Cupid's Christmas
Authors: Bette Lee Crosby
Cupid’s Christmas
A novel
Cover Design:
Michael G. Visconte
Creative Director
FCEdge
Stuart, Florida
© Copyright 2012 by Bette Lee Crosby
ISBN #978-0-9838879-8-0
BENT PINE PUBLISHING
Port Saint Lucie, FL
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This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.
Cupid…Mistakes & Misconceptions
Cupid…Limping toward Labor Day
Cupid…The Distraction Attraction
Cupid…And now, the End of this Story
For Katie
Who will forever hold
a special place
in my heart
.
Cupid
T
he problem with humans is they’re in love with love. Even worse, they’re determined to find it themselves. They stumble in and out of relationships that simply were never meant to be and then wonder why it didn’t work. Females are infinitely more complicated than males. Lindsay Gray for example, she’s dead-set on doing this her way and four times she’s ended up with the wrong male. She’s the kind of female who makes my job a nightmare.
Contrary to popular belief, love isn’t a result of me shooting an arrow into some human’s heart—that whole bit is a lot of hooey. I get my orders from Upstairs. The Boss gives me a rundown of matches then it’s my job to make sure the male and female get together. When things go wrong I’ve got to come up with a Plan B. Unfortunately Lindsay Gray has already used up B through E, I’m now working on Plan F and she’s dangerously close to being reclassified as Love-Challenged.
Her problem is she can’t tell love from lust. She sees a pair of heavy-lidded dark eyes, or a rippling muscle and thinks she’s in love. This started when she was only ten years old and caught sight of the boy who lived two doors down. The lad was twelve and wanted nothing to do with her, but that didn’t stop Lindsay from developing a preadolescent case of lovesickness. She followed that poor boy around like a faithful puppy until she saw him kissing Sara McLachlan. Once that happened she swore she’d never love again and she didn’t, until she was eleven.
Lindsay’s mistaken love more times than I can count, and every time it ended in a disaster. She can’t understand why this keeps happening to her, but the answer is obvious—humans with do-it-yourself determination are not equipped to identify true love. They inevitably mistake passion for love. Elizabeth Taylor is a perfect example. She refused to let me handle things, so eight times she got married and seven times she got divorced. One poor chap was killed in a plane crash before she had a chance to divorce him—that was not my doing, that unfortunate event came from Life Management. Not one of those gents was included in Elizabeth’s plan which goes to prove what I’ve been saying.
But I’m digressing, so let me get back to the subject at hand.
One of the advantages of this job is my ability to see the future and I can tell you Lindsay’s got a lot of problems ahead of her. Problems far worse than her bad boyfriend choices. Most of those problems are coming from the guy over in Life Management. Me, I’m a lovable fellow. But Life Management—well suffice it to say he handles things like car crashes, bankruptcies and heart attacks.
Right now my primary assignment isn’t Lindsay—it’s her father and Eleanor Barrow. But if I don’t step in and take control of Lindsay’s life, she’ll ruin theirs. Eleanor and John deserve better, they’ve been waiting a long time.
T
his isn’t the first time for Eleanor and John Gray, they were a perfect match back in high school. If Eleanor had gone to Penn State instead of Kentucky, she and John would have had four daughters and a lifetime of happiness. I set up that first match, but once she left the North East, she was out of my region. Raymond, the fellow she married was from Seattle—North West region—and they met at the University of Kentucky—Central region. You probably know where this is going, right? She was out of my region, Raymond was out of his and my counterpart in Kentucky was busy fending off the nineteen girls who thought they were in love with the same basketball player, so Eleanor and Raymond got married and became what we call an MM. (Migratory Mistake)
Despite the fact that I’d let her down, Eleanor made the best of it. If you were standing on the outside looking in, you’d actually think she was happy. Of course I knew the truth because I go to the inside of a person’s heart—I have to, it’s my job. Eleanor was a good wife and a good mother—a bit overindulgent with Ray Junior maybe, but still a good mother. Papa Raymond was another story. It was bad enough that he had an eye for the ladies, but he also had a great fondness for beer and the business sense of a turnip. An insurance salesman who sold life insurance to everybody but himself, how crazy is that?
When Life Management stepped in and did their dirty work, Raymond got an illness nobody wants and it was two years before they finally gave the okay for him to die. Eleanor took care of him that whole time and once he was gone, she worked two jobs so Ray Junior could go on to college.
Eleanor’s a woman with a big heart, lots of grit and steadfast determination, which is fortunate because when it comes to dealing with Lindsay Gray, she’s gonna need all of it. If Eleanor’s got a flaw it’s that she’s blind to the faults of those she loves, which is why Ray Junior is such a problem.
John’s marriage to Bethany fared far better, but that’s because they were one of my matches. Bethany was a Jersey girl, and in my jurisdiction. So after I’d allowed Eleanor to slip through my fingers as she did, I felt I owed John, and I gave him a second perfect match. Bethany’s accident was certainly not of my doing. Again—Life Management. If I’m focused on a person I can look ahead and see the Life Management events that are going to take place. I can see them, but not change them. That’s all part of a Master Plan. Don’t think I’m without power, I can make certain adjustments here and there—plant an idea, change the tone of a conversation, adjust timing, arrange for a flat tire—but when it comes to the really big stuff, no can do.
You might think with Raymond and Bethany both out of the picture I’d make things right for Eleanor and John, but I know my business and the timing was all wrong. They both had baggage, and it was way too much to shove into the basement and forget. So I waited almost nine years. Then on a balmy afternoon in the spring of 2010, they passed one another on Main Street in Medford. John’s hair had turned partly silver and Eleanor was about ten pounds heavier than she’d once been, but love doesn’t see things like that, so they recognized each other instantly.
Eleanor glanced sideways just as he was passing by. “John, John Gray?” she called out.
Before he turned and saw her face, Eleanor’s voice touched his heart. “Good grief,” he gasped, “Eleanor Shipley!” Without stopping for a second thought, he reached out and took hold of her hand. “It’s been ages,” he said, “and you look gorgeous as ever.”
Eleanor blushed a bit, not enough for John to notice, but me, well I see everything.
“It’s not Shipley anymore,” she said, “It’s Barrow.”
“Barrow, huh? So who’s the lucky guy?”
“Raymond Barrow. From Seattle.”
“Oh,” John sighed then he tried to cover his disappointment by mentioning that he too had gotten married. “You might’ve known my wife,” he said, “Bethany Drake, she graduated the same year we did.”
Eleanor pondered a moment then said, “Yes, yes, I remember Bethany, tall, blonde hair, very pretty. So you two are married…”
“Were,” John corrected, “Unfortunately Bethany passed away nine years ago. Automobile accident, terrible thing…”
“How awful,” Eleanor sighed and the sigh was not feigned, for she too knew the pain of such a loss. “My Raymond passed on eleven years ago. Colon cancer.”
John was not one to take joy in another’s suffering, but at that moment it was all he could do to keep from smiling. “Do you have time for a cup of coffee?” he asked.