Page 28 of The Fate Factor

I realize I’m still staring at her teeth dug into that bottom lip and I stifle a quick pulse of regret that I’ve framed it that way—friends.

This is more important than my attraction to her, though. I can’t turn down this offer from NEBev just to fall on my face,and she’s the only one who can tell me if that’s what’s destined to happen if I dig my heels in. “Great,” I say. “Perfect. I’m a good friend. You’ll see.”

From the gust of her sigh, I don’t think she believes me.

nine

Noel

IdrivetoKate’stwelvehours after leaving Fortune, half for an excuse to leave the cottage, and half because I need to talk this out. I’m filled with anxious regret. Did I really agree to be friends with Jamie Bishop, the man who causes my brain to short circuit whenever he enters my personal bubble?

I suppose, looking back, the word burst from my mouth as a sort of shield. Friends. A line. A boundary in this seemingly boundless thing.

I have to admit he was also making a bit of sense at the time. I can’t control it, obviously, and I’m left with a lot of huge questions that I can’t really answer without him, but I still feel like I’ve unbuckled my seatbelt at the top of a rollercoaster.

Kate opens the door in yoga pants and fuzzy slippers, eyeing me with giddy suspicion the way I used to when she’d show up at Nana’s for breakfast in the same clothes I left her in downtown the night before.

“This is not a good thing.” I shove past her, waving to Colin over my head as I flop down on her couch. “I wasn’t even playing with the candle!”

“What did you see?” The only details I’ve provided so far was an all-caps text that said: “IT HAPPENED AGAIN.”

“It was me and him.” I lower my voice to confess this next part. “We were like, full on making out on Nana’s porch.”

Blood rushes my cheeks, and Kate barks a laugh. “You two are so horny in these things.”

“Will you please be serious?”

“I am being serious.” She sits across from me. “How many times does the universe have to tell you you’re destined to bang him before you just do it?”

“I don’t even know him!”

She shrugs. “Sure you do. He’s the guy you banged in a psychic vision.”

I shiver. “Oh my God.”

Colin comes shuffling in from the kitchen in a tee and flannel pajama pants, his blond hair flopped over his forehead. I’m hit with a brief flash of surprise at how domestic this is, like I blinked and missed their relationship shifting into permanence.

Kate’s still thinking out loud. “What if Jamie’s your soulmate? This could be your epic love story.”

“Wow. Straight from a vivid dream and some pretty dimples to soulmate?” I laugh but it comes out like I’m being held hostage. My brilliant “dream” excuse has burst into flames, and now the visions have happened twice. This thing is obviously real, but falling into bed with someone and falling in love with them are two different things.

“What Jamie wants has nothing to do with soulmates or epic love stories,” I tell Kate. Unfortunately he’s after something a little more complicated than making out with me.

“What’s that mean?”

“Apparently, he has a whole new business problem and I’ve shown up just in time to give him another psychic tip.”

Kate’s eyebrows arch upward, and I know what she’s thinking: Timing. Fate. All the magical things. Just like Nana would.

What I’m thinking is: Lunacy. Instability. How unhinged a person would have to be to make decisions this way. I’ve had enough of that kind of caution-to-the-wind approach to life. It has never suited me.

But then I remember how vivid the vision was last night. How the feeling I’ve been searching for reached all the way through the time-space continuum just to hit me in a place that’s been so empty for so long.

And it was terrifying.

I drop my chin to my chest and breathe through a swelling panic. This is too much. I was willing to try this whole sabbatical idea to find some inspiration, to get unblocked, even if it meant putting myself back at Nana’s house. But now I’ve been shoved hard by something Kate wants to call fate and I’m tumbling. “This isn’t the baby step I was hoping to take, Kate.”

Colin, who up until now has been silently taking this in while nursing his coffee, turns to me. “Why not?”

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