“To be honest, it doesn't.” I held out my glass for him to top it off then I hopped onto the counter.
He leaned a hip against it a few feet away. “You need to understand something, people have different life forces. Sometimes a stronger life force overwhelms the weaker ones.”
“What’s your next line? I have no friends because they’re all secretly jealous of me?”
He smiled and let out what sounded like a little laugh. “Actually, you have no friends because I can be a bit of an ass.” He moved over and topped off my glass but didn't move back again.
“Yeah, forgot to thank you for that.” I laughed at the absurdity of it all and then threw back the last of my glass.
I scooted off the counter and walked toward his room. “I'm going to bed now, in your room. Please wait until I fall asleep?”
“Just tell me one thing and I'll never bring Charlie up again.”
The offer was too tempting to turn down.
“Why would you keep watching him when you knew what the situation really was?”
I took a shaky breath before I forced the words from my mouth. Hearing them acknowledged it in a way that was hard to run from. “Because I miss my life.”
“But why not watch your old work or your parents?”
“He was the only part of it I could bear to see.”
***
I fell asleep easily but woke an hour later. I wasn't alone anymore. He wasn't touching me, but I could feel his heat.
And, for some reason, it made me feel more alone than ever. I turned on my side, facing away from him.
“You okay?”
I hadn't realized he was awake. “I'm fine.”
“You don't sound like it.”
“Leave it alone.”
I felt him turn in the bed and then his hand was resting on my shoulder.
“I told you, I’m fine. I’m trying to sleep.”
His hand paused briefly before he withdrew it.
Chapter Twenty-One
I was sitting at my usual table when Luck sashayed over. She sat down next to me as if it were something she did every day. “How you doin' darlin'?”
I looked up from my Dean Koontz paperback. I could relate to his writing on a whole other level, now.
“Fine. You?”
“Nothing amiss?” she asked, disregarding my question completely.
“Nope.” I forced a smile. What the hell did Fate tell her? I wanted to kill him. Wasn’t his little set up enough? I get it. My love life had sucked. If he had told the whole office, it was going to be war.
She sat back, lips pursed in deep thought. “Well, this isn't making much sense at all.”
“What would that be?”
“First he's all blustering about how we shouldn't be nice to you and now he's all over us to be nice to you. I don't know why I even listen to him. He never makes any sense.” She tapped the longest red nails I’d ever seen on the table.
“Do you always listen to him?”
“Depends on my mood and how pushy he’s being that day. He said it was better for you not to stay and he was being so…so Fate, if that makes sense.”
“I think I know what you mean.” I kept my face neutral.
“Him being Fate and all, most of us figured he knew what he was talking about. He always does. But then today he came in and told everyone to be nice. He's not much of a talker, so I figured I'd ask you. What changed his mind? You two getting it on or something?”
“No. Why would you even think that?”
“I guess the way you look at him. Then he told us to be nice. He's never wanted us to be nice to anyone, before.”
This was nice? I looked around. She was the only one that had even approached me. My thoughts must have been obvious to her.
“Well, we aren't a really warm group to begin with.”
“I thought Harold was in charge. Why do you listen to Fate?”
“I can understand the confusion. Harold is technically the boss.” She did air quotes when she said “boss.” “We listen to him as long as Fate doesn't tell us to do something different.”
“Why would you do that?”
She leaned back in the chair. “I don't know, exactly. Just seems natural, I guess.” I heard Elvis sing out from the cell phone she laid on the table next to her. She grinned when she looked at the number.
“I’ve got to take this. It was nice talking to you.”
The entirety of my “be nice” squad now gone, I put the Dean Koontz novel in my empty desk drawer and decided to stretch my legs a bit.
I walked down the hallway, thinking about introducing myself to the tooth fairy, when I read the plaque to the office next to us. “Find Your Match.” Who else would be better at telling me why my love life was a wreck, and according to Fate, for quite some time.
I should’ve asked him about that. How many lives of mine was he familiar with? And I hadn’t had a decent relationship in any of them?
I tried the doorknob and found the office open. I walked up to the receptionist, who looked like a blond Greek god and was smiling quite warmly in my direction.
“Is your boss in today?”
“Oh yes, he's been waiting for you, girlie. He thought you'd have been by, already.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Of course! You're the transfer. He's been watching you for a while, now.”
“Okay then.”
Adonis held up a finger and lifted the phone. “She's here.” He looked at me and smiled as he listened to the phone. He replaced the receiver and got up to open the inner door himself. “Go right in.”
I felt like a teenager when I walked in because the only word I could summon up for the scene in front of me was awesome.
The place was swarming with cupids. What looked like young girls and boys in white with fluffy white feathers were literally flying around a pure pink and red room. Everywhere I looked, there were satin couches and velvet chaises. It was like Valentine's Day on steroids.
“Camilla?” a deep masculine voice called and drew my eye to a couch situated in the back of the room. A gentleman dressed in a black silk suit lounged on the sofa. He had this blond wavy hair that looked so thick you itched to run your fingers through it, just to test it out. And then he smiled. He wasn’t what I imagined, even my imagination wasn’t this good.
“Darling, I've been dying to meet you.” He stood, waving me over. “So glad you stopped by!”
He kissed both cheeks and I couldn’t believe his smell.
“You smell so good. What are you wearing?”
“Oh, that’s just me.”
He led me over to a seat on the couch he had been occupying. He held one of my hands as we sat, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I wasn’t normally a hand holder and yet I didn’t mind.
“I figured I should say hello and introduce myself.” Maybe find out why my love life is a complete disaster?
“I've been waiting for you.” He turned his head in a way that had me re-situating myself in a more flattering position. “You're a very attractive soul.”
“Why thank you! So are you!” My voice came out an octave higher and I felt like a teenager who’d just been complimented by the quarterback.
“I know why you're here. You've had a rough time of it.”
“I have had some bumps.”
He squeezed the hand he held. “Don't worry. I’m going to get you all straightened out.”
“You mean when I get reborn?”
The door slamming drew our attention to Fate, who stood scanning the room, scowling until he locked eyes on us.
“Oh no,” Cupid said. “Looks like the fun police arrived. We'll have to catch up later.”
Fate was on us a minute later. “We've got to go.”
“Why?”
His eyes shifted to the door and back.
Was that supposed to tell me something? I wasn’t sure, but if I stayed with Cupid I was going to be giggling like a twelve year old soon.
Both Cupid and I stood. I wanted to know what Fate wasn't saying, and Cupid… I wasn't sure what he wanted. Cupid walked over to stand next to Fate and gave him a look like he was a ripe leg of lamb.
“She's all yours darling.” Cupid grabbed Fate's ass before he walked away.
“It was nice to meet you,” I called after him as he left.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be seeing each other again,” he yelled back.
I walked to the door with a scowling Fate. A slight shake of his head indicated he didn't want to talk there and I held my peace until we got outside.