Counterfeit Cupid (Mt. Olympus Employment Agency: Cupid #2)(7)
As I turned to go, Annie emerged from the room in the back. I froze. “You’re still here.”
She made an attempt to smile. “I covered for a coworker.” She stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. “You’re up early.”
I shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”
The side of her mouth twitched, as if she found this amusing. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Had she put me next to the sex fanatics on purpose? What did I ever do to her? Annoyed, I turned toward the restaurant. She stayed where she was, but a vision of her beautiful face came with me. Why not? I’d been haunted by it all night. I might as well take it with me to breakfast.
As I pulled open the door, her voice trailed after me. “Have a great day, Mr. Flynn.”
Somehow, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be.
*
After breakfast, I grabbed my portable wings and my blowgun. The regular wings were far too bulky to smuggle into the hotel or hide in my luggage. The bow and arrow were a little easier to fit in my suitcase, but I left them at the office, too, opting instead for the more portable blowgun with self-loading darts.
In order to do my job, I had to be invisible, so what I wore to work didn’t much matter. I didn’t need to impress anyone. Say what you will about cargo shorts, but the side pockets carried all my Cupid equipment without showing any extra bulk. Even the blowgun was concealed.
The wings were both genius and stupid. They were made out of wire and that slick material they made tents out of. Folded up, they were the size of large hamburger. To put them on, I untied the string and they popped open, spanning about five feet across and three feet tall. I stuffed my arms through the elastic bands, tied the string across my chest, and was no longer visible.
The gods loved their artifice and symbolism.
To put the wings away, I overlapped the two wings, then did a twisty wrist maneuver that took me three days to learn, and the wings collapsed into the hamburger shape. Then all I had to do was tie the string to keep the whole thing closed and drop it in my pocket.
Genius, but unnecessarily complex. The Muses just had to put a belt on. The Messengers put on winged sneakers. We had wings. Great big ridiculous wings. Stupid.
Loaded up with the tools of my trade, I checked my assignment. My instructions were to head to a specific address and observe what I found there. After that, I was on my own.
I headed out of the hotel and climbed into the rental car that had been waiting for me when I exited the Mt. Olympus building the day before. The bosses hadn’t exactly splurged. Folding my frame into a compact car was a challenge, but I managed. The air conditioner worked and it had a GPS, so I wasn’t complaining. I had to remind myself this trip was not exactly my reward for doing great work. It was more like detention. Might as well make the best of it, though.
The address was in a suburb about a half hour from my hotel, so I headed straight there. I didn’t want to go to somebody’s house too early and find them still sleeping. But with breakfast, a short trip up to my room for supplies, and the half-hour drive, I expected to get there around nine-ish. That should give whoever it was plenty of time to get up and around.
Maybe I’d have time to do something touristy before heading back for a nap and another shower so I could be fresh for Annie’s arrival on shift. Assuming she’d be there.
I signaled to change lanes and frowned. Maybe I should have checked to see if she was going to be at work tonight.
Dammit. I was usually sharper than that. I blamed the rodeo going on in my neighbor’s room the night before.
I pulled up to the location and checked out my assignment. The house was a modest two story in a nice neighborhood with lots of mature trees. I swung the car around the block and parked where it couldn’t be seen from the house. The next part was a little tricky. It wasn’t like I was Superman and could change in a phone booth—even if such things still existed. Going invisible had to be subtle and when no one was watching.
Unfortunately, when a grown man put on a pair of big white wings, whether the traditional feathered kind or my fancy portable ones, people noticed. Knowing this, I took them out of my pocket while I was still in the car, popped them open, and slipped into the elastic in the relative privacy of the vehicle rather than on a suburban street.
It wasn’t easy, but if two people could have sex in a car, one guy—no matter how cramped the damn rental was—could put on a pair of wings there.
Once I was invisible, I didn’t have to open the car door. I slid right through it and stepped out on the street. Sure, I looked stupid trotting down the sidewalk with my white nylon-polyester blend wings bobbing behind me, but at least nobody could see me looking stupid.
The house came into view around the corner, and I slowed to a walk. A blue Honda sat in the driveway. Hopefully, that meant somebody was home.
I strode up the steps to the porch and through the closed front door to see who my assignment was. “Let’s get you people sorted out.”
Honestly, I wasn’t in a huge hurry to fix whatever was going on. I intended to milk this free vacation for all it was worth. But if somebody was having relationship problems, a few darts should take care of it. True love might not be a thing, but the love magic in my darts was powerful stuff. It could patch up just about any disagreement. If I didn’t report it in right away, I’d have time to hit a few museums.
Maybe I could get Annie to show me around town.