her nice ass in back and her big camel toed bug that pooches out in the front.
She is smart woman with a good business head who built her lucrative trade over the last eighteen years, starting at the young age of twenty four with just her and old Wade (the original barber who retired leaving it to her years ago) into the busy and bustling four chair barbershop that it is today.
Eventually she added Denis, her only male barber who she hired from his previous retirement, then Paulette, a lady barber a little older than Paula with bright eyes and a quick smile and finally Megyn, the real hot young one that most of the younger crowd line up for.
Across from each chair she added wall mounted flat screens that cover every Bay Area deep sea fishing event when Women's Beach Volleyball isn't on, some sport fishing memorabilia wall hangings and the place is always buzzing with full chairs, fun conversation and backed up with waiting customers.
But enough about of that.
When I first met Paula she was always very happy, friendly and professional. She told me at the time that she had recently met and married the light of her life Mark, a union carpenter who was eight years older than her and that they had bought a new home together. In other words, too much information and she was sometimes too conversational for me, but then again she is a barber.
Over the last few years her genuine smile has faded a little and she has started complaining to me about her husband being out of a job and turning down work that isn't union and her having to work too many long hours to compensate to cover their expenses.
In her defense, she did start opening on Mondays, she hasn't had a week off in over a decade and as far as I know the only day that she ever takes off is Sunday.
Three weeks ago during my regular visit she did something with me that was totally out of character.
I always sit with my forearms on her chair's armrests with my thumbs at the inside and the four fingers of each hand around the end and down over each side. Every time that she has thrown the cape around me to keep the cut hair off, my hands have always been covered and I know that she is aware of their position from the thousands of times she has cut my hair over the past years.
However, this time to my surprise, she stepped in on my left side and gently held her soft pubic mound against the fingers of my left hand and asked, "Peter, what are we doing for you today?"
Making no attempt to pull my hand away I thought, "giving me a thrill," but I answered, "just my usual cut" and then I felt the fingers of her right hand caress the back of my neck before she stepped back and started combing and cutting.
When she walked around to my right, still busy at combing and trimming, she did the same thing but this time, she raised up on her tiptoes a little pretending to better her access for the top of my head and she let her soft pooch kind of wipe down over my knuckles and she held it there.
When I gently lifted my four right fingers and started to intentionally rub little circles back against her, she didn't make that sudden move to back away from me that I had expected.
The fact that this was actually happening between her and I in the middle of a busy barbershop, with no one else in the crowd being aware of it, stimulated me and my dick started to get a little firm.
Then she leaned in and said, "Peter, I know that you're generally pressed for time, we close at five and if you want to avoid the wait, you can call me. I'm here until seven for clean up and I'll wait for you."
After considering for a moment the words that I had just heard and when I thought that no one around us was paying enough attention to hear me, I asked, "do you want me to call you today after I leave here?"
She said, "yes, that will work."
When she was done, I paid and tipped as always, then after two minutes in my car, I'm at the corner stoplight, staring at my cell phone.
I scrolled to "Barber" and touched the screen, then I heard Paula's voice answer the phone, the same way that I have heard her answer it several times per visit, every two weeks, for the past 18 years, ... "Barbershop."
"Paula this is Peter, can anyone else hear me?" I asked.
She replied, "no, at five."
I asked, "am I to understand that you want me to come back there at five?"
She answered, "no, let me look, no, we're good on hairspray and shampoo but bring two bottles of leave in conditioned, four boxes of those neck tissues and a box of combs and four talc ... so you'll be buy after five thirty, right?"
A little confused I said, "Paula this is Peter and" she cut me off.
"I know, five forty five this evening it is then, I close at five and the front will be locked so Just pull around to the alley and I'll be waiting at the backdoor, ... at five forty five." she said.
I said, "Paula, if this is for what I think it is, wouldn't you much rather we meet some place?"
She answered, "no, that will be fine, deliver it around back if you would and if something comes up and you can't make it, please call me" and she ended our call.
I drove to my home office in Oyster Bay and sat at my desk and tried to work, but I couldn't concentrate. I made a sandwich and sat out by my pool thinking about what I should and shouldn't do under these circumstances, still knowing that I would be behind her barbershop this evening, at five forty five, no matter what.