Ordinary Girl

Chapter Four: Gillian

Gillian

I was so happy, I wanted to bounce.  It took all of my self-control to hold myself together and act normal… as normal as it is to accost a stranger at her work place and declare her your soul mate.  And oh yeah, it’s a two-for-one deal.  George was hissing at me to calm down and take it easy through the mind link, but I just couldn’t.  Five years of waiting, guessing, anticipating, feeling lonely and unfulfilled… and the answer to everything was standing before us, surrounded by stainless steel equipment, looking slightly dazed and soggy.

So the first thing I notice right away, is that she’s not a werewolf.  She’s definitely a human.  So that’s a little unusual, but not unheard of.  She wasn’t very tall, and she was seriously overweight, but she was still super-cute… even drenched with sweat and dishwater.  I wanted to jump in and scoop her up and bury my nose in her neck so I could drown in that sweet-cherry scent.  I felt a little shiver of disappointment from George, and I shot him a quick glare.  I knew what he was thinking… he had always envisioned our mate as a tall blond underwear model.  He used to joke that a pretty blond would look hot between the us with our dark skin and hair.  Well, he was just going to have to amend that, because I was already smitten with this girl.  She was perfect, exactly the way she was.  The only thing I wanted to change was that slightly terrified look that kept flickering across her face as she tried to figure out what was going on.

Think.  Think Gill.  What do we do?  Introductions!  I gave her our names, and then I asked her, “What is your name, sweetheart?”

Her mouth opened, and closed, without any words coming out.  But just then one of the bus boys brought out another bin of dirty dishes.  “Alice!  What are you doing girl!  You know you aren’t allowed to bring people back here!  And we are out of sundae cups.”  The pimple faced kid glared at us as he set the dishes down on the floor with the other full bins.

Alice.  Oh goddess, it suited her perfectly… kind of sweet and old fashioned and innocent.  She snapped her sagging mouth shut and went back to work, turning her back on us as if we weren’t even there.

“What time is your shift over, Alice?” I tried again.

“Eleven” she mumbled.

“Okay, we’ll see you then.” I spoke as though she’d already agreed to meet us, and then I pulled George back out the door with me.

 I glanced at my watch.  We had less than an hour before she would be done with work.  Then… Then?  Then we would have to explain everything… but how would we get her to listen to us?  I slid back into the Jeep and picked up my pie with the melted ice-cream all over it.  I took a bite and savored the sweetness.  “George,” I said after some thought, “I think we are going to have to kidnap her.”