Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
It made my heart race.
He took a shower, then we made our way back down to Bourbon Street. We spent the day dicking around and looking at several historical sites until we came upon one of those fortune teller places.
“Let’s go inside,” I exclaimed, wrapping my arm around his.
“I don’t like to fuck around with that shit.”
“I’m Cuban; we love this shit.”
He sighed and gestured toward the door. “Lead the way.”
The door chimed when we walked inside, and the place looked like it had been there for hundreds of years. There were rocks, crystals, bottles, and rows and rows of things I couldn’t even describe.
“Welcome,” a female voice said from behind us, making us both turn.
“Hello,” I greeted.
“What brings you in today?”
“Oh… we’re just messing around,” I answered.
“Would you like to have your fortune read?”
“Yes.”
“Follow me.”
She led us to a back room with beads hanging from the trim as a curtain. A table with a red tablecloth had two chairs on one side and one on the other.
“Please have a seat.”
We all did.
“Who’s first?”
“Me,” I expressed.
“Are you guys married?”
I laughed. “No.”
“Lovers?”
“He’s actually my much older boss.”
“There’s a what? Fifteen-year age gap between you two?”
I scoffed out a chuckle because she was right.
“So that would make you twenty-eight?”
I nodded, informing Luke of my age for the first time. He grabbed my thigh from under the table and started rubbing my skin with his callused fingers.
“Can I see your palm?”
I hesitated for a moment before I gave it over.
Never expecting how much she would know and how this would blow up in my face.
LUKE
I had a bad feeling about this.
I didn’t want to be fucking around with shit I didn’t understand. Duchess placed her hand on the table, and the fortune teller traced the lines on her palm with her index finger.
“You’re sad,” she spoke, continuing to trace the lines. “You’ve been sad for a very long time. You come from an extremely privileged life. You know where you come from, but you have no idea where you’re going. You don’t cry. You don’t share any emotion. It makes your heart cold. You don’t love, child. You don’t know how to.”
I looked over at Duchess, and she was taking in every word the fortune teller was revealing.
“You hide. You hide behind everything, including your body.” The fortune teller looked up at her with an intense stare. “You’re scared of the world because it’s done nothing but hurt you. You don’t let anyone in… not because you’re scared they’re going to hurt you; it’s because you’re terrified they’re not going to.”
Duchess roughly yanked her hand away and stood, immediately leaving.
“Fuck…” I breathed out. I pulled out my wallet and placed a twenty on the table. “Thanks.”
“The life you lead is only going to get you killed. I’d consider a new road for you.”
We locked eyes.
She didn’t waver. “You may not be scared of dying, but it’s those you leave behind who will suffer the loss of your life. Especially your father.”
I jerked back, swallowing hard. Feeling like the walls were caving in on me. I never thought about it from that perspective, and it nearly knocked the wind out of me.
“The girl. She brings you peace and tranquility. Which is interesting because she is nothing but chaos. Now, that’s irony. Watch yourself; that girl is nothing but gasoline to the forest fire you live in. You can try to save her… but she may end up saving you.”
I shook my head and left.
Not being able to hear anymore.
I got the hell out of there, shaken to my core.
Now, it wasn’t just my demons on my back…
It was my family too.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
LUKE
I found Duchess at a bar a few doors down. She was outside drinking what appeared to be a bourbon while two empty shot glasses sat on the table in front of her.
“Hey.”
She looked up, smiling as if nothing had just happened. “Hey, I ordered you a shot, but then I drank it.” She laughed.
“You okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
If this was how she was going to play it… all I could do was nod. When the server returned to the table, I ordered a drink, and Duchess ordered more shots. We spent the rest of the night drinking and barely eating. I think I was feeling the weight of the fortune teller’s words because I was shooting down bourbon like I had something to prove.
Between her truths and mine, it was a punch in the balls I wasn’t expecting.
It took a lot to take me down, and I definitely felt a hard buzz when she slightly slurred, “What time is it?”
I looked down at my watch and had to close one eye to see. “Almost one or maybe two.”
“In the morning?”
I looked around us, and it was dark. “Yeah…”
“Mmmkay,” she replied, leaning into me and rubbing her nose against my neck. “You smell nice…”