“No, I believe she would have—”
Aphrodite’s raised hand silenced him. “This is something I know better than you. I’m a version of her—just like she was a version of me. To be better, I needed help, just like she did. If Darius and Zoey and the rest of the Nerd Herd hadn’t come along, I probably would still be lost in my own ego. You did good, Kev, even if it feels bad right now.”
He looked down at his hands, not sure what to say.
“Thanks for catching me. Darius said you didn’t even let me hit the ground.”
He looked up at her. “I recognized a vision coming on and I was closer than Darius. It was no big deal.”
“It was a big deal to me. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“So, how are you?”
He shrugged. “Trying to deal. Just taking it day by day. It helped to see her, even though I couldn’t touch her.”
Aphrodite leaned forward, obviously intrigued. “Oh, that’s right! You saw your Aphrodite in Nyx’s Realm. Wait—you couldn’t touch her?”
“No. She was just spirit, and since I’m flesh, we couldn’t touch, even though she looked totally solid. It was weird.”
“Sounds like it. How is she doing there?”
“Good. Really good. The same, but different.” Kevin wiped his palms on his jeans and relaxed a little. Even though it was weird to be talking to Aphrodite about Aphrodite, it was also a relief. Everyone, even Z, tiptoed around him—which made him feel even more broken than he already was. “She was more of herself there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Okay, don’t freak.”
“Saying that is making me freak. Just tell me,” she said.
“She looked different—more relaxed. Her hair was different.” He paused and smiled—and then, without even thinking about it, he reached out and brushed his fingers over a long strand of her thick blond hair that had fallen across her shoulder. “I didn’t know you straightened that.”
She snorted. “Of course I straighten my hair. This kind of perfection does not come without work. Wait—she’s not straightening her hair? Is she in a version of hell?”
Kevin surprised himself by laughing. “No! And you should try letting your hair go sometime. It was adorable and curly and kinda frizzy.”
“You blaspheme, but you’re in mourning, so I’ll let it go. What else was different about her?”
“She was wearing a cute long skirt with a lot of lace and a simple tee tied up.” He grinned and added, “And she didn’t have on any makeup or shoes.”
Aphrodite clutched her pearls dramatically. “And you’re sure she’s not in hell?”
“Positive. You want to know the absolute truth?”
All teasing went out of her voice. “I always want you to tell me the absolute truth.”
“It was like she was who she would’ve been without carrying around the weight of what her crappy parents did to her.”
Aphrodite looked down and nodded.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
“You didn’t. It’s just that I understand what you’re saying all too well. It’s good to know that there is a place and a time where my past won’t have the power to hurt me anymore.”
Kevin slowly covered her hand with his. “There’s more. You get to take love with you when you die. You get to remember everything and everyone, but something happens and the loss and grief and feeling like you miss someone so much that it might kill you goes away and leaves you with love—always love.”
She covered their joined hands with her other one. “I wish I could help take away some of that hurt for you.”
He met her gaze. “I thought you could. I was wrong. You’re great, but you’re not her. You’re stronger and wiser. I love her exactly as she was, but if she’d been more like you, she would have been able to survive the loss of so much of her humanity like you did.”
“Hey, I’m still learning and growing. I’ve been her—the difference was that I learned to let people in and to rely on my friends. I want you to remember that. Let people in. Let your friends help you. Any world is too damn difficult to survive on your own.” She lifted her hand and touched his cheek gently. “Love again. She wants you to. I know it because even though it breaks my heart to think about it, if I died I would want Darius to find happiness again. The only thing worse than losing him would be knowing that he was living a miserable, lonely, loveless life.”
For just a moment, Kevin closed his eyes and rested his cheek against her warm, soft, familiar touch.
“There’s someone in your world who will help you forget the pain that losing love has caused you, and when you do that you’ll be able to remember the joy it brought you.” She took her hand from his cheek. “Promise me you’ll try.”
He opened his eyes. “I promise. I’m just not sure how to do it.”
“The awesome thing about love is that as long as you’re open to it, not only will it find you, but it will also teach you things you never even thought you needed to know. Trust me. I’m an expert on unexpectedly being taught things by the people I love.”
“Thanks for talking to me like this. I needed it,” Kevin said.
“So did I. This attraction thing doesn’t just go one way, you know. I see why your Aphrodite fell for you. Were our situations and our worlds different, I would show you just how attractive you are to me.”
Their gaze met and held, and Kevin had to force himself not to lean forward and kiss her.
Aphrodite grinned. “Good choice. Like you said—I’m not her and being with me wouldn’t fix that break in your heart. But come here. I would like to hug you, if that’s okay with you.”
Instead of answering, he pulled Aphrodite into his arms and held her
