TAMING APOLLO | completed

53. the beginning

Artemis grinned. Even in his mortal state, her brother was still such a narcissist.

"You almost got caught." Another voice broke through Artemis' train of thought.

She rolled her eyes as Ariel came into view, looking every bit as young as she did forty two years ago. "I just wanted to check in on him."

"He chose this. Twenty five years ago, he asked the council to relinquish his powers so that he could be reborn as a mortal and he specifically asked for us not to interfere." Ariel countered, arching a brow in disapproval.

As much as she hated it, Apollo had wished for it. After decades of waiting for Gayle Lovegrove to return to him in some form, he grew tired and decided he did not want to be a god anymore. He chose to live among the mortals and forget all his suffering.

Ariel didn't blame him after all he'd been through. She'd have done the same thing, but what really irked her was his insistence on having his memory erased as well. .

Artemis rolled her eyes, sighing. "We'd better get going." She relented. "It was just nice seeing him again."

Back at the restaurant, Apollo was fully immersed in his book. "Excuse me." Another interruption, he was getting pretty damned tired of–

But before he could finish his thoughts, the sight of the woman who had interrupted began to cloud his vision.

This thought was reoccurring today, but he couldn't help the nagging feeling that he'd met this girl before.

It wasn't the way her deep brown eyes, soft as fur glanced down at him with a tinge of irritation shining in them, or how her pink lips slightly curved to the side. It wasn't even how pale her skin was, even though it was a hundred degrees out.

It was the way her features worked together in perfect synchronization to create the art that was her face. It was the way her smile triggered a chain reaction within him he couldn't quite understand.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but I think they gave you the wrong order. See, I've been sitting over there for the past twenty minutes," she motioned to a secluded single table in the far distance. "–and you've been here all of five minutes, yet somehow your macaroni and cheese came in before mine." She flicked her fingers towards the mac and cheese on his table which remained untouched. "So I'll be taking this." She said, but right before she could reach for the dish, he pulled it away, towards himself.

"I understand that but see, this was brought to my table, meaning it's my order. So if it's all the same to you, I'll be keeping it." Apollo didn't have to wait long for her reaction. Her ears were already flaming red before he could even finish his sentence.

Something about it made him feel giddy on the inside.

The girl chuckled bitterly, "but it's not all the same to me. I'm starving. You seem to be really invested in that book, which means you wouldn't mind waiting another ten minutes for your order."

"Actually, I would mind."

The girl rolled her eyes. "You're not much of a gentleman, are you?"

"Never claimed to be," he shrugged.

She groaned, rolling her eyes before turning to leave. But before she could get too far, she felt a hand clasp around her wrist, pulling her back to where she was previously standing.

Her wrist burned where the handsome stranger had touched her, and normally she'd be barking mad at having been touched by a man she didn't know, something about his silver eyes made her dizzy.

"I could be a gentleman... maybe... I don't know, maybe if you were to tell me your name?"

As much as she wanted to be snarky about this whole thing, her stomach grumbled and even though he seemed like kind of a weird guy, she was curious.

Pulling up her chair and skillfully sliding the plate across the table, she took the fork into her own petite hands. "Gayle." She grinned.

"My name is Gayle."

THE END
FIN

A/N: thank you so much for embarking on this amazing journey with me! I love you all so much, and your likes and comments have really been the highlight of my days. I don't know what I'll do without them. :(

Anyway, it means so much to me that you've all come this far into Apollo's journey, and like the title says, the end is only the beginning.

unfortunately this really is the end of this series, but I'm so grateful for all your support.

im currently in the process of developing a little something new and different, it's on my profile if you wanna take a look. thanks for everything again, and i hope to see you soon again. ; )