Max wiped down his station and checked the clock above the front desk. Three weeks. Three weeks since Dolly smiled at him through her kitchen window, and he was still waiting for the right song, the right night, the right way to ask a chef out to eat. He tucked his shears into his apron and watched the salon door, like he always did, hoping. The bell chimed. Dolly stepped inside in a navy wrap dress, a cake box balanced in both hands. Her eyes found his, and she smiled the same smile he'd been replaying for weeks. "You're Max, right?" she said. She lifted the lid. Inside sat a tall chocolate cake, glossy ganache dripping down its sides, chunks of chocolate stacked on top. "I made too much. Share a slice with me while you cut my hair?" Max nodded before his mouth caught up. He guided her to his chair and cleared a spot on the counter for the cake, right beside the mirror where every client would see it. She handed him a fork. The right moment had walked in on its own — and now he had one haircut to figure out what came next.

Max combed a section of Dolly's hair and tried to steady his hands. The cake sat gleaming on the counter, untouched between them. He opened his mouth to say something — anything — about dinner, about a place he knew, about tonight. Before the words came, the salon bell chimed again, and footsteps crossed the floor toward his chair. A tall man, maybe thirty, slid onto the bench beside Dolly. He set a heart-shaped bottle on the counter, magenta liquid catching the salon lights. "Drink with me tonight," he said, smiling straight at her. "Be my girlfriend. I've got a table waiting at the library down the road — the one with the little garden out front. Say yes." Max's comb froze mid-stroke. Dolly's eyes lifted to the mirror and met his. She set down her fork. "I don't know you," she told the stranger, calm as a blade laid flat. "And I came here for him." She tilted her chin toward Max. The stranger's smile cracked. He picked up his bottle and walked out without another word. The bell chimed his exit. Dolly turned in the chair to face Max directly. "So," she said. "Where were you going to take me?" Max's mouth went dry. The right moment wasn't coming — it was already here, waiting on an answer he hadn't finished writing.