Excerpt of Fooling Around With Cinderella by Stacy Juba

Dylan scrutinized Jaine, arms folded across his royal blue
shirt with the Storybook Valley logo stamped over the left
in white block letters. “Do you wear contacts?”

“I have plenty of media contacts. Wait. Did you say wear
contacts? You mean instead of these?” Jaine fingered the
earpiece of her gold-rimmed glasses.

“Right. Contact lenses.”

She gave a nervous chuckle. “I scheduled a consultation in
college, but was too squeamish to insert the lens. I was
more comfortable in glasses.”

Was she really justifying her vision enhancement choices to
her prospective new boss? Maybe he intended to discuss
medical benefits. Or did he think she looked nerdy? What was
the saying? Guys don’t make passes at girls who wear
glasses? Not that she wanted him to make a pass even if he
was hot.

“How blind are you without glasses?” Dylan persisted.

“You wouldn’t want to drive with me.”

“How about if you’re walking around a building? Are you in
danger of hurting yourself?”
This interview had taken the Mad Hatter Freeway from Fairy
Tale Land into Wonderland where nothing made a damn bit of
sense. Did this guy have a glasses fetish, like those
weirdoes with shoe fetishes?

“I should be okay. I take them off for special occasions.”
In fact, Jaine’s older sister Bree, who was getting married
in August, remarked just last week, “You are losing the
glasses for my wedding pictures, right?”

What the hell. She’d be a good sport and hope Dylan would be
so grateful to pick the brain of a real, flesh and blood,
bespectacled person that he would appoint her marketing
director. Jaine removed her glasses and the fine details of
her surroundings fuzzed. She nodded toward the framed print
hanging on a side wall, the picture a wash of symbols and
colors. “I can tell that’s a park map, but the words and
images smear together.”

And that was myopia in a nutshell. Jaine adjusted her
glasses back into place so she could see his reaction. Dylan
examined her with such intensity that a blush stained her
cheeks. She patted her blonde French braid, in case stray
strands were straggling out.

“Here’s the situation,” Dylan said. “I took over the general
manager position a few months ago. I’m evaluating possible
changes and researching how other theme parks run. My
grandfather and father have worked with a marketing firm for
years to create our brochures, billboards, print, and radio
ads.”

Jaine’s shoulders caved, imperceptible to him, but it felt
as if her whole body was sinking.

No fairy tale job ending for her.