Ghost and the Writer

Magic supplies

Mandy floated after now properly dressed August. The gap between him indoors versus outdoors, again, felt shocking. No one would even suspect that this was the same crazy sleep deprived person from a few days back who was breaking dishes on the wall while making a dramatic appeal to an armchair of all things... how utterly mysterious. He wouldn't be applying some magic to his appearance, would he?

Mandy stared at his back and frowned as she crossed her arms.

Knowing August, that didn't seem likely at all.

She shook her head slowly.

Even in movies it was quite easy to tell that the 'ugly girl' was actually a disguised pretty girl, but with August...ah, right, now that she taught of it, the movie 'ugly girls' were actually neat and virtuous and well behaved in most ways, so there was a chance to pay attention to their appearance and notice, but August, well - no way in hell would anyone make a movie about a messy, sleep deprived, half-starved, sadistic workaholic and if they did, that wouldn't be the romantic comedy beauty make-over target.

So that was it! Mystery solved. Even if you take an incredibly beautiful person, if you apply just one layer of disguise, but also add a horrid personality, then no one would notice their good looks.

Mandy nodded happily to herself, it was always refreshing to solve a mystery.

By now Mandy had subconsciously settled to float right next to August. And, of course, Mandy had heard (mostly read) countless tales of beautiful people making you flustered just by their presence, so that part was also just that. Even now, as Mandy cast a glance at him, she could only see a tall man with the type of frail beauty and mysterious air that would undoubtedly make girls swoon left and right and wish to 'heal his broken heart' and 'become his muse', or what have you in those Harlequin novels. Except, August didn't have those strong arms or that wild untamed look which was a must for bad-tempered harlequin novel protagonists. Wasn't August actually a bit of a heroine material...?

August shivered and glanced over at Mandy almost as if sensing a dangerous line of thought.

Yet rather than using this as a cue to ask something, Mandy merely confirmed, that - yes! He would really make a good heroine for a reverse harlequin or... no, there's something even better! What if... someone handsome like that policeman from a few days ago got interested in August? Thinking this was a sin, a complete sin, but why did it feel so right?

Mandy put her hands on her cheeks and shook her head. 'No, no, no, this ain't right.' It's not like something like that would ever happen. And if there was a story like that... how would one even go about conquering someone like August? A small line of 'I can see why he likes you' spoken by Tia passed Mandy's mind and she felt her cheeks flush. No way, right?

She stole another glance at August, noticing him browsing something on his phone, there were people around already, so it wasn't like they could converse either way. As she stole more glances (basically stared at this point) she returned to pondering about his appearance.

It really was a mystery how much clothes could change a person. Boy, Mandy felt lucky to have first met August in his mad slob state, otherwise, there would be no guarantee she wouldn't have become some kind of harlequin heroine with questionable taste.

A small suspicion arose in her mind. Was August actually attractive or did he just seem that way to her? Once you liked someone you would start to perceive them as beautiful regardless of their actual features, and - once you disliked someone you would start to perceive them as ugly regardless of their actual features. If it turned out that August was not actually attractive then... didn't that almost imply that she liked him?