“I see Bronte, Faulkner, Dickens.. but where the hell is Ibsen?” I mutter as my fingers flew threw the bookshelf. It figures that the Brits don’t keep a wonderful collection of American authors on hand. It figures that I’d left my copy from high school honor’s English back in Ohio. It also figures that I waited until two days before my essay on The Wild Duck’s due date to find and re-read the play. True, these were second-hand copies, but still people! Classics are classics. Sheesh.
By the third floor of Foyle’s I’d found a cat-eared floppy paperback and that was just going to have to do. A group of girls kept making strange glances my way and whispering. They must never have seen a college student in action. All I could get out of their conversation was a cluster of ‘I think it’s her’s and vigorous head shaking.
Choosing to ignore them, I struggled to grab that stupid book with a cappuccino and messenger bag in one hand and my Android in the other. Just as my pinky hooked a broken piece of the cover a giggling crowd of teens nearly knocked me over and spilled what was left of my only energy source for the morning. Alright, no more Miss Nice Shopper. Those little girls were going to get a piece of my mind. I whipped around and ran right into a slim blonde girl with bangs similar to mine and a floppy summer hat. She appeared frantic and anxious so I grabbed her wrist and told her to follow me to the back room. I practically live in book/coffee shops nowadays anyhow so the manager normally let me roam around as long as I purchased something other than my daily cap.
At first the girl didn’t seem to want to go with me but one look behind her at the confused looking girls sent her running my way. By the time we had swiftly closed the back sorting room door I was entirely and embarrassingly out of breath. I hadn’t kept up my work-out routine from back home at all in the past month I’d been at Kingston U. She was facing the wall fumbling for what I imagined would be a phone in her leather Louis Vuitton bag. Upon finding it she took a breath and turned to me. She had a familiar look about her plainly pretty face but I couldn’t quite place where I knew her from.
“You know you’re okay back here, don’t you? I do this all the time to get away.. I’m like super famous and whatnot.” I laughed the joke off but she still hadn’t smiled. “Really though, what’s up? I’ve got some Tylenol in my bag if you need it. You folks don’t seem to carry the same medications over here at all.”
“I know what you mean, I do the same thing whenever I make a trip out of the States.” She finally said while removing the hat. “I’m Taylor. Thanks. It just took me by surprise a bit since I was alone. This shop is kind of secluded, you know?”
Oh, my. Now I know why she looks so familiar. Here I was, hiding in a bookstore’s sorting room with none other than the Taylor Swift. “Small world, huh?” I choked out. “I’m Rosie and this doesn’t happen everyday.” Nonetheless I stick my hand out for a shake since we are meeting each other for the first time and whatnot.
She smiled and met me in a friendly grip.”I kind of lost Travis along the way. He must have hit up the restroom while I was perusing the aisles and I just wasn’t expecting to be noticed.” She must mean her bodyguard, I thought.
“Well, we need a plan. Those girls are young but quick. You know we kind of have the same hair-do and clothing style… I have the same Ray Bans in my purse. I pretty much aced my improv classes in high school so I’ll take the lead on this one.”
The pounding of feet on the floor resulted in a quick “Done!” from Taylor and we opened the door. I gripped her wrist once more and headed out to where the girls stood anxiously awaiting. “Hey girls, I’m really sorry to ask this but you kind of scared my cousin Emily over here. I know she could win a look-alike contest in a wink but she has severe asthma and all this crowding is for sure a no-go with me. I’m sure she’ll pose for a picture if you ask nicely but we’ve got a campus tour to attend at a quarter of so we really can’t be late.”
While disappointed the girls mumbled an apology and walked away phones in hand, presumably tweeting about the unlucky encounter. “Thank you,” Taylor mouthed as we walked out arm in arm.
“Hey, it’s no problem! Like I said, I’m super famous so this is just a day in the life, right?” We smiled and traversed Charing Cross to get as far away from the shop as possible.
