Three Wishes
Heart of the Djinn
Book One
Lisa Manifold
Copyright © 2016 Lisa Manifold
First Edition Ebook: December 2015
First Edition Print: June 2016
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1-943530-04-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-943530-04-5
DEDICATION
To My Darling Boys:
Always, always take the chance!
Love you !
Mom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No book is ever done on an island. Mine are no different.
My critique groups—Monica, Shawn, Deb, Lynne, Julie, Craig, Cordia, Janet, and Joel— are amazing. You keep me sane and grounded. My editor, the fabulous Rachel Millar, makes sure that I don’t write 80’s cliché. For which I am eternally grateful. Although as a child of the 80’s, I kind of like the cliché. Any leftover mistakes, are, of course, all my doing. She does her best, honestly! To Corinne and Wendy for helping me to stay focused, and for being the ears I needed to bend. To Jen, Tara, and Pam—for being an ear for everything else not writing related. To my family—Mom, Dad, Dick, Liz, Shannon, and Mike—the best damn cheerleaders anyone could have.
To Ms. Lynn E, for helping to hold down things on a front that I worried about obsessively. We know now it wasn’t a worry at all, but I appreciate you being there to help carry the load. That help allowed me to work.
To my Darling Boys, to whom this work is dedicated.
Finally, to my wonderful husband Jimmy. Your support carries me through when I have doubts.
I love you all, and count myself fortunate to have all of you in my life.
Chapter One
Present Day
Tibby
I walked into the conference room. This would be a piece of cake. The dispute wasn’t that big of a deal, though our client was making one out of it. Like all Granddad’s friends, everything was a big deal. Probably why they were all, to a man, filthy rich. Maybe I needed to get that mindset.
I laughed inwardly and shrugged the thought away. I’d go insane. Kind of like most of Granddad’s friends. I liked my life, my practice, and the way things in my life were going. I put my general state of satisfaction aside and focused on the meeting at hand.
“Mr. Barrington?” I held out my hand to the older gentleman in the room. He stood with two younger men, and he turned when I said his name.
“I’m Tabitha Holloway and this is my partner, Bryant Higgs. We represent—”
“Tibby?”
Two different voices called me by my nickname. Both held tones of shock and surprise. I opened my mouth to respond when I looked, really looked at who was talking to me.
Oh my god. I felt faint suddenly when I realized who they were.
Just as suddenly, I looked around for the telltale flash of glitter. I was going to end up back in my room three years earlier. I could feel it.
Back to when I was…well, for lack of a better word, a complete dumb ass. Not the competent, honest, take-charge person I’d become. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I didn’t want to go back there, to that Tibby, away from the life I’d built for myself, piece by piece.
But if this wasn’t a crossroad, I didn’t know what was.
It had been so long, I honestly thought Dhameer had forgotten me. Because I’d made such a success of myself, and applied what I’d learned, courtesy of the Dhameer School of Second Chances. Back to where this began.
Chapter Two
Three Years Earlier
Tibby
What if? Lately, that seemed the story of my life. Since I worked at home as a website designer, I had plenty of time for self-reflection.
I was lucky. I know that. I had a lot of opportunities, and I let them get away. So now I chose to work at home and stay out of the messy office crap. That office crap was what screwed me up, every time. Get to know people, start being social, and then Bam! I screw it up. Sleep with someone’s ex without knowing it. Flirt with the wrong guy, piss off his wife. I’m not a bad person. I know that, deep down. But I make really, really shitty choices. If it weren’t for my friend Xavier, I’d be living in a box with all my stuff in a shopping cart. As I was pulling myself out of the mess I’d made of law school, Xavier’s star was on the rise. He knew I was good with the IT side of things, and he hired me as his web person. Because of him, I’ll always have a job. A career of sorts, because he’s brought business my way. I also look over his books to make sure his accountant and financial people aren’t screwing him over.
Coming from where we grew up, you want someone double checking. Someone at your back. I do that for X. Just like he does for me.
The phone rang. It was Xavier.
“Hey.”
“Girl, what’s up?”
“Nothing. You’re still filthy rich, and people are still honest or scared.” Our typical greeting.
He laughed. “I love you, Tib. When are you gonna come live with me and marry me?”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “Never. You’re a dog on a good day, X. I love you too, but from afar.” We both knew that things could have gone differently, but in the end, we both needed a friend more than anything else. I treasure him like I treasure no one else. I’d never screw that up. At least I have some principles, in spite of what’s been said about me over the years.
Talk turned to some updates he wanted, and I took notes. While X has a devil-may-care rep, or more bluntly, a fuck-off rep, he’s an amazing businessman. He knows every aspect of his brand. To the world, he’s XTC, famous rapper and bad boy. To me, he’s smart as hell and my one friend.
“X?”
“Yeah?”
“You ever have regrets?”
I could hear him shifting through the phone. “Regrets for what, Tib?”
“I don’t know. Things you didn’t take a chance on.”
“I took a chance on the things that were important.”
“I know that. I mean, like people, or lost connections, or things you didn’t realize were opportunities at the time?”
“Sure. But fuck it. You can’t live in regrets. If I did, Marcia would have it all.”
We both laughed. Marcia was his latest ex. He’d actually married her, rather than dating her until she got mad and tired of waiting on him and dumped him. I didn’t understand why she had been different from all the other exes, but who was I to criticize? I’d been the best man—well, the best woman at their wedding. I loved wearing a tux. All the bridesmaids had glared. Probably because I’d been far more comfortable than they were. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Marcia hated me on sight. I could understand. A chick as the best friend of a bad-ass rapper? I would have been suspicious too. Maybe not as much of a bitch as she’d been, however.
“You get that all straightened out with her?”
“I don’t pay a shark for nothing.”
“Good.” I left it be. I wasn’t one to throw stones in the relationship department.
We chatted for a few more minutes, and then he hung up.
I sighed. I knew he wanted me to live closer, to be more available, but I couldn’t. The world he lived in would have fucked me up even more than I was. But I missed him. We’d been friends since elementary school; we both had crappy parents, both had nights of hiding from drunken rages. It bonds you. Thankfully, we’d kept those bonds.
And because of X, I wasn’t living in a box with a shopping cart. I set up for the work he wanted done tomorrow and went into the kitchen to make something.
Nothing looked good. I
could feel one of those nights coming on. I pulled out the tub of ice cream and parked in front of the TV. Maybe the sugar would calm all this shit down. I hadn’t been this unsettled in ages.
After too much ice cream and probably too much Lifetime, I gave up and went to bed. I felt fat and weepy. Not a successful dispelling of whatever this was. Lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, my mind went back to my torturous game of what if. Tonight, for some unknown reason, I wandered into the dreaded I could have moments.
I fell asleep thinking about a couple of those, and about what would have happened had I taken the chance. I did my best to dispel my whiny thoughts from earlier, because I noticed when I went to bed in a bad mood, I had crappy dreams.
When I woke up, the sun was shining through the top of my window. I peered at the clock and saw that it was 6:37. Why hadn’t my alarm gone off? It was usually set for 6:30. I must not have set it last night. Oh well. I could afford to sleep in this morning. I began to snuggle back into sleep when something caught my eye. I looked again. There was a man, sitting on the edge of my bed, legs crossed, examining his fingernails. He looked…glittery, a mix of what looked like gold and silver.
“Who the fuck are you?” I screamed, clutching the blanket to my throat with one hand while reaching out for my phone on the night table with the other. It wasn’t there. Where the hell had I left it? I tried to look around the room without looking like I was looking around the room. Fuck.
“You can call me your fairy godmother, Toots,” he said cheerfully. Great. A serial killer who was chipper, cheerful, and possessed of a sense of humor. I had to find a way to get to my phone. I cursed myself for not keeping one by the bed.
“Why?”
“Because I heard you last night, and I’m here to help you.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I heard your dreams. Everyone in the state could. I didn’t realize just how loud dreams could sound until I ran across you. So I am here to put to rest your eternal pondering.”
“How are you going to do that?” This was creepy, and interesting, and creepy all at once. I figured I could get to the phone in a minute. He was obviously crazy. I was kind of afraid to move.
“I am a djinn.” He looked at me as though that explained it all.
I clutched my blanket higher around my neck and cast my eyes around for my phone.
He saw me do it, and sighed heavily. “You may know me as a genie.”
“Like Aladdin?” I couldn’t help asking, lowering the blanket a little.
He rolled his eyes like the bitchiest girl in high school. “Djinn. In the understood tradition of djinn, I am going to give you three wishes. You must know,” he held up an index finger, and I was caught watching it sparkle in the sun. “My wish granting is a little different though. There is no wishing for more wishes. Your wishes are going to have to be specific, and they are going to be what you would call a ‘do-over’.”
“I’m not trying to be dense here, but what do you mean?” My curiosity was getting the better of my fear. Everything in the room seemed more in focus, sharper. I knew I ought to be more afraid, but it didn’t seem to be happening that way.
He sighed, and rolled his eyes dramatically. Again. Whatever the hell he was, he did not lack in the dramatic flair department. “Humans. I liked you better when you were more savage in your wants as you were in your dreams. Far more willing to believe without question; able to just wish and get it over with. Okay. I’ll break it down for you, Tootsie Pop. You have been dreaming of turning points in your life. Those maddening little what ifs. What if you had made choice A instead of choice B? That sort of thing. I am going to grant you three do-overs. You get to choose three times in your life where you wish you had made a different decision, and go back and make the decision you didn’t make the first time around. I’ll let you see what happens. You and I will talk after you have done all three, and see what’s next. What do you say? Are you interested?”
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but how do I know that you are not just crazy for glitter paint and breaking into houses?” I had decided that if he was crazy, it was better to humor him until I could find my damn phone.
He rolled his eyes again, muttering what sounded like “humans” under his breath. He rose from the bed. When I say rose, he actually lifted off the bed. He didn’t seem to have feet. It looked a little misty from the knee area down. He raised a hand, and I saw it shimmer in the sun. He made a gesture that looked like he was throwing something, and suddenly there was a giraffe at the foot of my bed.
Chapter Three
The giraffe looked as shocked as I was. I must have been able to hold it together better than I thought, because unlike the giraffe, I didn’t lose bladder control immediately. How do you clean up giraffe pee? How did that thing even fit in my little apartment bedroom? I didn’t have time to think about it further because the giraffe changed into a peacock, which screeched at me and shook his feathers. Then the peacock changed into a dragon.
I couldn’t believe it. There was a fucking dragon in my room, which, in truth, looked as happy about this as I was. As all disgruntled dragons are wont to do, he roared. With his roaring came flame, and it was aimed right at me.
I shut my eyes and screamed. When I didn’t burst into flame, I opened them, and the man? Genie? Was sitting on the edge of the bed again, looking rather smug.
“All right. You’re not the average B&E guy. So why me? Why offer me this?”
“As I said, Toots, I heard you. Your dreams were screaming out louder than if you’d been shouting them from the rooftops last night. I’m a sucker for humans. What can I say?”
“What’s the catch?”
He laughed then, and it sounded genuine. “Smart girl, aren’t you? You know nothing is free. There is really no big catch, although that may not be your perception. I’m a djinn. My purpose in life is to grant wishes. I’ve been doing this long enough that I’m not beholden to anyone; a free agent, if you will. Even without someone calling the shots for me, it’s still who I am, the grantor of wishes. Only now, I can choose whom I wish to offer that to, what kind of terms, that sort of thing. I’ve gotten picky. I like you. You’re a hard worker. Everyone makes some poor choices. You’ve made some doozies. You don’t whine about it, you own your mess and carry on. You don’t see that as often as you might think. When I heard your dreams last night, I decided it was time to offer you a second chance.”
“Really, you are going to have to work with me here. Can we back up? There are really genies in the world? It’s not just a Disney movie?”
“Toots, most things are really in the world. Legends come from somewhere, you know. They don’t just sprout, fully formed, from the addled brain of some guy who accidently put the wrong mushroom in his breakfast stew. The world is not as friendly to the legends as it once was. So the stuff of legends stays hidden, out of sight. Humans don’t really need magic and amazing miracles like they once did. Well.” he tapped his lip, “actually, they probably do, but the technology that’s been created has taken the place of magic and miracles and all that. It’s not so great for legends still skulking about, but what can you do? I like it, myself. I can still do what I was made to do, and choose those I wish to help. Choice is a wonderful thing when you have gone through so much of your existence without it.”
“I can understand that,” I said.
“I doubt it, Toots. You’ve always had choice; you’ve just made choices you regret. It was always your decision. There was never anyone else making it for you.”
“It doesn’t feel that way.” I felt a little stung.
“That’s only because you’ve never really lost your ability to choose. And now you’re getting a chance that most people never have. The chance to live your life while being able to make truly informed choices.
“All right,” I said. “Can we go back to the catch? I know there’s one.”
“Right you are. The catch. I don’t see it as much,
but you might. Here it is. When you go back, you’ll be at the crossroads. I mean, the exact moment where you made a choice that changed your direction, your destiny. You will make your choice, and I hope it’s different from the one you lament now, if only to put your musings to rest. All the while, as you are going forward with the consequences of your choice, you will be the you that you are now, on the inside. From the outside, you’ll look like the you that you were then, at the time of the crossroads. You’ll also need to know that this is not permanent. What happens after you have made a new choice, no one knows. I can’t tell. It’s all up to you. So I have to warn you, it’s not permanent. It could be, but I can’t make a call about that at this point.”
I leaned back a little, head whirling. This was a lot to take in all at once. If he hadn’t trotted the menagerie out in front of me, I would be a lot more skeptical. With that, and the whole issue of his glittery look, and the floating, I had to think that maybe he was for real. An honest to god real mythical creature who was at the moment shedding glitter on my comforter. The idea made me smile.
“So that’s it? I get to go back, do over something of my choosing, all while knowing all that I do now? That really doesn’t sound like a catch.”
He smiled. “I agree, but other humans have come to disagree. It seems the solution to all your problems, so to speak, but when you get what you wish for, it’s not always what you really want. Besides, you won’t make the decision about where you end up. Big enough of a catch for you?”
“Well, let me see. I work from home fifty hours a week, maybe more. I don’t have a lot of friends, mostly because I was stupid, partied too much, and took nothing seriously. I don’t date, because I just can’t seem to get past the small talk. I honestly wonder if I even like people anymore.”
Three Wishes: Time Traveler Romance (Heart Of The Djinn Book 1) Page 1