Ellicott, later
I was in a hurry at work that day. We’d had a slight rush of tourists for some reason, and they had apparently decided to demolish the store in thanks for the help we provided them. I was trying to rearrange the photography section, thinking about Will. Trying to figure out if I should really allow myself to really like him. Gorgeous, successful, sweet, kind, he helped me move my books; it was just the whole werewolf thing kind of through me for a loop.
“Miss?” The voice made my train of thought completely derail. It was like velvet sliding against freshly polished silver.
I turned to face the voice, and the face did not disappoint me. It took me a moment to find my own voice so I could respond. His skin was smooth and qdpale; his eyes were the stuff you read about in romance novels, the color of fresh summer grass. It was startling, having never seen the color outside of vegetation. His lips were incredible and pink and it took a lot of strength to not kiss him. Not that I would have, even if I had been much braver. His hair was pure black, no blue highlights or any other color that you would achieve from using a boxed dye. “Uhhh, c-can I help you?” I tried to smile, but I wasn’t sure if I had full control over my body yet.
He did, and the resulting smile almost sent me to the floor. “You’re the new girl, right?”
I had my control back, and I could feel the emotion strongly coursing through me was not incredulity from his looks, but from annoyance. I didn’t like to be insulted, and the way he implied the sentiment was quite insulting. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Oh I’m so sorry, I’m Edward, or Ned.” So this was Edward, or Ned, whatever. I remember when Will was talking about some of the local people in town, he mentioned him. His face hadn’t looked very happy mentioning Ned’s name. It was so close to a snarl then, I hadn’t wanted to press the issue of his dislike. Now I understood. I was starting to feel the same dislike, and we’d only just been introduced.
It was too bad I liked both of his names. Not fair. “Oh. Well, what do you want Ned?”
“Well, I thought I might introduce myself. You know, you’re the buzz of the town gossip mill. Nobody knows where you came from. You’re a bit of a mystery.”
I felt an overpowering urge to slap this overconfident, overly gorgeous stupid head. “You know, you don’t seem to have many manners. If you need help finding a book, please let me know. But if you don’t, please go and bother someone else. I have tourists to clean up after.”
He seemed to look at me closer, regarding me as though I’d said something groundbreaking. “You’re…different, aren’t you Ellie?”
My mouth dropped open in response. I was fuming with so much anger that I couldn’t think of a proper answer, not even something simple. I didn’t know why his words were affecting me so horribly. I’d never felt so angry towards someone I had only just met. I just shook my head and turned away from him, placing books in their proper order, trying to calm myself down. I took a deep breath and threw a brilliant smile onto my face. “Sir, if I may be of assistance, please let me know. Otherwise, I have a lot of work to get through before I leave in,” I checked my watch, my smile faltered for a moment when I realized the time, “45 minutes. So if you’ll please excuse me.”
He thought it over for a moment and nodded once. “You’re right, I apologize for bothering you.” He turned to leave me, heading towards the front of the store.
His mood had changed so quickly I wasn’t sure how to feel. I felt guilty for the anger, and my rudeness towards him. It wasn’t his fault that his words had upset me. He could have meant them in the most complimentary way possible. I sighed, shaking my head. “Ned, wait.” I put the books I’d been holding on their shelves quickly and rushed over to him. For such a gorgeous man, he sure moved quickly. “Listen, I’m sorry to be rude, I just-I guess you kind of ticked me off with the way you phrased things. If you want to, we can go out for coffee or something after I get off. Well, if there are any coffee places around here. It’ll be my treat, to apologize for being so mean back to you.”
He once again nodded, but a smile took the place of his impassive expression. “I know of a place with the best coffee in town, and it’s open all the time.”
“Oh yeah, where’s that?”
