In which Saskia Martinez met Eros, the god of love himself, and got her heart entangled in a major love disaster. Except nobody told her the supposed mythical being was a teenage boy wearing a ripped varsity shirt, who dangled men in the air-by the...
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SHE KNOCKED softly on his door.
There was no answer.
Saskia stared at the still closed door, and taking another deep breath, her knuckles reached up to knock again. And again. And another.
She did not see him today, did not hear from him. And she couldn't take the silence. She just simply didn't want to spend the remaining days without seeing him. Saskia did not want to just simply wait. She wanted to tell him what she felt for him, not wanting to just let everything be without even putting a fight... even if she knew it would be futile.
And so, she'd gathered up enough courage to go to him.
There were soft footsteps inside, and when the door was finally opened... she did not see the face of the boy she had learned to love in just a little over a month.
Instead, she saw the incarnation of beauty, staring right back at her.
Saskia blinked, slowly at first, and then rapidly, as her head threatened to burst with the realization of who was in front of her.
"Saskia."
Her mouth fell open. She knew her name. She knew... What even?
And that voice... sweet and sultry, and she didn't know how long she stared—gaped—at the woman, only that looking at her perfectly-sculpted face was almost too painful to bear. She was beautiful beyond words, and Saskia was left dumbstruck when her lips moved again to speak.
"Would you like to come in?" Aphrodite asked, widening the door for her.
Saskia had nodded, entering the house in a daze.
"Sit, child," she said gently, when Saskia just stood at the center of the living room awkwardly—staring shamelessly. "Eros had to run an errand in the surf shop. Tea while you wait?"
She nodded again. Because really, who could refuse tea when it was offered to you by the goddess of love and beauty? Saskia strongly believed one couldn't refuse her anything, even if she offered a cupful of mud.
Letting the hot liquid run through her throat, Saskia felt a little more at ease with every sip, making her head sensible again, remembering what she came there for.
"Do you know what Eros' favorite flower is?" Aphrodite said suddenly as she poured more tea to her empty cup, and Saskia was caught off guard by the casualness of her tone, dumbfounded with the thought that she wanted to have a conversation with her. As if it was a normal occurrence for a mortal to visit the house.
She shook her head. "No, I-I don't."
The corner of Aphrodite's lips twitched up a little; dainty fingers holding the teacup. "The very first blooms grew from the soil of my temple the very moment my son opened his eyes for a first glimpse of the ancient world," she said, then turned to Saskia with a soft smile brought about by reminiscing long-ago memories. "I named them Eroses, after him, but the word had passed through mortals' tongues for time after time that it had soon become just... roses."
