Aphrodite the Beauty by Joan Holub

Author:Joan Holub
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

7

The Olive Grove

SOMEHOW APHRODITE GOT THROUGH THE rest of the day. She was glad none of her friends were in her afternoon classes. She knew she’d behaved badly at lunch and didn’t want to face them quite yet. Instead of returning to her room after school, she stowed her textscrolls in her locker and headed outside.

“Aphrodite, wait up!”

Hephaestus! Had he been hanging around waiting for her? She was in no mood to talk to him—or any godboy right now. She pretended not to hear him and raced across the courtyard, thinking she could easily outdistance him.

But Hephaestus just kept calling. Aphrodite could hear his cane thumping along behind her more quickly than she would have thought possible. She didn’t want to be mean, but couldn’t he take a hint? She wanted to be alone! Afraid someone would hear him calling to her—someone like Pheme or Medusa—she finally looked around for a private place to talk to him, someplace where no one would see them together.

To one side of the courtyard there was a grove of olive trees that would offer some shelter from prying eyes. Waving to Hephaestus to follow, Aphrodite headed toward it. The park of silver-green trees had only sprung up recently—a result of Athena’s invention of the olive.

“Whoa. You sure walk fast,” said Hephaestus as he finally caught up to her. Breathing hard, he leaned against the trunk of a tree causing some of its silver-green leaves to flutter to the ground. “Did you get the roses I sent?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Aphrodite, sitting cross-legged on the stone bench under another tree. Now that they were face to face, she realized it wasn’t going to be easy to tell him she didn’t like him—not as a boyfriend, that is. She took a deep breath. “But you really shouldn’t have—”

“Sent them?” interrupted Hephaestus. He pushed off the trunk of the tree and came to sit beside her. “I hope they didn’t give you the wrong idea.”

“Well . . . ,” Aphrodite began uncertainly.

Before she could say another word, Hephaestus forced a chuckle. “There’s a rumor going around that you’ve got a new boyfriend. It would be dumb if everyone thought it was me, huh? I mean, is there a law that says you can’t give flowers to a friend?”

His face was so earnest, that she heard herself say, “No law that I know of.”

Hephaestus hesitated and she felt him glance at her, then away. “So, did you like the . . . ,” he cleared his throat. “ . . . The roses?”

“They’re very pretty.” She paused. “And they smell great. Sweet. Just like the godboy who gave them to me, but . . .”

Hephaestus cut her off, speaking enthusiastically. “Was I right to guess that pink is your favorite color? You wear it a lot.”

“I love pink,” said Aphrodite. She smiled fondly at him.

“What?” he asked, reading something in her expression.

She shrugged. “I was just thinking that you’re so different from the other godboys.”

He straightened, looking insulted.

“That’s a compliment,” she said quickly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.