Love, In Theory

Chapter One

"Once upon a time, there lived a princess in a faraway kingdom named Tiffany Love…”

Now, most of you would think that my story is like something that comes from the pages of a fairytale or fiction, as you may have read from the back of this book. But it’s not, okay?

My ‘kingdom’ is located in the heart of New York city: The Hearts Galore Incorporated. It’s a museum of love. People may put in exhibit their memoirs from their relationships.

They do that either to get rid of the junk but doesn't have the heart to burn them(like those people who believe in second chances), try to forget them or to remember them without them worrying if they lost it or some such. Some just like to have a bit of fame.

My mom is the CEO of the company, since she is the Interim Goddess of Love. I can practically see your puzzled frown. No, she is not Aphrodite/Venus.

See, you may not be aware of this, but about two decades ago, the Olympians reached a compromise after two consecutive wars with Kronos then Gaea and the giants. To keep the fire of the western civilization burning, they remained but they did not resume their responsibilities. Like a computer on hibernate mode. Because they thought that Gaea and Kronos would stop trying to dethrone them if they were not actually ruling. And also, to give the demigods a chance to taste what being a god is like, so that they will stop siding with the bad guys to change the world for the greater good. But obviously, they thought wrong.

Anyway, before the gods hibernated, they chose humans and demigods to resume their responsibilities.(I heard tell they were on BoraBora, and not exactly hibernating)

Aphrodite/Venus chose my mom to become her Interim Goddess of Love along with other powers and perks. Since my mom was pregnant with me that day, Eros/Cupid told my mom that he would like me to be his interim and my mom agreed. He probably knew that his job is so hard that no sane person would agree to do it in his stead. If I could talk right then, I would refuse straightaway. Unfortunately, I couldn’t.

So since the day I could walk, my mom taught me how to be Cupid/Eros. But before that, she asked Eros to make duplicates of love-arrows, so she could hire some demigods to be the temporary cupids.

Those cupids taught me what they learned as I was growing up. I was a very dreadful shot at first. I keep on knocking things over, or breaking things because I can’t shoot my target. I even made some people fall in love with their pets, or their reflections and worse. I even stopped a wedding once when the bride decided she was in love with one of the pews. Then she was in love with the Bible. Then she was in love with the ring-bearer(who was her nephew). Then she was in love with the priest! Good thing Cupid’s original quiver doesn’t run out of arrows because my mom would have killed me if she knew I practiced in a room full of people. Finally, I returned her to her original state: being in love with her groom. 

Anyway, the cupids liked their jobs, so mom decided to keep them. Then she got the idea of the Hearts Galore Inc., so she hired them to help her.

So, you already know my name. Tiffany Love. Daughter of the interim Goddess of Love and the Interim Cupid. I’m seventeen and I have Nile blue eyes ringed with gold. I have blonde hair with black streaks in it. My mom said I inherited from my dad. My dad is dead, but I see him sometimes in Elysium. Every time I’m summoned to the Underworld, I always visit him—sometimes together with my mom.

That’s one of the perks of being an interim goddess.

Someone poked me and I looked up from doodling all over my book to my bestfriend, Ruby.

I raised a brow at her.

She gestured to our English teacher who was lecturing about Cinderella. I was not really listening because I'm preoccupied about our project. I was thinking about writing our world since everyone would think it's fiction anyway. Maybe I'd get an A for creativity. I'm just worried what my mom would think