Eva's Assignment

It wasn't her usual line of work, but she was determined to achieve a happy outcome...

- REBECCA ROGERS

Eva pressed her nose against the shop window. Inside, the florist was bent lover her counter, snipping bright green stems. Offcuts were flying everywhere, including towards the window, thudding against the glass in front of Eva's face. The florist looked up and abstractedly waved a hand in apology before getting back to the job in hand.

If the florist had not been up until 1am watching the latest series of Love Incognito, she might have noticed that Eva hadn't flinched when the pieces of stem had shot towards her. She might also have noticed that Eva's breath was not misting up the windowpane as it should have done on that bright but cold morning in March.

The truth was that Eva had no reflexes, and no breath. She did, however, have an infinite memory and an ability to manipulate numbers like no one else on Earth. She also had a tiny silvery-blue backpack in which she kept her wings.

She was, in short, an angel.

Normally, Eva would have been working at her desk in Heaven's enormous dusty back office. But today, as all the cherubim had been given extended leave after Valentine's Day (encouraging people to fall in love was an exhausting business, after all), she had been sent into the field as a temporary Angel of Love.

It was her first time as a cherub, and she was nervous. She pulled a white, leatherbound notebook from a deep pocket. The words on the front cover, written in gold, glinted in the sunlight.

The Cherub's Handbook How to make people fall in love

ASSIGNMENT, she read on the first page. FRANK AND DORIS, SUNNY VIEW CARE HOME.

Step 1-buy the tools. If you can't get a bow and arrow, flowers will do.

Feeling an unfamiliar fluttering in her stomach, she pushed open the door of the florists and said loudly, "A bunch of your finest flowers, please, Florist. And make them smelly!"