“Good evening, Thales. Did your date cancel on you?”

     Scrambling to come up with some type of plausible story that didn’t include telling her he only said he had a date to avoid having to come with her, Thales plastered a smile on his face and glanced over at a woman for whom he felt zero attraction.
     "High school algebra nearly wrecked my plans tonight." He shrugged, sidestepping her question. "I don't remember it being that difficult."
     She stepped closer to him, her expression one of pity as she slid her hand up his arm to his shoulder. "That's right, you're your brother's guardian. It must be so difficult parenting a child who isn't yours all on your own."
     Stepping away from her touch, his temper sparking at the implication in her comment, he opened his mouth to say, he didn’t know what, when an unfamiliar female voice interjected itself into their conversation. “There you are, Thales. Camma is looking for you. I promised to keep an eye on the door in case you hadn’t arrived before us.”
     Turning his head in surprise when he recognized the name as belonging to the potential benefactor he'd been told to expect, he saw a tall, beautiful blonde step up next to him. Unsure what was going on or who the woman was, he chose to go with it. No sense in staring a gift horse in the mouth.
     Inclining his head in a nod of greeting, he turned away from Professor Harlow with no small amount of relief. “I’m sorry you arrived before me. I don't make a habit to be so rude, but my brother needed help with his algebra homework before I could leave.”
     The woman gave him a knowing smirk, her gaze flicking toward the other women then over his head, which he hadn’t experienced since he reached his six-foot one inch height at age seventeen.
She lifted her hand as she spotted who he assumed was this Camma she’d mentioned. “Found her. Camma’s headed this way. And don’t worry, Danae and I aren’t going to crash your date. We were just dropping her off and agreed to stay until she found you. We’ll be out of your hair shortly.”
     He searched the crowd, pretending to know who he was looking for, then glanced over at Sarah to see her lips pressed into a firm line. "Forgive me, Sarah, but it seems that date I told you about has arrived. Enjoy your evening."
     "I must return to my father's side, but you enjoy your evening as well, dear Thales," the professor said, her posture stiff as she gave him a tight smile, then walked away.
     Once the woman was out of earshot, he turned to get a better look at his rescuer. While she was beautiful in a blonde Viking goddess way, she wasn’t at all his type. And it wasn’t because she was at least an inch taller than him. No, this woman had a forcefield of tightly coiled energy surrounding her, giving him the impression of contained violence simmering just under the surface. He imagined he could see the image of a mythical Valkyrie superimposing her current form. The way she moved screamed training in more than one martial art. Though something told him he'd enjoy meeting her in the ring, he couldn’t see her being content to sit and enjoy his other, more sedentary hobbies with him.
     As if she could read his mind, she smirked. “We don’t suit. I’d chew you up and spit you out. And it would have nothing to do with the fact that you smell like sugar and oranges. You’d start some deep-thinking type conversations with me, which I would find annoying because it’d totally make me feel intellectually inferior. We’d end up hating each other within a week.”
     Telling himself that he needed to stop eating his favorite candy quite so often if someone could smell it on him, he lifted an eyebrow. “You’re a bit of a brat, aren’t you?”
     She scowled. “Oh gods, please don’t tell me you’re a freaking know-it-all older brother? Because I’ve got two know-it-all older sisters already and don’t need another sibling judging all my choices.”
     “Well, you did come to the aide of some strange man you don’t know. I could be some type of serial rapist. Or a psychopath that fixates on rebellious looking blondes.” His smirk grew into a full grin. “If I were your older brother, I’d definitely have a lecture or two to share with you about such thoughtless behavior.”
     “There’s no doubt now. Being reborn hasn’t changed your personality a single bit,” the woman muttered under her breath, making him jolt, then she looked at someone over his shoulder. “You’re just in time. He was starting the big brother lecture and I had enough of those the first time around to last me several more lifetimes.”
     Confused by her odd words, he turned to see two women approaching them. The second one was a brunette who trailed a step behind the first, but that was all he could have told anyone if he’d been asked because his attention was solely focused on the most beautiful red head he’d ever seen. Head held high and gaze laser focused on his, she was petite with small features and the perfect amount of curve under the floor-length Grecian-style dress draping her lithe figure. She moved with a smooth grace that gave her a regal air. Her pale skin stretched over high cheekbones and highlighted familiar pale gray eyes that stared up at him with adoration. It was as if she not only knew him but had missed him desperately.
     The face Hades had shown him in his dreams flashed through his mind and the memory he’d always failed to grasp floated just close enough that his fingers could brush against it, revealing a brief glimpse of memory. “Agápi mou.”
She stopped mere inches in front of him, their eyes locked, and whispered. “Thales.”
     “Do I know you?” he asked, because his dreams were just that. They weren’t real. He didn’t know this woman who exuded power and class in equal measures, and she definitely wasn’t his love.
     Her gray irises darkened to slate as they filled with a sadness so deep, he had to fight the urge to take this stranger into his arms and comfort her. “Not anymore.” Her lips trembled as they curved into a soft smile. “But I hope to change that.”