Celestial Land and Sea Read Online Free Page B

stick of cream blusher she'd never used, and half a lipstick in a black case that was caked in fingerprints. A rush of nostalgia came over her as she thought back to the last time she'd seen the collection. It must have been 2007, and she'd managed to land herself a date with a colleague from the coffee shop she used to work at part-time. What was his name? Nathan? Nigel? Something like that... She struggled to remember it now. He was cute though, and she had wanted to impress him, so she decided that she would experiment with cosmetics. Whether or not it had anything to do with make-up, they never did go on a second date.
    She picked up one of the eye shadows and opened the lid, releasing a small cloud of pink dust into the air.
    Perhaps if I just...
    She swiped a finger across the product and smeared it over her eye lid, coating it in pastel pink. She repeated the step on her other eye and blinked a few times to shake off the excess dust.
    Without thinking about what she was doing, she reached for the lipstick, taking her time to twist the bottom to reveal the fuchsia colour. She drew her hand to her mouth and began to drag it across her bottom lip, continuing all the way round in one movement until she'd coloured in her top lip too. She returned the lipstick to the container while rubbing her lips together.
    Her eyes were wide as she picked up the stick of blusher. The creamy champagne colour was speckled with shimmer, supposedly to dazzle onlookers whenever it caught the light. Grace placed it flat on her face and swirled repeatedly until both of her cheeks displayed circles of shiny pink.
    She stared into the mirror to study her new look. The shades clashed as the thickly-coated products fought against one another to stand out. Against her naturally pale skin, anyone could have mistaken her image as a preparation for a clown college.
    A single tear trickled down Grace's face as she rushed to bundle the products back into the bag before reaching for the facecloth. She ran it under the tap and began scrubbing profusely at her cheeks. Now tears were streaming down her face as she rubbed harder, the colours smearing across her skin and mixing together, harsh and unsightly.
    She turned on the shower and stripped out of her clothes. She had no idea what had come over her. She never should have listened to Fran. She knew it was foolish of her. So why did she feel so pathetic?
    After releasing her hair from its bun so that her auburn waves cascaded down her back, she stood under the running water. The radio was turned on to drown out the sound of her emotions. She was still for a moment as she let the warm water cover her. She soaked the body puff in shower gel and lathered it before scrubbing her entire body and hopefully cleansing herself of all negative thoughts. In fact, she worked furiously to erase what had happened. She didn't stop until her tears had been washed away, and the Grace that she knew had been fully restored.
    Â 
    As she made her way into her bedroom, she pulled the cord tighter around her dressing gown. She had towel-dried her hair after her shower, so it was now once again wrapped in a bun at the back of her head. It had been exactly what she had needed; she felt so much more refreshed now, and was a lot less anxious than she had been less than an hour ago.
    "Now where did I put it?" Feeling more relaxed she was finally in the mood to sit under the duvet with a book. She rummaged at the collapsed pile on the bed, but there was no sign of a Dickens novel.
    "Ah, the wardrobe..." She crossed to the other side of the room and flung back the wardrobe door and a pile of paperbacks tumbled out and fell against her slippers, jabbing at her bare heel. She rubbed it to ease the pain. "This is never going to work, is it?" She scooped up the pile and hugged it to her chest.
    Mentally scanning the entire house, she searched for somewhere suitable to store them. It wouldn't be fair of her to simply dump them in the