Aries Rising (10 page)

“That’s right. Stacy said she’s meeting Arianna Woods there.”

“Arianna Woods?” he asked, and his tone was suddenly almost hostile. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s the cover model for the first issue. Didn’t you know?”

“I don’t remember if we discussed it or not. Doesn’t matter.”

Just then, he reached for the huge tub of ice that held the cold appetizers, yanked it toward him and right off the table. Ice cubes and shrimp rolls bounced in every direction, and the table sailed into the wall.

“Damn,” he shouted. “I can’t talk while I’m working. And look what happened. Who’s going to clean up this mess? Come on, people, I need some help here. This is what I get for traveling without staff.”

Chili scrambled into action, and several hotel workers joined her. The famous Alex Keen temper. What had Stacy said? Pitch a fit? He was pitching one, all right.

11

THREE OR FOUR TIMES A YEAR, MERCURY, THAT TINY
PLANET THAT’S BARELY VISIBLE JUST BEFORE SUNRISE
OR JUST AFTER SUNSET, APPEARS TO TRAVEL BACK-
WARD FOR APPROXIMATELY THREE WEEKS. IT’S
CALLED RETROGRADE, AND IT CAN CAUSE US TO
TRAVEL BACKWARD AS WELL. FORWARD MOVEMENT
MAY BE STRAINED. THIS IS A TIME TO AVOID RUSHING
INTO ANY NEW RELATIONSHIPS AND TO EXAMINE PAST
DECISIONS. IT’S LIKELY YOU WILL RUN INTO AN OLD
LOVE, IN PERSON OR IN A DREAM, DURING THIS PERIOD
OF REVERSAL.

I already knew all about Mercury in Retrograde. Early this year, my friends and I had lost car keys and phones, and once when we were at the hair salon, Chili’s highlights had actually turned orange. The stylist had blamed the new color she was using, but I knew better.

This time, Retrograde would start in Taurus and end in Gemini. That meant communication and relationship issues. If only I could blame Jeremy’s silence on the planets. I knew I’d have to phone him and make him tell me what the hell was going on. But that phone call would have to wait. After what had happened in the hotel elevator on Friday, I couldn’t sit around obsessing about my love life. The incident proved I was right that day in journalism class when I called up the ephemeris and saw possible danger for someone at the Halloween launch party. What if the stalled elevator wasn’t an accident? What if someone had wanted to scare Alex, or worse?

Doing a quick online search for his birth date was easy. What wasn’t easy was locating information on the year he was born. In order to get more than a newspaper horoscope for him, I had to find it.

I asked Chili, and she said that, yes, he was twenty-one, but age was only a number. She then asked about how compatible their signs were. I told her that Sadge and Gemini were opposites on the astral wheel, and there as well as most places, opposites attract. I didn’t add that the attraction was often temporary, or that Alex Keen was too sophisticated to do more than flirt with someone our age.

Most of the girls at school were extra nice to me that Monday, as if I had the power to get them in
CRUSH
. I felt as phony as Dina and her perpetual frozen smile.

After Kat’s little
accident
on the beach, she was back to not speaking to me, which was the only good thing that happened that day.

Chili had to tutor a math student after her last class, so I had driven myself to school because I needed to stay late to help with the newspaper. A bunch of stories had come in past deadline. One was about University of California changing its requirements for freshmen. Another was a warning about the repercussions of students involved in
sexting
, which made me wonder who had gotten caught sending naked pictures this time.

Sol caught up with me in the parking lot. His long hair fell across his face, somehow making him appear even larger than he already was. I looked up at him, those kind blue eyes. Emotional Cancer, I reminded myself, probably had issues. But he was still undeniably cute.

“Thanks for sticking around,” he said, in that slow, soft drawl. “Without you, we couldn’t have finished tonight.”

I moved toward the van, not sure how to reply. “So, who was sexting?” I asked, in an attempt to be funny and, more important, to keep him from hitting on me. Which I somehow knew was the goal behind all of this friendly chit chat.

The problem was that I didn’t exactly mind being hit on by him, but if I took one step away from Jeremy, I would take another. And pretty soon, I would settle for the guy who was
close, not the one I really wanted.

He laughed. “Everyone’s sexting. Except you and me, that is.”

I didn’t even want to think about that one. “Well,” I began, trying to figure out how beat it out of there. “At least we got the paper put to bed.” It was a Ms. Snider term, and I regretted it the moment it was out of my mouth.

“You’re funny, Logan.” He was not getting my message, and it was my fault.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” I told him, “and for your information, I’ve never sexted anyone in my life.”

“I never thought you did.” He smiled, and his dimples deepened. “What I really wanted to ask you about is what happened with Bodmer last week.”

At last, a way out of this conversation.
“You know about that?”

“Everyone does. Dina’s not exactly silent about anything, especially anything having to do with you or your friends.”

“That’s her problem, and it’s all right now. Bodmer returned my phone last Thursday.”

“Good.” He paused, and I could see that there was still something on his mind.

“What, Sol?”

“I’ve never seen you text in class,” he said.

“You’re right. I do sometimes, but never in her class. That day was an exception. It really was.”

“A guy, right? That’s what I heard it was about.”

Why not tell the truth? Soon it would be too dark to see Sol’s face. Too dark to be embarrassed by the pity there.

“Right. A guy. He’s living in Ireland now. Our time zones are kind of messed up, and we keep missing each other. That’s all. I should have known better than to try it in front of Bodmer.”

“Same thing happened to me,” he said.

“Bodmer caught you texting?”

“Not that. The girl I was seeing in Texas? Suzanne?” He said it like a question, and I knew that I needed to get out of there right now.

“It’s not like that with Jeremy and me. We’re going to be okay.”

“Maybe, maybe not. After my family moved out here, I kept trying to contact her, and she never got back to me. She just stopped. Finally, I called her at home, and her little sister told me it was over. Her twelve-year-old sister. Suzanne couldn’t even tell me herself that she was seeing some other guy.”

“Oh, geez.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s okay now. All that’s left is the anger. The worst part was not knowing what was going on. It was all that wondering and worrying.”

“I’m going to keep trying with Jeremy.”

“How long did you date him?” he asked.

I tried to ignore his use of the past tense. “We haven’t been seeing each other that long, but when it’s the right person, you know.”

“That’s what I thought, and we were together two years. Hey, it’s getting cold out here. Would you like to go somewhere and get some coffee?”

“I can’t,” I said. “I need to spend some time studying the ephemeris.”

“We wouldn’t have to stay late, just hang out and talk about stuff.”

Like our failed romances. The Cancer only wanted to spend time with me so that we could exchange broken-heart stories over lattes.

“Sol,” I said. “This isn’t a good idea.”

“Why not? Are you still hoping to hear from that guy?”

Of course I was.

“I’m just trying really hard to figure out what’s coming down the night of the launch party,” I said. “I ...”

At that moment, my phone dinged. A text from a number I didn’t know.

“Good thing Bodmer’s not here,” he said.

“You’re right about that.” I glanced down at the message.

AW? I didn’t know any AW, only ...

... It couldn’t be Arianna Woods, could it?

“Who is it?” Sol asked. “The guy from Ireland?”

“No,” I said. “You won’t believe this, but I think it’s Arianna Woods.”

“When did you two get so friendly?”

“We’re far from friends,” I said. “I don’t know what she wants.”

“Well then, I guess you’d better get back to her.” His voice was pleasant enough, but his expression was shut down, maybe angry. For a moment, I wondered if he was confusing me with the girl in Texas who had dumped him, and I was glad I hadn’t given in and agreed to coffee.

“Yeah,” I said. “I probably should.”

“Go for it. See you tomorrow.”

I needed Arianna on my side. And now she wanted me to contact her. As Sol walked away from me, his broad shoulders hunched forward, I did just that.

I answered:

After my text, Arianna called me, sobbing.

“I need to talk to you,” she said. “Get over here right now, will you?”

“I can’t,” I told her. “I’m back in Terra Bella Beach. Where are you?”

“San Fran, of course. He was supposed to meet me here after the cover shoot. But he’s a liar. I can never count on anything he says.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Josh Mellick.” She began sobbing again. “For the past hour, I’ve been reading about our signs online, but I can’t figure out what it all means. Get here as soon as you can. I’ve got to know what to do about him.”

I wanted to ask where her friends were, but then maybe she didn’t have any. At least she was giving me a chance to make up for outing her YUTalk page.

“Okay,” I told her, and knew what I had to do. “I can’t be there tonight, but I can meet you tomorrow.”

“I need someone now,” she sobbed. “I need someone to talk to. I really don’t want to be alone.”

As if there weren’t dozens of people she could call.
“It will take a few hours. Are you sure ... ?”

“Please.” Her voice was thin, high-pitched and absolutely pathetic.

“Okay,” I said. “Just tell me where I need to go.”

 

12

WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE, THE GEMINI WOMAN AND
THE GEMINI MAN ARE WORLDS APART. SHE’S FALLING
IN LOVE WITH EVERYONE, AND BELIEVING THAT EVERY
LOVE WILL BE THE FOREVER ONE. HE’S FALLING IN
LUST WITH EVERYONE AND SPEAKING OF LOVE AS IF IT
IS HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE. THE ONLY WAY TO TRUST
GEMINI LOVE IS TO GIVE IT TIME. MUCH TIME. BUT
THAT SEEMS TO BE SOMETHING TOO MANY GEMINIS,
OF BOTH SEXES, LACK.

 

 

 

 

So, there I was, against my better judgment, alone in the dreaded paint van, rattling, squeaking, and without a heater. Yes, I was cold, in the middle of the night, on my way
to an A-list hotel in San Francisco, to meet up with the world’s biggest pop star.

I wasn’t certain if I would make it. The weather was out of a horror film, and the blinding wind and rain would have blown any decent vehicle off the road. The old Chevy van’s only positive quality was its weight, thanks to my dad’s a/c compressor in the back.

If the van had a sign, it had to be Earth. Sturdy, predictable Taurus, serious, meticulous Virgo, or solemn, hardworking Capricorn. Thinking about my
van’s
sign, as a new wave of wind and water hit, made me laugh at myself and this crazy journey I had chosen to take.

As I wove around the curves and over the hills, I listened to the AM radio until the music fizzed in and out and finally disappeared altogether. Then I tried to remember everything I had read about Arianna and
Mellick
, the band that had launched her career.

Cory Scott, the hot and talented guitarist/songwriter, had a thing with her before she began dating Josh Mellick. That triangle was rumored to be the reason she had gone out on her own after the group’s first and last big hit. Arianna had shot to the top, leaving Cory and Josh far behind.