A Demystification: Eve

Day 7: Heart

Word Count: 970

"So...this is what exactly?" The man sitting across from Lyn glowed faintly in the light of the cafe (not the one she worked at, thankfully), golden skin sparkling and flaxen hair basking in the glow in a dance of refracting lights. He looked vaguely like the statue of David, as if he had inspired it and had the artist let him down in execution, the marble unable to adequately reflect his perfection. Young and clean-shaven, he had surprisingly green eyes that seemed to see and recognize everything.

He was also several thousand years old. "It's a caramel cappuccino, Hermes," Lyn replied, smiling softly as she sipped at her chai. "Espresso, a highly concentrated coffee, a little milk, a lot of foam, and caramel for sweetness."

Hermes sipped at his drink, face curled and pinched in consternation. As the liquid touched and passed the gate of his lips, however, that same face lit with surprised delight, an almost childish glee suffusing his impish gaze. "That is a veritable ambrosia! How is it the others have never heard of this?"

"They should have. It's huge in Italy. Don't y'all just have to change your names and your disguises, hop over the Adriatic and plop down in a trattoria in Rome?" It had been a week since she'd been frightened out of her wits by Hermes, resplendent in his divine raiment, appearing in her bookstore to tell her she needed to save the world. OK, so that sounded like the beginning of every bad sci-fi book and movie of the last fifty years, but that was the easiest way to describe the event. After the requisite freak-out period and Lyn had decided that nothing could really be worse than continuing life as it was going, things had actually gone pretty well. Lyn didn't know anything of what was going on, and Hermes was having difficulty finding their ally, but otherwise things were going great.

"I guess we could...but we don't typically imbibe human food. A lot of us don't have the power to do it now that there aren't, you know..."

"As many believers?" Lyn put her coffee down. "But you've been here a week and seem to be doing fine."

Hermes nodded. "Several of my comrades pooled their energy together and gave it to me so I could help you. It's not been good for much, I guess. I scared you and haven't even been able to find Lucifer at all."

It didn't sit well with Lyn that her supposed ally in this earth-saving venture was supposed to be the Father of Lies, but Hermes had insisted that he was the only one who could help them and Lyn believed Hermes. "No, no, it was nothing. And I'm glad that I get to spend some time with you. I've...well, I've never really had a friend who wasn't related to me in some way."

"Really?" Hermes leaned back in his chair, face a mass of confusion. "But I cannot see why that would be true? Eve, you're a wonderful woman. And more than you know."

"More than anyone knows," Lyn replied. "And I scare people away, I guess. I'd kind of given up on having friends before I met you. It's a big part of the reason I agreed to help. Sad, I know, that I ranked my potential friendship with you as higher than the world, but I guess I really just wanted a friend."

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, neither awkward nor particularly comfortable, as each person contemplated what had just gone between them. "Well, I only came to find you to save myself and my kind, so my motives weren't exactly pure, either." Hermes grinned. "And it's an honor to have met you, Eve, not matter what reason you chose to help us."

"Well, my brother Brynden always had something to say on this subject. He's some sort of cardiologist, but he minored in British Literature as an undergrad, so he always had the most random things to say. But on this, I think he was right. He'd say...'Lyn, the heart is a muscle that ain't worth much more'n pumpin' blood if there's no one it can beat for.' He meant romance, of course, since he'd just met his wife, but I figure it counts for friendship, too. In my case, it's probably all it will count for."

"You have an exceptionally pessimistic view of yourself, Eve. And it's a self-fulfilling prophesy, you know, to constantly berate yourself for a self-imposed fault. Romance doesn't just drop on you...unless you want Eros to pick someone you've never met and shoot you with an arrow. I don't recommend it, he's never had a good track record. And his mother is crazy."

"You've slept with that crazy woman a few times, mister," Lyn replied. "Hermaphroditus, anyone?"

"How do you think I know she's crazy?" Hermes waggled his eyebrows. "Anyway, romance is not far from you. You just gotta stop thinking you're anathema to it and it'll come."

"Yes, Obi Wan. I'll work on that."

Hermes laughed. Lyn had showed him Star Wars: A New Hope the night before. "Use the force, Eve," he said, waving his hand in an arc before him. "You've a heart that beats for others, and always have. Someone will see that and appreciate it. Until then, you'll just have to put up with me teaching you to use a light saber."

"Remind me not to show you any of the Harry Potter movies." Remembering something, Lyn sat forward. "Or Flash comics. Come on, finish your drink. I'm going to take you to the farmer's market. We can get some stuff for dinner. Tonight, we continue on to The Empire Strikes Back, in which our intrepid adventurers have their shit hit the fan."