Green - a werewolf story

1. Beautiful People

I have got to stop discriminating against good-looking people, Vanessa thought, pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and stole another glance at the guy opposite her. 

He was definitely good-looking. No doubt about that. Wavy, dark brown hair that was just a little too long to be fashionable, but not long enough for it to be unkempt. In the late afternoon sunshine it looked almost red when his head moved. 

She could see his hand rubbing at the slight stubble on his chin as he read, his brows furrowing in concentration. It was a very nice chin, she thought, right above which were a couple of very nice lips followed by a long, slightly crooked nose. She had always been a sucker for long noses – Adrien Brody totally had the most beautiful nose ever– and the sight of his had been enough to almost make her turn in the door.

Vanessa disliked and avoided good-looking people, especially guys the way other people disliked and avoided poisonous snakes and spiders. They absolutely terrified her. Not only did they cause emotions she found both riddiculous and embarrassing, they also made her stop using her brain. Vanessa knew from personal experience that the consequences of someone like her not using their brain could be lethal. With the situation she was in right now, it would be terminal.

He looked up from his books as if he knew she had been watching him and she felt her breath catch when she stared into a pair of startling green eyes.

Once, when she was little, she and her family had gone to Austria for a holliday trip. Her sister had spent most of the time complaining about having to sit in a car for hours, but Vanessa had been absolutely mesmerized. By the mountains, the food, the strange language people around her was speaking in. More than anything, she had been amazed by the green water. The lakes were green, the rivers were green. An intense, sparkling green that seemed to glow from within when the sun hit it.

She knew she was sitting in a library in southern Indiana, but for a second she was back in Austria, looking down into a mountain river,her mother yelling at her not to stand to close to the water. The green eyes narrowed into slits and she blinked confusedly. Ah, yes, she had been caught staring. She shook her head to clear it and focused on the lap top in front of her instead. Way to go Vanessa, way to ... use your brain.

She took a deep breath and tried to focus on what she was supposed to be doing, which was to work. She opened up the laptop and checked her inbox to see if Ross had sent her the material for the new website he wanted her to make. Nope. Vanessa sighed to herself and typed a quick message to him. There was no way she was going to be able to meet their aggreed on deadline if he didn't send her his stuff on time.

At least Martha had sent over the texts she needed her to proof read. Great, best start with that while she still had a clear head. She sent the whole ting to the printer and got up from her seat.

 Pretty boy was still glaring at her. She glared back. Honestly, what was his problem? It was not her fault the seat opposite his was the only one available in her favorite part of the library. There must be exams coming up or something because she had never seen this many people in Tell City public library before.

She made her way past him and over to the printer to gather up the twenty-something pages. She preferred proof-reading on paper. Finding errors when reading on screen was harder and it made her head hurt.

Vanessa started scanning through the papers on her way back to the desk. It was Martha's latest version of the third chapter of her book and Vanessa had been itching to get her hands on it. She just knew it was going to be good. No publisher was going to be able to say no to it when it was finished and Martha would be able to leave her job working in a high school cafeteria and really make her mark on the world. Vanessa smiled to herself. It probably wasn't a good idea for an editor to get this attached to a customer's project, but she just couldn't help herself. She felt as if it was her project too.