“Let me check and see who is available.” She took a look through her schedule. “Stephanie can help you. Please follow me.” She led Bella to a chair facing a mirror in the back of the salon, which was perfect. No one was likely to notice her there. A moment later, a stylist walked over.

“Hi, I’m Stephanie. What are we looking to do?” Stephanie didn’t seem to recognize Bella, and she relaxed a little. No one other than the girl in the store had come close to recognizing her but now that her picture was on social media, Bella knew she had to change her look immediately.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Bella. I’d like to get some layers and go to a rich auburn with beachy loose curls all over. Kind of the Meg Ryan look if that makes sense?”

“Got it. Huge Meg Ryan fan.” Bella wasn’t surprised. Stephanie was about fifty so probably saw all of Meg Ryan’s romantic comedies. Bella’s natural hair color was a dark strawberry-blond, but she’d been strongly encouraged to bleach it blond when she got her first big break. The thinking was that redheads weren’t as popular. Bella didn’t agree or like it, but she wanted to work then, so she bleached it a sun-kissed blonde for her first role and it became her signature look.

Stephanie chatted away while she stripped off Bella’s existing color and then applied the lighter shade. Bella learned Stephanie was a Nantucket native, married with two children, and one just had their first child.

“So, I’m a grandmother, finally. It took them long enough. They’ve been married for almost ten years.”

“Congratulations, that’s exciting.”

Once the color was applied, Bella relaxed even more. No one was likely to recognize her now. She looked quite ridiculous with her hair going in all different directions and half of it covered in foils. Stephanie explained that she wanted a layered natural highlights effect, which sounded good to Bella.

An hour later, when her hair was rinsed, cut, dried and curled, Bella opened her eyes and was amazed at the transformation. The Meg Ryan bouncy curl look was cuter than she’d expected and the rich, red color matched her skin better and made her eyes pop. She was still a little nervous about people recognizing her, but no one had seen her as a redhead before and they wouldn’t be expecting the hairstyle, either. She knew she had to take additional precautions, though. She wouldn’t be going anywhere, not even to the beach with Nick and his friends, without her dark aviator sunglasses and a floppy beach hat.

She also knew that it was time to have a conversation with Nick, before he heard the truth from someone else or, God forbid, the media.