Breakfast With Goddesses

Craig continued staring. Three women. Three goddesses. Drinking coffee from his floral mugs as though dropping into a mortal apartment before breakfast was the most ordinary thing in existence. Nobody spoke for several seconds. Finally Euphrosyne, the curvy brunette, clapped her hands once.

"Oh dear," she said brightly. "We've overwhelmed him."

"I think we broke him," Thalia agreed with a grin.

Aglaea, the blonde, simply watched him, which somehow felt worse and better at the same time. Meeting her gaze felt physically difficult. Every instinct urged Craig to keep looking, yet the longer he did, the more impossible it became to think. Beauty wasn't a strong enough word. There was a weight to it. A radiance. Looking at her felt like standing too close to a roaring fire. Pleasant. Dangerous. Completely absorbing.

Craig forced himself to look away. The moment his eyes left her face, he became acutely aware that all three women were studying him, not just looking, but seeing. It was a strange feeling, he felt exposed under their gaze, as if they were seeing past his skirt and blouse, past his panties and bra, and into his heart, his mind, his soul.

"Listen," Craig said, "I know Eros sent you, but I really don't need your help. Unless you can undo everything he's done to me, it's not what I want."

"Undo Eros' work?" Euphrosyne snorted. "You're hilarious. He's not even done, yet!"

"You need to relax, Craig," Thalia said, her voice exhibiting a slight drawl, as if she'd been at an all-night party. "Our boy Eros knows what he's doing."

"Come on," Craig complained. "Look at me! He's making me dress like a woman! Can't you just reverse it? I'll keep a low profile. He'll get bored and forget about me."

The three sisters exchanged amused looks.

"Eros?" Euphrosyne laughed. "Forget someone?"

"Oh, you're cute when you're stupid," Thalia said.

"He can become a bit obsessive," Algaea's voice rang like a bell. "But I see no evidence of you being forced. He gave you a choice, which is more than any mortal has the right to ask, and you took it."

Craig wanted to argue, but he could hardly make eye contact with Algaea, let alone put together the words to contradict her statement.

"Please," Euphrosyne said, sitting down and patting the empty chair beside her. "Sit."

"I really should be leaving for work," he took a step backward, away from the table.

"You have time."

"I don't think..."

"You have time," Aglaea repeated gently, but firmly. The words weren't forceful, and yet somehow Craig found himself walking to the table anyway. His purse settled beside the chair. He lowered himself into the seat.

"Wonderful!" Euphrosyne beamed.

Craig looked at Euphrosyne and Thalia, venturing nothing more than a quick glance at Algaea.

"You're all remarkably cheerful for this early in the morning."

"We're Graces."

"We'd be rather poor examples otherwise."

Thalia lifted her coffee.

"And, besides, morning is just the extension of the night before." She grinned and took another appreciative sip.

"I adore mornings," Algaea's voice rang.

"You adore everything," Euphrosyne said, chuckling.

"I certainly try."

Craig had opened his mouth to respond when the aroma of fresh food drifted across the table. Looking down at the table in front of him, where there had been nothing before, a floral-patterned plate now held scrambled eggs, buttered toast, sliced fruit, and bacon. Steam curled upward. The meal looked freshly prepared.

Craig blinked.

"I..." He looked at the women, then back at the plate, "...how?"

Euphrosyne shrugged innocently.

"You looked hungry."

"You... just..."

"We're here to help, Craig," Thalia said, nodding toward the plate. "Eat before it gets cold."

Cautiously, Craig lifted a forkful of food to his painted lips and took a bite. It was delicious. No, that's not right. It wasn't merely delicious. It was the most flavourful, rich, perfect food he'd ever tasted. If all food tasted like that, he would have to widen the doors to the apartment just to get inside.

"This is amazing."

"Thank you." Thalia hid another smile behind her coffee mug.

Craig ate in silence, keeping his eyes on the goddesses, who watched him with equal interest. Together, the sisters were strangely fascinating. Euphrosyne seemed incapable of sitting still. Every sentence arrived with animated hands, bright smiles and effortless enthusiasm. Thalia moved far less, but every movement possessed an easy confidence, as though she'd never once doubted the world would welcome her.

Aglaea...

She barely moved at all. She didn't need to. So comfortable was she within the world that it seemed to fold in around her. Encasing her, not as a prisoner, but as an extension of her beauty, celebrating her very existence.

Craig kept accidentally looking at her. Each time his pulse skipped. Each time he quickly looked somewhere else. He had seen firsthand what happened when you weren't careful around these divine beings, and in Algaea's beauty there was a real risk of losing himself.

"Eros says you're doing wonderfully," Euphrosyne said as she leaned forward excitedly.

Craig nearly choked on his toast.

"I'm doing what?"

"Progressing," Thalia drawled. "And quickly."

"I'm falling apart."

"No," Euphrosyne reached across the table to touch his arm, shaking her head. "You're growing."

"Growing? I'm not growing! He's turning me into something unrecognisable!" the words began to spill out of Craig before he had time to formulate them. "My life is disappearing! My apartment is different every day, my job is half housewife and half stripper, my evenings are turning me into a camgirl, and I can't even walk unless I'm wearing heels!"

"Yes!" Euphrosyne said, "See? You're growing!"

"I thought Eros said he didn't understand," Thalia said. "He doesn't seem confused."

"Confused?!" Craig threw both hands into the air. "I'm not confused, I'm furious! Give me back my old life!"

The women stared at him, looks of bewilderment on their faces. Then, after a minute of silence, Algaea spoke, her eyes taking on a look of gentle kindness.

"The mortal can't see what we see," Aglaea said.. "His world, his time, is only now. Glimpses of times behind him, yes, but nothing of the future. It's been too long, sisters. The mortal world isn't like our own."

"I just want to go back to how things were."

"How things were is no longer," Algaea said. "We see things that you cannot. You seek comfort. You seek familiarity. Those things will come in time, but not where you found them before. The world is being remade for you, Craig. For you. This is a blessing greater than Prometheus' gift of fire..."

"Or even the grapevine Dionysus gave to Icarus," Thalia cut in.

"But all of creation knows you, Craig. It watches you like a mother watches its child. Gaea herself whispers your name to her court. Soon all of Olympus will celebrate you."

"And that'll be a party to remember," Thalia said, grinning.

"The threads of your destiny were all wrong," Euphrosyne said. "Not set and woven like they should have been, but chaotic and torn. Your fate would have been a poor one, no happiness, no joy."

"No celebration," Thalia said.

"And no love," Algaea said. "But not just lonely. Despised. Alienated. Abandoned. We are glad that Eros found you. He was right to offer you this gift."

"I'd rather be left alone," Craig said, eyes downcast. "At least I'd still be me."

Aglaea slowly rose from her chair, walking around the table with unhurried elegance. Every step seemed impossibly graceful. Every movement possessed effortless purpose. Stopping beside him, she crouched until they were eye level.

One cool hand gently cupped his cheek. Warmth spread through him. Not heat. Not desire. Something older. Something deeper. It flowed through his chest like sunlight through stained glass, illuminating places inside himself he'd forgotten existed. Tears unexpectedly pricked at the corners of his eyes.

"My husband wished for solitude too," Aglaea said. Her voice carried surprising tenderness. Every word seemed to resonate somewhere inside Craig, rather than merely reaching his ears.

"He believed isolation would protect him," Her thumb brushed gently across his cheek, catching a tear. "But I could see what he could not. He mistook loneliness for strength."

Craig couldn't look away.

"Solitude is a gift," she continued, her smile carried centuries of patience.. "But it is also a curse. He was not destined to remain alone. And neither are you."

Something tightened painfully inside Craig's chest.

"I don't..."

"You do not have to understand today," she said, close enough that he could feel her breath against his skin. "But know this: Your old life was never who you were. That was a veil over your eyes, created to distract you from the truth of a misery too difficult to feel. Soon you will feel it, not the misery, but the truth of who you are. Who you were meant to be."

She withdrew her hand. The sensation lingered. Like warmth left behind after someone removed a blanket. Aglaea returned to her chair.

"I believe," Algaea said softly, "some time with Euphrosyne would do you wonderful good."

The brunette practically bounced in her seat.

"Oh! Me first?"

"Don't overwhelm him," Thalia warned.

"This will be delightful!" she grinned at Craig. "I can't wait!"

Craig blinked.

"For what?"

"Everything."

She spread her arms dramatically.

"You and I," she said, "are going to be best friends. It's going to be an adventure!"

Craig looked toward the apartment door. Then toward the clock. Then back at the three smiling goddesses occupying his kitchen as though this were the most ordinary Monday morning imaginable.

"Do I get a choice?"

All three sisters laughed together. The sound filled the apartment like birdsong.

"Since when," Thalia asked through her smile, "have mortals ever truly chosen their destinies?"