magical fashion powers.

Meghan was the kind of girl who could wear scarves in her hair and summer dresses with tennis shoes and get away with it, all while being under the age of forty. She was twenty-five when I met her, when she became the wine shop girl at work.

She was so cute and beautiful you wanted to hate her, but so nice you had to like her. You could only be jealous when you weren't around her as she was just too darn sweet to think badly of her when you were within a mile radius.

As the wine shop girl, she was allowed to wear what she wanted, provided it fell into the vague category of "business casual". While the rest of us were our frumpiest in white button-down collared shirts and black pants, she was always stunning in some sort of stylish, yet simple ensemble. She had a tiny figure, and everything she wore was flattering. They don't make flattering things in my size.

In short, Meghan was my fashion hero. She was always simply flawless.

Meghan had these earrings, silver and dangly. As with everything that the wine shop girl wore, they looked better because she wore them. I always loved those earrings, and she must have too, because they were about the only thing I saw her wear more than once in the months I worked with her.

Meghan was fired, and we were all stunned. We decided that it must have been done over the phone or maybe by just not scheduling her anymore, because no one could fire Meghan to her face. It was all very hush-hush, something about haggling over wine prices and her relationship with one of the waiters.

Last week I went shopping and came across the Meghan earrings for $10. I've never paid that much for earrings, but I was tempted anyway, as if somehow those earrings would make give me magical fashion powers. I passed them by. I wasn't even sure if I actually liked them or just liked the association of being cute and loved by everyone.

You know how this story ends. They were $10.70 with tax, and they've hurt my ears all day, most likely because the posts are a little bigger than most of my earrings. Yes, that's the logical explanation, since I know that I could never get an infection from Meghan earrings.

Or maybe my ears hurt because of all the magical fashion powers being poured into them.