The incredulous look on his face had her hastening to explain. She did not want him to think all she did was visit Fortune Tellers. Not that he should care what she did during her breaks.
“I’m a photographer. I’m excellent at reading people, you see.”
“Photographer, huh?” he asked, a dark eyebrow creeping towards his much lighter hairline. “Were you at the party?”
“Yes, I was.” She flashed him another smile before returning her attention to the teller. “I’m sorry. We won’t waste your time. Please continue.”
The darkly painted lips stretched into a glimpse of a smile. “You’re not wasting my time, dear. Now if you’ll please give me your hands.” She held out her hands towards them expectantly.
Seraphina saw Cole throw her a hesitant look that also bordered on skeptical so she nodded encouragingly at him. She slipped her own hand into the woman’s bony one and shivered when she clasped it tightly. For almost a minute, there was nothing but silence and she could feel Cole beginning to get fidgety. She motioned him to shush just as he was about to open his mouth and watched in amusement as a look of surprise crossed his face. The dim room was making his features even more alluring.
Suddenly the pressure on their hands decreased and blood rushed back to their organs. The psychic’s eyes opened and she looked at them intently.
“Your lifelines more than cross. It’s written in the stars that you’re meant to be,” she said throatily like a parched traveler.
Confusion filled Seraphina’s mind. “I’m sorry, you mean we were meant to be friends?”
“Friends you will be. But more than that, you are part of each other’s souls. Without him, you’ll not be complete and without you, he’ll never be complete. Soulmates, my dear. You’re each other’s soulmates.”
♥●●♥
Chapter 2
Cole now failed to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He should have seen this prediction coming. There was nothing people loved more than being told by a psychic that their romantic life was about to improve. However he did not care for romance and her trick was wasted upon him.
He turned to see how his partner in the session had reacted to the news and a frown crept to his forehead. Mysterious Claire had a strange expression written all over her heart-shaped face. Her slightly pouty lips were parted as though she was finding it difficult to breathe.
“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly, touching her bare shoulder lightly.
The doe eyes turned towards him and she nodded silently.
“Are you sure?”
Another silent nod.
He smiled tightly at the psychic and thrust his hands into his pockets looking for cash but came up empty. “I’m sorry, I don’t seem to be holding cash on me right now. Do you take debit cards?”
He did not want to pay the charlatan but had a feeling the woman sitting beside him would and that did not sit right with him.
The smoke in the room seemed to have increased even more since they had entered. This combined with the dim lights made it difficult to see the face of the woman behind the orb. If she even was a woman, Cole thought as he stood up eager to get out of the confining space.
The mute beside him spoke up finally. “I’ll pay! I have cash on me and it’s fair that I should be the one paying.”
Cole was about to ask her the logic behind her statement when the psychic interjected.
“Payment is not required. My prediction comes free of cost. Heed my words and be happy.”
Well, that settled it. Cole inclined his head towards her in thanks and turned towards the exit.
“But ma’am, that’s not right. I insist you take your payment,” Miss Righteous argued, unmoving from the chair.
“I thank your thoughtfulness, child, but do not leave your man standing there impatiently. It was my pleasure to give you a happy ending,” she was told in barely a whisper.
A soft gasp filled the room and Cole turned to see what the matter was. Miss Claire (he assumed because he did not see a ring on her finger) was standing now, her hands curled into tight fists. He strode over, unsure what the woman had told her but placed a comforting hand over her shoulder.
“Let’s go. Come on,” he urged her, steering her into the night lights and out of the suffocating space.
“Wow,” she finally uttered once they were in the open. “Unbelievable!”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Cole snorted as he loosened his tie. He closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the cool night air. All that smoke they had inhaled was probably toxic, he thought in disgust.
She glanced at her watch and exclaimed loudly, “Shoot!”
Cole opened one eye. “Is that photographer humor?”
“What? No! My break is over. I have to get back to the party. We’ll discuss this later, okay?” With those hasty words she ran up the stairs and disappeared, perhaps right into the heart of the party.
Cole stared after her in bemusement and then let out a small laugh. At least a small part of his evening had turned out to be interesting. After joining the party, he realized he did not know the woman’s first name. It would not matter anyway, since it was highly unlikely they would ever see each other again.
However, he did want to see her again. She seemed like an interesting woman with interesting views. He grinned as he thought about the way she had put him in his place. Not many woman he met did that. They mostly simpered or put on fake masks to try to get his attention. Miss Claire was more open and he found that refreshing. He had to find her.
As the party was wrapping up, Cole thought he heard his name being called from afar.
“Mr. St. John!”
That definitely was someone hailing him. He turned around and swallowed hard as he eyes landed on the person. It was the woman from before. His eyes narrowed a bit as he noted the camera swinging around her neck.
“Mr. St. John…so glad I caught you before you left,” she said breathlessly like she had been running.
“Miss...Claire, was it?” he asked politely.
“Seraphina,” she gasped out. “Please…”
She paused to catch her breath and then looked apologetically at him. “Please call me Seraphina. Sorry about that. It’s very crowded here and I caught sight of you from the second floor so I hurried down. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to give you this.”
He glanced at the slip of paper she handed to him and then at her, taking in her flushed cheeks and what one might call an expectant but adorable smile. She had been running – to give him her number. He was completely thrown off. Woman always threw themselves at him but the casual way she was handing him her number right then rang some warning bells in his head. Maybe seeing her again would not be a good idea. His brain scrambled to think of ways to politely turn her down but then his eyes caught sight of her smile again.
“Here’s mine,” he blurted out and then slipped her his business card with his personal number on it.
The small smile turned into a full-blown one. “Oh, thank you! I wasn’t sure if you were on board with what our psychic told us but it will be fun figuring it out along the way, won’t it?”
Our psychic? Cole tamped down the sudden feeling of alarm that shot through him. She wanted to get with him because of the psychic’s words. Before his mind could come up with something to deter her from the idea, his mouth spoke of its own accord.
“It would definitely be fun.”
She grinned that pretty smile, throwing him off again. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to jet off again. We’ll catch up later, if that’s okay?”
“Definitely, Seraphina,” he replied unwittingly using his charming voice. “Have a good night, Seraphina.”
“Oh, I will!” Her chin dimpled adorably as she spoke. “Have a nice night yourself, Cole.”
He shuddered slightly as his name rolled off her tongue. There was something definitely bewitching about this woman. They hardly knew each other but
she seemed to already be in charge of everything. Seemed like a dangerous but exciting kind of woman.
“Did you have an interesting evening, sir?” his driver asked as he was being driven back to his condo.
Cole was immersed in some other thoughts and the question made him review the evening. His mind flashed on one later part of the evening involving the brown-haired woman. The alarm bells had ceased and he found himself liking the idea of her. She was like a whirlwind of energy, surprising him at every turn and that was exactly what he needed at that point in his life. She could be the one who wiped away the boredom for him.
He chuckled. “The ending was definitely interesting, Ethan.”
“Glad to hear it, sir.”
Ethan and Cole had a bond that was more than employee-employer. They went way back to college days. Cole highly respected and trusted the man who filled the roles of driver, bodyguard and friend whenever required.
However, he did not fill Ethan in on the details of the evening knowing his ethical friend would not approve of him using Seraphina Claire as a mere tool to reduce his boredom.
“I hope you didn’t jump over the bar and drink all the scotch, sir,” Ethan suddenly asked in a worried tone when Cole did not elaborate. He had picked up early on his boss’s need for excitement in life and the measures he went to when the excitement dimmed down.
“How little you think of me, Ethan,” Cole said, pretending to be shocked. He had however contemplated on doing just that at some point during the evening.
“Hardly, sir.” Ethan threw him a sharp look in the rear view mirror. “I just wanted to know if we needed to take shortcuts to escape any awaiting reporters.”
“That won’t be necessary. And could you please drop the ‘sir’ when we are not in public?”
“No, sir.”
Cole glared at him as he chuckled and then shook his own head as amusement crept in.
“I could fire you for not paying attention to my words, you know.”
“Come now, what kind of friend would do that to another?”
“Oh, so now you want to play the friend card.”
“I’m not playing any card, sir.” Ethan pulled up outside the building and added cheekily, “We have arrived at your place…sir.”
He laughed as Cole made a sound of frustration and threw threats at him. This was a regular occurrence for the duo.
“You’re happier than usual,” Seraphina’s friend, Carli observed when they sat down for breakfast the next morning. “Did you get lucky?”
“Ohhh, I did get lucky,” Seraphina said in a singsong manner. “But not in the sense you are thinking.”
Carli raised an eyebrow.
“I paid a visit to a Fortune Teller,” Seraphina elaborated. “And I wasn’t alone.”
She told her friend about all the happenings of the evening involving the psychic, her prediction and the possible soulmate. After returning home, she had let out all her feelings of glee by dancing around the living room till she was gasping for breath. When she was with Cole she had resisted the urge to squeal like a schoolgirl. The man seemed a bit of a skeptic and she did not want to scare him away before she could set things into motion.
“The Cole St. John?” Carli asked incredulously.
“Yes!”
“Wow.”
“I know!” Seraphina said enthusiastically. “I don’t know who his photographer is but I could take better snaps of him because he is so much better-looking up close than what the photos show.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah.” The image of him in the well-fitting tux from last night flashed in her mind and she licked her lips unconsciously.
“He sounds great and all, Seraph…” Carli started hesitantly.
“But?”
Throwing her an apologetic look, she continued. “But you shouldn’t fill your head with ideas just yet.”
Seraphina frowned. “Carli, you know me. You know that unless I think something is right, I don’t pursue it.”
“I do know that. I just don’t want you to get your hopes high on what this psychic may have told you.”
“Why?” she asked her friend bluntly.
Carli groaned in frustration. “You’re taking it the wrong way. Just tell me…did Cole seem on board?”
Seraphina hesitated. “He is a bit of a…skeptic. But don’t worry,” she said cheerfully.. “I’m setting things into motion.”
“Why does that worry me?”
“Because you’re a worry wart. Seriously, things are going to be fine. I just know it,” she said confidently.
“Okay… Good luck?”
Seraphina grinned and leaned over to give Carli a one-armed hug. “You’re the best, you know.”
“Oh, I do know!” Carli said playfully even though her mind worried. She did not want to see her friend get hurt.
Seraphina started the dishwater and then hurried to get ready for the day which was looking brighter than usual. The air seemed fresher, the birds merrier and her heart felt content and lighter. There was a skip in her step as she reached the office.
“Good morning!” she greeted her colleagues enthusiastically.
“Somebody get laid last night?” Mark, a fellow photojournalist grumbled as he nearly bumped into the happy woman.
“I don’t kiss and tell, Mark,” Seraphina laughed and then knocked on her boss’s cabin door, ready to show last night’s shots.
Things were looking up for her finally. Most of her life she had spent seeing and feeling the happiness through other people’s eyes but never herself being able to hold onto it and experience it. This time, the happiness would be her own and she intended to enjoy every second of it.
♥●●♥
Chapter 3
“How old are you, son?” the scary- looking man asked Cole after squatting to his level.
“Thirteen, sir,” Cole replied meekly, trying not to look into the man’s eyes.
“If you say so,” the man smiled. “How may I help you?”
“I’m looking for my mother,” Cole said, still not looking at him.
“Your mother? What’s her name?”
Cole hesitated. His mother would not like him coming to her place of work. She was a waitress at the local bar which was known for its rowdiness. She usually was home by the time he woke up for school but that day he woke up to an empty apartment. He tried calling on her cellphone but it went straight to voicemail.
“Son? Her name?” the man reiterated.
“May,” Cole replied barely above a whisper, finally looking at the man.
Something in his face changed and a paralyzing fear went through the ten year-old Cole. Something was wrong, he could sense it. He had been dreading it ever since he stepped outside to look for her.
“Where is she? What did you do to her?” Cole asked, his hands balled into tight fists.
The man gripped his shoulder to calm him down. “Settle down, son.” Before he could continue further, Cole exploded and swung his tiny fists at him.
“I’ll kill you if you hurt her! Tell me where is she!?”
“Whoa.” The man let him swing at him for a bit before gently restraining him. “Are you calm enough to listen to what I have to say?”
Cole was choked up with frustrated tears and simply nodded.
“Good.” He released Cole and then got into the explanation. “She’s at the hospital. Before you go at me with your fists again, let me tell you that she’s alright!” he said hastily. “There was an incident last night and she tried to help one of the waitresses. May just got a few scratches, but Alison had to go to the hospital, so she accompanied her.”
The thundering in Cole’s ears started to reduce slowly. His mother was alright. She had just tried to be the hero once again. She was alright. Nothing bad had happened…yet.
“Do you believe me or should I be worried about more beatings?”
“I believe y
ou,” Cole said in a clear voice.
The man stood up to his full height and said kindly, “Go home. She’ll be back soon.”
“Which hospital did she go to?”
The man sighed as he took in the stubborn stance. “I don’t think your mother would like you showing up there. Go home, son. If you need, I’ll give you a ride.”
Cole shook his head. “My mom isn’t answering her phone. I want to see her.”
“You’re not going to go home, are you?”
No, Cole was not going to go anywhere until he saw his mother with his own eyes and was satisfied she was unhurt.
The man gave in and motioned him to follow. He led him towards the back of the bar and approached an old model Impala. “Get in.”
Cole remained standing on the pavement. “Where are we going?”
“To see your mother.”
“And you’re not lying to me?”
The hulking man sighed and leaned against the hood of the car. Later Cole wondered how the car did not have a dent to show for its owner’s bulk.
“No. Son, if I really intended to take you home, I would tell you even if I had to drag you kicking and screaming there.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
“You ask a lot of questions.” He rubbed a weary hand over his face and then answered. “You’re worried and I have a feeling you won’t rest until you see your mother. I don’t want you doing anything drastic so I’ll just take you to see her. May will not forgive me if something happens to you. Now get in.”
Cole’s keen mind caught on to the last sentence and wondered if there was something between this man and his mother.
“Why do you keep calling me son?” he asked once he was inside and strapped to the seat.
A bushy eyebrow went up. “Because you remind me of one,” the man said simply.
“I don’t understand.”
Something flickered on the man’s face. Something that seemed familiar to Cole but he could not place the expression. “I’m Antony Bakers, by the way. I own the bar,” he said changing the subject.
Romance: He Done Her Wrong (Cuddlesack Queens #2) Page 15