Page 33
“And on top of it all, you’ve been different lately, and in the spirit of… Oh, Hades, I have no idea in the spirit of what, I just don’t want you to go through whatever the hell you are doing alone. How about that?”
“Touching. But unnecessary. I’ve gone millennia alone. I’m used to it.” Hera stood, abandoning her bowl and her drink and exited the bar, leaving Aphrodite and the dejected bears to exchange concerned glances. Glances she pretended not to notice.
Still, as the evening wore on and the night turned cold, the club busier than ever, Hera found herself looking at the door more and more.
Gods came and went, celebrities mingled, Aphrodite sang karaoke with the bear chorus, police had to be called to drag a very inebriated Poseidon out as he was being a nuisance to the Muses, and yet the one person Hera wanted to cross the threshold was nowhere to be seen.
“Clio said it could take longer if they encountered trouble.” Erato slid closer to her and winked at the bartender, who all but swooned.
“Do not seduce my employees at their place of business.”
“Aww, he knows I’m harmless.”
The bartender reached for a cold glass of water, downing it in one gulp.
“Did you want something?” Hera gave the muse a sideways glance.
“Yes, I wanted to tell you not to get your breeches in a twist because Clio said it could take longer, so they’re fine and you don’t have to worry.”
“It’s knickers. I’m not wearing breeches.”
“So you admit to wearing knickers.” Erato wiggled her brows.
“Don’t you have a soon-to-be-wife’s underwear to concern yourself with?”
“She’s busy with the Food Program. The latest droughts are cutting into the wheat quotas, and the prices will be through the roof.”
Hera shook her head.
“Look at you, Muse of Smut. All harvest interested. Did you even know a year ago what wheat quotas were?”
“We learn, we grow. We evolve. Kinda like you, Your Majesty. All this benevolence going around these days, all this blessing this, endowing that. Heard you paid off education debt for nearly half of this city. What gives? Did the Fates get to you or something?”
Hera stilled the hand that was lifting the glass to her mouth.
“Nothing gives, Muse.”
Erato narrowed her eyes.
“Did I hit a sore spot?”
Hera looked around for a distraction and encountered none.
“Why on Earth are you involved in any of Clio’s business? And why can’t Clio keep her mouth shut?”
Erato shrugged.
“We talk. She’s lonely.”
“So the Muse of History is lonely, and instead of talking about the reasons for her loneliness, she blabs about a secret mission she has been sent on?”
Hera lifted an eyebrow. Erato visibly cringed.
“I was trying to be supportive. Dite and I are brainstorming ideas for her potential romantic partner.”
Hera shook her head.
Why was everyone suddenly in everyone’s business? Did nobody have any of their own?
