Page 7 of City of Love

Lexi’s eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline. “What?”

“Just hear me out. First off, you’re the one who’s the woo-woo after all.”

“The woo-woo?”

“You know what I mean. You’ve got the sight. As matter of fact I’ve been saying all along you need one of your own TV shows, like that Long Island Medium woman or something,”

Her lips twisted into a frown. “You know it doesn’t work like that. I can’t just call things up on demand.”

“I still say you need your own show. Do you have any idea how much money those reality show people make?”

Lexi loved her friend, but this wasn’t at all amusing. “So anyway…”

“So anyway, when you told me about your most recent visions, I knew it was time to bring you here. It was meant to be.”

She shook her head, ready to reach up and pull her hair out. Or pull Margot’s out. “Bring me where? Can you make some sense already, please?”

Margot put her palms forward. “Okay, you know how you’re always saying you sometimes have the feeling there are other worlds out there, other dimensions that are right next to us, overlapping us? Well guess what? It’s true, baby doll.”

Lexi didn’t bother to respond. She was a statue.

“Look, I know you believe in far out stuff. I’ve seen your bedside table with books on chakras and astral travel,” Margot crossed her legs, getting comfortable against the bar. “You’re the one always dragging me into the Third Eye bookstore, or making me watch some documentary on quantum physics and string theory.”

But that was sort of the problem wasn’t it? Lexi may have read those books, and true, she was a Discovery Channel junkie, but when push came to shove, she wasn’t sure she really believed any of it. Multiverses and wormholes were exciting thoughts, but at the end of the day she pretty much always figured it was hogwash.

“Besides,” Margot continued, “you’re, well… you’re psychic. You of all people should know that strange things do exist.”

Good fucking point.

“And you know me,” Margot continued, “I butt my nose into everyone’s business, and for some reason people are comfortable talking to me. I always find out about crazy, secretive shit.”

Lexi gave a non-committal shrug, though she knew her friend was at least right on that count. Margot could probably bat her eyes at a member of the Secret Service and find out in five minutes who really shot Kennedy.

“Anyway, you were right, Lex. Other worlds do exist—at least one other world for sure—and we’re going there. Tonight.”

Her mouth had to have dropped open wide enough to catch a bug. “I still don’t know what you’re saying. We’re going where exactly?”

Margot took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “To a parallel universe, like you’re always dreaming about. Taco Shots is a portal.”

Lexi stared at her friend, her brain racing to make sense of that last sentence. She honestly thought her best friend had lost her mind. What exactly was the portal? The taco bar up front? The lounge they were sitting in? Was some crazy, blue, glowing doorway about to open up somewhere? Was something seriously, horribly wrong with Margot?

There was no denying the timer on her wrist, though, or the fact that everyone else in the room wore the same device. Or that the other patrons had all moved into the roped off corner of the bar, standing there with briefcases and musical instruments in hand, giving impatient glances across the room at her.

A wave of nausea twisted her gut. Her mouth tasted sour, her tongue dry. “A parallel universe?”

“I don’t understand it exactly.” Margot shrugged. “You know that science stuff is over my head. I’m a business girl. But there are people on the other side who can explain it to you if you want to know the details. Plus, I think they might be able to help you with your little prescience problem.”

“What?” Lexi shook her head, absent-mindedly rubbing the goose bumps that had appeared on her arms.

“They know about things like that over there.” Margot took a sip of her drink, and her eyes widened. “Wait until you see it. It’s like Philadelphia, but not. It’s kind of a crazy version of Philly. It’s still sort of Victorian… or… Colonial. I don’t know. But much more advanced, too. Honestly, it’s totally whack, but in a good way.”

The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. She grabbed Margot’s forearm. “That’s definitely the place in my dreams. I saw that version of Philly in my dream! I thought it was some, I don’t know, amusement park or… one of those tourist places where they recreate a colonial village.”

Margot’s face brightened. “I know, as soon as you told me about the visions, I realized it had to be this. So, that means you’ve got to go, right? I mean, you’re supposed to go, aren’t you? Like… it’s your fate or something?”

Lexi paused. “But, fate doesn’t necessarily mean good and—”

“Stop worrying and let’s discover what your visions are all about,” she pleaded. “It’s safe, not to mention a blast. I’ve been a bunch of times before. Trust me.”

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