Aphrodite

Emerald sits on her bed with her face in a pillow after just being dumped for another girl. Her best friend, Aspen, sits next to her trying to soothe her crying. Emerald sits up and loudly proclaims, eyes red and puffy and voice hoarse, "I will never love again. This is the last time I fall in love only to be dumped." Aspen shakes her head and sighs, knowing how easily her friend falls.

Meanwhile, someone else is listening to this one-sided conversation between friends; a goddess, Aphrodite of love and beauty. Her heart breaks for the girl, never to love will surely be a lonesome existence; she plays Cupid as mortals would say, subtly nudging some people in her direction, and continues on with her day. After a few days of wallowing, Emerald finally makes it out of her house, trying to forget about her ex. She walks through Canberra toward a bus station and off to her job; she walks into an office building with white walls, uncomfortable-looking gray furniture, and a large desk sitting on one end of the room. She bumps into a boy as she rushes in to take the man's place behind the desk and the two fall on top of each other. 

The raven-haired boy reddens as he scrambles to his feet, sticking out a hand to help her up. "Um...are you ok?" he asks quietly, trying not to laugh at their joint clumsiness.

"Yeah, sorry, I totally wasn't looking where I was going." Emerald stands and walks behind the reception desk. "Are you hurt? I have bandaids if you need one." The boy laughs but shakes his head, curls flying wildly. He mumbles something and waves as he moves to leave.

"Not hurt, but thank you, just in a bit of a hurry. Maybe I'll see you around." He quickly leaves without letting Emerald get a word in, passing by a woman on her way in. Aphrodite, after years merely looking down on mortals from Olympus, has decided to come down to help with what she classes as a special case; she walks up to the desk, greeting her new challenge.

"Hello, are you Emerald?" Aphrodite asks, leaning over the desk. Emerald's face contorts into one of confusion and she nods. "Fantastic, I am here to tell you that you will love again."

"Do you have an appointment with us today?" Emerald faces the computer, pretending to search through the appointment book to avoid the gaze of an obviously crazy person.

"I'm Aphrodite, here to tell you you will find a boy to love you again." Emerald suddenly bursts out laughing while Aphrodite tilts her head in confusion at her.

"You're named after a goddess of love and you're trying to find me a boyfriend? Hate to break it to you random lady, but I'm actually a lesbian."

Aphrodite's eyes widen and an embarrassed blush forms on her cheeks. "So I've been sending the wrong people?" She leans against the counter and pouts. "Do you have a type then?" 

"I don't even know you so I'm definitely not giving you personal information." Emerald puts her hand on the phone, ready to call in security.

"I'm Aphrodite, it's my job." She says, clearly irritated now that she's gone over this twice. She plasters on a smile that says 'tell me before I go insane.' "What kind of girl do you like?"

"Ok fine, if it'll get you out of here. I guess I like compassionate girls with a sense of humor." Aphrodite nods and quickly walks out of the building, already trying to find a suitable person nearby. Emerald watches as she walks out of the door without saying anything else on the subject of her love life. She shakes her head and watches the clock, wishing for the time to go faster. At the end of her shift, a short girl with fiery red hair walks up to the large marble desk. "I'm sorry, I just got off, but my replacement should be here in just a minute."

"I'm actually looking for you, I think. Some girl told me to come to find an Emerald in an ugly office." Emerald sighs and shakes her head, a small smile on her lips.

"I'm really sorry, my friend is trying to find me a girlfriend, she's...new at this." The girl smiles politely.

"Well I'm flattered she thought of me to fill the spot, but I'm actually straight and not looking." Emerald stands as her replacement walks in and the two girls walk out of the building together.

"Well she's new to me being a lesbian and she's trying her best. I just got out of a relationship and I'm not really ready for anything else." She nods in understanding and waves as she walks in the opposite direction, giving a quick goodbye. Emerald walks in the direction of her apartment and screams at the figure standing in front of her.

"You can't turn people down forever." The girl speaks up, her arms crossed and an angry look on her now strawberry red face.

"Firstly, yeah I can. Secondly, where did you come from?" Emerald questions, as she walks into the building, Aphrodite follows closely behind.

"To answer your question, Mount Olympus. And what was so wrong with that girl?" She follows Emerald up the stairs, the elevator is now broken for the third month in a row.

"Your gaydar is broken. Would you stop following me already?" She ignores the comment and continues to berate Emerald with questions.

"I'll ask next time. And my gaydar is perfectly fine, thank you very much." After five sets of creaky stairs, she follows Emerald into her apartment.

"Ok Cupid, I'll let you try to find an actual lesbian. Now, will you please go home?" She tilts her head to the side and nods.

"Great, but I'm not Cupid." She yet again walks away without another word and Emerald rolls her eyes. Two days after her last encounter with Aphrodite, Emerald's phone lights up with a text from an unknown number telling her she has a date for the night. She rolls her eyes, knowing exactly who this is and replies with a place to meet. Immediately after the text is sent a knock echoed through the apartment. She answers it and sighs at the tall goddess that enters. 

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes. You've been busy." Emerald closes the door and turns around to find Aphrodite lounging on an armchair, legs are thrown over one of the arms and her head falling back over the other.

"I vowed not to rest until your soulmate is found and you seem to be a difficult case." She sighs and fans herself, the apartment getting suddenly hotter now that it's midafternoon.

Emerald raises an eyebrow and goes into the kitchen. "You want some water princess? Or is that not good enough for someone of your status?" She grins as Aphrodite glares at her.

"I am a goddess, not a princess. I may not be worshipped now like I was a thousand years ago, but I assure you I take my job very seriously, much more seriously than any princesses of late take their duties."

Raising her hands in surrender, Emerald grabs two glasses and fills them with water. "I'm gonna take that as a yes on the water." She brings one of the glasses to Aphrodite and takes a seat on the couch opposite her.

"Anyway, about my date tonight...you really need to stop trying to set me up. I don't know you and it's kinda weird. How did you even find someone so quickly after only two days? Maybe you're good at this after all." She takes a sip of water from her glass.

"Oh easy, I took out an ad; ever hear of Craigslist? I hear it's a great place to meet people." Emerald's eyes widen and she chokes on her water, violently coughing some up.

"You did what?! That's where weirdos go to find people who don't wanna be found." She reaches for her phone on the table in front of her, but Aphrodite gets to it first. "Aphrodite, give me my phone. I have to cancel this date before I get killed."

"You don't even know this person, you could have a good time. I fixed up a lovely couple a few years back over Craigslist who is still together today. Just give it a chance, please?" Emerald groans and throws her head back, knowing she won't be able to get out of this.

"I will only go if you delete the post right now." Aphrodite smiles, pleased that she is yet again getting a couple together, and uses Emerald's phone to delete her post. She stays for a few more hours, forcing Emerald to model different outfits for her date, and once an outfit decision is reached Emerald is left alone to finish getting ready. At 7:30, Emerald leaves her apartment to meet up with her possible serial killer date at a nearby restaurant; she waits at the hostess podium for a few minutes before someone taps her shoulder. She turns around, expecting a 50-year-old creep or anything but the person standing in front of her and is unfortunately surprised to see her ex, Cara.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. What, the girl you dumped me for a week ago already not working out?" Cara sighs and shakes her head, knowing this would be the reaction she got. "So now you're trolling Craigslist just to get a date. I'm liking this whole karma thing." Emerald smirks and starts for the door but Cara quickly blocks the door.

"Please stay. I just wanna talk," she smiles as Emerald glares at her, "I'll pay for dinner and a chocolate lava cake."

"You can't use that against me anymore." Emerald follows one of the hostesses to a table and sits on one side of the booth, making sure that Cara won't sit next to her. Cara sits opposite her and looks at Emerald as she looks over the menu.

"Ok, you're a lot madder at me than I thought. Look I'm sorry, I know it was wrong and stupid of me to dump you like that," Emerald glances up from the menu as she continues talking, "but that's why it didn't last with me and Paisley. I still love you Emerald." She scoffs and puts her menu down. Their waitress comes by and takes their orders quickly, reading the awkward tension in the air.

"I moved on from you pretty quick and I don't want to date anyone right now. I cried for a day after you broke up with me, but that's it. You said 'I love you' first and I said it because I thought I was supposed to, that after two years I must've loved you. I don't and I'm not sure if I ever did, but neither did you. You don't love, you like to play games."

A smirk takes over her nice-girl smile, revealing her act to Emerald. "If you don't want to date then why did you come here? Why are you still here if you think so little of me?"

"I promised a friend I'd come and she'd know if I left early, she's creepy and all-knowing like that." Cara crosses her arms, giving Emerald a knowing smile.

"Oh, right. Aphrodite is it? She's not like your usual taste in friends, like Aspen; I like her, she's nice, reminds me of you."

"Stay away from her; you're right she is nice and she doesn't deserve to be bothered by you." Cara laughs and shakes her head.

"Well, isn't that just so cute. Y'know the only other person you talk like that about is Aspen, but this is different. Got a little crush, huh?" The waitress comes back with a platter of food and a takeout box; the plate is set in front of Cara and the takeout box in front of Emerald. The waitress smiles knowingly at Emerald and sets the check on the table.

"Aphrodite is my friend and you don't know anything about me or how I feel." Emerald stands from the booth. "I'll have to refuse that lava cake." She leaves the restaurant with food in hand and walks quickly to her apartment, where she knows Aphrodite will be waiting to hear of the date. She arrives at her building and stops for a moment to take a breath, thinking back to what Cara said. She finally shakes the thought from her head and opens the door, gasping when she finds Aphrodite waiting for her in the lobby; she sighs and starts up the stairs.

Aphrodite walks with Emerald up the steps to the apartment. "I expected you to be out much later. Did the date go well?" 

"I expected you to be here and was still surprised, weird how that happens. No, the date did not go well because you accidentally set me up with my ex."

"Oh. I apologize, we never met, I just told her where to meet you. I hope you'll still let me try to find someone for you." They reach the apartment and Emerald unlocks the door.

"I did get to tell her off and got free dinner. You hungry?" She shakes the container at Aphrodite. She nods and closes the door behind her. "I would really appreciate it if you could lay off setting me up, just for a while, I want to be my own person and figure some stuff out."

Aphrodite watches as Emerald dumps the food onto two plates and hands her one. "Of course, I understand the importance of self-identity." She looks down at her plate while Emerald moves past her to the couch. "What is this?"

"Oh, it's pasta and crab cakes. It's like $30; I can be petty." She pats the spot next to her and grabs the remote. "I could use a movie night; tomorrow you can meet my friend Aspen and conspire with her."