Chapter 3:

Part Three

Cupid In Love!

Part Three

"I can't believe it."

Cupid stares at the poker table, which is currently surrounded by people. A few are playing, while others stand nearby with plastic cups in their hands, cheering whenever someone makes a good move.

The entire office floor has been transformed. The lights have been dimmed, music plays somewhere in the background, and every available table is covered with drinks, snacks, and whatever junk food Chris managed to order.

Chris grins. "We should start a casino here."

Cupid smirks. "Only if you let me be your co-partner."

"Hmm." Chris pretends to think about it. "I'll consider your application."

"How generous."

"Here—" Chris pushes a plastic cup into her hands. "We should also take a shot at poker if you—"

"Cupid!"

Cupid freezes.

She slowly turns toward the voice and spots Katie walking toward them, a familiar frown already plastered across her face.

"Uh-oh."

Cupid immediately takes a step behind Chris.

"Did you take my coffee? I told you it was mine! I even wrote my name on it!" Katie complains, her brown skin flushing with irritation as her curly black hair falls into her face. "Ugh, how can people be so stupid?"

"Oh, your coffee?" Cupid peeks out from behind Chris. "I didn't take it this time."

She casually steps back out as if nothing happened.

Katie narrows her eyes.

Cupid smiles at her innocently.

"Who did take it, then?" Katie asks. Then she pauses. "And wait. If you didn't take it, why did you hide behind Chris when I walked toward you?"

Cupid shrugs. "You're scary when you walk toward people."

Chris nods solemnly. "I can agree with this."

Katie stares at them. "I hate you both."

She waves a hand dismissively.

"I can't find anything of mine in this crowd. Couldn't you have chosen another floor? Like the first one?"

Chris shrugs and points toward the tall windows overlooking the city.

"We needed a good view while playing poker."

Katie looks toward the windows, then back at him.

"...You needed a view?"

"Absolutely."

"Of what?"

"The city."

"We're playing cards."

"Exactly."

Katie just stares at him.

Cupid bursts out laughing.

"Don't encourage him," Katie mutters.

Chris grins. "Too late."

"Whatever, I'm going home." Katie sighs. "I need to work on my target's case."

Cupid hums. "How's it going?"

"Good. It'll probably be worse now that someone just took my coffee without even asking."

Katie scans Chris and Cupid from head to toe.

"I'm keeping my eyes on you two."

"Please, just tell me you want to go out with me." Chris winks.

Katie scoffs and walks away without another glance.

"Rude." Chris lets out a dramatic huff.

"It's the lack of coffee getting to her," Cupid says. "We really should buy her her own fridge."

"I don't think that would stop us from stealing her coffee, though."

Chris grins, earning a playful bump from Cupid's shoulder.

Cupid looks around the wide room. Jake, a tall, muscular man, is laughing with another matchmaker as they talk about something she can't quite hear. A little farther away, she spots the newcomer again. She seems to have found a small group to talk to, though she still looks a little overwhelmed by the crowd.

Her attention is drawn back to Chris when he speaks.

"Did you hear that Love on Fire tried to buy our Soul-Link app?"

Cupid's expression immediately sours.

Love on Fire is another company that revolves around dating apps. For the past few years, they've been trying to gain some kind of ownership over Soul-Link.

"Ugh. Please." Cupid rolls her eyes. "They just want the money. It's not our fault their dating apps scam people with ridiculous in-app purchases."

"They've tried buying us three times already," Chris adds.

"And Ethan rejected them three times."

"Yep."

"Good."

Cupid takes another sip from her drink.

"At least our users don't have to pay extra just to find someone who actually likes them."

Chris chuckles. "Imagine paying to see who's your soulmate."

"Couldn't be us."

"Thank Eros."

Cupid raises her cup. "Thank Eros. Not me, the actual god."

Chris lets out a laugh.

"I'll go check out the food you ordered," Cupid says.

"Go ahead. Don't get your standards too high. It's mostly pizza and burgers," Chris replies.

Cupid rolls her eyes with a smile before walking toward the tables that have been pushed together to form one long table.

She stops in front of it and, true to Chris's word, finds mostly pizza slices and burgers scattered across the surface.

Cupid looks around and spots a single cup of popcorn. Probably the last one.

Naturally, she reaches for it.

But just as her hand lands on the cup, another hand grabs it at the exact same time.

Oh no...

Cupid recognizes those perfectly manicured nails. That wrist covered in bracelets.

She slowly looks up.

Kiara's icy-blue eyes stare back at her with utter disgust.

"Excuse me," Kiara spits. "I took it first."

Cupid looks down at the cup.

Then at Kiara.

Then back at the cup.

And finally at Kiara again.

"I'm pretty sure I was the first one to touch it." Cupid raises an eyebrow, a small smile forming on her lips.

The smile only seems to irritate Kiara further.

Without another word, Kiara tries to pull the cup toward herself.

Cupid, already expecting it, follows the movement without letting go.

A few pieces of popcorn tumble onto the floor.

"Let go," Kiara demands.

Cupid pushes the cup slightly toward her, wearing an unbearably smug smile.

"Nope."

Kiara pushes it back.

Cupid pushes it toward her again.

Back and forth.

Neither of them lets go.

Soon, they're both pulling harder and harder on the poor paper cup, each refusing to give the other even an inch.

More popcorn spills onto the floor.

Then more.

Until almost the entire contents of the cup are scattered beneath them.

Neither woman seems to notice.

They keep pulling.

Kiara clenches her teeth and pulls with all her strength.

Cupid's eyes widen as she suddenly stumbles forward. Kiara, not expecting it, widens her own eyes as the shorter woman crashes into her, sending both of them tumbling onto the table.

If people weren't watching before, they definitely are now.

"What's wrong with you?!" Kiara spits as she tries to push herself up.

Then her expression changes.

She looks down.

She had landed directly on a plate of pizza, several slices now stuck to her back, completely ruining her clothes.

Cupid has already pushed herself up from Kiara. She looks genuinely confused.

"Well, that was clearly your fault!"

Kiara doesn't even acknowledge her.

Her eyes remain fixed on her now-destroyed outfit.

Silence falls.

Slowly, Kiara sits up on the table. A slice of pizza slides from her shoulder and lands on the floor.

Cupid notices her silence. She raises an eyebrow and cautiously takes a step backward.

"Uh..."

"Why..." Kiara whispers.

Cupid freezes.

"Why must it always be you?"

Kiara suddenly grabs a burger from the table and, with a force Cupid didn't know she possessed, hurls it straight at her face.

Smack.

Silence.

The destroyed burger slowly slides down Cupid's face.

Chris, who had already noticed the commotion, rushes toward them, but he's too late.

Cupid slowly wipes a bit of lettuce from her cheek.

Then she looks at Kiara.

Kiara looks back.

Neither says a word.

Cupid reaches for a nearby flask of wine.

Chris's eyes widen.

"Cupid, don't—"

Too late.

Cupid pours the entire thing over Kiara.

Kiara gasps.

So does everyone around them.

Her hands freeze in midair as dark red liquid soaks through her clothes, dripping from her hair and running down her face.

The entire room falls silent.

Cupid stares at her for a moment.

Then she gives her the sweetest little smile.

"Oops."

What happens next is pure chaos.

Kiara lunges at Cupid, slamming her against another table before grabbing more burgers and hurling them at her.

Cupid isn't about to let her have the last word. She grabs whatever food she can reach, shoving it into Kiara's face as the two stumble around the room.

One of them trips, dragging the other down with her, and they continue wrestling on the floor. Cupid grabs Kiara by the hair while Kiara retaliates by trying to shove another burger into Cupid's face.

"Get off me!"

"You're the one who started it!"

"YOU THREW A BURGER AT ME!"

"YOU POURED WINE ON ME!"

"BECAUSE YOU THREW THE BURGER!"

"YOU RUINED MY CLOTHES!"

___________________________________________

The next morning.

"Soul-Link is a company where every matchmaker takes responsibility for a person, with the goal of finding them a soulmate. People only know us through our dating app, but behind that app is an entire organization filled with people who are goal-oriented, steadfast, and dedicated to bringing soulmates together—"

Ethan sighs and pushes himself away from his computer, leaning back in his chair.

"—but every time the two of you are put together, you manage to destroy every vision of what this company is supposed to be."

His eyes fall on the two women sitting in front of his desk.

Both of them are looking anywhere but at each other.

Kiara sits to his left, wearing almost the same outfit as yesterday, though this time she has an orange knitted sweater vest over her white button-up blouse. One leg is crossed over the other, her arms folded tightly across her chest.

Cupid, meanwhile, has apparently decided that Ethan's cookie plate is fair game. She has already stolen it from his desk and is currently stuffing her cheeks with cookies. Her strawberry-blonde hair is tied into a messy bun.

"Tell me, what in the name of love did you two think you were doing?" Ethan waves his hands toward them. "You're lucky this happened inside the company and not somewhere public, where everyone would have recorded it and posted it online without hesitation. Do you have any idea what that could have done to our image?"

"Even if our image were damaged, it wouldn't endanger our existence," Kiara mutters.

"It would," Ethan immediately replies, turning toward her. "Being known as a company people hate would put a lot of people on our backs who would love nothing more than to take Soul-Link away from us."

He pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I can't believe I've let this go on for this long. I don't care what kind of problems you two have with each other, but as long as you're at work, it is not tolerable."

Kiara rolls her eyes.

Ethan looks like he might just walk out of the room, his hair somehow appearing even grayer than before.

"And Cupid—Cupid!"

Cupid looks up from the cookie plate, her cheeks puffed out.

"Sowwy."

She waves the half-eaten cookie in her hand.

"Continue."

She places the cookie back on the plate.

"Cupid, I expected better from you. The two of you are the best matchmakers in Soul-Link. I thought you'd at least be capable of maintaining some kind of civilized relationship."

Ethan stands and walks toward the nearest window.

"I don't think simply telling you two to do better is going to change anything. So, I've decided on something else."

He turns back toward them.

"I received a case a week ago. A man named Jeff Green. His soulmate still needs to be found."

Cupid stops chewing.

"I originally thought about giving the case to Cupid alone. But since we're here, I need to speak to both of you."

He pauses.

"It's clear that neither of you is capable of acting like normal adults around each other. Instead, you behave like—"

His expression twists.

"—children fighting over food."

Cupid slowly lowers her cookie.

"Hey."

Ethan ignores her.

"So, I have a mission for both of you."

Both women look up.

"I am assigning Jeff Green's case to the two of you."

"HUH?!"

Cupid nearly falls out of her chair.

Kiara looks genuinely shocked.

"You will have two weeks to come back with a successful match. If there are complications, or you somehow fail to complete the mission within that time..."

Ethan's eyes move between them.

"I'm sorry, but I will have to suspend both of you from Soul-Link for at least a year."

Both women stare at him.

"And with that suspension, you'll lose access to your powers."

"WHAT?!"

They both shoot to their feet.

"But why?!" Kiara gestures angrily toward Cupid. "Pairing me with her will only cause problems!"

Ethan sighs.

"Kiara, you are both the problem. That's precisely why you need to learn how to work together. You need to be able to stand next to each other without trying to rip each other's throats out."

He returns to his desk and sits down.

"Normally, we don't assign cases to pairs. The rules specifically prohibit two matchmakers from working together. It can cause complications."

He looks at them both.

"So I expect you two to be on your best behavior."

"You're breaking a rule just because of us?" Cupid grins. "Damn, Ethan—"

"Would you shut up?"

Kiara shoots her a glare before turning back to Ethan.

"You can't actually mean this." Her voice has softened, almost pleading. "I can do better. It won't happen again."

"Kiara—"

"You can't just pair—"

"Kiara."

She stops.

Her hands curl into fists as she looks away.

Cupid watches her curiously from the corner of her eye.

For the first time, Kiara doesn't look angry.

She looks scared.

"You will start next week," Ethan continues. "Jeff Green lives in Paris, France, so you'll need to take a flight. I've already bought the tickets. I'll send the information to both of you by email later."

He leans forward.

"I don't care how you complete the assignment. You can become part of his life, work from the outside, or manipulate circumstances without him ever knowing. You know the rules."

He places his palm flat against the desk and looks between them.

"Did I make myself clear?"

Cupid hesitates. She seems as though she doesn't particularly care either way, but one glance at Kiara makes her pause.

The taller woman looks more than frustrated.

She looks terrified.

It's clear she'd rather do anything than accept this assignment.

"...Understood," Cupid says after a moment, turning back toward Ethan.

"Kiara?"

"Understood."

She forces the word out.

Ethan nods and stands.

"Then I'm happy to announce that the two of you are officially a team."