Page 8 of Matchmaking With Cupid

"This is Eloise, one of the matchmakers here at Jinx," Cupid said, gesturing to me and smiling. "She'll be your main point of contact."

"Then what are you doing here?" Hades asked, leaning back in his chair. When he did that, there was more of the power that I expected him to have.

"It's standard protocol whenever we have a client of your status," Cupid responded. "This is my department."

"Fine." He crossed his arms. "What do you want to know?"

"What do you want out of Jinx?" Cupid asked. "Are you looking for something serious, or are you just looking for a few dates?"

Hades raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

Cupid made a note, but I had no idea what he'd managed to get out of the response. I would have to ask him once we were alone.

"Would you prefer a date that was a more intimate setting or one that involves being around more people?" Cupid asked.

Hades shrugged.

I cleared my throat. "If you don't mind me saying, Mr Hades, we're here to help you find the right match," I said softly. "I know our questions might feel intrusive, but they're to help us make the right choices for you."

Hades looked over at Cupid, who didn't say anything, surprising me slightly. I thought he'd step in and imply that I was overstepping or something like that.

"She's right," he said firmly.

Hades sighed. "This isn't something I'm good at."

"That's okay, that's why we're asking these questions." I felt more confident speaking up now, especially when he was reacting favourably. "Once you've told us what you like and what you want, we can match you with someone suited to you. But we can only do that if we have all of the information."

The man opposite nodded. "Fine. Ask your questions."

I tried not to be too obviously pleased with the response, but it was hard not to be when Hades had been a bit difficult up until now. I looked at Cupid who nodded, seemingly encouraging me to be the one to lead the interview. He had said that might be a possibility, but I hadn't actually expected it to happen.

"Would you prefer a date that was a more intimate setting or one that involves being around more people?" I asked Hades, repeating Cupid's question.

"Something lowkey," Hades responded. "I wouldn't want anything that's over the top or about who I am. I would need it quiet and intimate. A dinner, ideally. With good food and some musicians."

"Would you want to organise that yourself, or would you like Jinx to take care of it?" I asked.

"Is that possible?"

"For a fee," Cupid responded. "We'd run everything by you, naturally."

"Then let's do that."

I almost sighed with relief now it seemed like Hades was actually going to answer our questions and not make things difficult for us.

"Do you have any pets?" Cupid asked.

"Just Cerberus," Hades responded.

I had questions I wanted to ask in response to that, but they were mostly for my own curiosity rather than anything to do with matchmaking.

"So I suppose that anyone who didn't like dogs would be out," Hades said.

Cupid nodded. "Absolutely. It's important to us that our matches are made with considerations for our clients' most important and non-negotiable issues."

"Good, good."

Cupid continued to ask questions, while I took some notes and made sure the recording device was still turned on so I could listen back to everything later. The questions weren't that different from the ones I'd filled out on the matchmaking quiz myself. Hades wasn't the easiest client to get information out of,but once he got started, we got enough out of him that we could make a decent start on getting him a good match.

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