Page 26 of Winning Back Persephone

"You could have done," I whispered. "If you'd needed my help."

"I know. But I found it. I swear it doesn't taste the same as it used to."

"Maybe they changed the recipe along with it?" I suggested. "You could probably find out if you look online, people will be talking about it."

"No one wants to listen to me complain about cereal," he said. "Only you."

"It's annoying," I agreed with him. "And such a drastic change."

"Exactly. See, I knew you'd get it."

I sucked in a deep breath. It wasn't hard to jump to the conclusion that he'd been thinking about telling me about all of this every time he saw the blue of his cereal box instead of yellow.

"Anyway, it changed," he muttered.

"Do I need to start a cereal-making company just so the cereal never changes?"

"I think that might be a little extreme, Sephie. But if it keeps being a problem, I might take you up on the offer."

"It would certainly be a challenge. I've never done food before." Though I did help him with the club, so maybe I did havesomeknowledge.

"You haven't even launched your latest business venture yet, you can't go straight into another one. You have to rest."

"I know that."

He raised an eyebrow.

"In theory," I mumbled. In truth, there was only one person who'd ever been able to talk me down from putting too much on my plate, and I'd barely talked to him in the past two years. It was only just becoming clear to me how much I'd missed having him to talk to about anything and everything.

And the worst part was that I'd done this to myself.

"This is nice," I said, looking up from my bowl. "Maybe I could make you dinner? To say thanks."

He raised an eyebrow. "To say thanks?" His expression left no doubt that he saw through my thin excuse for spending more time with him.

"Yes."

"All right. But only if I can make you a thank you dinner for the thank you dinner."

I laughed. "Is that not just dating?"

"I don't know, Sephie, is it?"

I sucked in a sharp breath. This was it. I didn't know how to get things back to where they'd been when I'd left, but here was an opportunity I couldn't refuse. "Yes."

"I like the sound of that."

"Me too."

We ate our breakfast in comfortable silence. We'd shared this kind of morning more times than I could count, but it felt like I'd never properly appreciated them before. Or maybe I had in the beginning but had forgotten closer to the end of our relationship.

It was clear that I couldn't return to denial after last night. I just had to make sure that I didn't mess this up for a second time.

Chapter 14

HADES

The house seemed emptier without Persephone in it, and even Cebby seemed to have noticed. He was padding around, looking at the spots where she'd been as if expecting her to appear.

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