by Hart, Allysa
If I had known, I certainly would have done it sooner. Especially the spanking.
Opening my eyes when my alarm went off, I stretched and reached for her.
She wasn’t there.
Damn. I had been hoping for morning sex. Or shower sex. Either would have worked. I wasn’t picky.
I laid there for a moment, feeling bereft from her absence.
Don’t be over dramatic. She probably went home to change. She lives down the hall for fuck’s sake. She works across the street.
My stomach growled and I realized I was starving after all the exertion from last night's many activities.
Rolling out of bed, I padded into the kitchen, drank milk straight from the carton and ate two protein bars while fixing myself a half a dozen scrambled eggs and three pieces of toast.
I would have to jog to work to burnoff such a huge breakfast, but it would be worth it. I needed protein and lots of it.
After inhaling my protein-packed breakfast, and taking a hot shower to wake up my sore muscles, I dressed in my usual slacks and dress shirt. I stopped at Bekah’s apartment, hoping we could walk to work together, but she wasn’t there.
She must have already left.
She, like me, seemed to be a morning person, and often got to the shop early, ready to start her day, long before the opening hour. At the cafe on the corner, I stopped and bought two coffees, a black espresso for myself, and a vanilla latte for her.
I had a spring in my step that hadn’t been there the day before, and I was excited to get to work, and spread the love.
I went to her shop first, and when I got there, I stopped short, dropping her coffee in surprise. It splashed all over the sidewalk, and my shoes, but I didn’t move out of the way as I stared at the giant cardboard “out of business” sign in the window.
What the hell?
I grabbed the door, and pulled at it, frantically. It rattled a bit, but didn’t budge.
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I pulled up her contact and hit send to call her. Straight to voicemail.
“Fuck!” I yelled, far too loudly. She wasn’t at home. She wasn’t here. She wasn’t answering her phone. I had to know what was going on. Everything had been perfect last night, and now, she was what, ghosting me?
Flabbergasted, I looked up and down the street as if she would just appear. Everything else looked the same as it did every other morning. The shop owners were just arriving, and turning over their open signs for the day.
I turned to walk toward my own shop, out of sheer habit, and a lack of knowing what else to do, but stopped and headed to the bookstore instead.
Kimmy was a sweetheart, and I knew that she and Bekah were close. She had to know what was happening.
“Kimmy!” I called, poking my head in.
She popped up from behind the counter, and smiled. Her bright pink hair was a cheerful beacon amongst the dark colored bookshelves in the dim room.
“Hi Eros. What can I do for you today?”
I stepped in, and closed the door behind me, walking up to the counter, and speaking in a whisper.
“Have you seen Bekah today?”
Kimmy shrugged. “No, but I imagine she will be here soon.”
She wouldn’t, but I didn’t want to get into that.
“There is an ‘out of business’ sign on her door. It wasn’t there yesterday.”
Kimmy sighed. “What do you want me to say, Eros? She was struggling before you arrived. Now, with you here...things are really bad.”
“How bad?”
Kimmy sighed, shaking her head back and forth. “For her to put up a sign like that, I’d have to assume pretty bad. Happily Ever After was her grandmother’s. Bekah considered it her family’s legacy, and she would have done anything to protect it.”
Anything but try to compete with a guy who was literally Cupid.
Shit.
“It’s my fault,” I mumbled, talking more to myself than to Kimmy.
“You didn’t help matters,” she agreed. “But I’m telling you, Eros, for her to do that, things had to have been really epically hopeless. I think she was behind on her mortgage. Things don’t get that bad in two weeks time.”
“Okay. I hear what you are saying. I won’t blame myself.”
But I will find her. And I will fix it. And I will make her mine.
As soon as I figure out how.
Rebekah
I stepped back from behind the stack of bookshelves and exhaled.I had been holding my breath the whole time he had been in the store.
“Phew. That was close. Thanks for covering for me.”
“I get why you are doing what you are doing, Bekah, I really do, but explain why you are hiding from Eros? We talked this morning, and you sounded so happy.”
“That was before I got the letter about the foreclosure.”
“I know that. I just don’t see what one has to do with the other. So you’re losing your shop. That sucks, but why are you giving up love? Shop or no, Bekah, you believe in love. You live for the happily ever after and you finally have a chance at your own, and you’re throwing it away.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Well, I’ll say, it must be pretty damn complicated given the way you are acting. My lord, Bekah, have you seen that man? He is head over heels in love with you, and he looks like a Greek god!”
“Bingo. That’s exactly the problem,” I muttered under my breath.
“Pardon?” Kimmy pulled her signature move, dragging her glasses down her nose and peering at me over the top of them.
The way she was looking at me with that stern no-nonsense expression reminded me of Eros, and I fought back a fresh wave of tears.
“Nothing. Never mind. Can you just call Gerald and makes sure it’s okay if I stay with you guys for a while? I just don’t want to go home right now. I don’t want to risk running into him.”
Kimmy looked like she wanted to ask more questions, or to lecture me on running away from a good thing, but she didn’t.
“Honey, I don’t need to call Gerald. He loves you as much as I do. You were the one that fixed us up, remember? Of course you can stay with us for a while.” She dug in her purse, and held out a key. “Stay as long as you like.”
Chapter 16
Eros
I had called. I had texted. I had knocked on her door every day before and after work. I had asked everyone I could think of, and Bekah was nowhere to be found. Or more than likely they were all covering for her. She was after all, a native, and I was only the charismatic newcomer.
I had continued to keep appointments and make matches. Now it was Valentine’s Day, and everybody was matched but me.
As I did every day, I went in to work, but my shop was empty, save for my mice friends, and a few straggling visitors that stopped by with gratitude gifts.
At ten, I was just about to close up shop for the day and go home to lick my wounds with a bottle of cheap ouzo and a plate of nachos for one when there was a flash of lightning in my store.
Groaning, I waved away the cloud of smoke in front of me.
“Happy Day of Love, son! Oh good, you have your pants on this time! Come give me a hug.”
I couldn’t help but smile at my father’s cheerful face, as I stepped into his arms and took the offered hug. Zeus was standing behind him scowling with his arms crossed over his chest. I pointedly ignored him.
My father embraced me tightly, then pulled away, gripping my shoulders. He looked at me, and smiled, and then hugged me again.
This time when he pulled away, I stepped back, leaning against the desk.
“Happy Day of Love,” I repeated back to him.
“I’ve missed you. Tell me everything. How is it going? Have you found your one true love yet?”
My mouth twisted into a grimace. “It’s complicated.”
“It’s obviously not going well, Eros. I told you this was a lost cause. Just look at this place! It’s empty! On the Day of Love!”
“Three hundred and twenty-one, you say? Very good, very good indeed.” My father shot a smug smile to Zeus, looking for approval. He didn't get any.
“And what about your love? Any news on that front?”
I sighed deeply, not knowing where to begin, and not at all ready to admit defeat. I stared past them out the window, where that stupid cardboard sign still hung in the front of her shop.
Two weeks since I had seen her face, and I still couldn’t believe she had given up. Maybe I needed to give up.
A lightbulb went off in my brain, and my body buzzed with excitement as the solution hit me like a freight train that had come out of nowhere.
“I need to give up!” I shouted. “That’s it! That’s the answer! I need to give up!”
“See, Eros, I told you he couldn’t do it. He was never cut out to be a god. It’s not in his blood. We just made him one for you. You know we can’t have mortals living among us.”
I shook my head emphatically from side to side at Zeus’s words of discouragement. “Not give up! Give it up! Give it all up for love! That’s what I need to do!” I had only processed his first sentence before the rebuttal was out of my mouth, and when the rest of his disparaging speech caught up with me, my mouth dropped open, and I whirled on him. “Wait—what did you just say?”
My father's face was flushed with anger, and Zeus looked uncomfortable. “Did you say you made me a god? I wasn’t one?”
“Well, you know I found you when you were an infant .”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I guess I just never thought about the implications. I don’t remember ever not being a god.”
“Well, Zeus had the power to make you a god. You were just a baby, and he knew you would never know the difference. We made you a god, and gave you the powers of a god, and trained you up in the ways of a god. So no, you weren’t one by birth, but son, you are a god, and a damn good one.”
I ignored the compliment. As my father, he had to say that. “And my wings? Did Zeus give me those too?”
“Well yes, but, you needed them so that you would be able to follow in my footsteps. Finding you was a miracle. A gift from the gods, to ensure that love would continue to be spread throughout the lands.”
I didn’t know what to believe anymore, but I knew what to do. Standing up straight, I squared my shoulders and looked Zeus dead in the eyes.
“Make me a mortal.”
“Pardon me?”
“You made me a god when I was a baby, now make me a mortal.”
“Think hard about this, Cupid,” Zeus warned. “Once it is done, it can’t be undone.”
“You have all year to complete your mission, son. Let’s not make any rash decisions.”
I glared at them both. “I told you a month ago, and I’m telling you now; I won’t need a year. Now, make me a mortal. Take my wings, take my powers. I wish to be divested of my god status. For good. Once and for all. No take backsies.”
“Son.” My father was going to beg me to reconsider.
“Stop it. Both of you. Just stop. You sent me here to make my match. You knew. You knew that this was going to happen. You just said that mortals can’t live among gods. She’s not a god. It doesn’t matter if I can get her to fall for me. I can’t return with her. Zeus won’t make her a goddess. You guys knew. You knew this would happen. So let it happen. Strip me of my position.”
My father sighed, and even Zeus looked a little reluctant. “You are right. We knew it would happen. But we didn’t think it would happen this soon. You don’t even have her yet. Is she even in love with you? Where is she? It’s The Day of Love, and she’s not by your side. That doesn’t seem like a very promising situation. That seems like a very big risk, to give it all up, when you’re not even sure you will get what you want in return.”
“If I don’t get it, you’re going to strip me of my status anyway, remember? Love, true love, is about risks. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about giving it all up for the one you love, and not caring if you’ll get anything in return. It’s not about bows and arrows, and flying around in the clouds shooting people in the butt. I thought, when I was banished here that I was screwed, that I was coming to a place where nobody knew the first thing about how to love or to be loved, but now I’m convinced that we are the ones who didn’t know.”
Now they were both staring at me like I had grown a second head.
“Un-god me, for fuck’s sake!” I yelled, growing tired of arguing and explaining myself. “It’s the Day of Love and I have to go get my girl!”
Zeus circled me, three times, waving his hands in the air, and chanting in ancient Greek.
When he stopped, I felt different. Lighter somehow, and older.
“It is finished.” he said, when he stopped in front of me. “You, Eros Adonis, are no longer a god. You are a mere mortal, subject to all that that entails.”
I was struck with a moment of fear when I realized the implications of what I had just done.
The opposite of fear is excitement.
“I want to shut down this building too. No more Cupid’s Matchmaking Service. Undo whatever magic you did here.” I looked at them sheepishly, realizing only then that I had acted a little rashly. “And if you can spare any more magic for an ex-god, I could really use your help.”
“I suppose you’ll be wanting to keep the apartment too.”
“For now.”
Hopefully not for long.
“Okay, here’s what I need you to do.” I beckoned them closer, and they leaned in for a huddle as I whispered out the bones of my plan.
Operation: Cupid Daddy and his little lover is a go.
Chapter 17
Rebekah
“Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Kimmy’s overly cheerful voice rang through the room and I groaned, pulling the covers tighter over my head. It was too close. She was too close.
The covers were yanked off of me, and light filled the room, blinding me with it’s brightness.
“Ugh. Go away.” I flung my hand over my eyes, and rolled onto my side, away from her judging eyes.
She didn’t go away.
She’s never been a very good listener.
“Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“I took an early lunch.”
“Great. So go eat.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, and grabbed my shoulder, rolling me onto my back.
“Bekah, you know I love you, and that Gerald and I are always happy to have you and to help you with anything you need, but it has been two weeks and you have barely left my spare bedroom.”
“I like it here. It’s cozy. And safe.”
“Too bad. You’ve had your time to wallow and feel sorry for yourself. I’ve indulged your pity party, and I haven’t asked any questions. Now it’s time for you to rejoin the living.”
“Tomorrow,” I grumbled, grabbing for the blankets. She ripped them off the bed and out of my reach, and clapped her hands together.
“I don’t think so. Today is as good a day as any. Get up, shower, and get dressed. We are going to the cafe for lunch.”
I tried to curl into a ball, making myself smaller in hopes that she would get the message and go away, but she wasn't having it. She yanked my arm hard, and I fell onto the floor with a thump.
“Okay, okay, fine. I’ll get up.”
My stomach growled and I tried to remember the last time I had eaten a meal that wasn't mostly comprised of ice cream or ding dongs.
I really didn’t want to go out in public on today of all days, but now that she had mentioned the cafe, I couldn’t get their jalapeno-bacon mac-n-cheese out of my head.
Sigh.
“Okay fine, but you should know I’m
not happy about it. And I will get back at you somehow.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. You do that. C’mon now. Get up, and get ready.” She started to walk out of the room. “And make sure you start with a shower. You’re getting a little bit ripe!”
Glaring at her, I lifted one arm and took a whiff.
Ew. She wasn’t wrong.
Once I started getting up and indulging in a little bit of self care, it was hard to stop. Besides showering, and brushing my teeth and all the usual things, I had given myself a mud mask facial, painted my nails, and curled my hair.
Forget human. I looked downright pretty.
Too bad your life is falling apart, and the only person who will notice your efforts are Kimmy and maybe the waiter.
If I’m lucky.
Still, I put on the only dress I had with me, a pair of flats and a jean jacket.
You couldn’t tell by looking at me that my business failed and my non-existent love life had imploded to status level defcon one. You couldn’t tell that I was a twenty-nine year old life-failure with as few prospects in the career department as I had in the romance department.
None. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
I’m not going to think about that. Not today. Today, I’m going to put on my brave face, go out with Kimmy, and convince her that I’m not about to become the sad pathetic friend who lounges in her spare room eating bon-bons all day, and crying over the mess I’ve made of my life.
Maybe.
When I walked into the living room, Kimmy wolf-whistled, and pumped her fist in the air.
“Yes, girl! That’s what I’m talking about!”
Her bubbly enthusiasm made me laugh, and I actually felt halfway decent as we headed to the cafe.
I forgot that it was Valentine’s Day. I forgot that, thanks to Eros, everyone, and their dogs had been matched, and as the only decent lunch eatery in our small town, the cafe would be packed.
It was wall to wall. I was shocked we were even able to get a table, as the host led us through the crowded room to a small table in the back, I looked around and took stock of the situation. Every single person I knew was in the cafe, happily seated with the love of their life. Some of the couples were new, and some were old. Some had been married for years, and some had been dating only a few weeks, but everyone was matched. Sappy romantic love songs were being piped through the restaurant's sound system, and I was trying not to gag.