N: digging in my archives and i found this. A random story that never really came to full circle. this probably won't be much, and depending on fan reaction, it may stay or go. In other news Revelry is a Decadence is done and ready to hit the presses! I just have to wait on the cover art and do a test run to make sure everything looks great inside and it'll be out there for you all to enjoy! Keep in touch over at my blog for all the greatest details! Enjoy this and maybe now that I'm done with novel number 4, I can do a quick ff while I go back to working on Devils in the details 2.

Go ahead, call me cupid. I dare you, especially if you like being punched in the throat by a girl.

Okay, technically I'm a cupid like entity, but my true title is soulmate migration specialist. That's what my bosses Eros and Aphrodite call all of us when the term cupid became ineffective with the humans. Even then, that's just a title. I like to refer to myself as a soulmate cold case detective, solving and shoving soulmates together after the stubborn humans they inhabit, refuse to acknowledge that love has a path for them. Destiny, fate, the future, the past, and the present. All those key words that humans refuse to pay attention to when it involves the cosmos and love.

You're probably asking yourself, why are you telling me this? I came here to read a happy love story about two people. Yeah, and I'm going to tell that story, but like every good story, a foundation needs to be laid down for to get invested. So shut up, and listen.

With my special skill set of getting the impossible together, I was brought in for a real special case. One I thought was going to be easier than getting Kim and Kayne together, but shit, was I wrong. This case, this story I'm about to tell you, it broke me, reshaped me and shit, gave me hope in the work I've been doing for the higher powers for the last century. But it wasn't easy and I gave up a few times.

But the human spirit is resilient and I love a challenge.

Anyways, let me start from the beginning with a flashback. Oh, by the way, my name's Tamsin and I will be popping in and out of this story here and there, but I'm going to mainly tell you the story from the two humans point of view.

So, let's get it started. This is the story of how Bo Dennis and Lauren Lewis caused me the biggest heartache and eventually came together to become the proudest achievement of my eternal life as a cupid, er, I mean a soulmate migration specialist.

Five years ago – The offices of Aphrodite and Eros unlimited.

"Tamsin! I heard you closed this last one in three weeks?"

I spun around to come face to face with the Director of Soulmate Services, Meg, grinning at me as she waltzed over to me. I shrugged, "It wasn't too hard. They just needed to be trapped in a cabin during a snowstorm to realize their true love." I tugged on the crisp white suit jacket I wore. Why did everything have to be white up here? We all got it, it was heaven, the afterlife, the spiritual plane, or whatever you wanted to call it. Pure and lovely, but god I hated white. Always showed stains from lunch when I had hot dogs.

Meg laughed, shaking her head, "Yes, but they were souls that missed each other for almost two decades. The big bosses never thought we'd get them together for another three." She patted my back, "You truly have the magic touch, Tamsin."

I frowned, "I don't have an extra magic, just a ton of impatience for humans who are stubborn and can't see clearly what's in front of them." I folded my arms across my chest, frowning deeper when it wrinkled my white button down. "I was on my way to meet with Alan in soul reclamation, collect the bet I made with him last week. He didn't think I could get the two in Paris together in less than 24 hours. I did it in 22."

Meg rolled her eyes, "Alan is an idiot and wishes he could leave reclamation and move over to rebirth." She sighed and removed a thick white file from under her arm, "Before you go, I was glad to catch up to you. I have another one for you."

I groaned, "I just finished three in a row, all three were a giant pain in the ass…er butt, and I want a day off. These soulmates are getting tougher and tougher as humans start to lose faith in each other." I scrunched my face up as I saw Meg was not bending.

She gave me a light smile, "I wish I could but this was handed down by both Aphrodite and Eros." She grabbed my elbow lightly, "Let's go to my office and I'll explain."

I groaned again, but took her lead and followed Meg to her pristine white office. I wanted to talk back to her, put my foot down, but she was angel and I was not so stupid as to piss off an angel. She'd shove me over into the animal soul section and I'd spend my days cleaning up dog shit from the white floors.

I flopped down in the white leather chair, looking at the tall, elegant looking brunette, with bright glowing grey eyes, who looked like she fell out of any renaissance painting. "Okay, shoot. Why are the big chiefs sending me jobs? I thought they weren't too keen on my brash way of doing things."

Meg slid into her chair behind a glass desk. "They don't understand why you go the routes you do since the other cupids have a gentler hand." She smirked when I cringed hearing the stupid term cupid. "Sorry, soulmate cold case detective." She rolled her eyes and set the thick white file down, pushing it towards me. "But they love your current success rate and the big big boss is coming down on them to have a better closing percentage. Believes if more humans start to see that love is out there for everyone, everyone has someone, a soul mate, they'll settle down and stop the constant warring and hate."

I raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, and I'd like a unicorn as a pet." I sat up and grabbed the thick file, "But I'm always up for a challenge, tell me what I'm looking at."

Meg let out a slow breath, "These two souls are edging close to seven centuries of not coming together completely. There's either been a disaster that pulled them apart, or something we never foresaw. Ultimately, it's been the human spirits they inhabit that are causing the biggest issues, when they get so close to sealing up their combined destiny, one runs. Heartbreak follows and it leaves an imprint on both, leaving a strange unconquerable fear of love." Meg motioned to the file in my hand.

I flipped open a page and was faced with two photographs of two beautiful young women. One was a blonde with soulful amber colored brown eyes, and looked to be confidently shy. The second was stunning brunette who had a pair of chocolate brown eyes that were soulful, and would probably steal anyone's heart if they looked in them long enough. I smiled, "They're gorgeous, this shouldn't be too hard."

Meg sighed, "If that was the case, I would've have been told to hand this over to Kennedy."

I chortled, "Ugh, that woman thinks we should still be prancing around with wings and heart shaped arrows." I flipped another page, hearing Meg laugh and make a comment about how we all still had wings, but just kept them under Armani suit jackets.

Meg then stood up and came around to sit against the edge of her desk in front of me. "The blonde is Lauren Lewis, college senior at the University of Michigan. The brunette is Ysabeau "Bo" Dennis, also a senior majoring in photojournalism. Their souls have been struggling to properly connect since the 1300's when they first met as a lonely sheep farmer and a castle maid. That time it was the first run of the bubonic plague that disrupted their union. After that, as you know, they took many forms through many lives. Successfully connecting as family in the 1600's as inseparable sisters, but after that connection, a romantic one became futile. Something was always in the way of their hearts meeting and understanding love as it should be experienced. True love."

I read over the many different lives these two had lived, reading exactly what Meg was talking about. These two souls were basically doomed from the get go and only attracted bad luck whenever they were in the same time and plane. I read over pages of heartbreak, devastation and survival. I blew out a slow breath, "This one is going to be a bitch, isn't it?"

The angel gave me a dirty look due to my choice of words, and nodded, "Yes. Many others have tried and failed. Even Aphrodite gave it a shot and was met with resistance by of the great famine. It seems the human spirit won't bend on this one." She gave me a hard look, "So, you're up to bat, Tamsin. Use your magic, your skills, your tricks and whatever it is you do, and get these two souls together. The big bosses all think that Lauren and Bo are the catalyst that might bring a new era of belief for the humans. A ripple effect of sorts."

I shut the file and shook my head, "When I'm done, can I take a vacation?"

Meg laughed, standing back up, "Yes, I'm sure we can arrange a few weeks of vacation." She reached behind her and handed me my travel packet. "You leave tonight, land in Ann Arbor by morning. The rest I leave up to you."

I took the envelope and shook my head, "Why couldn't I have been born a Valkyrie." I smiled, tucked the travel packet in with the file and waved goodbye to Meg.

Looking down at my watch I sighed, at least it was fall in Michigan and not snowing. I hated snow.

Bo POV –

I sat in my history through American photography class, doodling on my notepad. The guest lecturer was boring and I wanted nothing more than to sneak out and take pictures of the quad before it snowed tonight. I was in a rut, a huge rut and wanted to get out of it.

School was great and I was waiting for a few internships to come through for summer. Soon, I would be out on the east or west coast, working for one of the major news magazines as a photo archiver. That would hopefully lead me to getting a job and starting on my own portfolio. But I was tired with people, in particular dating. I just broke up with my boyfriend of the last year when he didn't want me to leave Michigan, he wanted me to stay in the state and work here. I tried telling him I had goals that were bigger than a small state, he took it as me having dreams bigger than a relationship with him. So we broke up after a screaming match and he let it slip he was going to propose to me up on Lake Michigan during the weekend of the fourth of July.

The sad thing was, I didn't really care that we broke up. I liked him, loved being around him, but I wasn't in love with him and never thought I would actually get that far. Love, true love, was a unknown to me and I was starting to think it was never going to happen. Maybe it was from growing up in a divorced family, that I felt love was a silly idea. Either way, I didn't really care if I fell in love with someone, I had my love for photography and that was satisfying enough. I didn't want more than my freedom to travel the world and capture it on film.

I sighed, looking at the clock, my stomach growling. I had five more minutes and I was out. Then I could run down to the quad, hit up my favorite noodle place and head back to my apartment to check on last night's developments from the old Minolta my mom sent me.

"Alright class, that's it for tonight. Please review the lecture notes and next week we will have a quick test on depression era photographers." The boring professor, who I never remembered his name, smiled tiredly at all of us, before grabbing his briefcase and heading out the door.

I sighed again, these core classes were going to kill me and I cursed myself for waiting until my senior year to take them. I should have knocked them out and I could have the rest of the year for building up my portfolio.

"Hey Bo! Are you going to the big game on Sunday?"

I looked up at Roger, the kid who was in most of my boring classes this semester. He was nice, a skinny guy with the best hipster look I'd seen so far. I smiled, "Probably not, football isn't my thing." I shrugged as we both chuckled. I went to a school that lived on it's football team and all the students followed like lemmings.

"Yeah, it's really not mine either, but my roommates are going and I have an extra ticket. You know, if you want to go?" He grinned sheepishly at me. Roger had been trying to ask me out for the last week in the cutest way imaginable. But it wasn't working on me, I was done with dating and probably sex for a year or two. I blame Oprah for interviewing that one feminist author, telling me to give up the physical necessities and focus on me. I was half drunk and sad, so I agree with her and decided to live like a monk.

"Thanks Roger, but I'm probably going to stay in and work on my digital processing homework." I smiled again, feeling bad as the rejected look fell over his face. I rolled my eyes, I hated having a soft heart sometimes, "But maybe next week, we can grab coffee and share notes for this class?"

Roger brightened up and nodded, "Oh yeah, sure thing Bo!" He shifted his bag on his back, "I'll see you later?"

I nodded. "Yup, you'll see me tomorrow in photo restoration." I turned to head out the door, "See you later, Roger."

I barely heard him whisper out a hearty bye, I was focused on my hunger and how it was getting to the point of being hangry.

Fifteen minutes later I was sitting at the counter at Pho-tastic, my favorite noodle joint in town, waiting on my huge carry out order. I was starving by the time I got there and ordered just about everything on the menu. The smells of the food traveling around me was driving me insane, so I tried to distract myself with reading my boring history book.

"Order for Bo D?" A soft, feminine voice grabbed my attention.

"That's me." I smiled and looked up, coming face to face with a blonde wearing the black jacket of a waitress. She smiled back and I felt a strange tingle in the tips of toes when her eyes met mine, big beautiful brown eyes the color of that one gemstone.

She smiled wider as she moved closer to the counter, "Hi, um, your order is going to take a few more minutes. The chef ran out of udon and wants to make a fresh batch, seems you're one of our best customers?"

I shrugged, feeling super embarrassed at the amount of times I frequented this place. "Tell Kai he doesn't have to, I'll take regular glass noodles." I swallowed hard, realizing that I was staring at the waitress, taking note of how beautiful she was and that I'd never seen her around the restaurant before. I found myself thinking of ways to photograph her. She would make an incredible portrait subject. I suddenly snapped out of it when another blonde shoved into the one in front of me, grumbling out a "Jesus Christ, put your tongue back in your mouth." In my direction. I shot the blonde a glare, but she winked at me, her big green eyes glistening with mischief.

I cleared my throat and turned back to the menu, "Um, let me look." I glanced at the waitress, still smiling at me, "Are you new here?"

She nodded, leaning over the counter a little closer to me. I could smell some unique lavender perfume radiate from her, sending my heart into an erratic rhythm. "I started yesterday." She looked in my eyes, her smile widening, "My names Lauren." She held out her hand.

I bit my bottom lip and took her hand, "Bo, as you know." I went to grin when I was overtaken by a strange warm feeling that radiated into my entire being when my hand met Laurens. "I, uh, it's nice to meet you." I pulled my hand away, quickly burying it under the menu.

"Yeah, Kai and Tamsin over there, were talking about you the second you walked into the door. Told me to treat you right." Lauren smirked, her eyes scanning me in the polite way of checking me out. She motioned to the menu, "Get the drunken noodles instead, they're my favorite."

I sucked in a slow breath, feeling the familiar lines of flirtation coming my way. I had been down this road a million and a half times since I started at the university. Every time it felt gross, greasy and with one motive in mind. I shied away from much of it, only taking interest in those who weren't typical pigs. But now, even as Lauren was clearly pulling out her game, I felt intrigued and wanted more. There was something about her, the way she moved across the counter to grab a empty coffee cup, the way she smiled at me and met my eyes, it captivated me in a weird way. I licked my lips out of nervousness, "Okay, I'll go with your favorite." I set the menu down and leaned back to look at the crowd around me.

Lauren smiled and sent in my order, before turning around and setting down a small cup of hot tea. "Here, while you wait."

I nodded a thank you and went to look away when I heard, "Are you a student here? Bo?"

I nodded again, looking back at Lauren, "I am. Just finished class and needed something to eat." I paused, staring in Lauren's eyes, seeing a twinkle of something that told me this woman was completely different than anyone I would ever meet. As a photographer, I always looked at the eyes first, waiting for them to tell me the hidden story ever person carried. Lauren's eyes showed me something I had never seen before and it was pulling me in deeper. I picked up the tea and threw up defenses, "What about you? Are you a student or just passing through?"

Lauren laughed lightly, moving to grab a few more empty dishes next to me, "A student. I'm a food science major. A chef in simple man's terms, but I like the science behind food and how it all forms tastes on our palates." She glanced at me, "I'm working on molecular gastronomy. That's why Kai hired me, he wants me to break down the recipe from the noodle joint three blocks over, peel apart it's secrets."

I laughed, shaking my head, "A food spy? Hmm. I can see Kai doing that, he loves being the top noodle man in town." I sipped at the hot tea, "I've heard that's a tough field to get into, food science and being a chef."

"It is, but it's better than being the podiatrist my dad wanted me to be." She chuckled when I raised my eyebrows.

"A foot doctor? I can't see you doing that." Then it slipped out, "But I can picture you rocking out a white lab coat." I winced when I realized what I had said, but the reaction on Lauren's face told me it was worth every ounce of embarrassment.

"I bet you can." She looked up and grabbed my order from the other grumpy blonde, "Here you go, Bo D. Fresh noodles and a side order of rangoons." She set the giant paper bag in front of me, "A meal big enough for two?"

It came out as a question, a flirty question. I stood up, digging for my wallet, "Nope, just for one." I dug out a handful of bills, "I'm too busy with my final year of school." I set down more than enough for the bill and a large tip for the blonde. "Thanks." I scooped up the paper bag, eager to take my exit and be away from the strange feelings this Lauren was stirring up in me.

I was sliding off the stool when I felt that warm hand on mine, "Hey Bo, I might be super forward but, um, Saturdays after close we all head over the brown jug for half off drinks. Maybe you could meet me for a drink and I could tell you more about how I do actually have to wear a lab coat in my chemical food science classes?" She smiled sheepishly at me, telling me that she was being uncharacteristically bold in this moment.

I stared in her big brown eyes, planning on giving the usual no thanks, Roger, speech. Go home, drown in noodles and work. When I suddenly went with whatever it was in the pit of my stomach, slapping into the bottom of my heart. I grinned, "Do you have a pen?"

Lauren whipped one out of her front pocket and held it out to me. I set down the bag and grabbed a coaster, scribbling my phone number on it before sliding it back. "Call me before you close, I'll stop by for a late night bowl and then maybe we can get those drinks?"

Lauren grinned and looked at the coaster, "You got it Bo. D."

I laughed and shook my head, waving goodbye to Lauren as that other blonde rushed over to her and slapped her on the back.

I had no idea what the hell I was doing, accepting an off the cuff date with a stranger, but something deep in my heart whispered, go with it. Maybe cupid was on the prowl and bored.

Yay or nay? Continue? Shelve it?