Page 19 of Hera

“Thank you.” Hera curtsied, small wavelets rippling about her ankles. “I’ve gotten rather used to having access to them, I must admit. It’s hard to be around humans. Or rather, humans that don’t know.”

“Ah yes, your sister is dating a human, correct?” Augustine stayed out of reach of the water, walking in the wet sand.

“Yes. Charles. He’s quite nice and Demi adores him,” Hera said. “I especially liked when he showed up at our doorstep with a bunch of—oh no!”

“A bunch of oh no?” Augustine frowned in confusion.

Hera tugged on his arm, turning him back the way they had come. “The food!”

“What about the food? I thought we were talking about Charles.”

“He brought Demi a bouquet of flowers from topside. And when he brought them down to Purgatory, they alldied!” Hera declared dramatically.

“What does that have to do with the food?” Augustine asked, obviously not following her train of thought.

“Living things like plants and food can’t be brought from one to the other. It rots! I can’t believe I forgot that, and Demi did, too!” Hera groaned.

“Oh no,” Augustine said, catching on.

They ran back to their picnic and opened the basket, peeking in. The stench was unbearable.

“How did we miss that when I pulled the blanket out?” Augustine asked, dismayed.

“The blanket wasn’t technicallyinthe basket. It only existed once it was out. And we closed it immediately afterward.” Hera felt like crying.Bothparts of her date were ruined.

“Hey, none of that,” Augustine said, taking her face in his gentle, large hands. He swiped a thumb under one of her eyes and she realized that a tear had escaped. “I saw a sandwich shop back there. How about we go buy things that were similar to what you had planned.”

“We don’t have any money,” Hera sniffed.

“How were you going to pay for the bicycle rentals?”

“Oh. Right.”

Augustine chuckled. “I am going to get rid of this—”

“No, it will attract bugs,” Hera said and snapped her fingers. “Should be all clean.”

“You cannot tell that it was filled with refuse two seconds ago,” Augustine said cheerfully. “Would you like to walk along the water, the sand, or the boardwalk?”

“Water, please,” Hera said shyly. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being so relaxed and understanding about the food mishap. For walking with me in the water, even though you clearly don’t want to get your feet wet. For not running away screaming after everything went wrong on this date.” Hera rolled her eyes, frustrated with herself.

“Not everything has gone wrong,” Augustine said.

“Really? What hasn’t?” Hera asked, hoping for a silver liningsomewhere.

“I got to hold your hand for a long walk. We felt warm sunshine on our faces. I got to see you in a beautiful dress.” Augustine kissed the back of her hand. “And we still have the rest of the day together.”

“Wow.” Hera couldn’t stop the heat creeping over her cheeks and knew her cheeks would appear a rosy red. “You’re right, that does all sound pretty great. Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” Augustine replied, eyes twinkling.

CHAPTER6

Augustine hadto force himself to focus. He was being tossed around as if he weighed no more than a rag doll.

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