Fate sighed. “Youdidtell him you wereMother Nature. And when you proved it, well, what did you expect?”
Gaia took a sip of her wine and looked out over the vineyards from the villa’s terrace. “Look, my point is humans are too frail. They couldn’t possibly handle me. So I’m done with dating.”
Fate threw up her hands. “Karma! Karma, come here.”
Their redheaded sister appeared, wearing spike-heeled black boots, a black leather miniskirt, and some kind of animal-print top, not real, of course. “Nowwhat do you want?” She folded her arms and looked upset.
“Are we interrupting something?” Gaia asked. “We don’t really need you for this conversation.”
Fate slapped her hand on the lounge chair arm and said, “Oh yes, we do.”
Karma muttered something under her breath and pulled up a lounge chair. Settling into it, she said, “Okay, lay it on me. The latest bit of karma I have to dole out can wait. Sheesh, I hate mean girls.”
“I don’t blame you,” Fate said. “There seems to be so many of them these days.”
“Thanks to the internet,” Gaia added. “Or so I’ve heard.”
“Yes, but there’s still hope. I’ve seen bumper stickers that sayMean people suck.” Fate chuckled. “But let’s get to the reason I called you.”
“Yes, I’m curious about that too.” The goddess of all ran her fingers through her long white hair and feigned disinterest.
“Gaia has sworn off humans. And I understand why. However, I do not want her to give up completely, so it seems as if we’re going to have to talk her into dating paranormals.”
Gaia leaned over and placed her head in her hands, then shook her head vehemently. “No. No. No. That’s not a good idea.”
“Why?” Karma asked. “It seems like the perfect solution. They’re all aware of you, or most of them are. So why wouldn’t that be an obvious solution?”
Gaia raised her head, frowning. “I’ve been so hard on them. Expected too much of them. I just know they think I’m an ass and I never apologize.”
Karma laughed. “Well, it’s about time you learned how.”
“I don’t think so. I’ll lose all my authority, and some of them have some pretty serious powers. Imustkeep them in line. It’s for their own protection!”
Fate smiled. “If that’s all you’re worried about, I’m sure we can work around it. They will still respect you. In fact, I think they’ll respect you more. If you have something to apologize for and you do it sincerely, I really think they’ll appreciate it and they won’t take advantage of you because of it.”
“Honestly, I believe that will inspire more loyalty if anything,” Karma added.
“I’ll think about it.”
Karma rolled her eyes. “We know what you really mean when you say ‘I’ll think about it.’ It means youwon’tconsider it, but you just don’t want to appear like a butthole.”
“That’s not true. Well, okay, maybe it is a little true or was in the past. I’m doing things differently now.”
“Like what?” Fate asked.
“Are you kidding me? This whole dating thing is new and different for me.”
“And you just said you’re not going to do it anymore. So how are you doing things any differently?” Karma asked.
Gaia was silent. She rotated her glass and watched the wine swirl around.
Karma cleared her throat. “Gaia, you know we love you. You know we wouldn’t steer you wrong…on purpose. Fate is right. You owe the paranormals an apology for being too harsh. That kangaroo court thing you did, that was something you can apologize for. Start with that.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gaia shot to her feet. “That’s not something I did wrong. They violated my only rule! Never expose their powers to humans.”
“Which is what you did with the astronomer,” Fate reminded her.
“That wasn’t my fault. I was under a spell.”
