13. Depression: A Cupid's Guide
Geneva rubbed her eyes and squinted at the screen. A few of her readers send actual letters but most of them ask for her love advice over email. Her inbox held over four hundred unread emails. Every hour, she accumulated twenty more from all over the country.
Unlike other advice columnists, Geneva actually answered each and every one of her emails. Most of them were repetitive enough that she could reply in a few seconds. Some of them are complicated and murky and require an afternoon to think them over. But no matter what, she replied with heartfelt honesty.
Her job was mostly digital. Once a week, her column was printed in the Daily Chronicle. Once a month, she was printed in Cosmo. And everyday, she was published on her website, Cupid Chaos.
Due to the flexibility of her job, she spent most of her time with Lizzy. She talked to her friend about possibly moving in permanently but Lizzy has an independent streak wider than her gluttonous appetite for ice cream. Geneva was in no position to leave her friend alone. Especially not since the surgery.
The healing process was much smoother than before. The limb no longer produced a fiery ache in Lizzy's bones. The shadows of pain mostly faded from beneath Lizzy's clear green eyes, but they were still a little hallow.
Adrian came to her, unbidden, to tell her about Lizzy's desperate summoning. Summoning Death was easy, and Lizzy had handed herself over on a silver platter. Geneva could tell that it was hard for Adrian to resist. It was his duty to fulfill the bidding of fate and his path was temporarily altered. He could have ended the entire thing that day. But he restrained himself.
It only made her like him more.
But the fact that Lizzy was in such a horrible place made Geneva aware of how vigilant she would need to be. Lizzy wasn't used to depending on others. That much was evident on her refusal to even contact her brother when she'd been so permanently injured.
Which was why it was so important for Geneva to help her through this. Without anyone having to tell her, Geneva knew that she was the meddling sort. She couldn't keep her hands to herself. Knowing anything and everything about Lizzy was as important as getting her to fall in love with Brian. Only, love with Brian would have to take a back seat now. Perhaps it was the denial of love that made Geneva so motivated to meddle into Lizzy's life.
Geneva stared at that email to make sure she read it correctly. The sender was an Anthony Crenshaw, Lizzy's brother, agreeing to meet with her for coffee to discuss Lizzy.
Around noon, Geneva told half of the truth, omitting the other half. Out for coffee with a friend. Lizzy believed her without question and returned to her book. The Cupid felt very guilty about her omission but only felt a fraction better with the conviction that this was all for Lizzy's well being.
The coffee shop was nearly empty at noon on a Tuesday. She spotted Anthony right away sitting at a grouping of old dusty couches in the corner by the well-filled book shelves. He looked up when she walked in and Geneva could see his green eyes widen just a little in surprise.
"Hi, are you Anthony Crenshaw?" Geneva asked when she approached his table. He cradled a ceramic mug of steaming coffee in his large pale hands.
"Yeah. Yes, I mean. You can call me Tony. Everyone calls me Tony Crenshaw," he replied as he pushed himself up to standing and reached out a hand for her to shake.
That hand was hot from the coffee, almost feverish and damp with it's recent heat.
"I'm Geneva. I'm sorry we have to meet under these circumstances but I'm worried about your sister and she's so stubborn, she won't always accept my help," said the Cupid as they both took their seats.
"I'm not sure how I can help you. I haven't seen her in almost ten years and we live in the same city," said Tony with a shake of his head.
He was blond as well, but his hair was cut short. Like Lizzy, his eye brows were a dark golden brown and he also possessed the same bright green eyes curtained by glittering dark gold lashes. His mouth was also similar to Lizzy's in shape and color but Tony had a cut on his upper lip that added to his masculine beauty. He wore a navy blue sweater and light worn denim jeans and there was yellow and orange paint behind his ear and on his wrists even though his palms and fingernails were clean.
"Ten years, that's a long time for siblings to be mad at each other. It's really help me if you told me why. Maybe if I understood her a little more, I can change up my style with her," Geneva suggested.
"Um...Well," Tony faltered and brought his hand up to rub the back of his head. A sheepish gesture Geneva found endearing.
"I won't use it against you, or her. I just need to know how to help her out of her funk. I can start telling you more about her if you like. If you haven't spoken to her in a decade, you'll most likely be out of the loop about her recent car accident," said Geneva.
Tony's face stiffened in surprise. He didn't know about Lizzy's car accident and it been months ago by now.
"It was a hit and run, we never found out who it was. But she had a hard time healing from the trauma. It was too severe. Three weeks ago, Lizzy went through with the surgery that would remove a part of her leg. Her pain has been very reduced. But I think her mind is still not the same," Geneva added.
The silence between them stretched for what seemed like an hour.
"I guess we're more estranged than I remembered us to be," Tony said finally and his eyes dropped down to his half-filled coffee cup.
"I think the estrangement hurts you both more than you know," Geneva replied then added in a softer, more persuasive voice, "Please. I just want to help her." It was true. She did want to help Lizzy.
Tony sipped his coffee and kept his eyes cast down as if he were reading the memories from a book.
"Our mother suffered from an abusive relationship. The man, an on and off again boyfriend, left her. He just packed his bags and left without a word while everyone else was still in their pajamas. He was a heartless monster of a man and both Lizzy and I hated him.
But our mother couldn't reconcile his disappearance. She sank into despair. Lizzy had just graduated from High School and I was going to do the same the next year. But our mother made her first thwarted suicide attempt just weeks before Lizzy would have graduated. Her second attempt was later on that summer. By her third attempt in the fall, Lizzy put our mother into a strict therapeutic "suicide watch" facility called Vigilant.
But mom was miserable there. She cried all the time. They wouldn't let her go outside to breathe. I could see that she was still dying. And I knew, even though I don't condone suicide, that I would rather see my mother die on her own terms rather than to be tortured under florescent lights. They also kept her so heavily medicated that it was difficult for her to consent to anything else.
So, when I turned eighteen and with that arbitrary age, earned the right to take care of my mother, I did. I pulled her from the facility. She was home for maybe two weeks before she tried her fourth and last time to kill herself.
Lizzy never forgave me. She'd been a freshman at college. When she heard the news about mom, she dropped out and came home too. We lived together for a few months but then Lizzy packed up and left. And I haven't really seen her since. Not on purpose anyway," Tony finished with a shrug.
Geneva could hear by the way he told his story, that he'd said it before, perhaps to a therapist. But no matter how many times he could manage to practice the words on his tongue, the hurt of it still made his eyes red rimmed and wet. He didn't cry, even though Geneva wouldn't have blamed him too, but he held his tears back. Waiting for a private moment. So similar to Lizzy.
"Thank you for sharing that story with me, Tony," Geneva said, reaching out a hand to place the comforting touch on his forearm. "I'd like to reintroduce you back into her life. She needs the support of friends and family now more than ever."
~~~~~
Adrian waited in Geneva's bedroom. She'd called for him the way he'd taught her and he came running like a Japanese bullet train. It was embarrassing to be so excited to see her. He missed her face and her voice and since the time that she told him not to stalk her, that it was creepy, he'd stayed away from her. Coming only when she called.
But Geneva was no where in her apartment. So he waited. And while he waited, he looked through the things that she left out on her nightstand.
There was a box of tissues, a glass of water, a book called Depression: A Friend's Guide, and a notebook filled with sleepy notes scrawled through half consciousness.
"It's not nice to touch things that don't belong to you," said the Cupid from behind him.
Adrian got to his feet and dropped the notebook back onto the nightstand then folded his hands behind his back. It felt almost militaristic in the way he turned to face her.
Geneva Johnson looked so good in yellow. The color was like butter against her cinnamon brown skin. The yellow sweater looked fuzzy and soft and it didn't hug her figure at all. Instead, it hung loosely off of one shoulder and reached just under the curve of her buttocks. Worn and torn denim covered her legs and a pair of black and white polka-dotted rain boots covered her feet.
She looked delectable.
Utterly edible.
"Sorry. You weren't here. I wasn't sure if I should leave or not," he managed to say when she stared at him so expectantly.
"I'm glad you stayed," said the Cupid and his heart stopped.
"You are?" He felt stupid for asking but it was too late to take it back now.
She was already walking closer to him, cornering him. There was a smile playing on her lips but Adrian couldn't figure out if it was a smile he should like or one that he should be wary of.
"Yes, I am. Now, that things are a little quieter, I can properly thank you for what you did for Lizzy last month," Geneva said as she wrapped her arms around Adrian's neck.
She pulled him down, her fingers running through his dark gold hair, disheveling it in a way he knew she liked --the way he loved. Their lips hovered close but Geneva was still teasing, still moving against him. She pushed him back step by step until the wall met his back and he was left crushed between the two.
Cupid hadn't even kissed him yet and he was already struggling, breathing raggedly against her lips, anticipation aching throughout his bones. Waiting, just waiting for her to kiss him.
"How should I show my gratitude?" Geneva asked coyly and Adrian groaned, stirring in his trousers at just the tone of her voice.
"Please," Death managed in a whisper, "kiss me."
And she did.
Only then did he realize that the wall was for his benefit. Her full mouth weakened him and had it not been for the wall's support, he would have already sunk to his knees at her feet.
___________________________
Author's Note:
Hi Readers! Here is Chapter Thirteen. I want you all to know how much I love and appreciate you all for all the reads, comments, and votes. I was hoping that this story would get ranked some day but I realized that I'd never seen a Mature story ranked before. Which is ashamed. If I'm wrong about this, please let me know. Maybe my dream will come true after all!
I also wanted to let you know how pleased I am to be able to introduce Anthony Crenshaw into the mix. When I go back to edite the other chapters (when I'm done, I swear!) I will give him a little more of a role early on when I first mentioned Lizzy's estranged brother.
Also, I added that little scene between Geneva and Adrian because I miss them and these chapters have been more informative and sad than sexy. So I thought I'd remind you all that Adrian and Geneva are still a thing and to expect more from them!
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