Will didn’t ask what the problem was. As with he and Zoe, there was clear tension between the former cheerleader and the owner of the bed-and-breakfast.
Zoe and Kenzie were already at the doorway. Both ladies glanced back and purposely tilted their chins in the air at the men before turning fully around and leaving.
Whatever Ramon had done to piss off Kenzie, he needed to stop. This was interrupting Will and Zoe’s time together.
* * *
When the van pulled up to the Mas Beauty School, Zoe’s heart started fluttering. She led the tour of her great-grandmother’s beloved three-story structure. They started with the old classrooms on the first floor, where the original structure was made up of four rooms. The home started off as a single level and thanks to success, they’d expanded. Sadie Baldwin used one room for teaching, and she and her husband lived in another, raised their two boys in the other, and opened their third bedroom to students coming from across the state of Georgia, and even farther away, to study the techniques of the trade.
The success of the beauty school had made it easier for the Baldwins to add on to the house. The structure grew upward with two more stories. Sadie, whom Zoe called GiGi for short whenever she came to stay, had been quite young when she gave birth to Zoe’s grandfather.
Zoe retold the story of the success of the original beauty school, and pointed out that two of the other downstairs rooms were turned into classrooms, as well. During the fifties and sixties, word had gotten out about Mas, and girls traveled from as far as Chicago to come to the school where the young student’s parents and grandparents attended Annie Malone’s as Poro Agents. Before the internet, businesswomen signed on as Poro Agents and sold Miss Annie’s products. Miss Annie went on to become a millionaire and came out with her own hair-care line for African American women in the 1900s. GiGi molded her career after Miss Annie to sell to those who could not afford to travel upstate. It was GiGi’s classes that had inspired Zoe to get a degree in cosmetic chemistry.
Zoe smiled at everyone soaking in the history lesson. A lot of the women were already aware of it. Even Rebecca nodded her head with awe. Old newspaper clippings about the accomplishments of all the graduates hung in frames, and a significant number of the former students had gone on to work at Ravens Cosmetics—a little bit of news clearly interesting to Will.
Will rubbed his square jaw with his hand and stood at one of the silver-framed photographs. The picture was of GiGi with the young and successful Naomi Ravens. When girls graduated from Mas, many went back home to start their own shops and salons, but GiGi thought those who went on to Ravens Cosmetics were the ones who truly succeeded.
The tour continued through the kitchen, where GiGi once used to stand at the stove and make sure all of her students were fed and taken care of. Eventually, when the funds permitted it, she had been able to hire a cook. By the time Zoe came to live here, the number of students enrolled had begun to dwindle. With more beauty schools popping up in so many different cities, no one needed to travel to get the hands-on experience GiGi gave. At one point, everyone in Southwood came to GiGi’s school for free hair and makeup treatments at the end of each semester. After the doors to the school closed, GiGi kept her shop open for local customers until the day she passed away.
A rope draped from one staircase railing to the other, warning everyone away from the third floor. That was Zoe’s sanctuary. Her father still lived upstairs when he wasn’t gallivanting around the world to meet up with her mother. It was probably for the best. There’d be no telling what her old room looked like now.
Kenzie took over the rest of the tour, mainly guiding everyone back downstairs and outside to the second add-on to the home. In her typically excited way, Kenzie told everyone about the back area facing into the woods known as the Firefly Forest. The covered area was meant for cookouts and party events. Kenzie and Lexi had arranged for a special late dinner the next night. It was Lexi’s way of thanking everyone for their hard work. Sunday was the beauty pageant and everyone was going to be torn in different directions.
Zoe lingered behind the group, mainly to keep an eye out for Will. She hadn’t meant to avoid him that morning, it just sort of happened. Not finding him in the crowd worried her a bit. Somehow she knew she’d find him on the third floor. She ducked under the tape and trotted up the steps. Of course he was standing in her bedroom with the door open. His arms were crossed over his chest; he stroked the hair on his chin and stared at the wall. In his jeans and Timberland boots he looked more like a star on a trendy hip-hop reality TV show.