Nanowrimo 2020 Day 19 - Word Count and Favorite Bit (Patreon)

Today I added 2625 words to Match.God, bringing my current total word count to 40,047!

The woman in lavender quickly set her sights on Hannah. “Hannah, right?”

Hannah swallowed around the bile that crept up her throat. “That’s right.”

“What was your experience finding out about the matchmaking? Was it similar?”

Hannah’s hands shook with her effort not to clench them into fists. That would look aggressive, and that was the last thing she wanted right now. “No. My situation was a bit more complicated than that.”

“Care to elaborate?” the woman prodded, leaning in.

“No,” Hannah said plainly. “I do not.”

The woman in lavender leaned back, her expression one of forced neutrality with the hint of a customer service smile. “Well, then, how has the situation found you? You all seem to be getting on pretty well.”

Vanessa took the chance to take the heat off Hannah, regaling the hosts with her adventures with Thunder. Hannah took the moment to breathe a little. That wasn’t so much dodging the question as it was outright refusing to answer it. There were only so many times she could get away with that. It also probably didn’t look good, but that part she didn’t care so much about. The last thing she needed was to broadcast her family drama.

“What about you, Hannah?” the woman in lavender – did she have a name? Had Hannah heard Lindiwe call her Samantha? – asked, once again honing in on Hannah. “You and Death seem pretty close. He hasn’t been able to keep his hands off you the whole time.”

Hannah crossed her arms, hiding behind her cardigan like an armadillo hiding its soft underbelly with its shell. “It’s been nice. It’s a quiet life. I get to work on my art in peace most days. He’s good company, and – as surprising as it may sound—he’s been a calming presence in my life. I value his friendship.”

“Oh?” Samantha (even if that wasn’t her name, Hannah was just going to call her that from now on) smiled like a cat that got the canary. “Just friendship? Is that all you have between you? Surely you didn’t join a matchmaking service just for friendship.”

Hannah stiffened, as did her friends. Even Samantha’s cohost shot her a look that screamed at her to back off. Well. If that’s how they wanted to play it. Family drama be damned, she was going to make this woman regret making her talk.

She inhaled deeply, rolling her shoulders back as she focused on the spot where Death’s skin connected with hers. If she could throw a whiskey glass at her grandmother, she could stand up to this woman’s probing.

“Quite frankly, Samantha,” Hannah said sharply, “I didn’t sign up for a matchmaking service.”

The woman’s smile twitched. “It’s Sandra, actually.”

Hannah didn’t bother to acknowledge the correction. “My grandmother signed me up for this service behind my back. The only reason I’m sitting her in front of these cameras is because my grandmother didn’t bother to read the contract before signing it. Unfortunately for me, contracts with flighty love goddesses are more than just legally binding.

“Are you really pushing someone who is essentially a victim of human trafficking to spill all the juicy gossip about her love life, Sandra?”

Sandra stiffened, eyes widening as Hannah’s words sank in. The room went deathly silent.

“I value Death’s friendship,” Hannah reiterated. “He has been nothing but kind to me. But this is not the love story you’re looking for. If you want that, talk to my friends.”

Sandra shifted uncomfortably. “My apologies.”

The woman in orange – Hannah was fairly certain Vanessa had called her Jenny – cleared her throat. “How did you come to know the identities of your partners? How did they let you know they were divine?”

Hannah was, thankfully, left alone for the rest of the interview. Sandra flat out refused to look her in the eye, and Jenny only ever asked her a question if it had nothing to do with the matchmaking aspect of the story.

Eventually, the director called for the cameras to stop rolling. Hannah sighed in relief, leaning into Death’s hand. One down, nine more to go. And that was just New York.

She was not looking forward to this.

“Well!” Vanessa chirped, smiling just a bit too wide. “You’re quite lucky you had enough sense to back down when Hannah spoke up.”

Hannah looked Nessa’s way, curious about the sharp edge to Vanessa’s tone.

Vanessa’s smile dropped, her expression hardening into something almost unnerving. Her stone-cold gaze was focused solely on Sandra, who looked like she would stare sweating bullets any second now. “Because if you hadn’t, I might have had to give my daddy a call. And he would have purchased your broadcasting station in the time it took you to blink. And if you think you would have lasted a second more after that, you give yourself too much credit. There are plenty of cute blonde girls just dying to get into broadcast journalism, Sandra. It’d be easy to upgrade to the newest model.”

Hannah could feel the static in the air as Thunder gave force to Vanessa’s words. It smelled like burning oxygen, and was quickly growing hard to breathe.

The sensation cut off abruptly as Vanessa stood, and Thunder was all smiles as she linked arms with him. The two walked off as if Vanessa hadn’t just threatened a woman’s livelihood for having the gall to be a little bit rude to one of her friends.

Hannah made a mental note to herself: do not mess with Vanessa.