{"id":282,"date":"2025-09-11T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T10:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.everestthemes.com\/viable\/demo\/?p=282"},"modified":"2025-09-22T07:27:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T07:27:54","slug":"looks-with-her-curly-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Looks with her Curly hair"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"0\" data-line=\"true\">The summer gym air smelled like cinnamon and ripe bananas, and Lila was kneeling on the mat, helping Mia fix her gymnastic grip. Her purple ribbon had come loose, and her black curly hair had fallen out of its ponytail, cascading over her shoulders in soft, wild ringlets. When she laughed at something Mia said, the curls bounced\u2014catching the sunlight streaming through the windows like tiny pieces of dark gold. I paused mid-sketch, my pencil hovering over the page, and thought: <i>Looks with her Curly\u2026 she\u2019s never looked more beautiful.<\/i><\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"0\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"0\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"1\" data-line=\"true\">Mia had just finished decorating her banana muffin\u2014smothered in banana sauce, with a chocolate chip smile\u2014when she held it up to Lila. \u201cCoach, try it!\u201d she said. Lila took a bite, and a dollop of banana sauce landed right in her curls. Mia giggled, and Lila mock-gasped, wiping at the sauce with a napkin. \u201cHey, my curls are not a muffin topping!\u201d she said, but her eyes were laughing. I walked over, my sketchbook in hand, and gently pulled a strand of her curly hair free from the sticky sauce. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna have banana-scented curls all day,\u201d I said, grinning. She leaned into my touch, her curls soft against my fingers. \u201cWorth it,\u201d she said, \u201cif it makes the kids laugh.\u201d<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"1\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"1\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"2\" data-line=\"true\">After the kids left, we sat on the old wooden bench, the blue pot with the banana plant beside us. Lila pulled the purple ribbon from her hair, letting her curls fall free, and leaned back, closing her eyes. The sun hit her face, and her curls glowed, framing her like a halo. \u201cI used to hate these curls,\u201d she said, surprising me. \u201cWhen I was a kid, they\u2019d get so frizzy during practice\u2014my grandma would have to braid them for me every morning. She said they were \u2018my superpower,\u2019 but I just thought they were messy.\u201d I took her hand, running my thumb over her knuckles. \u201cThey\u2019re not messy,\u201d I said. \u201cThey\u2019re you. Wild, and soft, and perfect.\u201d She opened her eyes, smiling, and I leaned in, kissing a curl that had fallen over her cheek. It tasted like banana sauce and sunshine.<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"2\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"2\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"3\" data-line=\"true\">That weekend, we took the banana plant to the park for a picnic, along with Lila\u2019s grandma\u2019s old photo album. She flipped to a page with a photo of her 10-year-old self\u2014standing in a white leotard, her curly hair in two braids, holding a banana muffin. \u201cGrandma braided my curls that day,\u201d she said, tracing the photo. \u201cIt was my first gymnastics competition. I fell off the beam, but she said, \u2018At least your curls looked amazing.\u2019\u201d I laughed, wrapping my arm around her. \u201cShe was right,\u201d I said. \u201cYour curls have always been amazing. Even when they\u2019re covered in banana sauce.\u201d She leaned her head on my shoulder, and we watched the sunset, her curls blowing in the breeze.<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"3\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"3\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"4\" data-line=\"true\">A few days later, I brought a new sketch to the gym\u2014a drawing of Lila, her curly hair loose, holding the banana plant, with the blue gym walls behind her. I taped it next to our summer pose sketch, and when Lila saw it, she teared up. \u201cYou drew my curls so\u2026 soft,\u201d she said, her voice quiet. I hugged her, my hands in her hair\u2014soft, curly, still a little banana-scented. \u201cBecause they are soft,\u201d I said. \u201cJust like you.\u201d That afternoon, the kids crowded around the sketch, pointing at Lila\u2019s curls. \u201cCoach Lila\u2019s hair looks like a cloud!\u201d Mia said, and Lila laughed, tousling Mia\u2019s hair. \u201cMaybe it is,\u201d she said. \u201cA banana-scented cloud.\u201d<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"4\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"4\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"5\" data-line=\"true\">On the last day of summer, we had a \u201cCurly Hair &amp; Bananas\u201d party at the gym. The kids brought hair clips and ribbons, and we helped them style each other\u2019s hair\u2014Mia\u2019s straight hair in pigtails, Jake\u2019s short hair with a tiny purple ribbon, Lila\u2019s curls in a half-up style with a banana-shaped clip. We ate banana muffins, took photos, and danced to Lila\u2019s grandma\u2019s old music. When the sun started to set, Lila and I stood by the window, her curls in my hands, watching the kids play. \u201cLooks with her Curly,\u201d I whispered, kissing her. She smiled, her curls brushing my face. \u201cLooks with <i>your<\/i> eyes,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"5\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"5\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"6\" data-line=\"true\">That night, we sat on the old wooden bench, the banana plant now thriving beside us, and shared a banana split. Lila\u2019s curls were still loose, and when she took a bite of ice cream, a little hot fudge landed in her hair. \u201cOops,\u201d she said, laughing. I wiped it away, my fingers lingering in her curls. \u201cI love your curls,\u201d I said. \u201cI love you\u2014messy, curly, banana-scented, and all.\u201d She kissed me, sweet and sticky, and the gym\u2019s blue walls glowed in the dim light.<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"6\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"6\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"7\" data-line=\"true\">Love isn\u2019t about perfect hair or perfect moments. It\u2019s about messy curls covered in banana sauce, about old photos and grandma\u2019s jokes, about the way someone\u2019s hair feels in your hands when you\u2019re watching the sunset. It\u2019s about Lila\u2014her curly hair, her kind heart, her love for kids and bananas and me. It\u2019s about looks with her Curly, and the way those curls wrapped around my heart, and never let go.<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"7\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"7\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"8\" data-line=\"true\">Because when you love someone, their messy, curly, banana-scented self is the most perfect thing in the world. And I\u2019ll spend forever telling Lila that\u2014one curl, one smile, one banana muffin at a time.<\/div>\n<div data-zone-id=\"0\" data-line-index=\"9\" data-line=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The summer gym air smelled like cinnamon and ripe bananas, and Lila was kneeling on the mat, helping Mia fix her gymnastic grip. Her purple ribbon had come loose, and her black curly hair had fallen out of its ponytail, cascading over her shoulders in soft, wild ringlets. When she laughed at something Mia said,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}