“Kat, I’m worried about you.”

“Why Momma? I’m doing great here. What more do I need?”

“Well, you need friends,” Momma said earnestly. “You need to get out more and interact with people. You say you’re happy being a full time mom, but I see past this façade. I want my girls to be happy, to do better in life than I did.”



I saw the frown in my mother’s eyes and realized that my life had ended up right where hers had. I’d married a hand-picked Italian boy, and he’d broken my heart. Now I was alone with two daughters.

“Kat, maybe you should try dating again. I’m sure Pete has some friends at work he can set you up with. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you need a man to be whole, I just think it would make you happy.”

“Momma, it’s only been a year since my divorce. Don’t you think that’s too soon to start dating?”

“Too soon for what? That loser doesn’t deserve another moment of your time. This is your decision, not his. Kat, it’s time to move on and find your way back to love.”

I knew she was right. I had seen the pain Momma had gone through raising me and Sofie alone. She loved us dearly, but her love life had taken a back seat to raising us and her broken heart had never healed. I didn’t want to end up alone. I knew I had to heal and start new before it was too late.

----------------------------------------

The next day, Sofie and I were sitting out by the pool enjoying the afternoon breeze while Patrick showed off his impressive belly flop skills.

“Watchmedothis!” he hollered, and sped off the diving board face first.



“I’m surprised that boy hasn’t gotten himself killed yet,” Sophia muttered under her breath. I smiled understandingly. I’d come to witness Patrick’s heroics around the house in the past months and agreed that he could be too reckless.

“So, one of Pete’s old friends is coming over for dinner next week…” Sophia’s nervous face told me she had talked to Momma.



“Sof, don’t…” I protested.

“Aw come on Kat, what will it hurt? It’s just dinner at the house.”

“I know you mean well, but I wish everyone would just stop meddling in my life! I’ll do this in my own time.”



“Fine, fine,” she said, holding her hands up in defeat.

We sat in silence for a while before she spoke again. “We’re still on for tomorrow right?”



I groaned. I’d been trying to forget that I’d promised my sister I’d start an exercise regimen with her.

--------------------------------------

I dressed in some old sweats from my pregnancy and met Sophia in the garage. She’d just bought a new treadmill and weight machine and had turned a corner of the garage into a mini in-home gym. She claimed she needed to lose weight, but I knew she was really doing it for me. And while part of me was thankful that she cared about me that much, another, more dominant part of me was embarrassed that I’d gotten so large and other people could see the difference.

Sophia hopped onto the treadmill and cranked it to a high level of difficulty. Yeah, that definitely didn’t make me feel any better about myself. I decided to start with some basic aerobic exercise and cautiously picked up a jump rope.



I had a slow start, tripping over my own feet a lot and having to start over. It was so discouraging. I felt like I needed to be in better shape to even start exercising, and that wasn’t going to happen without exercise! It was a catch 22 with no solution.



“Sof, this is a lot tougher than I thought!” I whined.

“Come on Kat. You… can… do… it,” she panted.



I have to admit, having a workout partner to be accountable to DID help. I somehow kept going simply because Sophia was still going. We were sisters, which meant we had practically the same genetic makeup. I knew I was capable of being thin – I just had to keep jumping…



And then before I knew it 45 minutes had gone by and I was feeling pretty good.

“Look at you go girl!” Sophia laughed, sliding off the treadmill and wiping the sweat from her neck with a towel. “Great job, Kat, we should do this more often.”

To my surprise I found myself nodding.



--------------------------------------

After a quick shower we relieved Pete from babysitting duty so he could go to work. Once the kids were fed and planted in front of the TV watching cartoons, Sophia warmed up some berry pie.

“I thought we deserved a little treat after such a good workout,” she smiled mischievously, setting out two plates of pie.



“You’re so bad! This is going to ruin everything we burned off this morning.”

“Oh relax… we can work out again tomorrow, but I don’t think this pie is gonna last that long, so we’d better enjoy it while we can!”

I decided not to complain further and loaded up my fork.

I was watching the kids in the next room, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed Sophia was fidgeting in her seat. She weakly cleared her throat to say something, but must have changed her mind because she remained silent.

“What?” I asked, curious.

“Um, I was thinking that… maybe we could go to the salon tomorrow?”



“A salon? Like, for a haircut?”

“Yeah. Or maybe a little more…” Seeing the irritated confusion in my eyes Sophia quickly changed her angle. “Oh come on! You’d be so cute as a blonde! Blondes have more fun you know.”

“Blonde?! You want me to dye my hair blonde?” I was upset. I loved my naturally brown hair.

“Well, it’s just that… I thought that… I mean…”

“Just say what you’re getting at, please.”

Sophia sighed heavily. “Okay. I think it would brighten you up a little. The change would be nice. And besides… Sean’s back in town. You’d knock him dead if you ever ran into him.” She winked.

“Sean?! That’s what this is about?” I was shocked.



She smiled sheepishly at me, hopeful.

“No. No, no, no. Never gonna happen, sorry sis. That ship had sailed… and burned,” I protested.

“I hear he’s single,” she said in a sing-song voice, grinning from ear to ear.
“So? In case you haven’t noticed. I have two kids now.”

“I bet he loves kids.”

“Okay, enough,” I said rigidly, clearing our plates and depositing them in the dishwasher. This conversation was over in my book.

--------------------------------

Despite my best efforts, at the end of the week Sophia was escorting me through the doors of a local salon. I don’t know how she had talked me into this, but she’d not mentioned Sean again after the one time. I mean, it really was time for a change and I was ready to put my hair in professional hands.
Sofie waltzed up to one of the stylists and described her grandiose plans for my new look.

“Big. Blonde. Bangs. She needs something that will bring out her gorgeous face more. Just give her a whole new look.”



Jessica, the hairdresser giggled at Sofie’s enthusiasm as she agreed that I should go blonde.

I was growing more and more nervous as I watched the two of them make the decision for me.



“So, Kat, have you ever had bangs before? I’m thinking a few layers too, to add depth. And some more color for you, definitely,” said Jessica as she ushered me to her styling chair.



“I used to wear my hair with bangs, and long layers. I think it looked good. But I don’t want to go short.”

“Hmm, I think that will be possible. I can add some texture without sacrificing your great length. Okay, sit back and we’ll start the shampoo and coloring process…”



Jessica’s hands massaged away my nerves with the shampoo. Sophia kept me talking the whole time the color sat in my hair so I wouldn’t think about it, and by the time the blur of Jessica’s scissors had worked their magic, I had forgotten that I changed my hair color at all.

“Okay, Kat! You ready to see your new look?” Jessica beamed with pride as she handed me a small mirror.

I barely recognized the face that stared back at me. It was astonishing.



“Oh my gosh…”