章 18: Love makes hearts sweet.
Hermes walked softly and opened the door in front of him and a soft bell sound was present.
The fragrant smell of coffee and sweets was really tempting.
He felt glad, that place seemed to have good food.
He approached the counter and placed his order with the attendant. "I want a vanilla latte, hot black coffee and a strawberry smoothie..."
The woman started typing on her computer and at first she acted unassuming without much notice of her client, but when she looked directly into his face she could even feel her heart racing.
The attendant remained silent for a few moments in a mixture of wonder and confusion.
Hermes or any other Greek god had Aphrodite's blessings and that was more than enough for any human to fall under her spell.
It was no exaggeration to think, for example, that Narcissus would not be able to walk down the street calmly.
He would always have to face a pile of people and chaos wherever he went.
It would be really troublesome, after all besides his own divine nature he was still blessed with his extraordinary beauty.
Hermes was a man of unique beauty and hardly a human would pass by him and not feel enchanted, but he was not ravishing either and could move around without major problems.
Hermes could feel the attendant's enchantment and could only feel amused.
He just wanted to buy breakfast.
He smiled gently and blinked half a dozen times in anticipation that the attendant would finally realize that situation was a little funny and embarrassing.
But Hermes admitted that humans were particularly funny and it was no wonder that Prometheus stole fire and gave them away.
They are good at many things, especially cooking.
Hermes lightly snapped his fingers making the girl wake up from her confusion.
"If you like what you see, you'd be really scared of Narcissus, he's so much better than me."
The woman didn't hide her surprised face, but she was especially embarrassed... She had never glared at someone so blatantly and even more so during working hours.
Hermes could see the reddish color in the attendant's face and smiled at that.
Cute.
It was very natural for a human to feel enchanted and dazzled by a divine figure, after all it was part of the intrinsic nature of the relationship between them.
People needed that kind of enchantment to live out their faith properly.
Trying to compose herself quickly, the attendant turned her eyes back to the computer. "Sorry… Of course… What's your name?"
"Hermes."
The woman looked at Hermes again and it was inevitable not to think that name was a joke, especially after he had defeated Narcissus.
Maybe that customer was a Greek mythology buff?! Who knows...
Well, some people were beautiful, but they were still weird.
"..."
Hermes smiled and made up some lie, he just wanted to be able to finish his order.
"My mom really likes Greek mythology a lot."
"I see… Well, anything else?"
Hermes took a quick look at the store's options, which was a little troublesome, everything looked extremely beautiful and delicious.
He sighed in indecision, until finally he made a wise choice.
Buy everything you can carry.
It didn't take long for sandwiches and a cake to stand out in her mind.
That definitely should be delicious. "Three of those sandwiches and that strawberry cake."
"Right..."
The attendant quickly typed in the entire order and Hermes didn't even want to know how much it would cost, he could make money come in with a simple snap of his fingers.
After all, it was just paper. "I'll pay with cash... Keep the change."
Hermes handed over half a dozen bills and he didn't even care if it was a lot of money or not.
The conception of money for him was not very logical, but that was how the human world worked.
Well, it's not like the gods needed it to meet their needs, they could just snap their fingers.
The woman took the bills and that was a lot of money...
Not imagining how complex that whole situation was, the attendant just thought that the customer was very rich or kind.
She smiled a little awkwardly and quickly rushed over to speed up the order. "OK."
"Mister Hermes, here is your order... Come back often."
Hermes took the bags and felt truly satisfied with what he had bought.
He would eat well.
"Thanks."
He was in a hurry, he was in a hurry to eat and I'm afraid the coffee was getting cold, it was really regrettable not to use his winged sandals at that moment, the walk would be much faster.
Of course, humans wouldn't be able to see the sandal's wings, but it would be really an attack on fashion to wear them with the clothes he had chosen especially for walking the streets of London.
Anyway, with a little effort he quickly arrived at his destination and there was Ina talking to an old lady.
The woman faced Hermes full of bags and smiled satisfied. "Your husband is really kind to go buy you food..."
Hermes smiled, feeling funny and handed the vanilla latte to Ina. "I brought this one for you… Who are you?"
Ina took the drink for herself and took a smooth sip, it was sweet and smooth.
Hermes had taken the opportunity to deliver the sandwiches and other drinks to Ina, who soon went inside so she could put everything on the table.
Meanwhile he faced the smiling lady and smiled gently in her direction.
The woman seemed delighted with Hermes.
Those two would make a great couple, in her point of view. "I'm Erika, the neighbor across the street... I saw you moved in today and I brought you some cookies."
Hermes smiled... Erika was the gossipy neighbor.
That sounded good, he might have an informant with a natural gift for gleaning information.
"I see... It's a pleasure Erika... But I'm just here to help Ina and her wife move in."
The woman was dumbfounded and a little embarrassed. "Are you friends with them?"
"Something like that..."
He thought for a while and maybe it sounded strange for a friend to make such frequent visits and complemented his answer.
Full of smiles he spoke.
"... I'm Ina's brother... I'm very worried about Ina, but I'm relieved to know that she has such a good neighbor."
The woman could feel Hermes' flattering tone and smiled happily.
"Oh dear, it's no big deal, anything you need just talk to me."
Hermes could only think of the strawberry smoothie... Oh and the sandwiches.
He was hungry.
"Right… Would you like to have breakfast with us?"
Hermes stared at the woman, all he wanted to do was go eat.
Fortunately the woman realized that it was not convenient to continue the conversation at that moment, but she felt happy to have met one of the new neighbors.
"Oh don't worry about me, I need to go home."
"Okay, it was nice meeting you."
Hermes held out his hand for a brief squeeze, and the lady immediately responded.
"I almost forgot, what's your name?"
"My name is Hermes..."
Hermes, completely used to human strangeness, maintained his smiling and gentle pose.
All humans always seemed to recognize the gods' names and appearance, but they always felt skeptical and distrustful about being in front of a divine being.
The woman clearly recognized the names of the two gods, but all she could do was feed the confusion in her heart.
The feeling of familiarity when seeing them was something really strange.
Hermes and Erika stared at each other for a few seconds and the woman was the one who made the first move to break contact. "Hermes and Ina… Really curious."
Hermes also felt funny. "Yes, my father is Greek and Ina's mother is Italian."
The woman laughed softly and walked a few steps back already saying goodbye and finally returning home.
"I see... Well, it's really a pleasure Hermes."
Hermes nodded in agreement and watched the woman cross the street and quickly enter her home.
He snapped his fingers and came up sitting on one of the chairs at the kitchen table and quickly grabbed one of the sandwiches for himself.
It didn't take long for Ina to approach and finally sit next to Hermes. "Hela is awake, she shouldn't be long before she comes to eat with us."
Hermes nodded with a mouth full of food and pointed quickly at the cafe.
Black coffee was for Hela.
A woman who doesn't know how to admire the things in life: Strawberry smoothie.
She quickly sipped her strawberry drink and pronounced her sentence. "Her coffee will get cold."
Ina smiled, they were gods it wasn't really that important. "Don't worry."
Despite Hermes' presence, Ina didn't like to leave everything up to him, after all he was just helping them with the move.
So she used her third eye to space the new house and to take care of Hela.
Hermes had chosen a beautiful house in central London and it seemed really convenient that the old residents inexplicably wanted to sell the house in a hurry.
He just jumped at the great opportunity and bought the house for Hela and Ina.
Ina seemed happy with the house, but it was still terrifying to have so many people around her.
When she still lived with humans, times were different.
Cities were not organized in the same way and she didn't even live in a city, but in something that looked like a tiny village.
She could remember perfectly the day that some soldiers came to warn that *Tito Annio Rufus would build roads around the village.
Well, that sounded good, she didn't know what it meant to build roads back then.
She was just a child who didn't know anything about the world.
In reality the world was still as immature as she was.
But she could hear the sound of stones and hammers clashing for hours and hours, they said that the roads would take many years to be ready.
For Ina it didn't take that long and when everything was finally ready she could hear the sound of the horses riding.
She liked it, it was satisfying.
Ina had plenty of time to just wander around aimlessly just following the roads in anticipation of where it would lead.
So when still human, she didn't have the experience of having many people around her and even if she had, she wouldn't see them.
With her third eye she could not only see but she would see what they would like to hide.
Which was terrifying and made her shiver, but she would have to use that to adapt.
Hermes completely immersed in his delicious slice of cake had his attention stolen by the arrival of Hela.
Ina smiled beautifully at Hela which immediately made her day the best ever.
Hela had a sleepy and slightly haggard face, but she definitely looked to be in better shape than before.
Hela walked over to her wife and kissed her on the lips, softly tasting vanilla.
It was delicious.
She sat down next to Ina and briefly watched Hermes go to work eating.
Hermes pointed to the untouched coffee cup on the table. "Here is your plain and bland coffee..."
Hela smiled feeling funny, Hermes had a childish palate and only liked sweets. "What are you drinking?"
Hermes drank his drink in short sips in the expectation that it would take longer to finish.
It was so tasty he wanted more. "Strawberry smoothie ...."
Hela felt funny and didn't say anything, but that was enough for Hermes to feel his taste for drinks sharply questioned. "What? I am sensitive to caffeine."
Hela and Ina looked at each other and started laughing, it was really funny how energetic Hermes was always.
They didn't even think much of Hermes' taste, but it was really funny to watch him defend himself.
Ina laced her fingers through Hela's and brought her hand to hers for a soft kiss.
Initially Hela felt uncomfortable with this kind of contact, especially on the side that she considered ugly... She feared that it would be disgusting and Ina would feel disgusted.
But after a thousand years of marriage Ina could have known perfectly well that Hela wasn't really rotting away and although her appearance at first might be a little shocking to some, to her it wasn't a big deal.
In reality she loved every measly piece that belonged to Hela and there was nothing she disliked.
Ina was sweet and soft, Hela felt blessed to have her.
Hela got out of her chair smoothly to approach her wife and moved her hand to her lips.
Hermes who watched that scene could only think that all that was much sweeter than his Strawberry smoothie, it was still too early for him to feel bitter about being single.
"Cough… Cough… Hela, what do you think of the house?"
Hela heard the forced coughs and smiled.
She moved away from Ina a little and returned to her seat.
She held the cup in her hand and slowly warmed it as she sipped from it.
"I really liked it, you did a great job."
Hermes smiled in satisfaction and cut a piece of cake for Hela.
"Eat well... Today we're going out to get to know the city and especially to go to the university where you're going to work."
Hela nodded and with a fork picked up a small piece of cake and popped it into her mouth.
Sweet, really sweet.
As sweet as Ina's smile at that moment.
She felt satisfied, this could be a good start.
* Titus Anius Rufus - Praetor in 131 BC (Praetor was one of the titles granted by the government of Ancient Rome)
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