In My Veins
By C.A. Madden
© 2013 C.A. Madden
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This is a New Adult Contemporary Romance novel recommended for readers ages 18 and over due to language and sexual themes.
Cover Image by conrado / BigStockPhoto.com
Cover design by Najla Qamber / NajlaQamberDesigns.com
Dedicated to…
My mom for being amazing.
My “VIP” friends who encouraged me to make this story official.
Table Of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About The Author
Chapter One
I’m not sure if it was the area or why I was there that was freaking me out. It was early mid-afternoon and the sun was bright and shining in L.A. but I had the weirdest feeling that I was being watched.
There was no one in that shopping area and I should have probably taken that as a sign that maybe she just wasn’t as good as everyone said she was. But I was finally giving into it. I had been on dates but always found something wrong with the guy before the second date. Afterwards I would avoid the guy like the plague and not give them a chance to redeem themselves.
I had yet to be in a serious relationship. All my friends from college were getting married and majority of my high school friends were already married. I should at least have one serious relationship before deciding maybe love just wasn’t for me.
Being twenty-four, done with college, and finally found a decent career; I didn’t have excuses anymore. I was ready to put myself out there!
And it’s all going to start where it starts for the majority of my friends here, with a coffee cup. I looked around again at the eerily empty area and still felt like I wasn’t as alone as I thought before reaching for the door to hurry into safety.
The door had bells that jingled when I opened it. It was unnecessary though because there was a loud parrot perched up on a bird stand that announced my arrival. The café was empty. No customers in sight. The actual café was surprisingly homey looking with its wooden chairs and dark warm colors.
Tiffany said Lana was the best of the best. Lana was the to go girl for coffee and tea leaf readings. She’ll be able to tell me what was wrong with me. I was ready to hear that I was going to die alone and I might as well start picking out names for my future house of pets. No offence to Lana and her bird.
Tiffany quickly became a good friend when I met her at the gym. I was new in L.A. and had read that the best way to make new friends and kill time was join a gym. So I did. Tiff invited me to her yoga and boot camp classes and the rest was history.
And as smart and strong as Tiffany was, she seriously had the tendency to be stupid. I still had no idea how a café was going to help my love life, but I figured what did I have to lose? And it would be the best way to get Tiffany and anyone else that believed these coffee readings to get off my back and let me try online dating like I was planning.
California is the melting pot of cultures and L.A. is the heart of the melting pot. Different cultures and traditions make for some interesting places in the city. Lana’s Café was an Eastern European café and was rumored that she read coffee grounds. My entire future in a tiny cup of unfiltered coffee that I was forced to like thanks to my background. Sometimes these little cups revealed tragedies and sometimes they revealed love.
I always thought it was bull when my grandma tried to convince me to drink the coffee, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Hello?” I said looking around the tiny space as if she would suddenly appear. “This is ridiculous. Why am I even here…?” I mumbled to myself and stared at the green bird that was eyeing me. I never liked birds. And I think he knows that.
If someone would have asked me to do this two years ago, I would have made fun of them. This year… I’ll listen to anyone. I know I might sound desperate. I’m all for being independent and I pride myself for providing myself with everything. I paid my way through college and bought my own car. But a year after college I discovered that I can’t cuddle independently. Humans need other humans not matter how much we want to deny it. I had to keep reminding myself that.
“Hello there, how may I help you?” Said a woman knocking me back into where I was. I was startled at first since she came from the back of the store. I had not realized it had a ‘back’ because of the way she had decorated the walls with curtains. It kept the windows and doors hidden. But I should have known.
She was in her mid-thirties. She had a thick Eastern accent. Maybe Armenian or Russian, the common ethnicity in the part of L.A. I was in. She had long black curly hair and a gorgeous olive toned tan that made her green eyes look almost as if they were glowing. She was wearing layers and layers of gorgeous jewel colored fabrics and layers of actual jewels. She was gorgeous, no lie in that department. Whether she was legit at this coffee thing, that was another question.
“Um... hi I was just hoping to get a coffee reading maybe?” Why did that come out so weak…She’s so going to over charge me now.
“Oh…wonderful! Come over here.” She said motioning to a small wooden table. I was half expecting her to say she was expecting me like most of the creepy psychic witches did in movies.
I looked around the dark café as I nervously pulled back my chair. She ran to the back to make my coffee as I waited. There was some exotic music playing in the background that made me want to stand up and belly dance if I wasn’t so freaked out by the parrot.
“Here you go dear.” She brought with her my tiny little espresso cup of coffee along with some cut fruit and pastries. She handed me the tiny coffee cup as she sat across from me and kept her eyes locked onto me like her bird.
“Drink up, dear.”
She smiled at she stared at me about to drink the coffee. I felt awkward being stared at but I downed the hot liquid anyway. The faster I finish it the faster I could get out of there.
It was a bitter coffee. Unlike the coffee at the office it wasn’t filtered and I had ruminants of its coffee grounds on my tongue almost felt like dirt. I remembered why I never drank that stuff when my mom had guests over.
She showed me how to flip the cup, making sure that it faced me. “Now we wait for a moment. The magic has to work.” She sai
d her voice deep trying to make it all sound so mystic. I knew she didn’t ‘do the magic’. The coffee did its thing and she read it.
“You’re Armenian?” She asked leaning back in her chair. It’s the go to question in Glendale I’ve noticed since nine times out of ten the answer was ‘yes’.
“Mostly…” I said quietly.
“Like most of L.A.” she laughed, “My mama was Armenian too. My papa is Russian.”
“Oh…” I said never knowing how to make these types of conversations last.
“Where do you work?” she asked putting me on edge for some reason.
“Why is it that psychic always ask questions? I thought they should know these things.”
She laughed, “Oh sweetheart I’m no psychic. I’m sure people told you I was a gypsy too. I’m just a normal woman making a living. I just learned to read coffee from my grandmother. Anyone can do it.” she leaned forward and lowered her voice, “I’m just the best. And you know what…?”
“What…” I mumbled aware that no one else was in the café to witness anything bad that could possibly happen to me.
“Most people that say they can are lying. And most that do know are too afraid to tell the truth. Sometimes what I see in these cups are not pretty. Sometimes I see dark images.”
“Oh…”
“And that was the precaution warning to you. Know that I will tell you whatever I read. I’m not promising you a cash inflow with a handsome man coming to your door with a bouquet of daisies. If I see anything bad…I will tell you like it is. It’s not my fault the bad things will happen. Got it?”
“Wouldn’t want it any other way.” I said pushing my cup to her.
She took my cup and started looking at it. Her eyes were narrowed onto the things that just looked like streaks to me. I guess if I really wanted to squint I could see a waterfall in my future or something. Kind of reminded me of people when they looked at images in clouds.
“Ooh…” she said to herself, “I see… a circle.” She said as she stared into the cup. She pointed at it showing me and all I saw was a glob. I nodded anyway so she could go on with her story.
“What does it mean?” I asked, humoring her.
She raised her brow clearly knowing I thought she was a hoax, “I see that you are starting to want to have children. Yes?”
Majority of women my age want kids these days. But I still felt my face heat up at what else should see in that tiny cup. If she’s not a hoax. “Kids? Um... no. More like a boyfriend. But they can be childish at times I suppose…” I laughed nervously regretting letting this woman see what’s in my mind.
I stopped myself from even thinking she could. I can’t believe I’m actually starting to believe this.
She laughed at my attempt of a joke and went back to the cup. She went on about a job promotion but something about me losing money. After saying some more things, mainly along the lines of I’ll get money soon, careful of the jealous people like any typical coffee reading.
Then she stopped.
“There is a guy in your very near future. I see tattoos.” She frowned and eyed me.
“What is it?” I asked eagerly. Could this be it? Maybe he’s a bad boy… hell yes!
“I see…a dragon? I think it’s a dragon…”
“A dragon?” I asked disappointed. “What could a dragon mean…?”
“I don’t know. There weren’t many dragons where I came from.” She laughed at her attempt of a joke. I didn’t find it so amusing.
“But it says that you will cross paths with this dragon or whatever it is. And there is a candle next to it. Whatever this dragon means, it is the answer to your wishes, prayers, and every desire.” I noticed her accent becoming less and less strong throughout the conversation and it was completely gone by now. She is such a fraud.
“The dragon…is the answer to my wishes? And you don’t even know what it means?”
“Yes.” She said as if it was obvious.
“Okay…thank you.” I said finally hearing enough.
I gave her the cash and was about to leave but she grabbed my wrist. “You want to heart the rest. Trust me.”
I sighed and sat back down, “I have a meeting. So can we just hurry?”
“Whatever this dragon means… do not ignore it. It’s serious. It's something you have to hold onto. It will not be easy…maybe even dangerous. But do not let it go.” she said still looking in the cup. She handed me the cup so I could put my thumb print in it to seal the deal.
I could just feel her eyes on me, “Who are you?”
“Me?”
“I’ve never seen a cup so… I don’t know the word… crazy? So crazy like this. I can’t read most of it. And most of it is things I have never seen before to know what they mean.”
Okay crazy lady I doubt the answer to my wishes at the moment, which is finding a decent date, is a dragon. “Okay well… I have to go. Thank you for the coffee reading. It was…fun.” I grabbed my purse, not wanting to spend another moment in that creepy hell hole and ran off.
***
I left the café feeling more confused than before. My only issue before that place was feeling lonely but now I felt insane for buying that crap for even a second. I walked to the nearby outdoor mall called Americana for my ‘meeting’ which was a shopping date with Tiffany. I like to do some shopping when I’m feeling down, which I have been doing a lot of lately.
I was about to go into my favorite boutique but stopped when I heard someone call my name, “Karina!” I heard my best friend’s voice across the street.
Tiffany. The one that had the brilliant idea that I go to a psychic. A coffee reading psychic of all things. She said it would at least help me eliminate the duds in the dating world and know what I was looking for. The dating world isn’t my issue since I can’t even find the date. But she wouldn’t let it go till I went.
“Hey.” I said as she hugged me hello.
“Hey, how did the coffee reading go?” She attempted to flip her newly cut shoulder length dark hair to the side out of habit. She had sunglasses on that took over her face and blocked her doll like brown eyes.
I glared at her for even bringing it up. “That bad?”
“While you were getting your gorgeous haircut, I was finding out that I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life.” I fake sniffled.
She laughed, “How about some sushi at Lotus Dragon to cheer you up and you can tell me everything she said.”
“I don’t know…” I joked since she knew I would never turn down Lotus.
“My treat…” She sang.
“I’m starving.” I said as we walked over to our favorite sushi place in the area. We frequented it so much that the hostess and majority of the waitresses knew us. We rarely even needed to actually place an order because they already knew it by heart.
It was always busy and had a long wait but luckily we were the only ones waiting for the first free table. Kristina, Tiff’s cousin, was waitressing that day and she waved at us from the outdoor portion of the restaurant.
“So tell me… what did Lana say? She was freaky legit right? My aunt’s neighbor’s daughter went to her and she told her that her boyfriend was cheating on her. And guess what she found out a month later. Her boyfriend was cheating on her!”
“Well… according to her I’m going to bump into a fire breathing lizard with a tattoo because I want to get knocked up.”
“What? She said that?”
“I might have reworded it, but pretty much.” I mumbled looking around as we awkwardly stood next to the hostess podium.
Two guys approached the hostess as she let them know about the long wait. They were okay with it as they stood across from us. They were both extremely fashionably dressed guys. The dark haired one had a perfectly tailored suit on and his hair was styled effortlessly but at the same time looked so hot. The dark blond on his right looked younger and he was just in a dress shirt and pants.
Something about them ma
de me want to know them. Especially the dark haired one. I wished I was brave enough to actually talk to people I didn’t know when I was interested. I wonder where they're even going to sit, it's packed here today.
“Are you even listening to me?” Tiffany said.
“Um…I was. But I zoned out… sorry.” I cringed. “Repeat please.”
“Zoned out? What were you looking at?” She said and looked in the direction I was staring. She smirked and took out her phone to text me, “Blondie or brunette?”
“Are guys even called brunettes?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But which one?”
“For some odd reason… I’m curious about the one with dark hair.”
“Odd reason? He’s effing hot!”
“Very true.” We both laughed causing the gorgeous guys to look at us. I smiled shyly and looked at the hostess who was approaching us again.
“So sorry about the wait. The only table available right now is a large booth. Would you all be okay with sharing it or still want to wait?” She asked referring to us and the guys.
“It’s okay with us.” Tiffany said quickly making me glare at her. But inside I was jumping for joy and hoping they approved.
“Sure… it’s not a problem.” The blonde one replied for them.
“Are you insane?” I whispered to her as we were led to our booth. It was in their outdoor patio and for some reason that comforted me but I was still nervous.
“Why not?” She shrugged.
“How much you want to be their married”
“Or they’re dating.” She agreed.
Tiffany and I scooted into the booth first as the guys reached the table. It was a weird U shape in the corner of the perimeter of the patio. Well more like a square with one side missing, so we ended up sitting across from them.
It was awkward at first. Do we say hello? Do we ignore them and just go on with our own conversation? What was the proper etiquette to sharing a table with people you don’t know? It felt like an awkward surprise blind date.
Now that I could look at them better without being a total perv I realized they were unrealistically cute. I didn’t notice the scrubby stubble on his strong jawline. That was always a win for me on any guy if they could pull it off. There is a fine line between lazy and hot when it comes to going for the unshaven look. And he was beyond hot.
In My Veins Page 1