Interim Goddess of Love #1 of 3 (COMPLETE)

Chapter 16

It was another one of those days when, just before six p.m., the setting sun would turn the sky into a bright orange. A minute later it would be blood red, and then it would dip into the horizon and just be gone.

Almost pretty enough for me to forget that there was a very angry god scolding me that very moment.

Blah blah you shouldn't have done that Diego is irresponsible and never thinks ahead you know better than to mess with destiny while you know nothing about your power blah blah blah...

Of course, Quin being angry didn't mean he actually snapped and lost it. It was more of the anger of a preschool teacher, trying to convey to a four-year-old (that would be me) in a measured tone just how disappointed he was.

"Well it's not like I can un-know what I know, right?" I said. "I already found out who it is. So I just need to bring the two of them together, and it's happily ever after, and we can move on to the next project."

"'Moving on to the next project' is not the point of all of this."

"It's not? Shouldn't I be helping as many people as I can?"

"Do you seriously think it's your role to pair everyone up? That you'd be given this kind of power just to make sure everyone has a date to the next party?" He said this with so much disdain that I wondered if the original goddess of love quit because she didn't want to be picked on by the second-generation gods anymore.

"What am I supposed to do?" I said. "They open up to me, and this is what they want. And I'm their advocate, right? Diego just... showed me a shortcut. It all works out the same way in the end!"

I wasn't sure if Quin had telepathic powers but I could swear that with everything I said, I knew just what his response was going to be.

You're wrong, Hannah. You don't know what you're doing. That was not what you were supposed to do. I was wrong picking you for this—you obviously can't handle it.

"I'd be better at this if you trusted me more," I said, without even hearing his actual response. "You chose me because I had instincts. And I do believe that Kathy and Jake belong together. I've seen how they both feel about each other. It doesn't matter how I found out, right? What matters is that I make it happen somehow."

"What matters, Hannah, is that you learn how to do this the right way."

"What way? Your way? Because Diego and Vida get to have their own way and I don't, right?"

Okay, so I said that because I was goading him. Maybe I wanted to see him actually angry. I was still jazzed up from my day with Diego and was in the mood for a cathartic screamfest.

"We'll talk when you've calmed down. And when you're ready to do this properly again."

Not the reaction I want.

"Whatever, Quin. They'll be at the Bash together, even if you don't want to help me."

I turned on my heel so I could leave him up there on the roof of the North building alone.

And then, a second later:

Shit. Now I don't have a date to the Bash. Not that I was hoping he would ask me... but yeah I was hoping he would ask me.

Which made me even angrier, and all the more eager to get Kathy and Jake there together. I mean, someone should be there with the guy she liked.

I didn't stop walking.