Free Interim Goddess of Love by Mina V. Esguerra

out, give her gifts. Any other guy might get her strawberry-flavored things, because that was safe and typical, but because Jake had her list, he would know better.
    Time flew really quickly when you were a freshman, just because everything was so new. In any case he let the first few weeks of school go by without introducing himself, and even though they saw each other every Monday and Thursday at nine-thirty, it felt wrong to suddenly just walk up to her and do it.
    Come second semester he scanned all his classes, hoping she would be there, but she wasn't.
    When he got back from a trip last summer, he decided to go for it.
     

    Eighteen minutes was how long I needed, to get all of that. Oh he was totally Kathy's secret admirer. He planned the gifts, and how she would get them, in the weeks before school started, and put the plan into action through his friend Johnny.
    I wanted more time to see how exactly Vida had come into the picture, but his memories of her weren 't flowing as freely. In fact I barely saw Vida in anything I picked up from him, barely got a sense of how he really felt about her.
    But then I saw Diego appear by the open window of the Student Council Room, knocking his fist once against its wooden frame.
    I told Jake that I had to go.
    I was not as fast with my getaway as Diego would have liked. When we got to the hallway he took my hand and we flew (not literally) past the student org rooms, down one flight of stairs on the other end, and into the sunny but breezy outdoors. Even though this was my second year at Ford River I still wasn't used to how windy it was, even on a sunny day, totally not how I experienced afternoons in Manila.
    We slowed to a brisk walk and ret reated into the North building, and that was where Diego paused to catch his breath. So did I, and noticed just then that we were both laughing. I may have been squealing like a kid as we sprinted, not sure, but likely.
    " Was she right behind me?" I asked.
    " No but she just spoke to the last of your minions and had just left the Guidance Office."
    That was probably Ms. Farrah, the guidance counselor. "What happened there?"
    " I left Vida at the cafeteria. On her way back she inexplicably became part of four conversations, one after another."
    " She knows it's me," I moaned. "She's going to just, I don't know, murder me, isn't she?"
    " I doubt it. Joaquin won't let her do anything to you."
    " I'm sorry for being slow about this," I said. "You probably think you're explaining the same thing to me over and over again. I just can't grasp yet the concept of you all being powerful but so limited."
    " There's a book in the library that explains it all very well."
    " It's missing," I said.
    " Think of it as territory," Diego said. "Every single thing about life has been divided among us, and we're all most powerful in our own turf. Yours, for now, is love."
    " What's yours?"
    " The sea. Work. And journeys."
    Something came over me as my heart rate slowed, going back to normal after that sudden run across campus.
    Diego just helped me with my work. If my work was, now, being the goddess of love. 
    So despite the sweat and arrogance, stuff I normally avoided in a guy, I could see why Sol preferred him. He just had a different way about him -- more upfront about things, more transparent somehow.
    I mean, I trusted Quin and all, but I didn 't mind learning my new "work" this way.
    Oh, is that guilt?
    It wasn't cheating. It wasn't like Quin and I were in an actual relationship, right.
    " What happens when territories overlap?" I asked.
    " Then it gets interesting," he said. "Everyone wants more than what Bathala has given. We fight, someone wins, the loser plots revenge. It's more common than you think, New Girl."

Chapter 16

 
    It was another one of those days when, just before six p.m., the setting sun would turn the sky into a bright orange. A minute later it would be blood red, and then it would dip into the horizon and just be gone.
    Almost