Hunting for Cupid's Arrow
By Gaeriel Mallory

NOTE: I don't really know where this story came from. It just popped into my head one day. If there is any confusion about who any of the gods are, I'd go to The Encyclopedia Mythica and run a search there. On a side note, I've always felt that Ganymede was a too-often ignored part of the Greek pantheon so I put him in here. He was the perfect bartender.

It all started with a conversation I was having with one of my acquaintances. Jane and I were sitting at an outside café waiting for our food. She lit a cigarette and took a deep drag before expelling the smoke to join the rest of the pollution in the city’s air. Looking at the passing cars, she remarked, "I broke up with Bobby."

I looked over at her in feigned surprise, though I had known it would have never lasted between the two of them. "Really? Why?"

She waved one hand in the air, while the other brought her cigarette to her lips again. "It just wasn't working out. I don't know. He was too demanding, or I was, or something." She sighed and shook her head. She turned bright brown eyes to look at me. "Do you think I'll ever meet Mister Right?"

"I believe in true love," I answered as I took a sip of my water. "Just wait for Cupid's arrow to find its target."

She snorted. "Cupid is a fat baby invented by card companies to put on Valentine's Day cards and give the poor lonely single schmucks someone to be bitter at."

I winced slightly at that remark. The modern-day depictions of Cupid had always been a sore point with Eros.

She scanned the slightly dirty buildings across the street from the café. "Have you ever been in love, Venus?"

I was surprised at the question. I opened my mouth to reply in the affirmative but something stopped me. I thought back over my long life and all the men who had been in it. Lust, yes, I realized, and rather a lot of lust at that, but no love. Odd that, and ironic as well. "No," I admitted to Jane. "No, I have never been in love."

So that was how I, Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty, came to be standing in front of the Executive Dating Agency studying their advertisement that promised to 'find you the perfect mate for only fifty dollars'. I snorted and was about to walk away when I caught sight of my reflection in the window.

Blond hair pinned back in a braided coif and blue eyes—as blue as the sky, Hephaestus had once told me admiringly. The two of us had split centuries before. It had been an arranged marriage, after all, and neither one of us had really put that much into it. I studied the rest of my reflection. My face was pleasant enough, I suppose. And my figure was as it had been when we still ruled from on top of Olympus. Somewhere along the way, I had lost most of my vanity. All of us did, though Zeus still has his moments. When you no longer had hundreds of people bowing down to you in worship, old attitudes and mind-sets are quickly tossed away.

Could I find love? I had not found it over all the centuries, though I admit that I had been rather taken with Ares for a large portion of that time. What an idiot I had been when I was younger, not seeing past his swagger and his pride. I finally came to my senses sometime during the Crusades when he had been too busy whispering in the ears of the English kings to pay attention to me. Preferring instead to incite one bloody war after another between the Palestinians and the foolish Christians.

A laughable picture, I am sure, of the goddess of love who had never known love herself. Or a pathetic one. I realized, all at once, that I was lonely. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The receptionist looked up at me and smiled. "Can I help you?"

* * *

They had me fill out a form and then film a video. I was using Venus Dite for my name—had been for the past century or so. The Venus part is obvious and Dite used to be a nickname I had back in the old days.

The questions they asked me for the video were inane—What do you like to do? What is your idea of the perfect date? As if you could find your perfect mate with only questions like that! But I gave them my money and smiled and spoke into the camera. As I left the office, I did not have much hope of them finding any man that I would find acceptable, let alone falling in love with. The money would have been better spent if given to a drunk on a corner. But I felt a little bit better. At least I was doing something to rectify my single status of the past five centuries.

I flagged down a taxi and directed the driver to a tiny club by the name of Ambrosia's. It was small, but neat and well-kept, and unlike most clubs, fairly well lit. I ignored the 'Closed' sign hanging on the door and walked in. A handsome young man was behind the bar cleaning glasses. He looked up when the door squeaked open and smiled at me.

"Aphrodite! What brings you over here?"

I sat down on one of the stools and leaned my elbows on the bar top. "Hello, Ganymede. I wanted to talk."

"What about?" He set down his towel and pulled out two clean glasses and filled them with a clear golden liquid that poured from the bottle sluggishly. He slid one over to me and took the other for himself. He used a foot to hook over a stool and sat down across from me. "My ears are open."

I smiled as I took a sip. "You really have this bartender thing down."

"Did you really think all those years as Zeus' waterboy was a vacation?" He quirked an eyebrow at me.

"You were his cupbearer, not his waterboy. There is a difference."

"Not much of one." He raised his glass in salute. "Here's to me finally getting free of that old man and striking it out on my own."

"Hear hear." Leaning against the counter, I drank from my glass and sighed as the ambrosia burned slightly on the way down. More intoxicating than any alcoholic drink could be, it was ambrosia that made one a god. "I never did like how he snatched you off. Zeus and his insatiable pecker. I swear, if they could package it, they could put Viagra right out of business."

Green eyes twinkled at me. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

I leaned my cheek into the palm of my hand and sighed. "Do you think it is impossible for gods to fall in love?"

He was surprised. "What makes you ask that?"

"I got to thinking. I mean, I'm Aphrodite, right? Goddess of love? So why have I never fallen in love before? And we gods don't exactly have the best track records when it comes to relationships. Zeus and Hera were always at each other’s throats. Hades had to kidnap Persephone and trick her into eating some pomegranate seeds. Even with all of those women old Lightning Bolt chased, he had to use deception to finally get under their skirts. Turning into an ant, a bull, a shower of gold… Maybe Artemis and Hestia had the right idea. Celibacy."

Ganymede clutched at his chest. "Bite your tongue! I don't know about you but I like my occasional roll in the hay."

I chuckled. He would. As soon as he had been free of Zeus, Ganymede made up for lost time and became the most notorious skirt-chaser out of all the male Olympian gods—after Zeus himself, of course.

He looked at me. "I admit, you have a point. Though Psyche and Eros seem to be doing fine."

I made a face. "Those two can be nauseating at times, true. Okay, they're the exception. But the rest of us… What do you think?"

He studied his glass of ambrosia and tapped the rim of the glass with a finger. "I think," he said slowly, "that you can't give up hope. If mortals can find love, why can't we? There is supposedly someone for everyone, right?"

"If there is," I said dryly, "then I want a recount."

* * *

I went about my business for the next two weeks. I went to work in the morning and went home at night. I sometimes sketched after dinner, designing outfits that my people would review the next day and most likely send on to the sewing department to have made. I had realized long ago that my talent lay in knowing what was pleasing to the eye and after the Greek gods fell in disfavor with humanity, I decided to try and attempt to become a fashion designer. I had some bumps towards the beginning of my career—decking out Queen Elizabeth in yellow was a very bad idea—but I managed. Nowadays, models walk down the runways in Paris wearing my clothing.

I was sketching one night, trying to decide whether a particular outfit needed a cape or not when the telephone rang. I chewed on the end of my pencil and absentmindedly reached for the receiver. "Hello?" I fixed a line and held the sketch out at arms length to study.

"Hello? Venus Dite?"

"Speaking." I decided that a cape was not needed and lengthened the skirt instead.

"This is the Executive Dating Agency. We are calling because we have found a possible match for you."

I had forgotten I had even visited there. I took the pencil out of my mouth and sat up a bit straighter. "Oh!"

The nameless woman on the other end continued talking. "His name is Harry Silver. He was very taken with your video. If you are free this Friday night, I can make reservations for the two of you at Gorgiana’s on 5th Avenue."

"Um…" I mentally reviewed my calendar for the week. "Yes, I think that's all right. What time?"

I heard the faint sound of typing and the woman asked, "How's seven?"

"I suppose that’s fine…" I chewed nervously on my lower lip.

"That's wonderful!" she chirped brightly. "I have your reservation handled so all you have to do is show up."

I thanked her and hung up the phone. I brushed a stray strand of hair back behind my ear as I stared blankly over my dining room table, covered in papers. I had a date lined up for the first time in ages. Suddenly confronted with the prospect of actually meeting a man for a romantic evening, I felt slightly ill.

Forgetting about the dress I was designing, I got up from the table and in my stocking feet and padded over to my bedroom. I flung open my closet and studied its contents. What would I wear?

* * *

Gorgiana’s was a small but very elegant Italian restaurant that featured intimate tables, soft lighting, and an unobtrusive wandering violinist. I stood nervously inside the front foyer, fidgeting with the purse I held in my hands. I was very glad that I had decided to wear a formal evening gown, a sleeveless green velvet that I had designed myself.

The host looked up from his podium at me. "May I help you?" he inquired politely.

I walked up. "Uh, hi. I have a reservation. My name is Venus Dite."

He looked down at his book and made a notation. "Your companion has not arrived yet. Would you like to be seated now or would you prefer to wait for him?"

"Now would be fine."

He led me to a table towards the rear of the room. He held the chair out for me, which caused a raised eyebrow from me. This was a classy place! After handing me a menu, he bowed slightly and left me sitting somewhat bemused.

I skimmed through the menu. The prices caused a few more raised eyebrows—if they were any indication, the food here would be very good. A gentle throat clearing made me look up. A familiar face smiled down at me. I smiled and jumped out of my seat, embracing the handsome man with the twinkling eyes and curly brown hair. "Hermes! What are you doing here?"

"I'm actually here on a date but she hasn't shown up yet." He smirked. "So what about you?"

"The same. I’m waiting for him to arrive." I sat down and gestured towards the other chair. "Why don't you sit while we wait for our dates? We can catch up."

He settled down in the chair and leaned back, studying. "Damn, you look good, Dite. You don't look a day over two thousand."

I felt my lips curling up. Hermes could always make me laugh. "You don't look too bad yourself. Not a gray hair on your head."

He grinned and shook his finger at me. "Nuh uh uh. That came dangerously close to being a joke. Keep this up and I might wonder just who you are and what you did to the real Aphrodite."

"Really, I wasn't that bad, was I?"

"We were all pretty bad back then. Me the incorrigible trickster, Ares always a hair's breadth from a flying rage, and Zeus with his holier-than- thou crap. And you barely ever cracked a smile. I'll admit, you weren't as bad as Athena. She might as well have been a statue except that her owl moved every once in awhile."

I had to smile at that. Time makes everything easier to bear—even our faults. Especially our faults. "I would like to think I've changed for the better since then." I swirled my glass of water and watched the ice circle. "Godhood is highly overrated. I find that I like myself better now that there's no one building temples in my name and sacrificing sheep for me."

"Good honest hard work." He nodded. "That will do it."

"I used to look down on the humans but now, I respect them. They live every day with the knowledge that they could die that very instant. Yet they don't seem to care."

Hermes leaned his elbows on the table and rested his face in his hands. "You really have changed." There was something unreadable in his eyes. They studied me intently, causing me to look away and blush slightly.

There was an awkward silence after that. I glanced down at my watch and saw the numbers change from '7:19' to '7:20'. I blinked and double-checked. "It can't be that late already!" I exclaimed. I sighed and slumped in my chair. "I guess Harry isn't showing up." I looked over at Hermes and smiled weakly. "I really am a fool, aren't I? After all these years, if I haven't found true love by now, I suppose I never will." I gathered up my wrap and purse and got out of my chair. "It was really nice seeing you again, Hermes. Give me a call sometime. I hope your date shows up." I took a step towards the front door but a hand at my wrist stopped me.

"Wait, please."

I looked at him in puzzlement. "What is it, Hermes?"

He looked down at table and then back at me, grinning faintly. "I have a confession to make, Dite. I'm Harry Silver."

"You?" I stared at him. "But how?"

He twisted his cloth napkin around in his hands, not looking at me. "Ganymede told me you had joined some dating agency. I hunted for it and registered with them. I um… well…" He looked at me and wiggled the fingers of one hand at me, indicating magic. "So I made sure that the two of us were paired up."

I sat back down slowly, not taking my eyes off of him. "That explains the how, but what about the why?"

His eyes returned to the napkin he was playing with briefly before he placed the cloth onto the table and looked at me with soft eyes. "I had the largest crush on you when we were all back on Olympus, still gods in the eyes of man. But you never looked at me except as a friend. You were always chasing after Ares or trying to be a good wife to Hephaestus. What was the lowly trickster in your eyes?" He laughed briefly. I opened my mouth to say something but he shook his head, motioning me to remain silent.

"After everything, you were still in love with Ares and so I just remained in the background. When the two of you had your falling out, and you came to me for comfort, I wanted to rip that bastard's throat out for treating you so. But you wiped your tears and thanked me for being a good friend. A good friend. Nothing more.

"You were hurting and I didn't want to take advantage. So I just patted you on the back and sent you on your way." He laughed bitterly again. "Who is the fool here, Dite? You for wanting love or me who loved but would not admit it?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep shuddering breath. It was true. I had never really noticed Hermes. He had always been there for me though, willing to run errands or to tell a joke to cheer me up when I was in a funk. My hands clenched in my lap and I opened my eyes and stared at him. "Maybe we were both the fools, Hermes," I told him softly. "But that does not mean we have to remain fools until the end of time."

I watched as the smile spread across his face and I smiled in return.

* * *

I walked into Ambrosia's again the next day. Ganymede was sweeping and he looked up when I entered. I walked up to him and planted my feet on the floor and my hands on my hips, glaring at him. "I hear someone was playing fishwife," I told him. As much as I tried to appear stern, my twinkling eyes probably gave me away.

He smirked and bowed, holding the broom off to the side. "Guilty as charged, fair lady." He straightened up and pulled two chairs off a table and set them on the floor. "Sit, Dite, and tell me all about it."

I watched as he went behind the bar to pour two glasses of ambrosia. "I'm going to get you back, you know."

"I'm sure you will." He placed my glass on the table and sat down opposite me, leaning back and crossed his legs with the foot of one leg resting on the knee of the other. "I take it from your smile that everything went well?"

"You better be glad it did or you wouldn't be able to sit right now." I sipped my drink and leaned forward, propping my chin on a fist. "Thanks, by the way."

He grinned smugly. "Just be sure to invite me to the wedding."

I laughed and held my hands in front of me in a warding gesture. "Hold on there! No one said anything about marriage."

"I know you and I know Hermes. That man is head over heels for you and you are attracted to him. Admit it."

"Well, he's not too hard on the eyes," I told him. "It helps that he's grown out of the whoopee cushion under the seat stage."

Ganymede's lips twitched. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. He is the Trickster, after all."

"Still. One can hope, right?" I finished my drink and leaned across the table and kissed him on the cheek. He stared at me in surprise and I ruffled his hair. "You did good, waterboy," I told him before I walked out the door.

It may or may not be love for Hermes and me. Only time can tell for that one. I do know that I am the happiest I have been for a very long time. I walked out into the sunshine and smiled, taking a deep breath of smog- polluted air and sighing with contentment. Time will tell, but for now, it is one step at a time.

--fin--

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