Page 23 of Flowers Near Me

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

THE PROBLEM WITH PRETENDING

PERSEPHONE

L ounging on one of the leather chairs in the main living room, Persephone thumbed through photos of Hades and her from their late lunch the day before. Cerberus curled up on the floor nearby. A few news outlets had published articles with the photos, linking them to other social accounts with even more photos. She and Hades looked convincing as a couple—almost endearingly so. There were a few pictures where she was watching the chef, but Hades was smiling and watching her.

She didn’t trust her intuition with him. Whether he was immersed in this role of her fake boyfriend or what he claimed he felt about her was true, he looked smitten. Even worse, she wanted him to adore her because she was enjoying their time together.

Soon, an ugly, unwelcome question formed in her mind. How did he look when he was with other women? Unable to distract herself with meditation and unwilling to set her phone down, she stared at photos of Hades at different events with immaculate dates on his arm.

She couldn’t discern the type he seemed to prefer. His companions spanned the spectrum of beauty—slender, sumptuous, athletic, willowy, tall, short, dark or fair skinned and everything in between. Cascading hair to buzzed pixie cuts. Did he look happy? Smitten? Proud? In love?

Who knows?

The chime of the doorbell caused her to drop the phone on the woven rug, barely missing a now awake Cerberus. The dog popped up and trotted towards the hallway.

“Good morning,” Charon greeted as she placed canvas tote bags filled with groceries onto the marble counter. She tossed Cerberus a treat and he carried it off into another room.

“Hi! I didn’t realize you were stopping by.” Persephone grabbed her phone off the floor and made her way towards the coffee pot. “What can I get you to drink?”

Plucking items from the bags and setting them into the fridge drawers, Charon replied, “Coffee if there’s some left.”

“There is. Hades left early and only had one cup.” She poured the steaming liquid and grabbed a creamer she had seen Charon use in the office. “But I’m sure you already knew he’d be out this morning.”

Charon laughed and began folding the empty totes. “You give me too much credit. Between the two of you, I tend to memorize your schedule and not his.”

Persephone handed her the mug. “Do you have somewhere you need to be soon, or can you stay for a bit?”

“Actually, I’d like to stay because I have a few things I wanted to run by you if that’s okay. I know it’s your day off, but I’d like to get your dress fitting scheduled now that the gala’s date has been set.”

Did Charon help all those other women pick out their outfits too? Charon probably did and did so with the same professionalism and respect she showed everyone. Don’t be an idiot.

With a hand raised in surrender, Charon said, “I’m sorry. We don’t have to do this right now. I thought?—”

Shaking her head, embarrassed that her emotions were so clearly written on her face and that Charon had mistaken her insecurity for disliking her suggestion, Persephone cut in, “No, it’s fine. Of course we can pick the dress.”

They each sat in a chair and reclined with their coffees.

“I have a few I want you to take a look at,” said Charon.

“Let’s see them.”

Charon nodded as she scrolled on her phone then Persephone’s pinged with a message. There were five different dresses. All floor length but vastly different from one another in color, fabric, and style.

“These are all very pretty, but the black silk one is my favorite. I was thinking something black but didn’t know if that would be strange for the launch of a flower market app,” Persephone remarked.

Charon hummed in agreement. “The bodice is covered in petals, and I think the black is a nice nod to Underworld Unlimited. Plus, you look great in black.”

Persephone blushed. Why the affirmation from Charon affected her, she had no clue.

“I’ll ask the shop to pull more black silk gowns, and we can set your fitting as soon as they have an opening.” Charon typed on her phone.

“Sounds good to me.” It wasn’t a workday but Persephone couldn’t help talking about the app. “Did you hear the latest news?” Persephone asked.

Setting her phone down on her lap and picking up her coffee, Charon replied, “Yes. I was surprised to hear it was one of the beta testers who introduced a virus.”

“I told Eurydice it could’ve come from one of them.”

“It’s a shame. I thought our vetting process was airtight, but whoever paid the tester did a good job covering their tracks.”

“Who do you think sent them?” As soon as she said it, the obvious answer, her mom, popped into her head. “Sorry. I have a guess.”

Charon gave a light laugh. “Honestly, Demeter is only one among a long list of people who might want to discredit an app Hades is backing.”

That was probably true. Besides, why would Demeter want to hurt something Persephone was promoting as well.

“Anyway… tell me about your lunch,” said Charon.

“Food was incredible. I think the pictures turned out well so overall, it was a success. I’ll post the picture I took with Hades on my account later today.”

With a nod, Charon said, “The photos looked so good that I’m wondering if you two might actually be in love.”

Persephone’s chest tightened, and her face heated. “I think you’re underestimating Hades’ acting ability.”

“Oh no. When you’ve worked with someone as long as we have, you learn all their tells.”

Persephone laughed as she pictured the way Hermes would bite his bottom lip when he was excited. Usually, it happened right before her mom was about to rip into a contractor who failed to meet a deadline or whenever the legal team got a little snippy. Goddess of the Harvest and queen of clap-backs, Demeter’s retorts never disappointed.

If Charon knew Hades half as well as she knew Hermes, could she discern what Hades’ true aim was when it came to Persephone? Would Charon’s loyalty to him as an employee trump any loyalty she felt towards her? Or was Charon just as complicit in his act and Persephone was the latest toy Hades planned on discarding as soon as he felt it expired?

“Penny for your thoughts?” Charon asked.

With a weak sigh, Persephone said, “I’m worried I’ll be one of many that Hades has chewed up and spit out.”

Charon cocked her head and her eyes softened. “Why do you think you’ll be chewed up and spit out?”

With an exasperated look, Persephone replied, “All you have to do is a simple image search of Hades and you can find the carousel of women he’s dated. Anyone with internet access would know this.”

“Ohhhh…” Charon’s brows lifted. “You’re here thinking he’s dated all the women he’s taken to different events.” Right then, Cerberus’ nails clattered across the floor as he rejoined them.

“I mean, come on. You’ve seen those pictures. Did you compliment those women each time and tell them how cute they looked together?”

Charon’s eyes widened and her lips parted. “Oh Fates, no. Not like this.” She scooted forward in her seat. “He’s never had a lasting interest or legal contract like he does with you.”

Persephone wasn’t sure at what point she’d started trusting Charon, but she did. There was some comfort in knowing that her situation with Hades was unique.

“I’m sorry, Charon. I’m out of my depth here. I worked in distribution and operations. Those don’t involve fake relationships and glamorous parties. It’s efficiencies… facts, figures. You know. Normal executive responsibilities, not dining out with my pretend boyfriend. It’s degrading and now my thoughts have turned childish.” Persephone’s gaze dropped to her lap.

A small, warm hand caressed her shoulder as a fluffy head nudged her leg. Charon said, “I’m sorry you feel degraded. That’s terrible. Maybe I could shed a little light on the situation?”

“Sure.” Persephone dragged her hand over Cerberus’ side as Charon sat back down into her chair and took a slow breath.

“Where to start…” She met eyes with Persephone. “Let’s look at some of the photos.”

Persephone opened her browser’s most recent page. “Here.”

Charon took the offered phone then pointed at the screen. “That’s Merope and this picture was taken the week before her art collection debuted in one of our event spaces.”

Persephone went to sit on the arm rest of Charon’s chair, and Cerberus scurried off towards the kitchen. “That makes sense. Just like I’m the spokesperson for one of your apps; he wants to be seen with me to help get my name out there.”

Shaking her head, Charon said, “No. Here’s what you’re missing. Look at their body language. They’re both standing straight as an arrow.”

“High praise coming from someone with the world’s straightest posture.”

Charon’s porcelain cheeks reddened. “Oh. Thank you.” She zoomed into the photo, focusing on where their sides almost touched. “See here. They’re not cozy. It looks like they are because they’ve got their hands around the other, but you can’t see their hands because they’re on each other’s back.”

Persephone’s mouth pressed in a flat line. That seems like a reach.

Behind them, Cerberus panted loudly, but Charon drew Persephone’s attention back before she turned to look.

“No. You can actually see me in the background here.” She pinched and zoomed in on a woman looking down at her phone. As her eyes adjusted, Persephone could make out the outline of someone who looked a lot like Charon. “I was behind them. They kept a fist on the other’s back.”

“Hm.” How had Charon remembered that detail? The woman was thorough, but that kind of memory was otherworldly.

Minimizing the photo, Charon typed in Persephone’s name in the search bar and pulled up an image from yesterday’s lunch. “I know it’s not the same because you two aren’t posing for a camera, but there are a few things I noticed.” She pointed at Hades’ face. “See how he’s smiling here? Remember it because I want you to picture it when we look at some of these other ones.”

“Okay…”

In the photo Hades had his hand on the back of her chair. She didn’t know he’d done that until she’d seen the pictures later. It was taken shortly after their kiss, and it was hard to ignore how happy he looked or how seeing his delight now made her flush.

Charon was back to the original search and scrolled deliberately down the page. “Not smiling here… barely a smile… looks almost angry… looks…”—she squinted her eyes then laughed—“drunk, to be honest. Then… yes, this one. He’s smiling and they’re dancing.” She pointed to a lithe woman mid-spin. “That’s my cousin, Marin. Her boyfriend hated that she worked for Underworld Unlimited. He even said some nasty things about me. But this was taken shortly after she broke up with him. I asked Hades to stage this as a goodbye message.” Charon turned, smirking with a glint in her eye.

“Oh my… you nymph,” teased Persephone. “I’ll have to tell Laura about that one. She’ll get a kick out of it.”

“Think that’s good? Wait ’til you see this other one I coordinated.” Charon skipped down the page, and Persephone inched closer until their arms touched. “Here.” Persephone leaned in to get a better look.

Suddenly, Hades’ deep voice provoked a clipped scream from each of them, sending Persephone hopping away from Charon, and causing Charon to drop Persephone’s phone onto the floor.

He purred, “You two look cozy.”

“Fuck the Fates, Hades. Where did you come from?” Persephone picked up then clutched her phone to her chest.

He stepped close to her and answered, “I portaled here.”

“How long ago?” Charon asked as she took her coffee cup towards the kitchen.

“Well, good morning to you too. Did I interrupt an important meeting?” He cupped Persephone’s shoulder.

“I came over with groceries,” Charon called from the kitchen. “We’re figuring out Persephone’s dress for the gala.”

Hades smirked at Persephone. “Find one you like?”

“We’re working on it.” Fates, she hoped he hadn’t caught any of her conversation with Charon.

“Great. I’d like to see it once you have one picked. My suit should be coordinated around what you wear.”

With a quirked brow, Persephone followed Hades into the kitchen. “Won’t you wear a tuxedo?”

“Yes, but there are details that should complement what you’re wearing.”

“Other than the color and fabric of the dress, do you need to know anything else?”

“I guess not. But I’d still like to see you in it when they do the fitting.”

Persephone sat down at the counter next to Charon and said, “Hades, you’re not going to the fitting.”

“What if the dress is too restrictive?”

“It’ll be a gown, of course it’s restrictive. I won’t be exercising at the gala.” The parties of the gods could be elegant, bordering on stuffy or downright debaucherous. Would it be the latter? Her head went dizzy at the thought of having to pretend to be a doting girlfriend at a party like that.

“Fine, but don’t fault me for trying to help.” He winked.

“Yes. Trying to help yourself to a free show,” she quipped and heard Charon’s stifled giggle beside her.

Moving around the counter, Hades stepped up behind her chair and laid his hands on her shoulders. “Is there a paid one? Because you know I’m very wealthy.” He put his head right next to hers and her back stiffened. “Name any price, love. I’d spend everything I have on you.” The sound of his inhale faded as he removed his hands. “But I bet you want it to be a surprise.”

The conversation with Charon about the photos and the way he spoke of her like she was worth more than his existence, made her heart skip. She could admit she liked having his attention—even if she shouldn’t.