I knew the name had sounded both unique and familiar when she had told me. 

I move to the other side of my bed getting ready to sleep until my door is thrown open. 

"Canan darling," I gasp. "I've found the perfect girl for you." My mother smiles wide. 

I glare at my mother who's standing tall in my doorway in a designer shirt and jeans while her heels are still on. I wish she had taken them off before stepping on my white carpet. 

She has long blonde hair perfectly styled while her coblat blue eyes glimmer in her perfect face. She didn't look a day over twenty five. 

"Mom, please leave." I groan. "It's midnight."

She comes closer and sits at the foot of my bed. "I know my darling but you need to hear me, I have found the most perfect woman for you she's a super model-"

I stop her there. "Mom please, just because you're a matchmaker doesn't mean I want to be matched with someone."

"Please Canan, you're already thirty and you haven't had a date in five years." She pouts. 

I roll my eyes. "Because, I don't want to." I sit up in my bed. "Now can you please leave, I have a morning class."

She narrows her eyes. "You are the child of one of the most beautiful beings on Earth. The literal personification of love and you think you can just be single forever and waste away as a teacher."

"Yes." I dramatically smile wide.

She rolls her eyes and stands up. "I can't believe you." She begins to head to the door her hands waving as she speaks frustrated. "I can not believe you! Out of all my children you are the only one who has no interest in love."

"Well then go bother my siblings about their relationships maybe they can have a dozen or so broken hearts like you."

She frowns. "I have lived thousands of years, what do you expect!"

"And I have lived thirty years. In that time I have seen you with more people than I can count"

"Don't push me Canan! I'm this close to just making you fall in love with someone."

I sigh and lay down. She's telling the truth I've seen her do it before actually multiple times to the celebrities she's match maked. My mother was the scariest woman I ever met, afterall she was a Goddess, one of the most pettiest ones no less.

"Please, lock the door on your way out of the house." I request.

She stares at me from the doorway her eyes piercing me. "I'll give you until your thirty-first birthday. If you don't find love of some kind, I your mother Aphrodite will make you fall in love with the person of my choice and they will be binded to you by a deal."

I open my mouth but before I can speak she puts her finger to her lip and I fall silent. The negative of having a mother who is a Goddess, her word is near absolute. Espically for me her children, us powerless demigods. 

It's a good thing I didn't tell her about Erato and who I think she is. There's no telling just what she might do if she found out there may still be Gods besides her alive.

Having her children fall in love gave her more power than a mere human due to us being demigods but imagine if she could have a God fall in love. Not to mention if Erato truly is the Muse from Greek myth then it's very likely that she is also making deals with humans to live. In fact I have known for some time that the Muses may have still existed after I had a student named Euterpe in my music theory last semster. Question was did they all still exist or was it just them two. Nevertheless this was a secret I had to keep to myself and by all means it would be best to limit my contact with Erato to just music practice and that was it. 

Mother would kill to have Erato the muse of love poetry on her side.

I lay my head on my pillow and begin to drift to sleep thinking of the muse. She didn't look like a Godess as her hair was thrown in a messy bun, her shirt a baggy graphic tee, ripped jeans with sneakers and her finger tips calloused from her harp playing. Maybe she wasn't a Goddess and Euterpe and Erato were from parents with an interest in Greek myth but if they were muses then we're Erato's deals with humans not sufficing enough to keep her powers at their highest state.  

I fall asleep with these thoughts and in my dream I see a brunette women sitting on a staircase with pearls in her hair and arms full of roses. She's wearing a red thin strapped satin dress and her heels are off. She looks to be in pain as she winces rubbing her chest. 

"I'll help you." I say kneeling beside her. 

She seems sad as she shakes her head. "You can't this is what I want and I'm going to see it to the end."

"I won't let you." Something in my tone tells me this is far more than just a twisted ankle.

This feels like the final moments before the end of something much bigger than just chest pain. I reach out to her and pull her in close so that were face to face. I brush my lips against her forehead about kiss but when I do my alarm clock blares in my ear. 

It's morning already.

I let out a curse. I wish I could've slept longer to kiss this mysterious girl see what her skin would have felt like against my lips. The palms of my hands suddenly feel too empty as I struggle to deal with the cheeks I once touched now gone. She was warm and soft like sun rays while the scent of her hair is still in the air, lavender and rosemary. Such lovely scents. 

I throw myself up. 

I assume it was my mother who made me dream such a realistic dream. She must have been trying to pull at my heart strings to see if I truly wanted to be alone. Well as long as she was breathing down my back waiting for me to fall in love just so she could feed off it then I wasn't going to. Not until she let me live without fear that she would force me to love someone. 

I force myself up and head to the shower. Once done I get ready for work and eat breakfast. I then head to work recollecting on my mother's words. I had until my birthday to find a girlfriend otherwise she would make me fall in love. The threat felt more like a bluff as my birthday was only two months away. Question was now should I wait and see if it was just a threat in the heat of the moment or was she telling the truth. It's a hard thing to determine with her she was always so fickle and indecissive just like her love life. 

I park my car and start to leave my vehicle but as I do a silver car parks right in front of me and I'm not surprised to see who's sitting in the drivers seat.

I find myself once again face to face with Erato the muse of my annoyment.

She's steps out of her car wearing similar clothes to yesterday only this time half of her hair is pulled up while the other half is down showing her loose curls. She rumages through her bag as she approaches me.

"What is it now." I frown.

She raises a single eyebrow as she stops looking in her bag to meet my eyes. "That's quite the way of talking to a student. You are a Professor right."

"Not yours." I remind her.

I was expecting a smirk from the quick remark but there was nothing, not even a pull of the corner of her mouth. 

"I happened to see your car." She says as she pulls out a sheet of paper. "I was going to your office but just so happen to pull into the parking lot when you did."

"Here," She says handing me a piece of my sheet music. "It's one of your music sheets."

"We seem to keep exchanging things." I remark softly 

She turns away. "Seems so." 

"Are you finding excuses to talk to me." 

She turns back around and raises both eyebrows while squinting. "Are you a middle schooler?" 

I start to follow her to the campus. "Just trying to figure out why we keep crossing paths."

"It's simple really," She says gesturing to me with her hand. "You and I dropped our stuff yesterday and happened to be in the same orchestra."

I was silent as I reminsced on the way she played her harp. She was the closest thing to a goddess then as her eyes were closed and her hands moved gracefully across the strings like she had been playing for hundreds of years. Which may be true. 

She turns to me the bags under her eyes seeming worse than yesterday while her skin seems an ash pale. She seems nothing like a Goddess now, she seemed more like a sleep deprived, sick college student.  

"Are," I pause reaching for her face but quickly pull away. "Are you okay."

"What?"

"You seem a bit pale, are you okay?"

She moves one step away from me. "I'm fine, do I look sick."

"Disgustingly." I remark honestly.

She glares at me. "Im fine." She clears her throat and continues. "But I have a question for you."

Part of me gets excited that she has an interest in me. "What is that?"

"Why did you join the orchestra so late in the season." 

I remember the percussionist who suggested me to take their place in the orchestra. "I have a friend from college who was one of the percussionist in the orchestra, his name is Alexander. I dont know if you talked to him but he just so happened to have an a family emergency in Germany so I'm the replacement until next month."

She ponders on the thought then opens her mouth about to say something but is cut short. 

"Era!" A voice calls. 

I look up to see a beautiful young woman reminscent of Erato, it's Euterpe my former student and Erato's sister. 

The supposed Muse of Music.