Page 28 of Winning Back Persephone

Without thinking about it too much, I leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for coming."

"Always, Sephie." He held the plant out to me. "For you."

I took it from him, sending my magic through the plant. "Daffodils?"

"They're supposed to symbolise new beginnings," he said.

My heart fluttered. "I see."

"For your launch."

"Oh." I looked down at the plant. I'd hoped he'd meant for something else.

"And for..."

"Persephone, my beloved, everything looks wonderful!"

I groaned at the sound of my mother's voice and flashed Hades an apologetic look as my mother swept into the room. She came to a stop as soon as she noticed Hades standing beside me.

"Well, I didn't expect you to be here," she said, the warmth in her voice leaching away immediately.

"Demeter," Hades said warily. "You look well."

"I suppose I do. Persephone, a word."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry," I said to Hades. "We can finish this conversation later?"

He nodded, looking a little relieved. I had no idea if that was because I wasn't brushing him off, or because he didn't have to deal with my mother.

"Would you like me to put the daffodils in the back?" he offered.

"Yes, please." I hesitated for a moment, wanting to lean in and kiss him again, but thinking better of it when my mother was standing right there.

Watching him leave was hard, even if I knew that he was going to be back before I knew it.

"Persephone, Persephone, Persephone," my mother said.

"Μ?να," I responded. "Thank you for coming."

"What is Hades doing here?"

"I invited him." I crossed my arms and tried not to get too defensive about it.

"What are you doing, beloved?" She pulled some of my hair over my shoulder and patted it somewhat affectionately.

"I'm launching a line of handbags." Somehow, she always made me feel like an insolent teenager, even though that hadn't been the case for a very long time.

"With your ex-husband."

I resisted the urge to look over in the direction he'd disappeared. It was a good question. WhatwasI doing? Being around him made me miss him. Thinking about him made me miss him. Nothing had changed, and yet it felt as if everything had.

"He's not my ex-husband, we're still married," I said.

"Oh, Persephone. Why didn't you sort that out?"

Because I wasn't ready to. As far as I could tell, there had been a part of me since the break-up that had constantly wished that we could find our way back to one another, even if I hadn't done anything about it.

"Hades is my guest tonight," I said firmly. "You will be polite to him."

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