"Shanna Swendson - Once Upon Stillettos" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swendson Shanna)

were following me. I shouldn't have been surprised; it was barely a week since I'd played a crucial role in
giving the competition a major setback, so I probably needed a magical bodyguard or two. But I'd prefer
it if I didn't have to face them when I was with a nonmagical friend. I could cope with fairies, people
making coffee by flicking their wrists, and talking gargoyles at the office, but it still gave me a jolt when I
saw those things in the "real" world when I was with people who weren't in on the secret.

"Come on, Katie," Ari urged. I felt like I was being recruited by the Cult of the Red Shoes.
"No, not this time," I insisted. "I need clothing, and I need to buy it soon so I'll have time to get ready.
Gemma, we'd better get down to moderate dresses." She sighed and put the sample shoe down. "I'll see
you two on Monday," I added very pointedly to Trix and Ari as I began walking toward the escalators,
with or without my roommate.

"They seemed like fun," Gemma said when she caught up with me. "I can't believe you haven't talked
more about your co-workers. You only talk about that one cute guy. Whatever happened with him,
anyway?"

"Nothing. He's just a friend. Besides, with the gossip mill in that place, dating a co-worker would be
suicide." Ethan fell in the gray area between co-worker and non-co-worker, since he was contracting his
services to MSI and didn't have an office in the building. Also, I hadn't yet told my roommates that he
was working for the same company, since I'd met him through them and explaining why he'd ended up
working with me would have been more than complicated. To change the subject, I said, "So, what look
should I go for--casual, sexy, trendy, sophisticated?"

With the opportunity to dress me, Gemma quickly forgot about discussing my co-workers. She picked
out a simple black dress with an embroidered cardigan that fell within my budget. But she hadn't had the
last word. "Those red shoes would go with this outfit," she said as we left the cash register.

"I swear, what is it with you and those shoes? You'd think they had you mesmerized. I've spent enough
on this outfit as it is, and the black shoes I already own will do fine. Now home!"



Several hours later, I was dressed in my new outfit, my hair and makeup were done, and my roommates
were getting on my nerves. "You don't have to wait around, you know," I told them. "You've already met
Ethan, and I don't need anyone to help pin on my corsage and take our picture together."

"I wonder if there's any film in my camera," Gemma mused.

"No! Geeze, you act like me going on a date is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

"With you, it almost is," Marcia, my other roommate, said from her position on the couch.

"I've been on dates recently," I protested.

"Yeah, but this is the first time I can remember in a very long time that you've been on a second date with
the same guy," Marcia replied.

She was right. After I went out with a guy once, he seldom wanted to see me again. Most of the time, it
was because I was too normal, too boring, too girl-next-door, too much like a sister. That had changed
lately, though. Now they were more likely to think I was too weird, and they'd be right. Take my last