Blessed by the Cupid Distribution System

It wasn’t anything new, really. She had been alone for it for all twenty-four years of her life, but every year she was hopeful that somehow, she would get a date by that infamous holiday and finally experience the lover’s day as…well, a lover.

A voice in the back of her head liked to sometimes guess what those reasons could be, and they were always negative thoughts, alluding that it was her transness, or her autism, or her not being pretty enough. All reasons Iris had actually heard told about herself by some of the people she’d had crushes on in the past—sometimes even said straight to her face

One thing she was sure of was that no matter how hard finding a partner could be, she would not settle for someone who wouldn’t fully accept every part of her. She would not compromise on that, ever.

Iris debated posting something in her stories too, to see if either of them would reply to a photo and start a conversation, but she had nothing interesting to show—nothing that would convince her friends to pay attention to her for even just a second.

“I wish I could feel what being with someone is like for once,” she whispered, dejected.

“Well, there are lots of cupids around, but there are eight billion humans nowadays, and there certainly isn’t one cupid for each of them,” Jaya said.

“I wanted to get a pet when I started living on my own, but I’m always so worried I wouldn’t be able to take care of it,” she explained. “Sometimes I get so distracted with stuff that I ignore my own basic needs. If I did that with a pet and accidentally hurt them, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”

Jaya watched her with a light in her eyes. “You know, you quite literally glow when you talk about things you like.”

How nice it was to be admired like that, touched like she was precious. Jaya knew Iris found her attractive, but it seemed she knew how to make her feel beautiful, too.

“Different media can have very different interpretations of the same thing,” Iris pointed out. “Most romance books are great, especially if you find your niche, but movies are still behind for the most part—at least in my opinion. So many are still the same story repackaged, and they keep slipping in that obnoxious third act breakup that makes no sense most of the time and only enrages me.”

“Being in crowded places can make me very exhausted, and we were out all day already,” she said. “The adrenaline kept me going, but now I feel like my social battery is on the verge of depleting completely. A less crowded room might help.”

“I wasn’t sure whether I was annoying you or not.” Iris looked down, her cheeks heating up. “I didn’t want to bother you, but I was also eager to see you or hear from you, so I didn’t really know what to do