Libby the Librarian: A Rom Com Novella Read Free Page B

Shasta scolded him.
    He didn’t stop gaping, but he did, at least, parrot back the line about how good I looked. “I had no idea makeup was so effective ,” he added.
    That was pretty offensive.
    “Worried that all those beautiful girls you’ve dated over the years may just have been ugly girls with a good makeup job?” I asked.
    “You’re not the least bit ugly,” Shasta said. “With or without makeup.”
    I waited for Adam to say something reassuring like that, but he didn’t. Adam’s not that great at reassuring.
    “Let’s go shopping!” Shasta said.
    Shasta loves shopping. I hate it. I order on-line whenever possible. I’d order groceries on-line if I could.
    “ You want me to go out in public like this?” I asked, pointing to my face.
    “Of course. It’s going to take a while for you to get used to it. Might as well get started right now.”
    I couldn’t go out in my robe and slippers, so Shasta put together an outfit for me.
    Adam wanted me to wear the ninth-grade ugly glasses, but I insisted that the prescription of the lenses was so old that I’d be better off wearing no glasses at all. He knew better than to try and talk me into that, so I stuck with my sensible wire-frames. 
    “Who’s your optometrist?” Adam asked.
    “Dr. Webber. Why?”
    “No reason,” he said and put the ninth-grade uglies into his pocket.
 
    Shopping was worse than I’d anticipated. I wasn’t even allowed to do any actual shopping. I spent the whole time in the fitting room while Shasta handed me stuff to try on. Every once in a while, I could hear Adam lobbying for something he’d found. Shasta vetoed most of his choices. That was probably a good thing. Judging by the reasons Shasta gave for her rejections, Adam was trying to turn me into Slutty Librarian.
    Shasta and I finally came up with four outfits we could both agree on. They all involved something Shasta called a Pencil Skirt and more feminine variations o n my beloved button-downs. They weren’t bad, and, as I twirled in front of the mirror, even I could see that they did great things for my—assets. So far, so good. But we hadn’t even started looking for shoes yet, and I had a terrible foreboding that Shasta was never going to sanction combining Pencil Skirts with my favorite worn-in penny loafers.     
    “Don’t I get to see anything?” Adam asked as we emerged from the fitting room.
    “I’m not going to make the poor girl try on everything all over again just for your benefit,” Shasta said.
    We moved on to shoes, which was every bit as traumatic as I’d anticipated. I can’t walk in heels. We finally compromised. One pair of ballet flats and one pair of heels, which Shasta admonished me to practice in around the house, before attempting their public debut.
    “You really wear these things on a regular basis?” I asked.
    “You’ll get used to them.”
    I d on’t think I will. In a couple of months I’ll be back to my customer-service-representative-persona.  But Shasta is having fun. Adam is hanging around her. That’s all that really matters. I’m just orchestrating the reunification of two people I’m fond of. The more time I spend around Shasta, the more convinced I become that she is perfect for Adam. They were meant for each other.

Three
 
    All week I practiced applying the eyeliner Shasta had given me. I gradually got better. It still wasn’t as perfect as Shasta’s, but then she’d had years of experience.
    Friday morning, I decided to test drive The Sexy Librarian by wearing the whole getup to work. There was a good reason I chose Friday; I knew for certain that Adam was leaving on Thursday to go out of town and wouldn’t be back until Monday morning. The last thing I needed was him hanging around my office smirking. I felt silly enough already.
    Shasta was opening at the Salon, so I stopped by there before I went into work, just in case I’d unwittingly committed some fashion faux pas. When I got there, she