Cupid's Touch
read excerpt from Caught by a Hawk!
Just a little taste...
Renee sat at her vanity and slowly brushed her long curly hair. She turned her face to and fro looking in the mirror. She didn’t think she had aged too badly. Sure, she had many lines around her bow shaped lips now and too many laugh lines around her eyes and her hair was silver instead of the rich auburn it started out as, but even at eighty-five she was still healthy and she wore the same size she wore at age thirty-five. Remaining as active as she could and eating healthy helped a lot. She sighed, putting her brush down and staring at her reflection. Would she have outlived a husband by now, too, like her friends or would he still be here with her? Would it have been Royce or someone else?
She chuckled. “I might as well be contemplating the ways of the universe than trying to figure out the ways of love,” she said out loud as she removed her clothes and slipped her gown on. “If I were meant to have my true love by my side, he’d be here now. Cupid can’t be everywhere at once. Everyone can’t have true love, some folk just have to settle or just have no one. Obviously I’m one of those people who just didn’t have one,” she told herself logically. She slipped between her sheets and shrugged.
“Oh well, there’s nothing that could be done about it now. I’m an old woman now and what’s done is done. You live and learn.” She yawned and closed her eyes. “There’s no point in worrying about things you can’t change,” she said with a sleepy chuckle. “Not even Cupid can turn back the hands of time,” she added as she faded off to sleep.
*****
Well, my beauties, I’m quite positive that was a flat out challenge. How can I sit back and let such a sweet old woman go another day without love because she was afraid to take a leap of faith? Isn’t that what love is all about? Besides, she has questioned my power and I can’t have that! You look confused, my lovelies. I know it has been several centuries since we’ve last spoken, but don’t you remember me? Of course you do. I am Srik, but perhaps you may know me by another name. How about Aphrodite or maybe Eros or even Cupid? I have had many names over the centuries, my doves, depending on who you were asking, but my job has always been the same: to bring lovers together. When we last spoke I had just gotten Naina and Lokas together and they had a hard time getting their happily ever after going with war going on all around their ears, but I’m good at what I do.
Renee seems to think that I have passed her by, but that was not the case. I brought her right to her destiny. Directly into the arms of the man that would have made her happy for the rest of her life and she pushed him aside. That’s the problem with lots of humans. They don’t know a good thing until it’s gone from them. Why can’t they just follow directions? They make the simplest tasks hard. You give them what—Excuse me. I apologize; I digress. We were discussing Renee. What’s this? You think I should give her another chance. Hmm, well, I could do that. I am a god after all and it would put an end to her doubting my power as one. Yes, I’ll do it! You are getting wiser with every conversation we have, my beauties. I hope you learn what not to do from these conversations as well.