Cupid's Daughter

Chapter One~ Stupid Cupid

"One of the most beautiful and weirdest things that happens is to fall in love with a person you didn't even notice at the first time you met them."- Unknown

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Quick disclaimer: This book is in the process of being edited! Please take this into consideration before reading :) 

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Click.

Click click.

My best friend Sam pointed the remote at the television in front of us, flicking through channels so quickly that there was no way she was actually looking at what was on each one. We were laying in a tangle of arms and legs on the couch, surrounded only by an almost-empty packet of M&Ms and my lazy little Cavoodle dog, Leonardog DogCaprio. 

We called him Leo for short.

"Issy! Look what's on!" Sam gushed, sitting up so quickly that I toppled over and landed on the floor on my butt. I shot my best friend a dirty look, but she was too engaged by whatever was on the screen to notice. 

Rubbing my derriere, I stood up and re-flopped back down onto the couch, turning my attention to the screen and groaning when I saw what Sam wanted to watch so badly.

Please no.

"And here we have Jenny Lucas, 38, from Wisconsin..." Without even thinking, I stopped listening to the blonde lady onscreen as she continued to talk nonsense. It was almost habitual now-- to just turn my brain off whenever I heard her voice.

"Oh, come on, Isabelle. Have you ever even watched a whole episode before? I think it's pretty cool what your mom does-- it's so different to normal, boring-ass jobs." Sam shrugged, not tearing her gaze away from the show.

My mother, Courtney Conway, was a matchmaker. Or more precisely, the most renowned matchmaker in America. She'd started in high school, setting up blind dates and finding prom dates for those few lonely hearts that for some reason didn't have one. Once she graduated she worked on an online dating website for a little while before finally starting her own matchmaking business, which had recently been turned into a reality TV show called 'Cupid'.

"It's definitely not cool." I told Sam, picking up an M&M and throwing it into the air so I could catch it with my mouth. "I mean she makes a living exploiting lonely people who can't find love, and making them believe that she can truly give them their soulmate. It's pathetic actually. And mean."

Sam gave me her best resting bitch face, which was usually reserved for her dad and our maths teachers, before shoving a handful of M&Ms into her own mouth. "I think it's kinda neat that she helps people." She mumbled. Sam readjusted her unicorn onesie so that the hood sat neatly over her dishevelled hair, and I crossed my arms over my chest.

"My mother can't even make her own relationship work, so how can she help others." I asked rhetorically, staring at my mother's made-up face grinning on the screen. The more I looked at her, the less she looked like my mom and the more she was just another stranger on the tv. We didn't even share any resemblance, with me adopting the dark Italian characteristics from my dad's side of the family whilst she wasn't that far off being able to pass for albino.

Sam didn't respond to my comment, but she turned the television off abruptly. "Speaking of relationships... can I tell you something? I'm not quite sure how you're going to take it." Sam spoke nervously, turning to me with one of those serious, my-cat-just-died type looks.

I stared at her with concern as she inhaled deeply, fiddling absentmindedly with the buttons on her onesie.

"Isabelle, I-"