The Problem With Fairy Tales

Chapter 7

"You, uh, look good."

Valerie lifted an eyebrow at Hayden's comment.  She looked down at herself, trying to see what Hayden would.  Her coffee skin that hinted at her Spanish bloodline.  The worn out red Converse.  Her scraped and bruised knees.  The unflattering beige uniform.  Her knitted cardigan that had seen better days. And the black nail polish that was chipping off of her fingers bit by bit. 

Valerie was (or at least, tried to be) an adamant believer of inner beauty.  But she wasn't naive or stupid enough to think that appearance and outer beauty weren't important at all.  Every now and again, Valerie enjoyed glamming up and putting a bit more effort into how she looked. 

Today was not such a day.  She hadn't even bothered to put mascara or concealer on, and there was an ugly pimple forming on her forehead.

Instead of calling out the male's obvious lie, Valerie just forced a tight lipped smile and muttered a thanks.  She would've preferred honesty above halfhearted compliments any day.

"Oh, and before I forget," Hayden announced after a few seconds of awkward silence, "here's your purse.  You forgot it this morning."  The brown haired male retrieved a small jean purse and pushed it towards Valerie. The thought of the muscled 6'2 male carrying a tiny purse all across town made a real smile spread across her lips.

"So," Valarie started, her tone a bit more welcoming, "how did you figure out where I worked?"

Hayden instantly found the salt pot very interesting to look at.  "That's not important."

Valerie raised her eyebrows.  "Well, OK."  All hints at friendliness disappeared.   

Pointedly ignoring her sharp tone, Hayden said, "Let's just start at the beginning, yeah?"

After a roll of the eyes and a curt nod from Valerie, he cleared his throat and sat up straighter.   "I'm Hayden Hunter.  I enjoy taking walks on the beach and I'm really sorry about everything I've put you through."

Valerie clenched her jaw and let a breath out through her nose.  "I'm Valerie Lockhart, I think long walks on the beach are overrated, and I accept your apology."

Hayden gave a relieved smile, and launched into a series of questions about her.  For a while, they only answered a few generic questions about themselves and got to know each other.  Apart from the few awkward silences every now and then, everything went fairly smoothly. 

Until...

"So how come you and all of your friends from the hotel have weird elf ears?"  Valerie stuffed a few pieces of the fries they had ordered  a while ago into her mouth.  She kept her eyes on the plate rather than looking into his deep green eyes.

"The hotel?"

"Yeah, the building where you held me hostage this morning."

"I did not hold you hostage.  I let you go the second you wanted to."

"OK, chill."  She held her hands up in surrender.  "You know what I mean."

Hayden took a deep breath, then took a long sip of his Coke.  "The 'hotel', as you put it, is our headquarters.  We just call it the Nerve."  Another sip.  "And the people there aren't my friends.  They're... colleagues.  Rowan and M-"  His face contorted as if he tasted something bitter.  He took another sip, as if to get rid of the taste.   "Rowan is the only exception."

Valerie's eyes narrowed.  "OK...  You still haven't answered my question though.  Why do you have those pointy ears?  Plastic surgery gone wrong?"