“For that I am sorry, but I did warn you that your union with Carmen would not last.”
“You did,” I mumbled. Angry with myself. I knew too, but I refused to heed the signs. I’d hoped she would fill the ache. And for a while she’d soothed it. But Carmen came to me last year out of the blue and said we weren’t meant to be. There was no talking her out of it. Despite the hurt, I would never regret it. Not when our union gave me Junie. I loved our daughter. And Carmen and I were still friends and good coparents.
“Well.” Eros clapped his hands together. “You will be happy to know that I called in a few favors, and your show is safe. In fact, you’re getting an extra season. A special summer edition.”
My brow shot up. “I don’t understand. An extra season? It’s impossible. Summer is a month away. It takes time to find cast members and locations. And don’t even get me going on the permits.” These things took months.
Eros laughed. “Roman, how long have you lived among the gods? The impossible is our signature move. The location, permits, and even the cast members will all be taken care of,” he said as if they already were.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing this wasn’t just some benevolent gift. “Why? And what is it going to cost me?” Whenever a god granted a miracle such as this, there was always a cost. Always.
Eros smiled, but it wasn’t comforting. It was the kind of smile that held secrets. “Can’t a godfather do something nice for his godson?”
“You can and you have, but you’ve never intervened like this before.” Not even my father had done anything this grand for me. Not that I would ask him to. I’d done my best to make a name for myself. Sure, I realized I possessed abilities above those of a mortal, but I’d worked hard to get where I was.
Eros stood, pacing the marble floor, his Medusa snake leather shoes clicking and clacking, carefully measuring his words. “Gods sometimes make mistakes, Roman. And you’re going to help me correct mine.”
I didn’t like the sound of this. “What mistake, and how am I supposed to help you?”
Eros stopped pacing, the mischievous side he was known for shining in his eyes. “As for my mistake, that is for me alone to know. But you’re going to help me correct it by casting Demi in your special season.”
I bent over laughing. A deep, guttural laugh of disbelief. This had to be a joke. “No way in hell will that ever happen.”
“I assure you it will,” he said with clipped precision.
My head snapped up. The air shifted as if someone had opened up a prophecy that was supposed to have remained hidden. “No,” I stated. “Absolutely not.” I held my ground. She would be the worst cast member in the history of the show. In the history of any reality show. Besides, she was the antithesis of love. Ironic, really, for a goddess of that very thing.
Eros gripped the chair closest to him. “You don’t understand.Ourbig guy has gotten involved.”
The Romans’ big guy was Jupiter, my great-grandfather. “You mean Zeus?” I swallowed hard. Zeus was, in my opinion, more unhinged than my great-grandfather. “Why?”
“Demi is his great-granddaughter, and let’s just say he has taken a special interest in her, and we will leave it at that.”
I jumped up. While I feared ticking off their “big guy,” I wasn’t just going to let this go. “Why my show? Just send her to a spa or a therapist.” Her wardrobe and her asinine guidebook for love screamed that she needed help. “While you’re at it, maybe a makeover wouldn’t hurt.”
Eros’s eyes flashed with a warning that I’d crossed a line.
I properly flinched, knowing it was a prick thing to say, and he immediately softened.
“Roman,” Eros sighed. “This is not about making over Demi. She doesn’t need to be made over. She needs to rediscover herself. I should have never—” He stoppedhimself short.
“Never what?”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that my daughter finds herself again.”
“And you think television—a live reality show, no less—is the place for her to do it? Does she even want to fall in love?”
Eros nodded slowly. “I believe she does more than anything, but she’s forgotten that she could or is afraid she can’t. I think that possibility terrifies her.”
She was terrifying, all right.
“Do you know what kind of exposure this means for her?” Not sure why I felt the need to protect her. She’d done everything in her power to sabotage me and my show. But I had a conscience. “You have to know there are media outlets all over the world salivating at the chance to interview the elusive Demi Blake. Everyone wants to know where she disappeared to after the accident. Her tragic story is going to play everywhere if she goes onLove Unscripted.”
Granted, the show’s marketing team would throw a party at the chance to feature someone with her backstory. It was advertising gold. Our audience lived for heartbreak. And the heartbreak of someone once famous and beloved was even better.
“I know,” Eros breathed out, clearly uncomfortable with it. “So, I’m trusting you to protect her as much as you can.”
I buried my face in my hands. I was a producer and host, not some damn goddess bodyguard. “This can’t be happening. Does Demi even know? How did she ever consent to this?”
