The Soulmate Paradox ✔

bonus: there for you

The girl tilts her head, and there's something weirdly familiar about the way she thinks. Heck, there's something weirdly familiar about the girl herself, now that Demeter's getting a closer look at her. There's something intimate about the kinks in her hair, the slope of her nose, the shape of her eyes.

"Toffeenut Caramel Swirl, please," the girl says. Now that Demeter thinks about it, she's pretty sure she's heard her voice before. If only I could remember where...

When the girl reaches into the pocket of her jeans, Demeter decides it's as good a time as any to strike up a conversation---after all, it's barely past eleven, and the noon crowd hasn't flooded the place yet. "Do you come here often?" she questions, leaning forward as much as she can and resting her elbows on the counter in an attempt at hiding the striped pin on her apron. She resists the urge to straighten her glasses and pat down her already-perfect hair.

The pretty girl laughs. She's got a nice laugh. It feels like a warm summer breeze, like daisies in an emerald field, like dandelion puffs riding on the wind. "No, this is my first time here."

"Well, then, I do hope you won't be disappointed." Demeter eases herself off the counter. "Cup or cone?"

"Cup, please."

"Sacrilege. Ice cream should be eaten with a cone." Demeter wills herself to shut up, but she can't help it---she wants to converse more with this girl, to figure out why she looks so familiar.

The girl pouts, and Demeter gets the strange urge to reach out and poke her dimples. "But I like it in a cup."

"Shame." Demeter wrinkles her nose. She's running out of things to say. Must as well just go for it and hope she doesn't think I'm a creep. "You look kind of familiar."

The girl chuckles, and Demeter wishes she could bottle up that beautiful laugh. "That's funny. You look kind of familiar too. What's your name? Maybe it'll ring a bell."

"I'm Demeter." Demeter is not one to pass up a chance to say her name. She freaking loves her name. It's feminine and powerful and unique and she absolutely adores it, because it's everything she's ever wanted, and she especially loves how it rolls off her tongue with ease nowadays---how after years of practice, Demeter feels almost too comfortable, as if she'd had it from the very start.

The girl's brow furrows. "I don't think I know a Demeter." Then the bright, happy smile is back, spread across her face like a metaphor painted over blank canvas. "I'm Mia. Mia Monroe, if that'll help."

At that, Demeter's heart drops into her heels, and the hand that had been reaching for the ice cream scoop instantly halts in midair, because damn it, of all things, the pretty girl in the ice cream shop just has to be her old crush from middle school. Her crush before pink, before dresses, before Demeter.

"Hi, Mia. It's nice to meet you. I think we must have mistaken each other for someone else," Demeter mumbles weakly, because there is absolutely no way to tell her childhood crush that she'd never known a Demeter, but once upon a time, she'd known a Darren instead.

٩( ᐛ )و

It doesn't take long for Demeter's middle school feelings to come back full force. All it takes is three weeks of Mia's soon-frequent visits to Snow Halation, and she's completely hooked. Even though she's a hundred percent sure Mia still doesn't know they've been friends before, they click so fast she's not entirely sure why Mia appears to be convinced they've never met.

Or maybe Demeter just doesn't give her acting skills enough credit.

Which is why it's on an ironically sunny day that Mia drops the bombshell.