The Random Acts of Cupid (Christian Romance)
Read The Random Acts of Cupid (Christian Romance) Online
Authors: Amanda Tru
The Random Acts of Cupid
Written By
Copyright © 2013 by Amanda Tru
Cover design by Samantha Bayarr
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format either written or electronically without the express permission of the author or publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
This novel is a work of fiction. Although places mentioned may be real, the names, characters, details, and events surrounding them are the product of the author's imagination and therefore used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons; living or dead, places or events is purely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or publisher.
All brand names or products mentioned in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names and are the sole ownership of the respective holders. Amanda Tru is not associated with any products or brands mentioned in this book.
All scripture references in this book are used from the English Standard Version of the Bible.
“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
My limbs were weak with shock as I rushed through the hallway, dodging past other students like a fish struggling to swim upstream. I had about thirty seconds to fix my mistake and save my best friend from feeling the worst emotion known to a high school girl—embarrassment.
I could hear my other friend, Britney, struggling to follow my trail.
“Hurry, Elise!” she urged. “Chandra was going to talk to him right after class!”
Tears of frustration burned my eyes. I wanted to snap back at Britney, but I couldn’t waste the time. Why hadn’t Britney simply told Chandra the truth herself, instead of running to report to me? As much as I wanted to blame Britney, I knew this whole situation was my fault. It had been my idea. I had handled the details. Now my best friend was going to face the consequences.
I hadn’t intended on embarrassing her. It had just been a stupid prank. Chandra knew we always pulled practical jokes on each other as birthday ‘gifts.’ After all, she had been the one to bless me with a brightly wrapped present of lace panties in Art class on my birthday. Now THAT had been embarrassing!
So when I sent her flowers for her birthday and signed the card as Damon Fiest, the boy she currently had a major crush on, I had assumed that she would immediately recognize her birthday practical joke and see the humor in her friends’ stunt. After all, Chandra didn’t really travel in the same circles as Damon. Since he didn’t seem to know that she existed, she should know right away that the real sender could not be him.
No one outside our small circle of friends was supposed to know about the prank. The flowers were supposed to have been delivered in 7
th
period, at the end of the school day. But before I could find Chandra after school and see her reaction, Britney had rushed up to me, saying that Chandra was looking for Damon to thank him for the flowers!
Dread had sunk like a rock into the pit of my stomach, making me feel ill. Immediate, intense guilt struck me. I panicked. Chandra was crazy about Damon, and now she was going to be humiliated when she tried to thank him for flowers that he never sent! Damon would probably think she was mentally unstable and never want to have anything to do with her.
I felt terrible! What kind of friend was I? Only an awful person would send flowers and lie about who sent them! Why had I been so stupid?
I burst out of the school doors, my eyes frantically searching the grounds. Chandra would have tried to intercept Damon before he reached his car. Since the star football player always parked his old Mustang in the same spot, then Chandra had to be around here somewhere.
Please!
I prayed.
Please let me find her before it’s too late!
My eyes tripped over dark hair and a purple jacket halfway hidden by a tree at the corner of the school. I rushed closer, my heart pounding as if I’d just run a race at the Olympics. As I came around the tree, I stopped suddenly, stunned at the scene in front of me. Britney skid to a stop beside me.
I felt my mouth literally fall open in shock as, apparently oblivious to the world around them, Chandra and Damon kissed.
Ten years later
“Please, Elise!” Britney whispered fiercely. “I don’t understand why you won’t help me out just this once. This is your specialty!”
Since ignoring her friend was obviously not going to work, Elise turned away from the computer screen and tried to patiently answer Britney without rolling her eyes. “I already told you it doesn’t work that way!”
“But you’re Cupid!”
“Shh! Elise urged, nervously glancing around the quiet library. “Don’t call me that! Someone might hear you. I am
not
Cupid! Just because a campus newspaper wrote a stupid article doesn’t make it true!”
“But it is true! Look at how many matches you’ve made in the past ten years. It’s your job; it’s your
duty
to make matches. So why not for me?”
Elise wanted to remind Britney that this wasn’t the first time she had asked for help, and this wasn’t the first time Elise had refused. Instead, she sighed and repeated her standard answer. “Britney, you know I don’t make matches for close friends. Part of what makes it work is the fact that the couple doesn’t know me well.”
“But you set up Chandra and Damon,” Britney grumbled. “Now they’ve been married for like ten years!”
“Six years,” Elise corrected, wishing this conversation was over. As a librarian at the University of Washington, she had plenty of work to do. Not to mention that Britney should be working too. Britney should be over at circulation, not ‘helping’ Elise at the Reference desk. Though her friend held a stack of books in her arms, Elise was sure Britney was just using them as an excuse to corner her. “You of all people should know that setting Chandra and Damon up was not intentional.”
“That doesn’t matter. The point is that you are the reason they got together. You have a gift, Elise.” Britney bit her lip and turned her gaze in the direction of the handsome man sitting at a table across the room.
After her inadvertent matchmaking for Chandra and Damon ten years ago, Elise had unobtrusively arranged for a few other couples to ‘accidentally’ fall in love, finding that she had a knack for it. Since then, she had carefully arranged circumstances for numerous couples, people who never realized they were being set up, to find each other.
Britney and Chandra were the only ones who knew about Elise’s hobby, and Elise wanted to keep it that way. Unfortunately, she had been so successful at anonymously arranging matches, other people had started to notice as well. It didn’t take much to connect the few random stories from around the University of Washington campus about how mysterious events would bring two people together. After the story in the newspaper, the anonymous Cupid was rapidly gaining publicity.
Now Elise felt the pressure of not only the wildly circulating stories but of the fact that Britney Bowers was one of the two people who knew her secret. Chandra was so busy with her own life, which now included a husband and two adorable children, that she didn’t really pay much attention to Elise’s projects. Britney, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have her own life, and might yet drive Elise crazy! Worse, Britney tended to be impulsive. Elise knew it would be in her best interest to placate Britney if at all possible. Otherwise, there was always the threat of potential disaster if Britney should ever decide to share Elise’s secret.
“He’s my dream guy,” Britney said softly, turning pleading eyes back to Elise. “Won’t you please use some of your magic for us?”
As pitiful as Britney sounded, Elise knew she couldn’t do this favor for her friend. What Britney didn’t realize was that the anonymity of what Elise did was the major reason why she was so successful. The simple facts that the people never realized they were being matched and never connected her involvement gave her the necessary emotional distance to be able to observe people and their relationships without bias. Elise had always been extremely introverted; perhaps because of this, she had always liked to watch people and was pretty good at noticing things that weren’t obvious to others.