It was the only coherent thought I could form.
I needed a drink. Desperately. Immediately. Possibly several drinks.
I turned and started walking toward the bar I’d spotted earlier near the casino floor.
Behind me, I heard her cheerful voice. “Oh good! I’ll come with you! We have so much to talk about!”
And because the universe apparently had a sense of humor and hated me personally, she followed.
Chapter Seven
Julien
The bar was called Lucky’s, which felt like a cosmic joke considering my current situation.
I slid onto a barstool and immediately flagged down the bartender. “Whiskey. Double. Neat.”
I wasn’t a drinker. I allowed myself maybe three drinks a year: a glass of wine at Christmas dinner, champagne at New Year’s, and occasionally a beer if someone forced me to attend a social gathering. Alcohol impaired judgment, slowed reaction time, and interfered with sleep quality.
But desperate times called for desperate measures.
And if there was ever a time that qualified as desperate, it was now.
She sat down next to me, still smiling that impossibly bright smile. “I’ll have a mojito, please! With extra mint. Mint is very cleansing for the aura.”
The bartender nodded and went to work.
I stared straight ahead, willing the whiskey to arrive faster.
“So,” she said, turning to face me fully, “I know this probably seems really sudden, but the universe doesn’t really do things on human timelines, you know? It operates on a much higher frequency, and when it aligns two souls that are meant to be together, it just kind of... happens. Likeboom. Instant recognition. Which is what I felt when we bumped into eachother earlier. Did you feel it? That electric current? That cosmic pull?”
“No,” I said flatly.
“You probably did but didn’t recognize it,” she continued, completely undeterred. “Most people aren’t as in tune with their spiritual energy as I am. It’s not your fault. Society conditions us to ignore our intuition and focus on logic and reason—which are important. Don’t get me wrong, but they’re not thewholepicture. The universe speaks to us in feelings and signs and synchronicities, and if you’re not paying attention, you miss them. But I’m very good at paying attention. My sisters say I’m the most spiritually aware person they know, which is saying something because Freyja literally talks to spirits and Phoebe can read tarot cards with her eyes closed.”
The bartender set my whiskey down in front of me.
I picked it up and drank half of it in one swallow.
It burned. God, it burned. But it was a good burn. A cleansing burn. The kind of burn that might, if I were very lucky, drown out the sound of her voice.
“Anyway,” she continued, “the universe has been very clear about this. I pulled The Lovers this morning, which is basically the universe’s way of saying ‘Your soulmate is near,’ and then I pulled The Sun, which represents joy and fulfillment and cosmic alignment, and then... this is the really interesting part, I pulled The Tower, which most people think is a bad card, but it’s actually about necessary destruction and transformation, which makes total sense because meeting your soulmate is transformative, right? It destroys your old life and builds a new one. So really, The Tower is perfect. It’s like the universe saying, ‘Get ready, everything is about to change.’”
I finished the rest of my whiskey and signaled for another.
“—and then I bumped into you,” she said, her eyes sparkling with what I could only describe as manic enthusiasm, “and Iknew. I felt it in my bones. In my soul. The universe was screaming, ‘THIS IS HIM!’ and I tried to tell you, but you were in such a hurry, which I totally understand now because you had that presentation about brains, which was fascinating by the way. I didn’t understand most of it, but I loved your energy up there. Very confident and knowledgeable, very attractive—”
The second whiskey arrived.
I drank it faster than the first.
“—and then my sisters called, and theyconfirmedit, which was amazing because Phoebe’s readings are never wrong and Freyja’s spirit guide Lucille is incredibly accurate, like scary accurate, and they both said I’d already met my soulmate, and I was like, ‘No way,’ but then I realized it was you and everything just clicked into place. The universe doesn’t make mistakes. When it aligns two souls, it’s for a reason. A purpose. A destiny.”
Third whiskey.
I was starting to feel it now. A pleasant warmth spread through my chest. A slight fuzziness at the edges of my vision.
Maybe if I drank enough, she’d disappear.
