Cupid's Contract

Bargain Booze

By the time Eve returned to work that Monday she felt as if she had been through The Wars.

She didn't know which wars that phrase referred to specifically, but any minor war would do. Sunday had been spent returning the site of the fundraiser to normal and trying to hide the fact that a couple hundred individuals had stomped all over the place with feet made heavy by alcohol.

To say it was a challenge was putting it lightly, but with Laura's micromanaging and Daniel obediently following her every dictate, the field and gym looked more or less the same, if a little bit well worn.

At the end of a long tiring Sunday, with limbs rubbery from exertion, Eve had stopped off at her Grandmother's house for a family meal, and had instead been greeted by an even more tiring sight.

The dinner table had been set with an extra two seats and only one of the visitors was welcome, in Eve's opinion.

Thus followed the longest dinner she had ever experienced, and she was a dab old hand at rotten dinner parties, thanks to her illustriously disastrous dating history.

Dr. Edwin had been invited by one tipsy Barbara, high on fumes and exhilaration, and it seems the invitation somehow got extended to include his nephew.

And so, on her day off, Eve was forced to have dinner with a painfully smug Johnny. As if breathing in his poisonous aura wasn't enough in the confines of that office building, now she was watching him try to charm, unsuccessfully, Roxanne.

Ev had never been more proud of her grandmother in her life.

"Mrs. Higgins, these potatoes are delicious. Maybe if I could cook this well I wouldn't still be single, eh?" He had simpered as he drowned his green beans in gravy.

"Unfortunately, young man, it takes more than a simple potato to make a woman like you. We are not nearly as narrow minded in our needs as you seem to think."

Damn, grandma! Sick burn! Eve had secretly highfived her hero under the table, as she giggled into the definitely fabulous potatoes. Never underestimate the wrath of a matriarch.

"No, of course not," he blushed, and Eve almost fell sorry for him but then the image of Drew's panic stricken face flashed through her mind, as his own father lay into him, and she forgot all empathy towards the toad.

"Looking forward to tomorrow, Eve?" He quickly changed the topic.

"Everyone loves a Monday, Johnny. I'm no exception." She tried to keep her tone neutral, for Edwin's sake, but she suspected she could have dropped an anvil on Johnny, complete with animated cartoon animals, and the doctor would not have noticed, so involved was he in catering to Barbara's every whim. Eve had observed quietly as he had over-salted her mother's greens, apologised profusely, and then used a napkin to dab the excess off. It was the sort of attention to detail that five star restaurants would give the dish of a revered critic.

"Oh, naturally, but I meant your review. You know, considering the event and it's success." He said it with such sarcasm that Eve immediately had her hackles up. Not that Johnny would've noticed. He was crunching loudly on a carrot.

Ugh. Who voluntarily eats carrots? And why so obnoxiously loud? Cretin.

"It was a success, thank you." She had no idea there would be a review. No one had said a word. But she wasn't about to let on that she was oblivious to information Johnny was privy to.

"Yes, overall, people seemed content. The odd stumbling block is to be expected, surely. They won't hold that against you." Crack. He caught a walnut between his two front teeth and fractured it arrogantly.

Who even eats walnuts? Everyone knows they're just garnish to a salad. Like little brown paperweights to keep the lettuce leaves from getting caught in a gust of wind and taking flight. Realistically Roxie shouldn't have even included them, what with it being an indoor meal, but she was probably trying to impress Edwin.

Eve added his questionably dining tastes to her list of reasons Johnny was a total toad.

"Stumbling blocks? Hardly! There wasn't a single hitch! Nary a speed bump!" Why was she speaking like some old-timey character in a movie? Was she sweating a little bit? This kitchen really wasn't suited to such big gatherings.

"Hmm, this wine really is perfect on the palate, Roxanne. You have great taste." He dismissed Eve without even a look.

"I found it in a bargain basket, child. Half-price." The woman was impenetrable.

Eve would've given her a fist bump but she was too busy trying to fire off surreptitious texts to Veronica and Daniel. Crikey, would it kill someone to crack a window in here? Suffocation was not an option right now, especially in the present company. He'd probably chalk it up to being a delicate female.

Though if her colleagues didn't reply soon she might just become a bit delicate after all... Fainting had always worked well for Mrs. Bennet in Pride & Prejudice after all.

But they didn't reply.

Hours passed, though they felt like decades in the presence of Johnny, and dessert was halfheartedly devoured, with still no sign of a text.

She had turned her phone off, then back on, in case it was on the fritz, and she had even rang it using Barb's, but there was no sign of technical difficulty. As she tucked herself into bed Sunday night she was filled with anxiety over the so-called "stumbling blocks" but if there was one thing to be said for physical exertion it was that it was one heck of a sleeping pill.

She only had time to toss and turn twice, flip her pillow over to the cool side, and she was out like a light.

People in The Wars probably slept a little less soundly.

******

Now we're cooking with gas!

We are also getting perilously close to the end. I can't believe it! I've already started writing some scenes that I feel like should have happened, but aren't in this draft... More moments between Drew and Eve most definitely! I find those too irresistible to not write. Plus Cupid has been too quiet, I think!

I do have a question for those following...

Do you buy ebooks? Do you buy them from Amazon? Or some other retailer?

I was thinking of publishing the edited and updated version of this, probably on Kindle Unlimited so people could read it for free with that... Do people even use KU? I don't want to isolate people who have been reading it all along but not managed to finish it, but I also want to see if people would actually read my writing in a professional scenario...

Anyways, just wanted to get your thoughts before I made any decisions. We're all in this together! <3