Oh, right, a hair appointment...

Fortunately, I woke up before the next fucking appointment I’d made on my lazy weekend, but the few hours of napping and relaxing had helped me recharge. I picked up Kianna and drove her to the salon, it was clearly fancier than she was used to, or comfortable with, but that worked for what we were doing. She was nervous and didn’t bother trying to hide it and I cajoled her along, saying it was for Asa, if she was going to appear on her stream, then she needed to get her hair done all fancy.

Kianna made her arguments, and complained about the price, but I emphasized how little that mattered given how much money Asa was making. I was keeping an eye on Alina who was visibly interested and listening.

Kianna had made an appointment, just before Alina’s, so as she took her seat, Alina slid over towards me, “Sorry, did I hear right? Asa’s a streamer now? And her mom’s going to be on her stream?”

Her tone suggested something salacious. I smiled brightly, “Yeah! Asa’s the fastest growing fitness influencer in Gotham! And Kainna’s been having some back pain. She says from all her work as a nurse. Synergy!” I said, though I wasn’t really sure what that word meant, but I’d heard it a lot at stupid trainings, so figured it couldn’t go wrong. “Oops, sorry, got too distracted being a salesman and forgot to get your name. Tell me, who are you?”

“Alina, I’m an old...friend of Asa’s, but we haven’t talked in a long time,” +1 SP (Alina: -22)

“Ah, okay, sorry, Eli, I’m Asa’s boyfriend,” I said.

Which caused her to extend a hand, belatedly. I shook it, only to find her fingers gently stroking my palm. “Well, this is a coincidence,” she said with a smile. “Why are you taking Kianna to the salon?” she asked as Kianna was escorted off and seated.

“Oh, Asa’s thinking about doing some demonstrations on how to get older folks exercising again, the haircut is definitely not a bribe to participate,” I said with a slightly teasing lilt.

“Oh, and how are you being bribed to handle Asa’s mom?” Alina asked, teasing me back.

I smirked, “Don’t worry about it, Asa takes good care of me,” I said with a broad wink. I wouldn’t have played it so broad, but, to my slight surprise, Alina was here alone. I’d sort of pictured a whole little posse of other church ladies and her gossiping with them as their queen bee.

Alina laughed, though her eyes darted to Kianna, who was sitting in the chair under some machine that looked a hell of a lot more like a brainwasher than my phone and clearly couldn’t hear a damn thing. “I’m sure she does,” she purred, as she ran a hand down my well-muscled arm. “Asa always did like ‘em...fit,” she clearly deleted a few other words there, probably less kind.

I smirked, “Well, she is a fitness influencer these days.” I looked Alina up and down, openly, then seemed to note her wedding ring. “we should all have dinner sometime. Asa, me, you, your husband.”

She glanced at her wedding ring, then simply smiled. “Eh, Asa doesn’t care for my husband, that’s why we haven’t seen each other in so long…” her voice trailed off in false loss. Or maybe not false… “I’d love to hear how she’s doing. Kianna’ll be at least an hour, let’s grab some coffee and you can bring me up to speed on how she’s doing!”

Well, she was aggressive, which would make getting SP hard. Maybe I should refuse? Play hard to get? It was working with Chloe, but they were very different women.