Page 2 of Cherish

“Just keep your eyes off mine,” I warn.

She rolls her eyes at me again.

“Don’t worry about that. I don’t see what you see in that guy.” She takes her food out and stirs her spaghetti around. She nods her head and closes the microwave.

I pick up my own lunch and follow her to our usual table in the back of the cafeteria. “Um, he’s smart, attractive, and funny. The total package some would say, Nanda.” I take a bite of my chicken and rice and almost cry. It tastes just like what Mom used to make. I shake the memories of her trying to teach me to cook aside and refocus on my friend. “He graduated Columbia at eighteen. Went to Harvard Medical School and here he is. One of the youngest residents here.”

“And one of the most boring human beings on this planet. And he’s arrogant. Trust me, girl,” she says, pointing her fork at me. “You don’t want to be with a man who thinks he knows everything and is God’s gift to the world. Besides that, he doesn’t look at you with any heat in his eyes. That’s probably because he’s in love with himself. A girl like you needs fire. And his arms look puny.” She sits back and stares at me as if her words are gospel.

“How do you know he’s boring? You’ve not so much as said a word to him.” I look around the room, disappointed when I don’t see him. “I don’t care about his arms, but they are far from puny. I’m all about the eyes, and his eyes are two blue orbs like the ocean on a calm day. They’re soothing, Nand.”

She visibly shudders at my words. “They’re cold. He might be brilliant, but he’ll bore you to death.”

“We’ll find out tonight.”

“That we will, my friend. That we will.” She winks at me and returns to her meal.

CHAPTER 2

ALEX

“Fuck you, Boston traffic,” Ananda says after squeezing into the last open parking spot behind the Regina Russell’s Tea Room. Despite leaving the office at four o’clock, it took us over an hour to get from Boston to Quincy. Ananda looks at her mirror, flattening her already flat hair. She pulls a lipstick out of her purse and applies some gloss to her plump lips. She adds some foundation to her brown skin and smirks at herself, seemingly satisfied with how she looks.

“You never know when you’re going to meet a fine-ass man,” she says to me.

“Good thing I’ve already met mine,” I tell her.

“Uh-huh. I said fine-ass, not boring-ass. Come on. Let’s get this party started.” She hops out of her Chevy Traverse and I do the same. She walks around and attempts to do something with my tight curls. She should know by now that it’s useless. Unless I spend an hour with a blow dryer and flat iron, I end up with tight light brown curls.

“I know you don’t know who your daddy is, but I’d bet my last dollar he was a white man.” I ignore her. She hooks her arm through mine, and we take the short walk to the front door.

From the outside, it looks like a regular two-story house. The inside has a waiting area filled with round tables. There is a hideous red carpet, badly in need of vacuuming. A brunette with flawless skin sees us and walks over.

We give her our names, and she checks us off in her book. She points to a nearby table and leaves, returning a few minutes later with two cups of tea. Ananda and I clink our mugs, her brown eyes and my gray ones taking in the scene before us.

In the next room, there are three people getting tarot readings, and we are too far to hear, but I don’t miss the fact that all three are doing more listening than talking, and all three nod in agreement at some point.

“I haven’t been here in a couple of years, but my last reading was scarily accurate,” Ananda says. “She basically told me my ex-boyfriend was a no good, lying piece of shit. Did I tell you I saw him and his pregnant wife last month?” I nod, not bothering to point out that she’s told me this at least once a day since the unfortunate sighting. “Three years with that jerk; he wouldn’t even think about moving in together, but a year after we break up, he’s married with a baby on the way? Fuck him.”

It wasn’t the breakup that was hard for Ananda. The relationship had run its course and she was unhappy. But seeing Daniel move on so quickly, choosing someone else over her, is what hurt.

“It’s the idea of what you think you lost instead of actually losing him. He’s so not worth it.” I lay my hand on top of hers and squeeze it. She nods and looks around the room, smiling at an older man, effectively forgetting all about her ex.

“Alexandra?” The same brunette who checked us in asks, looking around the room. I raise my hand, and she gestures for me to come over. I approach, my knees almost going weak at the short walk across the room. “Wendy will be reading your cards tonight. She’s one of our most requested readers, but her appointment canceled. You are one lucky girl.”

I don’t know what I was expecting, but my imagination runs wild. We walk through the room where I saw other patrons earlier and into a room the size of a broom closet off to the side of the kitchen.

I pictured Wendy in a hundred different ways on the way here. My imagination ran wild as I pictured an old redhead with a wrinkled face, a bandana tied around her head and an eye patch reading a crystal ball, but what I get is a young woman around my age with blue hair styled in a bob. She has a small ring in her nose and one in the middle of her bottom lip.

She smiles as she stands, showing off perfect white teeth. I’m only average height for a female, but I have a few inches on Wendy. She offers me her hand, and her strong grip betrays her strength despite her slight stature.

“Hi, Alex,” she says, smiling wide. “No need to be nervous. Take a seat.”

“It’s my first time here,” I say, my voice shaky.

“Relax, sweetie. I don’t bite.”

CHAPTER 3

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