Page 14 of Loved By Aphrodite

Artemis threw her hands in the air. “It’s incredible, isn’t it, after all she’s done for him?”

“She’s so blind.” Hephaestus reached into the popcorn bowl and took a handful, popping one into his mouth. “Why would she even put up with this?”

“I know, right?” she said, exasperated. “Goodness knows, she could have any man she wants. So, one more episode?”

He glanced at the clock. “Fuck, it’s been five hours?” How the hell did time pass by so fast?

“We’re only halfway done through the season,” she said. “Don’t you want to know if Steven and Lillia are gonna make it down the aisle?”

He groaned. “Don’t tell me his ex-girlfriend is going to object at the wedding.”

The corner of her mouth tugged up. “Alright, I won’t tell you. So, this trash isn’t so bad, is it? Or rather, it’s so bad, it’s good.”

Apparently, it had been good enough for him to forget that he had wasted five hours of his time watching it. “Fine,” he grumbled. “Just play the next—” The buzzing from his pocket interrupted him. Taking his phone out, he looked at the caller ID, which didn’t show any name, but rather an unfamiliar number. Who could be calling him? This was his Olympus phone, so the call was coming from someone who lived there.

Artemis pointed the remote at the TV, pausing the show. “Go ahead.”

Tapping on the green button, he answered it. “Hello?”

“Um, Hephaestus? It’s me.”

Shock jolted through him at the sound of the familiar melodic voice. “Aphrodite?”

“Yeah. I hope you don’t mind. I got your number from Apollo.”

“Is that Aphrodite?” Artemis squealed. Grabbing the phone from him, she hit the camera button. “Hey, Aphrodite! How are you?”

“Damn it, Artemoula! Give me back my phone.” He attempted to take it back, but she yanked it away from him.

“How are you? What are you doing? You should totally join us if you’re not doing anything. We’re watching this show—hey!”

He glared at her as he plucked the device from her hand. “Well, excuseyou.”

“Aww, no fair, H!” She crossed her arms over her large belly. “You know what? I’m going to watch this next episode without youandI won’t share my password with you so you can’t watch it.Nyeh, nyeh, so there.”

Seeing the former goddess of the hunt pouting like a child who didn’t get her way and threatening him was so ridiculous, he could barely smother his laugh. “You know, just because you’re having a baby doesn’t mean you can act like one.” Shaking his head, he padded to the kitchen. “Sorry about that,” he said to Aphrodite.

“I should be the one apologizing. Am I interrupting anything?”

Only the order in my life.“What? No, we were just watching some stupid reality show. What is it? Is everything alright? Do you need anything?”

“N-no, it’s nothing.” She chomped at her lower lip. “I was just checking if there was any progress on that app.”

“I’m afraid not. Nothing solid anyway.” He explained what he had accomplished so far, including the program he created to automate the process of unraveling Eros’s work. “So, that’s about it. Just a lot of waiting for now.”

“I see. How could he do this?” She clucked her tongue. “I mean, how did he even know how to do this?”

Aphrodite had no idea what her son was capable of. “I may have…taught him some stuff.”

“You taught him?”

He scratched at his head. “A couple of decades back he saw me learning how to code. I showed him a little bit of it. I mean, I was still using those punch cards.” That had been in the seventies and that first computer had taken up an entire room. “Every now and then he comes by and we look at the latest gadget or whatever and I teach him how it works.” Guilt crept into him. “Maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged him to?—”

“What, oh no, no,” she protested. “Don’t feel bad about teaching him how to code or anything else. You know, I don’t resent him spending time with you after we…” She cleared her throat. “He’s an adult, he can do what he wants. And as such, he’s also responsible for his own actions.”

“True.” He rubbed his thumb at his chin. “In any case, it looks like he picked up a few things on his own. I’ve been having a heckuva time figuring it all out.”

“Do you know when your program will be done?”

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