Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

”Here you are Gerard,” my grandmother said, kindly, to me, “These are your first pair of scissors.” She gently handed me the black handled cutting utensil. My name was ornately painted in blue where my thumb would go.. My mouth opened wide enough for me to let out a breathy thank you.

I was mystified by the sparkling scissors. These were no ordinary scissors though; they were hair cutting scissors. The kind I waited seven long years to wield. Yes, I was only seven when I decided to become a hairdresser.

I awoke with a start and a lopsided smile on my face. Slamming the snooze button on my alarm clock, I sat up. Today was a new day and a very important one too. My salon, Merci, was getting a new shampoo boy today. Our last one, who was actually my younger brother Mikey, decided he didn’t want to work with hair anymore; he wanted to work with makeup.

He’s been off at cosmetology school in Europe ever since. I was going to miss having my brother around, but I knew hair wasn’t for everyone. You needed determination, a good hair straightener, and an overall love for doing hair. I slipped on my blue slippers and stood up. I reached up as high as my arms could go. Today was definite a good day. I could smell the hair gel in it.

I entered my salon, coffee in hand, and went to my back office. I had a booth where I cut hair, but I also needed my personal space. Taking a seat at my desk, I took a sip of coffee and began to read over my new shampoo boy’s résumé. His name was Frank Anthony Iero and he worked at five salons, previous to this job, shampooing hair. My eyes glanced over his credentials and I wondered what he would be like. I only spoke to him over the phone since he didn’t live in Miami. He was a Jersey boy like me. Hopefully he would fit in with the style of the salon.

All of the décor was black and white. The only colors you would find were on my staff and customers. Each staff member chose a color to accent them and wore it in some form of accessory every day. I was blue. I heard the bells on the front door ring and I stepped out of my office to see who it was.

“Good morning Gerard,” Lindsey, one of my hairdressers, said walking to her station. Lindsey’s color was red. Behind her were my other two hairdressers, Kitty and Steve. Jimmy, my hair colorist, was also with them. Kitty wore her respective silver and Steve orange. The tips of Jimmy’s spiked hair were dyed green as always since that was his color. The four never parted from each other and I never knew why.

“Morning everyone,” I said to them. “Today we get our new shampoo boy!”

The four smiled at my news. Lindsey and Kitty began to wonder about our new shampoo boy out loud. Steve and Jimmy joined in the conversation as well. The door then opened again and they all looked up.

The man at the door was short and wore all black except for a pink scarf. He shifted from leg to leg nervously. I eyed him up and down. He wasn’t that bad on the good looks scale. He shifted nervously again and opened his mouth.

“Uh, h-hi, I’m Frank Iero the new shampoo boy,” he spoke. I grinned.

I walked over to him and gave him a hug. This was a standard for my new employees. “Welcome to Merci, Frank. I’m Gerard owner, head hairdresser, and your boss,” I said, pulling away from him. I smiled in hopes he would loosen up.

“Thank you,” he said shyly. “Where is my station?”

“In the back by where I cut hair. First let me introduce you to the rest of the staff. The one with red is Lindsey. The silver is Kitty. The orange one is Steve and the green one is Jimmy. They are all hairdressers except for Jimmy. Jimmy colors hair. There are two more people on staff, Ray and Bob. They should be here soon,” I said.

“Is everyone given a color or something around here?” Frank asked.

I nodded. “Yes, I’m so glad you’re only wearing a pink scarf. Is pink going to be your color?”

“I guess. It is my favorite color,” he said, smiling. He had the cutest set of pearly whites.

“That’s good to hear. We will be opening up in twenty minutes and we have four appointments for this morning. All of them involve shampooing so let me show you to your station.” I gently grabbed his wrist and walked him to where we did shampooing. It was all state of the art technology.

“I’ve never worked with anything this fancy before,” he said. His mouth was in the shape of an ‘O.’

“Don’t worry. If you have any questions I’m literally like five steps away. I’ve counted,” I said awkwardly. This got a giggle out of Frank. I walked to my station and pulled out my scissors. We were only ten minutes away from opening.

The bells on front door rang again. Bob and Ray walked in. Ray, whose color was purple, went and sat behind the same desk he did every day. He was the salon’s hair consultant. Bob in yellow as usual went and sat next to him. Bob was our receptionist.

“Just in time as always,” I said to the two. They were inseparable.

“We had to hit up Starbucks and get coffee,” Bob said.

“Typical,” I spoke. The alarm I set on my wrist watch went off. “We’re open!”

The morning zoomed by. I kept a watchful eye on Frank and just by watching him you could tell he was good. His fingers moved swiftly through the client’s hair. They looked good as they massaged the chemical infused gel known as shampoo into the person’s hair. My wrist watch went off again.

“Lunchtime everyone,” I said, clapping my hands. Every one began floating around freely. Lindsey and Kitty left the salon to go buy lunch. Bob and Ray went outside to both get some fresh air. Jimmy and Steve were animatedly talking with each other.

I turned my head to look at Frank. He was sitting in the shampooing chair. His eyes were closed and his hands were folded across his stomach. Frank’s pink lips were puckered as if he were waiting for a kiss. I smirked.

I walked over to him and leaned down close so that my face was hovering above his. I told myself to stop thinking naughty thoughts as I studied his face. His skin was smooth and pale. He was adorable and you could tell he was a fighter. If you looked closely enough you could see very faint scars near his eyes.

I sighed and stood back up. If he continued to be this good looking, I’d have to jump his bones. I turned on my heel and began to walk back to my station.

“Did you enjoy the close up of my face?” Frank asked. I turned around.

His eyes were still shut and smirk now graced his lips. I crossed my arms and cocked my head to the side. “If I did what would you say?”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Hmm, then I guess you fall on the rainbow side of the spectrum.” I looked at him confused.

“I don’t seem to understand you,” I paused, “and what kind of answer is that anyway?”

He smiled. His eyes were still closed. “Not a very good one, but it was a reply.”

“I’m still confused by the way,” I said annoyed.

“So I guess you’re pink, purple, and blue then?”

I rolled my eyes in frustration. “Why are you talking about colors?”

Frank picked his head up with his eyes still shut. He faced me perfectly as if he were looking at me. He chuckled. “You don’t understand much do you?”

“Well I would if you made sense,” I said to him.

“I’m making perfect sense, Gerard.”

“No you aren’t. You started talking about rainbows and then pink, purple, and blue. You’re making no sense at all!”

“So then you’re a straight guy?”

“When did we start talking about sexual orientations?”

“That’s what I’ve been talking about from the start.” Frank’s lips once again formed a smirk.

I uncrossed my arms and scratched my head. “I don’t get you Frank,” I spoke. It then dawned on me what he was talking about. “Oh,” I said softly.

“I take it that you understand me now?”

“Yes, I understand perfectly. No, I’m not straight. I happen to be a rainbow,” I said matter-of-factly.

He grinned. “That’s good to hear. I’m personally pink, purple, and blue. I like blue more though.” His eyes opened. I stared into them.

“Why did we even start this conversation in the first place?” I asked. I was still confused.

“I wanted to see what you were; to see if I had a chance.” His eyes were boring holes into me. His gaze left me and fell to the tiled floor. “Have a boyfriend?”

My face heated up. “N-no, why do you ask?”

He smiled and stood up. “Just to see if I was going to break someone’s heart.” He slowly began to walk over to me.

“Break someone’s heart?” I asked. He was still confusing me.

Frank was now directly in front of me. He nodded. He stood up on his tip toes just so we were just about eye level. Frank’s face was inching closer to mine. “Tell me,” he paused, our lips only centimeters away, “What do you notice first in a guy? Be honest.”

My face flushed. This guy was making me hot. “His lips of course,” I said.

“Good,” Frank whispered, nodding. He leaned in further. Then our lips touched briefly. Only from those short seconds of contact, I knew his lips were unbelievably soft and warm.

He came of his tip toes and once again I was taller than him. I was frozen to my spot. My lips were tingling madly. Frank only smirked. My wrist watch went off again. It was the end of lunch and our next appointments were coming in.

Frank walked back to his station never looking back at me. He simply just took the next customer and began to wash their hair. I was still in the same spot. I believe I stood there for quite some time because Jimmy had to shake me back to normal.

I walked back to my station and slumped into the salon chair. My hand reached up to touch my lips. I looked over to where Frank was and blushed. He never looked back to where I was, but you could tell by the look on his face he knew I was watching. He purely smirked.