Page 5 of The Perfect Matchmaking

Hence, she’d chosen to do her damn job and not involve herself with anyone. Her one-and-done affairs with mortals never had any future to speak of, and so she remained alone. She had found the balance between her duty and her own peace. Until a few days ago…

Why would Zeus try to upset the already shaky balance now? What was he plotting?

Her phone dinged with an incoming message, and she unlocked it to be greeted with a succinct text from Sabine.

“See you in Vegas.”

Yes, she’d been right to tell Erato that she could always count on Sabine to be her Queen of the Perfect Match. The cupid never missed. As for Erato’s prediction that Sabine would want to extract some kind of revenge on Aphrodite, she just chuckled to herself. The only thing she had to fear from that particular cupid was a perfectly aimed silver arrow, and Aphrodite was fairly certain that, after centuries of going through the motions, she’d become immune to love.

She toasted her reflection in the window with her flute.

“There is nothing Sabine Goddard can inflict upon me.”

2

WHERE A TRAP IS LAID (IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE)

Two thousand loud, unruly cupids? Check.

Nine apathetic muses? Check.

Twelve accursed family members, er, Olympian deities? Check.

Among those, one ex-husband, his brother—also a former lover—a manipulative ex-mother-in-law, and a crazy ruler of the world with despotic yet sexualized proclivities. Oh, and Erato. Perpetually horny.

As Aphrodite went through her mental list, she realized one person was still unaccounted for. Her Queen of the Perfect Match. She checked her watch as she left the bustling MGM Convention Center to head for her meeting. Still no sight of Sabine Goddard. Neither could she see her wife, the lovely, adorable and decidedly shrewd—despite certain claims to the title of Cinnamon Roll Extraordinaire—Abby Angellini. Or whatever cutesy, hyphenated names those two were going by these days.

It should be sweet.

Aphrodite, as the Goddess of Love, should see it that way and toast their saccharine marriage with whatever alcoholic beverage she happened to be holding at that time. Instead, shegrimaced and got disgusted with herself for feeling disgusted at the cupids who were constantly sucking face nowadays.

She sighed as she reached the reserved table at the most trendy Vegas restaurant. She exhaled and reveled in being the first one there. At least, Mizumi, with its Michelin star, and the out-of-this-world Japanese cuisine, were worth partaking in a meal with a bunch of spoiled prima donnas. Still, as her heart rate spiked and her vision grayed in what was certainly an impending panic attack, she thought that perhaps she was more unsettled than she had allowed herself to acknowledge. No, tonight’s upcoming dinner with Zeus and his posse was getting to her, that was all.

Breathe. In and out. In and out.

“It’s not going to be that bad, Dite.”

She should’ve scented him before she even heard him since he approached her in his customary cloud of perfume, but her distraction and self-pity were starting to take their toll. Annoying as Apollo was, his powers of foresight were sadly unmatched, so him reading her was not a surprise.

“If prior experience is anything to go by, are you really calling getting interrogated for two hours instead of enjoying amazing food ‘not that bad’?”

“You’ve gotten too spoiled in Paris. All this ‘do as I please’ if you will, is not necessarily good for you. The optics?—”

She had no time for his pussyfooting around.

“Optics be damned! It’s my will. And it’s my domain, Apollo. Well, if by ‘spoiled’ you mean that I’ve gotten used to other gods minding their own business and staying out of mine, since they have no Earthly idea what the hell they’re doing when it comes to love, then, yes, I’ve gotten spoiled.”

“I meant the dinner company, Dite, but sure, whatever you say. I’m determined to enjoy the food, the entourage, not to mention placating Zeus helps keep the peace. And moreover,you really can’t expect to start doing your own thing, remain unaccountable to everyone for so long, and not invite some Olympian scrutiny.”

He performed a carefully choreographed toss of his flowing blonde mane. Half the people sitting at nearby tables swooned. She’d have laughed at the pretentiousness of it all, but she had more pressing issues. She remembered Erato’s advice to question him about what was really going on. Plus something in his tone, in the way he was wording his sentences, gave her the creeps. Hadn’t he mentioned ‘optics’ a few minutes ago?

“Is this why he’s here? Why you’re all here? The Olympian scrutiny of my wayward, independent ways? And don’t tell me you don’t know. Even if nobody told you, you’d have figured it out.”

“I mean, I don’t need to employ my divine powers of deductive reasoning, Dite, to know that nothing happens among this crowd that isn’t caused by the old horn-dog getting spun up about something. Plus the whole business with Athena… Here he comes, though, so we shall see. If I were you, I’d pretend to enjoy the hell out of myself and probably keep my mouth shut. Oh, and if possible, make yourself invisible?”

The whole business with Athena?

She decidedly did not remember what Apollo was talking about, until it hit her. Athena and her rebellion. Her veritable emancipation. The abandonment of her divine duties…

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