Interim Goddess of Love #1 of 3 (COMPLETE)

Chapter 12

By the time I actually saw Quin face to face, hours later, I had run a dozen versions of my speech in my head.

I conveniently found him eating a burger alone in the McDonald's that I had decided to have dinner at that night. So I walked up to him with purpose.

"I can't believe you knew and never told me."

No look of surprise or guilt, of course. He was probably expecting me to do this any day now. "You're hungry. Why don't you get something to eat first?"

"I can't believe you knew Robbie liked me all this time."

"How did you find out?"

"He asked me out to the Bash."

"He's been planning to do that for a while."

"I know. He inadvertently gave me a flashback tour earlier, when he talked to me. How come you never said anything?"

"Did you know that Robbie wasn't one of us?"

"What?"

Quin was not at all bothered by my drama. He picked up a french fry and lazily dipped it in ketchup. "Did you notice already how you can tell if someone you encounter is or is not a god in human form?"

Seriously, you take this moment to quiz me?

"I saw into his feelings, memories of me," I said, realizing it right then.

"Right. You've noticed that you can't do that to me, or Vida, or Diego."

"I just thought it was because I'm new and haven't learned everything yet."

Quin motioned for me to sit, but I stubbornly refused. "It's not a thing you learn; it just is. When I met you, you were part of the youngest generation of Bathala's family. When you took the place of the goddess of love, you joined the third generation. You only have power over those who are younger."

"Can you... do your powers work on Vida and Diego?"

He shook his head. "No. They're my equals."

"But Vida competes with you for things."

"She stubbornly thinks she can upset the balance and take more than what our father has given her. She can't."

"So you can play with human feelings and actions but not each other's."

"That's not how I see it, but it's kind of true."

"Am I your equal?"

"You're younger than us," Quin said. "Sorry if that disappoints you. Yes, we can affect your thoughts, actions, and feelings, if we wish to. But this rarely happens."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I've always been an advocate for letting people be, and the other gods—as I told you—can't change this even if they tried."

"So my powers won't work on any of you, even if I try."

"It doesn't work that way."

"And you are which generation?"

Quin motioned for me to sit again, and I still refused. "Only my father has any power over me."

Maybe if that mythology book hadn't been missing from the library I would have known about this earlier. I was surprised, though, at how dejected I felt at finding out that there was a hierarchy to this and I happened to be near the bottom.

And Quin... just when I thought this experience had brought us closer, apparently I was still not an equal. It was freshman year all over again.

No wait. Freshman year was better because last year I thought that it was possible for a junior to be absolutely inexplicably charmed by me.

"You didn't tell me about Robbie," I whined.

"I just said, I wanted to let things be," Quin said. "How about you sit down and let's have dinner?"

Screw. You. I put much force behind that thought, hoping that he could hear it, even if he probably didn't intend to, in the spirit of "letting things be."

Then I left. This lowly "third generation" goddess had work to do.