7 Tips For Beautiful Skin

“I don’t want to be a beauty blog,” I said to Michael, my husband. “I just want to talk about where we can get cheap makeup.”

“Uh, honey,” Michael said, smiling nervously. “I don’t think ‘cheap makeup’ is appropriate here.”

“I’m not talking about just makeup,” I said, my voice rising. “I’m talking about ‘beautiful skin.’ I want lead-free makeup!”

His face twisted into a frown. “Well, I don’t think makeup is the right forum for you to discuss this.”

“It isn’t?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “But this morning, I said I wanted to discuss a discussion about beauty. I’m not asking for devotion, I just want to be heard.”

He began to smile. “I think we have to be a little more quiet, darling.”

“Why?” I said. “What else are we going to discuss?”

“Yes,” he said, “the topic I’ve been wanting to have with you. The discussion I’ve been purposely avoiding for over a month.”

I reached for my head. It was throbbing. “You should have said something,” I groaned. “There’s no point in discussing it now. I’m in another semester of beauty school. I can’t drop out, I have loans to repay. Take the topic with you to your grave.”

“No,” he said, “this is pivotal. It is the moment of our lives.”

I pushed my head back into my pillow. All I wanted to do was sleep. “I’m going to pass out now,” I said. I placed my hands over my eyes and tried to force myself into a deep sleep. “I don’t even know what’s coming out of your mouth.”

“Don’t you want to get beautiful skin?” he asked, his voice soft .

I recoiled. I thought he said something dirty. I lifted my hands to look at them; they were not dirty at all. I took a deep breath. What was that question, and why did it make me nervous? “Ugh,” I said. “Wow. I think it’s time to move on.”

“No,” he said. His face was serious. “I don’t think you should give up just yet.”

“You want me to give up beauty altogether?” I asked, my voice rising. I could feel my face flush. “Damn it, it’s my choice.” I realized I was yelling, and I took a deep breath to calm myself down. “I thought we had this discussion, and we decided that now is not the time.”

He was silent for a moment. “I know what we agreed upon,” he said finally, “but I’ve changed my mind. I think Rebeccah needs to drop beauty school. It is not good for her.”

I nodded slowly. I closed my eyes and cranked the conversation right back to where we left off. “See?” I said. “We just jumped to different topics. I told you, it’s fine. – I just want to know, when you outsourced, when you moved, what your budget was, that kind of stuff. I like to do research. Please.”

He smiled, but it doesn’t matter what his smile looks like. That smile makes me nervous. “I’ll make an appointment for you,” he said.

I rolled over and looked up at the ceiling. I didn’t want to be beautiful. I just wanted to be a beauty blogger. Sometimes he makes me nervous, but this time when he calls me beautiful, I’m not nervous. I feel sad. “Okay,” I said. “But don’t forget, I have a beauty shift tonight.”

“I know that,” he said. “I just want to talk about it later.”

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. Just talk about it later. Sure. I love the way he says ‘beautiful skin.’ His voice is so soft and sincere.

Copyright (C) 2017, Holly Johnson. All Rights Reserved

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Normal Heights. The Pretend State. California. Beautiful. I'm so glad I'm not still living there. It's a great place to visit. I will always like going home.

Anyway, this is the story of the week. It is certainly award winning, and for a good reason.

Conclusion.

This is the story of week. We have ten other stories featured in this newsletter. The newsletter will be brought to you by Jean, one of our readers. The other stories are by Jean as well. The other stories are pretty good. Certainly much better than the ones I write. I'm going to try to write one of them tomorrow.

We have been reading a lot of stories, short stories, and just leaving our comments. I think we both enjoy that.