Page 75 of The Lovers
Ten of Cups, upright.Oh thank God.I breathe a sigh, and when I look back at Millie, I can tell that—even before I explain the card—its meaning is seeping into her bones. She embodies the energy of this Ten.
“Long-lasting love. A home, a family, a life together.” I list off words that come to mind when I look at the card. Words I know are associated, but feel more intrinsically linked to Millie and her near future.
“This is the dream, right?” Millie says, touching the children on the card. “I don’t know how I got so lucky this early in my life.” She looks up to me.
“It’s not a dream. This is your life, and it’s beautiful and complex, but it’s not luck. It’s fate.” She beams at my use of the word.
“Fate,” she repeats, her face aglow. It’s not just the candlelight making her shimmer. It’s coming from within.
It’s been a long time since I’ve said the wordfatewith conviction, not just because the word itself holds so much weight to those who want to believe in it, but because I myself had lost the certainty that it was something worth believing in. Fate felt like a passive ideal. Like an excuse to be disappointed. Like a reason to hold on to past ways of thinking just because at some point they had felt soul-aligned or brought success.
But this weekend has made me hope that fate could be working with me.
Sean swoops up and clutches Millie around the middle, peppering her cheek and neck with kisses. She giggles, letting him practically carry her off in his arms. They spin around in a dizzying display of affection—one that would definitely have once made my heart clench with jealousy.
Millie’s Happily Ever After looks exactly the way I always expected my own would, but now that I’m in thisthingwith Julia—coming out slowly, coming more into my true desires—I’m beginning to see how there are a lot of ways to live that fairy tale in real life and how important it is to make those expressions of this romantic ideal just as relevant as the more conventional ones.
I search the crowd of family and friends for Julia. The countdown clock fires through me, an alarm signaling it’s time to go.When I find Julia standing off to the side of the space surveying her success, my stomach fills with butterflies.
Julia Kelley gives me butterflies.
Kissing her turns my body to putty and my insides to molten lava. Touching her is addictive, a craving I don’t ever want to get rid of.
I am about to pack up my cards when someone says, “Closing shop?”
Coco, holding a wineglass, looking camera ready as ever. I should ask her for an on-camera reading. I need something more tangible to show for this weekend—something that gets my videos in front of the kind of clientele I can demand a higher wage from.
“I’m pretty spent.” I should, but I don’t.
“Plus, you know, you have other plans.” She winks at me. Her default expression, as Julia said. But this time it feels laced with specific meaning. And I’m pleased to discover that I don’t mind at all.
“Important plans,” I say, a giddy smile spreading across my cheeks. I break away to wind through the crowd.
And right into Piper.
“Shit,” I say under my breath.
“Careful there, you almost groped me,” she says, standing too close for comfort. I take a generous step back. “I would hate if it got out that you get fresh with your clients.”
Heat prickles the skin on the nape of my neck, making the tiny hairs stand on end.
“What would all your exes think?” she continues. “Especially David, the freshest body.”
“How do you—”
Her eyes drift over my head and she raises her hand to wave. “Just steer clear. You’re not my type.”
She presses past me and I get the distinct feeling that she was trying to threaten me. I shake it off—as much as I can. I didn’t do anything inappropriate. I don’t have anything to be worried about.
It’s an empty threat from a bitchy bully.
As I make my way through the crowd looking for Julia, I notice Zoe talking to one of the kitchen staff, pointing authoritatively toward the head table. It makes me hopeful that maybe Julia has already given her marching orders so we can get the hell out of here.
My brain is a haze; my heart taps a beat against my ribs. This is going to happen.
When I find Julia in the crowd, nothing else matters. Her eyes trek down the length of my body, heat gathers between my legs, and I almost buckle with want. I rush to reach her—not even thinking. I tuck my hand around her waist and kiss her, working my tongue gently into her mouth. It doesn’t bother me that anyone could look over here and see us. That then they would know I don’t just think she’s the coolest girl alive. I think she’s the hottest. I don’t just want to be best friends.
I want her, body and soul.
