Goddess (Starcrossed)

embarrassing she groaned.
    She pulled Lucas into a tiny booth in the corner by the window and put up her menu, like a barricade. She tried to read the menu but it was blank. Just like her mind.
    “Helen?” Lucas said gently, tugging down her menu. “You don’t have to hide anything from me. You know that, right?”
    “S-sure,” she stammered, shaking.
    “I’m not afraid of anything inside of you,” he pressed. “Good. Bad. Creepy. I know darkness. And I’d never judge you for having a few drops of your own.”
    “Oh.” Helen looked around the room. Goya’s disturbing painting Saturn Devouring His Son captured her eye and held it. “And what if it’s more than a few drops?”
    Lucas laughed. He snatched her menu away, threw it to the floor, and grabbed both her hands. “Didn’t I tell you I love you?”
    “Yes.”
    “I meant all of you. Even the weird bits.”
    “Remind me to burn this place to the ground as soon as we leave,” she said, adoring him.
    “Absolutely not.” He looked around at the patrons. People of every race, age, and time period seemed to be hanging out together. Native Americans in feathered headdresses chatted pleasantly with pirates. Girls with eighties mall bangs flirted with guys right out of Elizabethan England. “I like it inside your head. It’s strange, but it suits me.”
    Helen looked around, and it all made sense to her. How cool would it be to be able to go to a café and strike up a conversation with someone from another time and place? It was something she’d always imagined doing, and now it looked like she didn’t have to imagine it anymore. She could be a part of it.
    Neither of them was hungry or thirsty, they were just there to taste something yummy and enjoy each other’s company. It was chilly out, but pleasantly so, and when Helen looked at what they were wearing, both of them were dressed perfectly for a fall day. She hadn’t remembered dressing them, but they were definitely wearing some new clothes.
    “Come on,” he said, standing up and putting on his newly created coat. “I want to take a walk before it snows.”
    They left the café and started wandering down the cobblestone street, past shops and buildings that were busy with all kinds of people going about their lives. Helen had no idea where all these people came from. She guessed she’d made them up or remembered them. Whichever it was, Helen knew they were based in reality, and that was comforting to her. It would have been odd to wander around an empty city, or worse, a city full of mannequin-like robots.
    The sun was setting, and Helen smelled snow in the air, just as Lucas had predicted. Windows lit up with warm glows as people turned on their lights or lit candles. Lucas had his arm over her shoulder as they strolled down the street.
    “There are no poor people. No homeless,” he said suddenly.
    “No,” Helen replied. “Everyone has what they need here.”
    “But how could anyone be grateful for what they have if they didn’t know what it was like not to have what they need?”
    Helen shook her head and looked down. “I’ve always thought that was the lamest argument—that we need some people to be poor in order to remind the rest of us to be grateful. All that really means is that someone has to suffer poverty so other people can feel better about themselves. What a selfish way to look at the world.”
    Lucas chuckled and squeezed her against his side. “I agree. But you have to admit it is human nature to only really appreciate something if you’ve worked for it, or if you know you can lose it. How are you going to make the inhabitants of your little heaven feel fulfilled if everything comes to them easily?”
    “Ah. The old ‘heaven is boring’ problem, huh? Not in this universe.” Helen looked up at Lucas, and they smiled at each other. “We’ll figure something out. We’ve got plenty of time.”
    “Wait,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. “What do you mean ‘we’ve got plenty of time’?”
    “Just that we’re young,” Helen replied cagily.
    Before Lucas could continue asking questions, Helen imagined a carnival, and it appeared in front of them. Bright, multicolored lights flashed in the evening light, and cheerful music piped around them. The scent of spun sugar sweetened the air, and elsewhere they could smell something juicy and spicy getting grilled.
    “Amazing,” Lucas breathed. “Everything she wants she gets.”
    Helen pulled on his