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My stomach churned as she clicked through the images. Once again, I saw the space in my mind’s eye, what it could be, beautiful and functional and welcoming. I closed my eyes and swallowed, trying to get rid of the feeling.

“Now,” Olivia said. “Here are mock-ups of the potential layouts we’re considering.” She went through several floor plans, each slide complete with renderings of the individual layout that had furniture and decor included.

Not only was the flow of the space in each layout completely nonsensical, the plan was… uninspired, to say the least. Function over form, if you could call it that. Not that a library needed to be super flashy, but like I’d tried to tell Andy back in Port Grandlin, there was a way to stick to a budget while making something functional and beautiful. Unfortunately, these renderings seemed to do neither.

I wondered who’d come up with these plans, whether it was one of the committee members or a professional. It couldn’t possibly have been done by someone who had experience, so either they needed to hire someone or fire someone on the planning team.

As I listened, I started to get the itch to help, my skin prickling as she went through each unimaginative slide. I bit my lip to keep from speaking up, instead letting the daydream of what a beautiful and functional library could be fill my mind.

Next to me, Lena shifted in her seat and glanced in my direction. As Olivia opened the floor for discussion, Lena leaned close and whispered to me. “Would you be willing to get me a bottle of water?” She nodded at the refreshments table. “I’m parched.”

The request jolted me out of my thoughts. “Yeah, of course.” I stood so quickly I almost knocked the chair over in my hurry, grabbing a bottle of water from the table to pass to Lena. I’m only here to help Lena. Absolutely no offering to participate in the remodel. Her request quickly reminded me of what I was really doing there and as she gave me a grateful smile, I took a deep breath to cleanse my mind.

“Does anyone else want to go along?” Olivia asked from the front of the room.

I hadn’t been listening, so I had no idea what she was asking, but Lena raised her hand. “I’d like to, if you don’t mind going slowly.”

“Of course not,” Olivia assured her.

Lena turned to me. “You coming?”

I blinked a couple of times to bring myself back to the moment. “Coming where?”

She laughed softly. “We’re going next door to take a quick tour of the library the way it is now, to talk about the layouts she suggested.”

I hummed and nodded. “Sure, I’ll tag along.”

A few minutes later, a parade of committee members was making its way down the sidewalk to the library next door. Olivia held the door for us, and as we entered, my breath caught in my chest. The library was definitely dated, but I could see the beauty in it. Tall ceilings and huge windows let in lots of light, making the space feel much bigger than it would have otherwise.

The stacks and furniture were old, mostly wooden, visually unappealing and clearly uncomfortable, but that was easy enough to fix. The walls were a plain beige color, but again, easy to change. I imagined paintings of animals parading across the walls of the children’s section. The layout itself wasn’t much to speak of—the stacks lined the walls and in the middle of the vast space were old and battered tables and chairs. The circulation desk was, oddly, at the back of the room. Besides that, it looked like a stereotypical aging library, but it had so much potential.

Lena nudged me gently with her elbow. “Well?”

I’d been focused on my own thoughts once again. “Sorry. What?”

“Dale asked if you had any thoughts.”

I glanced to the guy who’d recognized me earlier. “Oh, I don’t know.”

“I bet you do,” he pressed. “Come on. You can’t think of one thing you’d change?”

“I…”

“Leave him alone, Dale,” Olivia chided.

“He’s a designer,” Dale countered. “He knows things.”

Olivia looked at me, eyebrows raised.

I felt pinned down, like a bug on a display board, with several people’s eyes on me. Finally, I conceded, knowing I’d regret it. “It’s a good space. I think even just freshening up the paint or adding a cool mural to each wall would really liven it up.”

“What kind of mural?” Olivia asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Maybe animals in the children’s section?” It came out sounding like a question and I cringed at how uncertain I sounded. Working with Andy had really messed with my confidence.

“What about the other walls?” someone else in the group asked.

I shrugged. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Maybe flowers in the nonfiction area. Or even just greenery and trees, something like a jungle that would go with the animals. In fiction, you could have, I don’t know, maybe things taking flight. Planes and hot air balloons, stuff like that. And then over by the technology corner, robots maybe.” Part of me wanted to retreat into a corner and never come back to this committee, never speak to another Bluffian again. Another part of me buzzed with excitement just giving them ideas.