Page 29 of The Fate Factor

“Why not what?”

He pushes his glasses up his nose bridge. “Why isn’t this a baby step? I mean, if it’s… magic, it seems like a pretty safe bet.”

“In what world is playing with the supernatural the ‘safe’ choice, Colin?”

“Come on, anyone who’s seen a movie with a time loop or a magic fountain knows these things always have a lesson. Andif this guy is really your destiny, or whatever, then that means you’re his too. Why would it want to hurt either of you?”

I scrunch my nose. “You’re comparing my actual life to a movie starring Jason Bateman?”

He grins. “Couldn’t find aScientific Journalarticle on this one.” When I don’t laugh, he leans forward and squeezes my knee. “What I’m saying is, if you decide to take a leap for once, Noel, all signs point to the universe catching you.”

I let that settle in—this theory, or gamble, really, and the fact that it’s coming from Colin. What might that look like? Magic intervening to teach me something.

Magic I learned from Nana.

I rub at my chest where it suddenly feels tight. “You think this is for my own good?”

“Just… maybe don’t assume it’s not.”

I tip my head to the painted tin ceiling in Kate’s apartment until the tears I feel coming dry. “Are doctors even allowed to believe in magic?”

“All science was magic until we understood it.”

God, I can’t decide which part is more outlandish: that I’m actually seeing the future or that these visions are trying to help me.

I lean back into the couch cushions, blowing out a gust of air. “I feel like it should take more than a five second hallucination to go down this whole soulmate road.”

“Two,” Colin says around his coffee mug.

I raise an eyebrow.

“Two five-second hallucinations.”

Kate grins evilly. “Both horny.”

By the time I leave Kate’s, I need to walk. Think. Downtown is just stretching its arms to the morning. Late-season tourists exit their hotels with sunglasses and maps, shop owners are putting out their folding signs. I take a left on a whim, heading away from my car and down toward the waterfront.

Kate has always been as true a friend as anyone could wish for, but she’s made of fire and brimstone, and she doesn’t know any other kind of love than tough. She’s been bulldozing my safety walls for two decades, and I’ve built up a sort of tolerance to it. But Colin is gentle and rational with the exceedingly calm bedside manner of someone used to dealing with traumatic wounds, and he chose a language that spoke directly to my nervous heart. The potential built-in guarantee of it all.

It’s like what Jamie said about the universe not pointing him in the wrong direction with his business.It kind of felt like I couldn’t lose.

So maybe I can apply some of that logic to my own situation. Maybe the universeisgiving me an assist here. Or maybe I am losing my goddamn mind. I suppose I owe it to myself to decipher which one it is.

I’ve been round and round this in my head with no great breakthrough, and I’ve also tapped my advice from the gallery. There’s one other person who has a vested interest in figuring this out. Theonlyone who can actually help me sort through any of it.

We’ll figure it out together. That’s what he said.

I pull out my phone and stare at the number Jamie gave me last night. Then I bite my lip and type.Here goes nothing.

Noel: Do you have plans today?

ten

Jamie

Myphonebuzzesagainstmy face, startling me from a dreamless, pain-induced sleep. That’s what I get for scrolling in bed last night against concussion protocol.

I reach for it, squinting at the bright light of the screen, then try to remember if the doctor said concussions can cause hallucinations because the last thing I expected was to see Noel’s name.

---