Esma has forgotten.

After placing the folder under her diary on her bed and shooting her with the repel arrow, I went back to the cupid world.
I was up all night.

The hope I had was gone. It hurt to even think about her. So I pushed Esma Yates to the back on my head.

I didn't need to find out who her match was. I already knew he was the blonde hair charmer in the third level of the cupid training team.

He is a lady's man. He teaches teen Cupids to start their missions of the matchmaking job. He has a kind heart in which Esma needs.
He does match with her on many levels to the point where pointless arguments about her stubbornness won't matter.

In a few days she will be hit again with a desire arrow this time for her right match.
And since she was my responsibility before, guess who was assigned to make it right.

Me. I have to shoot her again. I have to watch her fall In love with someone else again.

But before I do, I still have the young girl that was supposed to be with Adam to finish. So when morning rolled around, I PushedEsma and her match to the back of my mind I set out once again following the girl. She is right near Adam at the same coffee shop.

The guy really must love coffee to be there all the time.

I stand at the side of the building waiting for the girl to walk by him. Adam sits silently on his phone, probably wondering why he can't get hold of Esma.

Soon enough the girl comes out in watress uniform, holding a mug of coffee in her hands.
She goes towards Adams table as I get my arrow ready.

"Large coffee with soy milk." She says smiling at him.

I released my arrow.

"Yes thank you." He looks up at her and smiles as the desire arrow fills her with nerves.

She stares at him, nearly spilling the coffee on his pants.
"Sorry. I'm not myself today." She looks down making sure the coffee was placed on the table without a spill.

"No worries. You look pale." Adam says.

She shakes her head and chuckles. "I feel a little light headed."

"It's not my attractiveness is it?" Adam flirts.

And I'm out.
I walk away before I can hear more of their cheesy flirtatious conversation.

Then I bump into something.
Well someone.

Allison.

"Oh hey you!" She says happily.

My eyes widened.

"Yes I know ive gotten fatter since you last saw me, no need to be alarmed." She laughs patting her pregnant belly.

I plaster on a smile and I look around to see Esma STANDING BEHIND HER.

"Any way I'm gonna grab us a coffee, did you want one?" Allison asks. I shake my head before she walks odd leaving Esma and I standing there.

She looks at me curiously.

We have got to get me out of Allisons memory.

"Do I know you?" Esma asks me trying to read my face.

"No?" I say.
Four words that I dreaded to hear her say.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." I have to get out of here.

"You look familiar." She says boring her brown eyes into mine.

My heart drops further. "Sorry I have to go."

I walk around her quickly without looking back. I can't.

~~~~

The next day I sit at the matchmaking computer system, waiting for my match to be processed. Sooner I know who she is, the sooner I can move on.

My eyes widened, I gulped.

My match isn't in the cupid world. Its human.

I wondered if I met her yet already. My mind flickered to Esma in the back of my mind.

No stop thinking about her. It's not her. She has her match and its not you.

I spin around in my seat waiting for Leo, Esma's match, to come find me. I heard he wants to meet her today. I wait impatiently wanting this to be over with.

Finally after a few more minutes, Leo came from the lift spotting me sitting by the window.

"Everton, hey." he greets smiling at me.

I nod at him, putting on a forced smile.

"Ready?"

He nods back.

My brain has been rethinking this day over and over. What will happen? will she suddenly remember me? Will I even shoot my arrow?

"I heard you were close to her." Leo says as we walk to the transportation pods.

Great. Small talk.

"I guess so."

He rubs is hands together nervously.

"What is she like?"

"You'll love her, don't worry about that." I say not wanting any part in this conversation.

He looks at me curiously. "Sorry I didn't realise it was a touchy topic for you."

"Its not." I Denied. "It's just hard to loose a friend that you spent a month with."

In other words, yes Leo it is touchy and she's not just a friend. I honestly don't know what we were. But now we are nothing anymore.

"That's understandable. That must have really sucked." He says looking down at his hands as we take a seat in one of the pods.

"Man to man though, do you have feelings for her? I just get a feeling there's something more to the story." He leans forward looking me in the eyes wanting the truth.

I sigh and lean back in annoyance. There's one thing that Leo is very good at in his line of work and that is reading peoples emotions like a book.

"I did." I lie.

Because I still do.

"And?" he says reading my mind.

"Even more now than ever." I huff. "But its in the past, Its not meant to be. Your her match and I will move on." I say.

"I hope so, Everton. A broken heart is what us cupids try to avoid." He leans back sighing.

I hope so too.

He looks a bit more aware of me now that I admitted my feelings for his match. I wouldn't blame him.

The Beach is were Esma is located. Once we arrive I spot her straight away sitting by herself on the sand.

Leo turns to me. "Don't miss this time." before walking towards her.

Half of me wanted to miss on purpose just because he told me that.

I watch as he strolls towards the girl with brown hair in a green sundress. She applies sunscreen on her shoulders and arms. I imagine myself running after Leo pushing him over in the sand and talking to her instead. But that would be very dumb considering he will get me back.

I listen with my arrow in place. Right now I had to put up my invisibility shield so others on the beach wouldn't think this is a murder scene.

"Hi," Leo starts. "I've never been to this beach before, are the waves always this calm?"

Esma smiles up at him.

I hesitate.

'Y-yes, they are. That's why I like it." she replies.

Leo smiles back down at her. "I only like beaches when there's no big waves. I'm not the surfer dude type." he chuckles.

She giggles back. "Understandable."

"Would you mind if I sit?" Leo asks nervously.

I aim again, ready to shoot.

"Sure, I guess." she says.

"I'm Leo by the way." He puts out his hand.

She takes it. "Esma."

I hesitate again. I shake my head. Why can't I do it?

"I'm not from around here. I heard the coffee shop down the road is pretty good." Leo smiles.

He thinks I've already taken the shot.

"Some people think their coffee is too bitter. But I don't mind it." She shrugs. You can hear the blush in her voice.

I can't do it.

I put my arrow down, This is bad. This is breaking every rule in the book.

But if he thinks I've already hit her with the desire... and she's already blushing then maybe I don't have to.

Maybe I wont have to take the shot.

I can't bring myself to do it anyway.

"Coffee is a drug, you know." He tells her with a chuckle.

She turns to him, pulling a face. "So is chocolate but I'm not high on either."

"Chocolate isn't a drug." he says.

"Well its addicting, isn't it?" She smirks.

"True." He smiles at her like he has seen an angel.

~~

Later that night, after leaving Esma and Leo on the beach, I pushed everything into my long term memory for good.

Until Leo brings her into he cupid world again, I don't want to think about the one person that had changed my life.

I sat in the matchmaking computer system room for hours waiting for my own match to be found.

The door to the room opened, Faith walks in holding a container of spaghetti.

"Your father thought you'd be in here." she says sitting down next to me.

Her small wrinkles around her eyes disappear in the dim light of the room. She looks at me concerned before handing me the container.

"I had leftovers from tonight. I thought you'd be hungry."

Faith has been like a second mother to me ever since I was small. Yet I feel like I haven't seen much of her since Esma was around. Probably to avoid embarrassment to be honest.

"How are you holding up?"

Whenever I try to push Esma to the back of my mind, something always comes along to bring it forward again.

"Fine. I'm moving on." I shrug.

She presses her lips into a thin line.

"There's someone out there for you-"

"Do you think we can fall in love without the system?" I ask her seriously.

She's taken back by my question. "Everton-"

"Do you think my mother could have been right? That people should love who they want?" I say as I feel my eyes burn.

Faith sighs. "I think if love is really so strong and someone found that without the desire arrow, then I think she could be right."

I nod at her honest opinion. "But I'm not her match. So she must be wrong. Otherwise my feelings wouldn't be growing stronger every second."

I place my head in my hands. Faith puts the spaghetti on the table in front of me and places a hand on my back.

"Its just hard that I'm hurting and she's not. Esma's really happy, Faith. But I want her to be happy." Call me un-manly but tears started to prick at my eyes.

"You have to love yourself enough to let her go, accept the fact she's not the one and have faith that someone better is on the way." She was straightforward, but I needed it.

I look up at her. "Is that why they called you faith? So you can tell people to have faith?"

She laughs, her voice sounding older.

"Maybe so. But you need it."

I smile. "Maybe so."

She stands up from her seat. "Well my husband will probably be wondering where his desert is so I better go take the apple pie out the oven. Make sure you get some sleep. Preferably in your bed not in front of the computer. You know the Radiation isn't good for you."

"Thank you, Faith." I say as she starts to walk to the elevator.

I watch out the window as the last few cupids do their night shift work and others flying back home from work. I see Faiths wings soaring out of the building below me to the village.

I grab the container and make my way over to the lift myself. Once I hit the bottom level, I bring my wings out that are hidden behind me, pushing up off the ground.

'Have faith.'

And that's what I did for the rest of the week. I had faith someone else is out there and I will fall for them twice as much and as hard as I have, for the brown haired girl stored in the back of my mind.