Page 83 of Between Now & Heartbreak

“Uh- okay,” I smile and shoot a wide-eyed glance at Dina.

“So, how does this work?” I ask, trying to sound game.

“Let me see your palms.” Mindy grabs my hands and pulls them across to the table, before I can even process her request

I look at Dina, hoping to get some reassurance from her that this normal. But she’s staring at my hands in rapt wonder.

“Close your eyes, Elisabeth.” She orders in a voice that brooks no argument. I do what she says before she can reach across the table and shove my eyes shut.

“There it is,” Mindy says casually. Then, she presses her thumbs into the center of my palms and even though it’s light pressure, my whole hand is gripped by a wash of pins and needles that stop as quickly as they started before I’m overcome by a sense of complete peace.

The room is full of all sorts of background noise. A fish tank gurgles in the corner, a fan whirs, and the thin paned windows do nothing to dampen the mad chirping of what sounds like thousands of cicadas in the tress outside. But, there’s a stillness that has the same effect as silence would. I feel a sense of tranquility in the dark refuse of my closed eyes and relax.. She deepens the pressure and it grows intense just as she starts to speak. Her voice is deeper now and as it washes over me, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“Your entire life is about to change. If you can find the courage, you will find yourself in the arms of a person you didn’t dare hope existed, but have longed for down to the bottom of your soul. Their love will feel like flying, you revel in it. Even when it burns. You will look at him, you will see him forever.”

Carter. Oh my God.

“You will have a choice to make. The wrong one will ruin everything. And you won’t know it right away. But it will happen in a moment, as quick as the flick of your wrist. It will float like a feather. But this, my dear, is your apocalypse. And it will lay you flat.”

“But just before you fall into an abyss you’ll never hit the bottom of, a hand will reach out and break your fall. In that split second between the future and the past, you’ll think you’ve been saved.”

She presses her thumbs into the center of my palms again and this it’s not a light touch.

“Ow,” I yelp when her grip turns punishing. She just holds my hands tighter. I look at her face and her eyes squeezed shut in a pose of extreme concentration.

“But the hand that broke your fall is wrapped around your neck, choking the breath out of you. There you are, on the edge of your life and you have a choice in what happens next. The abyss or the devil you know?”

My heart is beating hard in my chest, sweat trickles down the center of my back, my breaths are coming faster- I recognize all the signs of my panic, but I don’t understand why. I have a choice. With a gun to my head or a hand around my throat, I have a choice.

“But if I fall, I’ll die.”

She opens her eyes, and her dark gaze pierces mine. Her smile widens.

“You, my love, were born your wings. And when you spread them, you will fly.”

A shiver runs through me.

I snatch my hands away from her and stand up. I stare down at her, into her eyes and she looks up into mine. I’m trembling. Some of the things she said…remind me of my conversation with James, my kisses with Carter,

“You are welcome.” She says softly and then she stands and leaves.

“Are you okay?” Dina asks me as walk toward her car.

I don’t know how to answer that. “Can we talk about it later? I need to think.”

She nods and true to her words, on the ride home, Dina doesn’t say a word and I’m grateful for the time to think. I’m shaken to my core.

I don’t believe in things like fortune tellers. But, tonight, she said so many things that I’ve felt or heard. And maybe it’s all just coincidence, but the timing, the warning,the wings.

I reach into my purse with trembling hands. pull out my wallet and take out the note that I keep on me all the time. I hand it to Dina.

“What’s this?’

“James left me this letter. Read that last line.”

Her eyes scan it and then dart back to me before she reads it aloud. “When you find the place where you can spread your wings, you’re going to soar. I can’t wait to see it. I love you. James.”

“Do you see?”

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