Actions have consequences. Sometimes painful ones. I like the way you are left guessing why the protagonist felt compelled to touch the smoker, and the history that would have led them to react that way.

I feel that the sentence "Cautiously … and … and " would read better if broken into two sentences.

Nice job.

Perhaps we’ll never know what happened in those lost moments between street corner hairdresser and pomegranite-scented Led Zeppelin tribute.

Written in a lively and entertaining style – I like it!

That was definitely bizarre, but kind of fun along the way.