“Doctor’s office,” an answering service operator said.

“I’d like to make an appointment for a consultation,” Shelley said. “The sooner, the better.”

“I can give you ten tomorrow morning,” the woman said.

“Perfect.” She gave her traveling name and her cell number.

“Please, how did you hear about the doctor?”

“His ad in New York magazine.” She hung up and got ready for bed, calming herself the whole time.

SHELLEY PRESENTED herself on time at the doctor’s office, which was only a couple of blocks from the Carlyle. It was in a brownstone, and the reception room was nicely decorated. A nurse came and took her to the doctor’s office.

“Good morning,” he said, offering his hand. “I’m Dr. Charles.”

He looked awfully young, she thought.

“I’m thirty-four,” he said, laughing. “That’s always the first question. I’ve been in practice for six years, and I’m board-certified. How can I help you?”

“Well,” she said, tapping her nose with a finger, “I’ve finally decided to do something about this.”

He motioned for her to turn her head. “Ah, yes,” he said. “Let’s photograph you, and then I can give you a very good idea of what changes we might make.” He sat her in front of a camera and took shots of her from ahead and both sides, then he tapped a few computer keys, and her image, in right profile, appeared twice on the screen.

“Now,” he said, using a laser pointer, “my guess is you’d like this bump to go away.”

“Yes,” she said.

He tapped a few more keys, and the bump went away on the right-hand photo.

“Wonderful!” Shelley said. “I’d like my nose to be a bit shorter, too.” She watched as her nose changed. “That’s very good,” she said.

“Perhaps, since we’re shortening your nose, we should make your nostrils slightly smaller, in scale with the new length.” He tapped a few more keys.

“Yes, that’s perfect.”

“One more suggestion,” the doctor said. “We can turn your nose up just a bit. That can be very attractive.” He made the change.

“I like it,” she said. The upturned nose made her look very different from her old self.

“Now, let’s take a look from the left profile and the front.”

Two more shots appeared on the screen.

“I think it looks great from every angle,” Shelley said. “And I’m very impressed with your equipment.”

“Eliminates guesswork, doesn’t it?”

“It certainly does.”

“How quickly would you like to proceed?”

“As soon as possible,” she said.

He opened his diary and flipped through it. “Tomorrow is a surgery day,” he said. “How about two p.m. tomorrow?”

“Very good. How long will I be in the hospital?”

“The hospital won’t be necessary,” he said. “I have a complete operating suite upstairs, and a recovery room where you can spend the night. After that, you can go home, then come back to see me in a week. We’ll remove any stitches at that time, and any swelling will have gone down by then, and you’ll be able to go without the bandage, using makeup to cover any temporary redness or bruising. A month from tomorrow no one will be able to guess that you’ve had the procedure.”