She’s back. She. Is. Back.

I get in the longest queue to see her, readying myself by pressing my hair and straightening my posture, practising what to say. Do not, I tell myself, scream “I missed you!!”. Relax. Relax!

The queue gradually gets smaller.

Finally, she sees me and her face breaks into a big smile.  And the other girl, the one on the coffee machine asks what I want, but I don’t even have to say because she remembers.

“Hey”, she says.

“Hey” I smile. “Where you been?”

“Oh, night shifts”, she says and makes a face.

“Oh, that’s rough”

“You cut your hair”

“Yep”, I say and turn my head so she can see how short it is at the back. (It was really long until I had it all chopped off at the brilliant Barberette a couple of weeks ago. I bloody love it).

“But why?” she says. My heart sinks a little.

“It was time”.

“Oh. I really love long hair” she says, indicating the length of hers.

I pay and when I take my coffee and say thank you, she’s already onto the next customer, her smile gone.