I pop the meat into my mouth, and he looks absolutely shocked that I betrayed him. I grin, satisfied that I wiped that look right off his face.
“That was evil.”
“Thank you,” I say, giving him the shredded bits he’d left in the mangled shell he’d broken in half. He grumbles but eats it while I grab another leg and actually give him the meat this time. But then he’s back to all smiles, which is more irritating.
“What do you think that smile is going to get you?” I ask as I hand a piece to Kit, who eats it with much joy. It’s really easy to eat with her because her attention definitely doesn’t wander when food is involved. And since she’s a familiar and not a real genet, her dietary needs aren’t quite the same.
Torin just shrugs. “So what’s next?”
“On the menu or in life?”
“Both,” he says as he stares at his empty plate. How he already ate it all, I don’t know.
“Go get another plate of food.”
“I like that plan.” He leaves in search of more food while I clean my fingers off and check my phone. The first thing I see is that Imani has taken a screenshot of the video and sent it to me, as well as making the image into a sticker which she’s blasted all over our text thread.
Me: You will regret this.
Imani: There’s little that could make me happier than this sticker.
Me: Get it removed.
Imani: I already have some people on it. But Riley… it’s such a beautiful image. It hurts to have it taken down.
Me: It’ll hurt more when I toss the god back at you to take care of and ignore you in your times of need.
Imani: Such evil threats. Almost makes me feel guilty that I didn’t know you’d wandered off through the Door and were gone for days. I mean, how the hell was I supposed to know?
Me: Mickey was supposed to tell you!
Imani: Mickey’s main purpose in life is getting out of work. He probably sent an undead to tell me and they died halfway through it or something.
Me: Knowing Mickey, he took a nap and when he woke up, he forgot I was gone.
Torin returns with a heaping plate and takes a bite of a stuffed mushroom before moaning. “Oh, this is good. I want more of this.” And then he picks up the only other one he has on his plate and attempts to feed it to me. “You have to try this.”
“If you like it so much, eat it.”
“No, I want you to try it.”
Giving in, I move to take it, but he insists on feeding it to me as I hope that absolutely no one is watching.
I find that it really is quite delicious, and I do my best not to notice the way he’s looking at me. He’s just so damn cheerful all the time. But if there was anyone else here, he’d probably be staring at them the same way, right? He’s a god of love. Not a god of monogamous romance.
My phone beeps.
Imani: I know I’ve been busy and haven’t been around much… but you seem happier, Riley. I think this god has been really good for you. He might be here to dominate our world and control all of us, but he makes you happy, so that’s all that matters.
Me: He doesn’t make me happy. Look at this face. Can this really make anyone happy?
I snap a picture of Torin with his mountain of food and send it off to Imani, who just sends a sticker of him riding my back to me. I decide the only thing I can do at this point is block her, change my name, and move to a different country.
“We should eat here for every meal,” he says.
“Nah, there’s so many foods out there. How will you know what you like if you don’t try them all?”
“Are you going to try them all with me?” Torin asks.
