Page 7 of Winning Back Persephone

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I did my best to blink them away. I wasn't made to live on my own. Even before Hades, I'd had my mother around, and even if she was infuriating and overbearing, she'd been someone to talk to.

Now it was just me and my plants. I flicked on the light and reached out to touch the nearest leaf. The monstera reacted immediately to my touch, the leaves growing greener and the stalks standing taller. For most people, it would be a matter of imagination, but I knew that it was real. I might have become a goddess over two and a half thousand years ago, but it had never overridden my dryad nature, and plants tended to respond to me when I was around. And especially when I touched them. My flat might be empty of people, but it was full of plants, and they were all I really needed.

I hung up my coat and grabbed my phone from my handbag, leaving everything else by the front door in case I decided to go out again. Maybe today was the kind of day when I needed to take myself out to a nice restaurant instead of sitting around with a ready meal, feeling sorry for myself. I could cook the basics, but I was often too tired to manage.

At least I had good coffee in the kitchen and some baklava left over from when I had dinner with Nyx the other night. It wasn't much, but it would serve as a pick-me-up.

I made my way through to the kitchen, glad there was a plan forming. Everything in here gleamed, reminding me of how little I cooked. I'd never been very good at making anything fancy, whereas Hades loved to find his way around the kitchen. Except when it came to breakfast, then it was only cereal for him, as if he was a seven-year-old child instead of a two-thousand-eight-hundred-year-old god of the dead. He'd particularly enjoyed the time when they'd come with free gifts about ten years ago and had a whole shelf dedicated to the things in his home office. At the time, I'd rolled my eyes, but now when I thought about it, I smiled. It was strange how the little things that were easy to take for granted became the things that were easy to miss. I never imagined how much I'd miss hearing his opinions about the mundane things or having someone to share my own mundane thoughts with.

I set my phone down on the side and started making myself coffee, tryingnotto think about Hades and all of the things I missed about living together. I didn't feel bad about the fact I didn't have a dog under my feet right now or that when I fell asleep on the sofa, there was no one to carry me to bed. I liked my independence, and I liked being able to pursue my businesses.

A small voice in my head whispered that I'd still been able to do that when I'd been with Hades, but I shut it down. I hadn'tended things because he hadn't let me be me, I'd walked away because sometimes, I wanted him to do things with me, to move out of his safe shell and show me that he was capable of more than just sitting in the same club he'd owned for thousands of years. It made money, but I needed more of a challenge than that.

My phone lit up, and I grabbed it, assuming that it was something to do with the new handbag shipment I was expecting in time for my launch event.

I bit into a piece of baklava while I tapped through to my emails. My eyebrow raised as I realised it wasn't anything to do with handbags but was an email from Jinx instead.

My heart raced as I opened it. Despite signing up and filling out all of the forms with the matchmaking department, I was nervous about seeing what had come from it, and I wasn't really sure I even wanted to go on a date. But I had to move on, and the only way to do that was to go on a date with someone whowasn'tHades. I took a deep breath and read the email twice just to make sure I'd understood.

I'd been set up on a date. It didn't say with whom, but it assured me there was a high match rate with the person I'd been set up with.

The bright pinkacceptbutton was in the middle of the email, but my thumb hovered over the smallerdeclinebutton.

"Come on, Persephone," I muttered under my breath. People knew me as the goddess of spring and the queen of the underworld, I wasn't someone who should be scared about clicking one button in an email. If the date went badly, it would be the end of it and I wouldn't have to see the other person ever again. It was as simple as that.

I set down my baklava and hit the pink button. I stared at the screen as if I expected something to happen. Maybe for it to burst out in a shower of pink sparks or something like that. Itwasn't really my thing, but it seemed like something Jinx would do.

A second email notification popped up on my screen, and I clicked on it, taking me to a new email with more details about my date, including where it was and what to wear, though it still didn't tell me anything about the other person. I supposed that was going to be a surprise when I got there.

I just had to hope it was one I was prepared for.

Chapter 5

PERSEPHONE

The taxi pulled up outside the restaurant, and I almost told them to carry on and take me home. My heart was racing faster than I thought possible. But it would be rude of me to stand up the person waiting for me to join them for dinner.

Instead of running away, I tapped my card to the driver's payment machine and got out of the car. My dress fluttered against my legs as I strode up to the entrance, and I felt better now I had the reminder that I was wearing a dress that I knew made me look great and my favourite pair of heels that never made my feet ache. I looked good, and I knew I was a catch. That meant this date would go just fine.

The question was really whether I was emotionally ready for the stranger waiting for me inside. I swallowed my nerves and held my head up high as I stepped into the restaurant. Even without knowing anything about it, I could tell that it was an exclusive place, likely with a fancy menu. At least that was a nice change from the ready meals I had at home. They were good quality ones, but they were still nothing compared to properly cooked food. Maybe that was motivation to date all on its own.

I approached the stand where a man in a neat suit was waiting and smiled. "Hi, I'm Persephone. I'm here for a date set up by Jinx."

"Of course, ma'am," the man responded. "If you'd like to follow me, I can take you to your table." He gestured for me to follow him into a spacious dining room and towards a table by the window with candles flickering around it and a rose in the centre.

He directed me to my seat and promised to have someone over to take our order shortly.

A man was already waiting there and rose to his feet.

I stopped in my tracks as soon as I met his gaze. "Hades?" There was no stilling the racing of my heart.

"Sephie?"

My heart fluttered at the sound of the name on his lips. No one called me that except for him, and it tore straight through me as a reminder of what we used to be to one another. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm waiting for a date."

I frowned. "I'mhere for a date. Jinx set me up on one."

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