Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(24)
“You just wiped out the last of the triple chocolate stock,” Tasha replied. “Last I checked there were half a dozen left. You do know you have to pay for those, right?”
The dry crumbs caught in my throat, and I coughed. “Of course.” My eyes burned and I held my hand over my mouth. “I knew that.”
Tasha quickly filled a plastic cup with water from the sink and handed it to me. I gulped it down, crushed the cup, and launched it toward the garbage can. It bounced off the rim and hit the floor. I suppressed a sigh. If I could have used my telekinesis, I never would have missed. But my father was right. I shouldn’t use it unless I really needed it, and garbage-can b-ball didn’t count.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked, leaning into the counter next to me. One of her two dark-blond braids fell forward, and the reflection of the fluorescent lights gleamed in the panes of her glasses.
Normally we never would have had this much time to chat. Goddess Cupcakes was the number one cool hangout for the kids from Lake Carmody High as well as several surrounding schools. But we were less than an hour from closing, and the crowd had thinned out considerably. The only tables still occupied were the big round one in the far corner, which was packed with cute boys in green-and-gold varsity jackets, the two-top where my first couple—Katrina Ramos and Charlie Cox—were splitting a red velvet, and a four-top where two girls in private-school uniforms pored over books on ancient Greece. I’d been peeking over their shoulders since they’d arrived to see if the writers had gotten anything even close to correct, but I’d had to stop when they’d complained to the manager.
From what I had been able to read, the writers knew nothing about history.
“It’s my parents,” I said glumly, avoiding the impossible topic of Orion. “I just found out some things about them that I definitely didn’t want to know.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I pictured my mother and Hephaestus in bed together and almost heaved up every last cupcake. Did Harmonia know about their secret past? And if so, why had she never told me? She always seemed to trust Hephaestus implicitly, which was one of the reasons I hadn’t even questioned his motives when he’d reappeared in our lives. Did she trust him in spite of knowing this, or had she been kept ignorant? Was her trust based on lies?
I wished I could talk to her for five minutes. How did Hephaestus communicate with her anyway? Was it really possible that their mode of communication only worked one way? Why hadn’t he shared it with me? I realized now that it was possible that he wasn’t in contact with her at all. That everything he’d told me was a lie.
But my mother trusted him, even with their history. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
“Ugh. That sucks,” Tasha said, resting her cheek in one hand. “Isn’t it insane how parents always expect you to act like a little angel, but they’re allowed to do whatever they want?”
“Exactly!” I blurted. “It’s so wrong!”
“Preaching to the choir,” she said flatly.
Just then Katrina and Charlie approached the counter to hand over their empty plate.
“We’re heading out,” Charlie said, entwining his fingers with Katrina’s.
The mere sight of that gesture made my heart flip-flop with happiness. Katrina smiled and blushed and I felt a flutter of pride, followed by a quick thump of dread. I was supposed to be finding someone for Claudia to go out with to make Peter jealous, but instead I’d spent half the night obsessing about my mother and her former lover.
“See you guys tomorrow,” I said to my pride-and-joy couple.
“Have a good night,” Katrina replied.
But I was already looking past their shoulders at the laughing crowd in the corner. They were clearly from a different school, by the color of their jackets. And of the five of them, three were undeniably handsome. But I needed someone even hotter than Peter Marrott. Someone who would make him sick with jealousy. As I had the thought, a sixth guy returned from the bathroom, shaking water off his hands as he crossed to the table. He was distractingly large, but not in a bulbous kind of way, more in a broad, solid, I-could-lift-a-truck-with-one-hand kind of way. He had light-brown skin, close-cropped black hair, and laughing dark eyes. When he smiled at his friends, it almost took my breath away. He had a perfect smile. A big, welcoming, happy, carefree smile. The boy could have turned heads on Mount Olympus. As he sat, his left sleeve turned to me, and I saw the QB emblazoned on the leather.
QB. Those were the same letters on Peter Marrott’s jacket. This could not be more perfect. Except a guy like him most likely had a girlfriend already. The truly gorgeous ones always seemed to. Which was why I was so concerned about Orion. With his perfect abs, deep-blue eyes, and thick dark hair, he wasn’t going to stay single long.
But I wasn’t going to think about that now. If I could match two more couples, this nightmare would be over and we’d be reunited. Then I’d simply have to deal with Artemis and Apollo.
More awfulness I wasn’t thinking about right now.
My instinct was to simply walk over and ask this handsome specimen if he was interested in being set up, but the direct approach hadn’t worked with Charlie. In fact, it had taken two weeks for me to realize the direct approach was never going to work with Charlie. So I decided to be more circumspect this time. I slipped a s’more cupcake out of the case, plopped it on a clean plate, and squared my shoulders.