Cupid's Incorporated {Completed}

Cupid's Incorporated - Chapter Three

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Dedicated to 1olMichelle for the amazing picture of Mia to the side! I love it! Thanks :) 

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Now, I like drama just as much as the next girl, but this kind of family drama wasn’t really up my alley.

I turned to my mom and said, “I’m gonna take my break now.”

She barely even glanced at me before I ducked out of the office, sensing a fight between the two men would soon happen.

I quickly made my way out of the tall building, and onto the pavement below. I stood around the corner and leaned against a brick wall, glancing around the alley behind me nervously. I wasn’t paranoid, but I was realistic. A seventeen-year-old girl standing in an abandoned alley didn’t exactly scream safety.

I kind of felt sorry for the son—Ashton, I now believed his name to be. I mean, I could see where he was coming from. If my mother had died, and my father was back on the market, I can’t imagine I’d be much of a happy camper either.

“You really shouldn’t be in an alley alone, Miss Starr,” a voice said conversationally from behind me. I jumped and spun around to face Ashton. He was leaning against the brick wall with his arms folded over his chest.

“Don’t call me that,” I replied sharply, not meaning to be rude. He had just scared me.

“Call you what?” Ashton replied, peeling himself off of the wall and advancing towards me.

“Miss Starr. It makes me feel old.”

He smirked. “What would you like me to call you?”

“Just call me Mia,” I said.

“Alright, Mia.” I couldn’t ignore the way his British accent made my heart accelerate as he said my name.

“What happened?” I asked, before I could stop myself. I knew it was rude, but I was curious.

“Well, my father yelled at me for being an inconsiderate twat, told me not to mess in his business, and then promptly kicked me out. Now he’s in your mother’s office, discussing his choices.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

He waved it away. “Not your fault, Mia. Well, not all your fault.”

I rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

“So, what inspired your mother to be a matchmaker?” Ashton asked, watching me curiously.

I felt a blush rising on my cheeks, but ignored it. “Well, when my dad left us eight years ago, she decided that just because she couldn’t have her happy ending, didn’t mean it had to be the same for everybody else. So she dedicated her life to making sure people could find their own matches.”

I didn’t normally tell almost complete strangers that my dad had left us—in a way it was kind of humiliating to think about—but I thought it was only fair since I knew about his mother.

“Well, that’s very sweet of her, isn’t it?” he said begrudgingly. “And what made you join the business?”

“I was forced to join,” I replied. “My mother made me. Trust me, I wouldn’t be here if my mother allowed it.”

“My apologies,” he said mildly.

“Why don’t you want your father finding someone new?” I asked, before I could stop myself. I realized then how rude that was. I knew I was insensitive, but come on, Mia! Have a little bit of compassion.

He scrubbed his jaw, as if trying to find the right words. “Don’t get me wrong. I want him to have a happy ending. But life isn’t a fairytale. My father is a womanizer, Mia. I don’t want some new woman to be put through what my mother went through before she passed away.”

“Oh,” I said, because I didn’t really think there was anything else to say to that.

A moment of silence hung around us, before I slowly stepped away. “Well, I have to get back to the office, but, uh, good luck with your father, Ashton.”

“I have a proposition for you,” Ashton said suddenly, mimicking my movements. “I wasn’t going to bring it up, but I have a feeling you could be very useful.”

“What?” I asked unsurely.

“I don’t want my father doing to some woman what he did to my mother. I need you to help me stop him from starting a relationship with someone new. I don’t know how—corrupt your mother’s files, delete his record, talk to your mother—just do something to stop him from finding someone new. Please, Mia, will you help me?”

I froze and bit my lip. “Look, Ashton, trust me, I want to… but this is my mother’s business! I can’t just ruin it because some random stranger asked me to help him sabotage his father’s lovelife! I can’t do that.”

“You’re right.” He laughed bitterly, but there was no humor. “Why would you help me? It’s not like you’d be protecting some innocent woman, or anything.”

He was doing exactly what my mother does. Making me feel terrible about turning it down. Guilt-tripping me into helping. Already he knew how to push my buttons and pull my strings.

“Hey, that’s not fair,” I retorted, pointing an accusing finger at him. “There’s a difference between helping an innocent woman and corrupting your mother’s files.”

“What’s so bad about it?” he cried in exasperation, throwing his hands up into the air. “It’s one man. One man who is not capable of loving one girl and only one girl. It’s not like I’m asking you to ruin her business!”

“Ashton, in case you’ve somehow forgotten, we only just met each other,” I reminded him. “Do you seriously expect me just to help someone I only just met?”

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. “My bad for thinking you might be willing to help.”

“I would, Ashton,” I said, feeling guilty. It was true; by not helping I could potentially be hurting a woman—if what Ashton was telling me was true. And, really, I had no reason to doubt him. “But you’ve got to understand. This is my mother’s business. She’s worked so hard for this. I can’t just start deleting files willy-nilly.”

He knew he wasn’t going to be able to convince me, so he just ran a hand through his bronze hair and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.

He handed it to me, and on it I saw a cell-phone number scrawled across it in blue ball-point pen.

“This is my phone number,” he explained, gesturing to the paper that lay in my palm. “Call me if you change your mind.”

He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and turned around to walk away, leaving me to stand there in silence, staring at the paper in disbelief.

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HAPPY FRIDAY!

Alright, so this is where the book really starts to pick up and get longer. Hopefully updates will be fast.

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