Page 6 of Winning Back Persephone (Jinx Paranormal Dating Agency #9)

PERSEPHONE

The sound of my doorbell made me go tense, and an irrational part of me wondered if it was Hades on the other side of the door. It was highly improbable when he had no idea where I lived, and he wasn't the type to ask anyone in order to track me down.

Disappointment rushed through me as I opened the door to reveal Nyx holding a bottle of wine and a box of what smelled like moussaka.

"No need to look like you hoped I was someone else," the other goddess teased.

"I'm not," I assured her quickly.

"You're not fooling me. Your date must have gone great last night. Let me in so I can feed you, and you can tell me all about it."

I stepped back and waved for my friend to head inside. "My date was with Hades," I admitted

"Huh, that took less time than I imagined."

"What do you mean?" I hurried through to the dining room and started clearing the designs and other papers off the table. I'd never have left them like this when I lived with Hades, it was a new habit now that I was on my own. I scooped up a couple of old ready meal containers and dropped them into the bin, hoping Nyx hadn't noticed them. I'd never thought of myself as untidy until I lived alone.

"It's just that when you messaged to say you were going to try dating, I assumed that meant you'd try it and then go back to Hades."

"What? No. That's not the plan." I sighed and sat down, running a hand over my face. "I didn't even really want to date. I'm not ready for that." Hades had been my husband for so long that it was virtually impossible for me to think of anyone else taking his place. Realistically, no one could. He was the only person I'd ever been in love with.

"Then why are you dating?" Nyx pushed a container of moussaka over to me. "Comfort food. I brought it in case the date went badly."

"Thanks." I picked up a fork and pushed some of the food around. "I signed up to Jinx because I found out Hades had. I don't want to be the one stuck not being able to move on."

"Persephone, no one is judging you if you take your time getting over him. I don't think anyone expects it to be easy."

"But I don't want to dwell on this. I want to move on." I stabbed some of the moussaka with my fork and ate a bite. It was good and did hit all of the comfort food notes she'd promised and that I didn't know I needed.

"If heartbreak was easy, there wouldn't be so much art made about it," she pointed out. "So, if you weren't on a date with Hades because you want to get back together, why were you on a date with Hades?"

"It was an accident. I'm not sure how or why, but Jinx matched us to go on a date."

"Oof."

"Yeah. It's not a good look on their part. And what does it mean for me that the most compatible person for me is Hades? I'm never going to be able to move on if he's the pinnacle of what I can find in a partner."

Nyx ate some of her own food and considered my question. "I find it unlikely that Hades is the only person in the world who would fit you. There have been a lot of people born since the two of you got married."

I wrinkled my nose. "I couldn't imagine dating a mortal."

"Didn't you have that fling with Adonis?"

"Of course not, he sees me as a mother figure." I pulled a face even at the idea of it. "Aphrodite sent him to foster with us. When he was grown, I didn't want him to leave because he was part of our family by that point. Aphrodite wasn't happy about that and got Zeus involved. I'm not even sure why she did that, she had to have known it was a bad idea. As soon as Adonis saw her, he changed his mind about staying in the god realm with me and Hades. I'm not sure where the humans got the idea I was in love with him. I loved him, but not like that." There was only one person I'd loved like that, and right now, it felt like that was always going to be the case.

"That sounds complicated."

"It was a complicated time in history," I responded. "Considering I had to stage a kidnapping just to get my mother to give me some freedom, it's fairly reasonable." Especially compared to some of the other shenanigans the other gods had gotten up to around the same time.

"All right, so no mortals," Nyx said. "But there are plenty of gods and immortals who would love to date you."

"I've met most of them. I'm not interested."

"And this is why I thought that you dating again would mean you'd end up back with Hades."

"That can't happen," I responded. "We're too different."

Nyx barely managed to restrain her laughter. "You and Hades? Different? I'll believe that when I see evidence of it."

"I like to work, and Hades just isn't interested."

"That's not the Hades I've known. Didn't he build his club from scratch?"

"Well, yes. But what about expansion? What about moving on to the next thing and conquering the next business challenge?" I asked, putting more of my moussaka onto my fork.

Nyx raised an eyebrow. "Hades does all of those things with the club," she pointed out. "Most people don't need to start fifty businesses."

"Five," I corrected. "I have five."

"Mmhmm. And no doubt you're doing something big for all of them this month."

"Just for the newest," I said. "I have a handbag launch." I looked over to where I'd put all of the plans and details about it. There was still a lot to organise for the day, including a launch event. I had the space booked, but I was running out of time to pull everything together.

"And how are you managing with it all?"

"Do you know an event planner?" I mumbled. It was hard for me to accept that I needed help, but sometimes there really was no getting around it.

"Only Aphrodite."

I sighed. "I guess I could ask her." She'd never been big on sisterly affection, but there wasn't really any bad blood between us, unless I counted the Adonis thing, which I didn't. It was so long ago, and they'd both moved on. "That would make things easier."

"It's okay to ask for help," she responded.

"I know." While I didn't want to admit it to anyone, I'd taken on more than I should have. Hades was the one who usually talked me down from adding one more thing to my plate, and I hadn't heard his voice of reason in my head for the past two years. If anything, I'd been purposefully doing everything I could to avoid having Hades on my mind. It didn't really work.

"Maybe you can ask Jinx to sponsor your event or something," Nyx suggested. "That way, you'd have access to their events team."

I snorted. "Right now, I'm not happy with them. I was planning on emailing Aine to make sure none of her team set me up on another date with Hades." Though there was also a part of me that wanted to leave it be and hope that they did set me up with Hades again. "I hardly want to help them by using my business to push Jinx."

Nyx shrugged. "It was just an idea. They seem to have their hands in everything at the moment. I even heard that Aine was in the process of buying a hotel."

"She's certainly done well for herself with all of the membership fees." I could appreciate that. She was clearly an astute businesswoman even if she was a love goddess, and some of them were lacking in good sense

"She has. Maybe you could ask her about her events team as compensation for ending up having dinner with Hades."

"I don't think it warrants any compensation. We had a nice time."

"Oh, Persephone."

"What?" I set down my fork, content with the food and how good it was to eat something fresh.

"You know you're still in love with him, right?"

"Well, yes. Of course I know that, I'm not an idiot. That's why I can't keep going on dates with him," I pointed out. "Otherwise, we're just going to end up right back where we started." Though, as more time passed, I was starting to question whether that wasn't where I wanted to be.

I pushed the thought to the side. It didn't matter what I thought. Hades was dating again, which must mean that he didn't want to be with me anymore and wasn't struggling with any of these thoughts or feelings. It was better for me if I just avoided him as much as possible and didn't dwell on what could have been, even if there was a part of me that desperately wanted to see him again.