redeeming cupid 01 - struck by eros (6 page)

I had no interest in making sure they were connected. No interest in watching Len walk out of my life hand-in-hand with another woman. No interest in having my heart shattered into a trillion pieces. Again. But vocalizing my feelings would get me placed on the sideline, while Grayson hooked Len up with his supposed soul mate.

I should have fought against Cupid when all this soul mate nonsense started. The moment that gold arrow struck me in the behind. The moment I first saw Grayson sitting on that green park bench and felt the undeniable attraction to him. Damn it, I wasn’t going to allow Cupid to screw me anymore.

Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

Here’s hoping I had a big enough set of cojones to go against Cupid’s plans.

Len returned to the table and we all stood. “Ready for that lunch?” He checked his watch. “I don’t have another class for over an hour. What did you have in mind?”

Sneaking you out the back door and hiding you away from your perfect match.
“That little Greek place around the corner.”

Len’s match grabbed her coffee and headed out the door. Grayson extended his hand to Len. “Nice to meet you. Good luck with the marriage.” He laid his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off. “Get the job done.”

The smile I gave him was faker than our relationship. “This job is more complicated.”

“It’s rather simple for someone with your particular skill set.” Grayson turned his back on us and followed Len’s intended out the door.

It would be simple if I had any intention of following the rules.

“Is he always that demanding?”

I hooked my arm through Len’s. “He likes to think he’s more important than he really is.”

Len kissed the top of my head, and I melted into him. The contact reaffirmed my stance that Len would not be meeting Ms. Jogging-To-Make-Her-Ass-Look-Better.

Len was mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. I’d take whatever punishment Cupid dished out to stay with him. I’d fight dirty to protect my heart. Claws, teeth, kicks to the gonads. If Cupid had a problem with that he could climb down from Mount Olympus and tell me himself. Instead, he sent Grayson to do his dirty work.

My partner stood in the window and pointed to Len, then to me and mouthed the words, “Get out here.”

I shook my head no. His eyes popped wide.

Grayson glanced back at Len’s retreating matching arrow, back at me, then back to where she strolled through the student commons. Farther away from us. Farther away from Len. Farther away from Cupid’s control. Grayson ran his hands through his hair. Then he stormed through the door, red face, flared nostrils, lips flattened.

This was the first time I’d ever seen him pissed off. Not a good look for him. Or good news for me.

“Noel.” His fists clenching and unclenching at his sides caused his biceps to bulge under his dress shirt, a little dance of muscles that distracted me. “May I have a moment of your time?” His posture was full of all kinds of don’t-mess-with-me.

Len stepped in front of me. “Is everything okay?”

Grayson turned his focus on Len. “Just a few work items I failed to mention. I’ll be quick.”

The last thing I needed was for Grayson to unload all our dirty secrets in mixed company, and I was positive he would. Operation get-rid-of-fiancé was in full effect.

I placed my hand on Len’s shoulder. “Give me a minute to talk to Grayson, and I’ll catch up.”

“I’ll wait for you outside.” Len rubbed my back and shot Grayson a look that said
I wish you were dead
, then left through the door.

Grayson grabbed my upper arm and pulled me back to the bathrooms. He opened the men’s room door, shoved me through, and twisted the lock. I leaned against the urinal, and crossed my arms in front of my chest, prepared for a battle.

If I thought Grayson was mad before, it was nothing compared to the look of pure death on his face when he turned to confront me. “Mind explaining to me why Len’s fucking soul mate just got away?”

“I’m not giving him up.” I stuck my chin out and gave him a look I hoped curled his innards.

“And you think that’s going to be okay with Cupid, with Len, with the woman he’s supposed to be with?”

I steadied my words even though my heart had just entered the Kentucky Derby. “So, they don’t meet and he lives a happy life with me. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Grayson paced the small room. “You don’t know what the consequences are.” He stopped, hands on his hips. “Are you willing to risk his life for your own happiness?”

“This isn’t a life or death situation. It’s love, plain and simple. I love Len and he loves me. We belong together and that’s the way it’s staying.”

“I always thought you were selfish, but I chalked it up to me, to our situation. Now I realize you are truly selfish to the core.” He yanked open the door. “Fix. Your. Mess.”

I stood at the sink and allowed my heart to slow from a gallop to a lope. I didn’t know the consequences of not connecting two soul mates, but I’d take whatever Cupid shot my way, as long as Len stayed in my life.

Grayson could give me the pissed off, I-don’t-approve-of-your-choices attitude as much as he wanted, but Len’s soul mate was gone. Their once in a lifetime moment over. My heart fluttered like it had grown Cupid’s wings. The silly cherub lost. I got to keep the man.

I stepped out of the bathroom. Grayson sat at a prime spot, middle of the room, and watched me emerge. I held my head high, refusing to meet his eyes, and walked past him.

To the man of my dreams.

Outside, Len greeted me with a smile. I folded myself into his waiting arms, right where I belonged, and snuggled close. I glanced back to where Grayson sat, but he had left. Instead of feeling relief, a cloud of unhappiness fell over my heart. Unhappiness that had a name.

Cupid.

If my winged boss wanted to go a few rounds, I was prepared to deliver a TKO shot to Cupid’s chubby cheeks to fight for the man I loved.

Five

Finders Keepers. Looser Weepers.

I sat, swirling the plastic water bottle in my hand, and waited for today’s bobbing blue arrows to make an appearance. The bank’s revolving door spun like a dust devil depositing people into the lobby. Men and women who walked across the gleaming black marble floors on their way to the tellers sitting behind their two-inch thick security glass.

The only problem, they were all arrow-free.

Grayson sat across the plastic table, earbuds firmly in his ears, music turned up to an I-can’t-hear-Noel volume. He’d been ignoring me all afternoon, which normally would be a cause for ticker-tape parade. Today, it irritated the shit out of me. I could handle his crappy comebacks and sexual innuendos and shitty attitude, but his total silence. Well, that was just plain rude.

I slid the water bottle into Grayson’s line of sight and swirled harder, trying to get my co-worker’s attention, but he turned up the music and continued to bob his head.

Damn him. I let the bottle fall to the table.

After yesterday’s near disaster of almost losing my fiancé to another woman, I was in a sensational mood. Pissing Grayson off would launch it to spectacular. Too bad I would need a cattle prod to get him to pay attention.

Just when I thought the birds couldn’t chirp any sweeter, the sun couldn’t shine any brighter, and I couldn’t be any happier, the door spun one more time and Len’s soul mate walked through the lobby, blue arrow bobbing high over her could-have-just-walked-out-of-a-salon head. Yesterday’s Lycra, sports bra, and cross trainers replaced with a navy-blue, pin-striped suit, silk camisole, and high heels. She passed by our table, a trail of Coco Channel in her wake, on her way to the elevators behind us. She pushed the button on the wall and waited for her ride, head buried in an open folder in her hands.

What felt like the tip of Cupid’s arrow dug deep into my gut and twisted and turned and churned up bits of doubt and insecurity, and the need to fight for safety and security.

Grayson pulled his ear buds out of his ear. “Looks like someone doesn’t approve of your relationship.” The first words he’d spoken all day.

“Maybe she’s been reassigned.”

He gave me a half-lipped I-am-not-buying-it smirk that included one raised eyebrow and a head tilt. “Not likely.” He shoved his ear buds back in his ear and continued to ignore me.

“Hey, a girl could hope.” I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I didn’t say it for his benefit.

I tapped him on the shoulder. He didn’t respond. I tapped him harder. Nothing. I reached over and plucked his head phones out of his ears. He looked in my direction and gave me an exaggerated sigh.

“Aren’t you going to help?”

He snatched the cord out of my hand. “What’s the point? You’ll find a way to screw it up…again.”

The elevator dinged, our conversation stopped while we watched our mark get on. The doors closed, and she disappeared from our sight. At that moment I wished the elevator cable would snap, plunging Len’s unwanted soul mate to the basement never to be heard from again, but quickly slammed the brakes on that kind of thinking. No one deserved to die. The bright-red numbers above the doors blinked on and off until it finally stopped at the tenth floor and held.

I turned back to Grayson. “We don’t even know if Len is still her soul mate.”

He started tapping a beat on his leg, fast and furious. “You think because you laid claim to Len that Cupid is going to float him over to you on a silver-lined cloud?” He stopped tapping and ran his hand through his hair. “You’re not eight and this isn’t a game of finders keepers.”

Where’s the cat to get Grayson’s tongue when you needed it? Screw that. Make it a lion.

“Let’s see who her matching arrow is and we’ll go from there.” I worked hard to fill my words with confidence.

“Whatever makes you happy.” The word “princess” was implied under layers of sarcasm.

Flump, flump, flump
. The rubber bottom of the revolving door scraped against the marble. Grayson and I both looked up. In walked Len with a bright, neon-blue arrow bobbing over his head. Cupid’s arrow dug even deeper, shattering my heart into a thousand tiny shards that pierced my vital organs.

Tears filled my eyes, and I quickly wiped them away with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. Those fucking arrows erased my life of safety, stole my security, left me vulnerable to more hurt. Cupid was giving me a second chance to do the right thing, follow his orders, be a good little minion.

Because what Cupid wants, Cupid gets.

But Cupid couldn’t have my happiness. He couldn’t take away what I needed, what I had to have to secure my happiness. He couldn’t have Len, and neither could little Miss Business Suit.

I ignored my trembling chin, my blurry eyes, the emptiness in my heart, and picked at the label of my water bottle, shredding the paper into tiny pieces that matched my heart. Grayson placed his headphones on the table and crossed his arms over his chest. He watched my world crumble. To his credit, he didn’t utter one single I-told-you-so. Didn’t touch me. Didn’t try to make it better. And that was fine because one act of kindness would have destroyed my carefully built wall of denial.

When I felt like my words would come out tremor-free, I looked into Grayson’s eyes and laid down a challenge. “You’ll have to hog tie me to keep me from interfering.”

Grayson held his headphones up and snapped the cord tight. “Think this cord’s long enough to wrap around your skinny ankles?” His joke was wrapped in pity, not humor.

Len walked up to the teller’s window, passed a slip through the thin slit at the bottom of the divider, and carried on a polite conversation. He conducted a normal transaction, unaware that his fiancée sat across the lobby and that his supposed soul mate was ten floors up. Unaware that he was a pawn in Cupid’s sick game.

“I’m serious. I won’t let Cupid win. I won’t let him take Len away from me so I can spend eternity with you.” I gathered my purse and water bottle and pushed back my chair.

Grayson’s whole body went rigid. “What are you planning, Noel?”

“I’m getting Len out of here before you can connect him.” I stood, placed one foot in front of the other, held my head high, confidence in every step, and walked right up to Len.

I made sure Grayson watched every step I took in the opposite direction from him. I needed him to witness my act of defiance against Cupid. Against our relationship. Against the unfairness. Needed him to know that I wanted to make my own choices. Pick who I loved. I bent down and ran my hand up Len’s leg. “Noel?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “What are you doing here?” His greeting left a lot to be desired. Where was the usual kiss, the embrace?

My mouth opened but no sound escaped. I shut it and tried again. “I…I…” My trap snapped shut, and stopped trying to force an excuse I didn’t have. All my stammering and stuttering just made me look guilty. I took a deep breath and calmed myself. “I saw you walk in and followed you.”

“You’re far from your studio. Didn’t you say you’d be working late tonight?”

The teller pushed Len’s receipt through the slit and wished him a good day. We turned and walked to the exit. “Plans changed, looks like I’m free for the rest of the day.”

“No you’re not.” Grayson walked up, hands in the pocket of his faded loose fit jeans, his smile like a predator that cornered its prey. “We have some work to finish. A few problems that weren’t resolved yesterday.”

Len looked at Grayson with narrowed eyes. “You again?” He rubbed at the wrinkles between his brows.

Grayson gave Len a half-a-second glance. “Me again.” He turned his attention on me. “I need a few minutes of Noel’s time to fix a mess.”

“We can talk tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow will be too late. The project will be ruined.”

“Take that up with our boss…” The ding of the elevator cut off the rest of my sentence.

The doors parted. Len’s soul mate walked through, briefcase in one hand, phone in the other. She headed for the revolving door and Grayson and I watched her walk by. How would Grayson stop her before she disappeared from Len’s life once again?