First Vision of Destiny - Alicia (2 page)

Daisy was about to respond—they
had
argued about this before, and
she had had more than enough time to come up with the perfect
answer. Lydia stopped her, however, resting a gentle hand on her
shoulder. Daisy tensed at the unexpected contact. Lydia’s hands
always seemed too cold.

“Daisy, come on, you’re going to make him
mad, and then he won’t… What do you call what to do, Mr.
Woods?”

From the corner of her eye, Daisy saw Jack’s
features harden. He didn’t like the innocent smile Lydia was
offering Woods. Truth be told, and it shocked Daisy to realize it,
neither did she.

“Just Sam, please.” Woods smiled back at
Lydia. Then, making eye contact with everyone, he looked at the ten
people now gathered around him. Ten was the maximum he could do in
an evening, he had told Daisy when she had approached him about
doing this for her friends. “And usually I call it showing. Because
that’s pretty much what I do. I show you a moment of your future.
Not just any moment, but the key instant that will shape your
relationships for the rest of your life.”

“Show us?” Joan, one of the latecomers, said
with a small frown. “Like… a vision?”

She sounded skeptical but intrigued. Daisy
didn’t know why Joan would even want to hear about her love life
when she was happy with Brad and seemed so sure that her future
would be spent with him. Even now, they were holding hands; Daisy
sometimes wondered if they had ever let go since Joan had invited
Brad to their senior prom.

Woods nodded. “Vision is a good enough word.
You won’t just be watching, though. You’ll live it. You’ll become
the person you’ll be in a year or ten or whenever this moment in
time is. You’ll forget that you’re not there yet; you’ll know
everything you need to know to deal with that situation.”

“And we’ll remember all of it afterwards?”
Brad asked after glancing at Joan.

At that, Woods hid a grimace behind his
glass. His eyes found Daisy’s as though to ask why she hadn’t told
her friends all of this. She crossed her arms and returned his
look. Why should she have to explain his games?

“Well, for a little while you will remember,”
Woods said, raking his fingers through his spiked hair. “But the
memories will start fading. The more you try to focus on them, the
faster they’ll fade.”

For a few seconds, they were all silent,
taking in the revelation they hadn’t expected. It was Jack who
asked what they probably all thought. He was always straight to the
point.

“So what’s the point of doing this at
all?”

Woods sighed and threw another reproachful
look at Daisy. She felt the sudden urge to stick her tongue out at
him, and controlled it by stepping away from the group. She picked
up an amuse-bouche and nibbled a corner of it. She could feel
Wood’s eyes on her, like a weight pressing on her shoulders. When
she turned to the group again, however, he wasn’t looking at her.
Standing behind her friends, she listened to Woods’ little speech.
She could have sworn it was word for word the same thing he had
told a small group of curious listeners at her sister’s wedding
that July.

“
You won’t remember exactly what happened
or what was said, but other people describe it as having a sense of
what you ought to do when the moment comes. Whatever choice you
have to make, it’ll be easier to decide. You’ll
know
what the right answer is.” He spread out his
hands. “I can’t explain it better than that.”

Daisy had to jump back in. Noticing her jerk
forward, Cathleen stepped aside so that she could enter the loose
circle they had formed.

“But if it’s the future you really show
people, it means they would have made these choices on their own
anyway.”

“
Maybe,” Woods said, shrugging. “Maybe not.
Maybe that future only takes place if they get to experience it
with me first. Or maybe you’re right and that’s what was destined
to happen anyway.” His lips curled in a teasing grin. “Why,
Daisy
, do you
happen to believe in destiny?”

Laughter erupted through the group. Daisy
raised her eyes to the ceiling, letting out an exaggerated but
good-natured sigh. Brad patted her back. Why her parents had ever
thought that ‘Destiny’ would be a good name for their last child,
she would never know. Thankfully, her childhood nickname had stuck,
and no one called her Destiny anymore.

“So… how do you do it exactly?” Alicia asked
eagerly. “I mean, is it hypnosis or something like that?”

Woods let out a quiet laugh. “Oh God, no.
Nothing that complicated.”

“
Really?” Daisy gave him a wide, mocking
smile. Let him explain this one with a pun. “I thought that was
something pretty interesting myself. Tell them,
Sam
. Let’s see if they still want to do it when they
know.”

He frowned at her. “You could just have
explained it to them.”

“What, and ruin my fun? Nah, I want to see
their faces when you tell them.”

And she wanted to see him lose his
self-confidence again, if only for a second, like he had at the
wedding.

“What is it?” Joan asked, now sounding a
little nervous. “What do you have to do?”

“It’s nothing, really.” He was still smiling,
but there was a wary look in his eyes now, as if he was unsure how
they would respond to this piece of information. “To show someone,
I just have to kiss them.”

Laughs resounded around him before the group
realized he wasn’t joking.

“Kiss?” Mike said, his voice a little higher
than it usually was. “Like, a peck on the cheek?”

“Not exactly, no.” He met Daisy’s eyes again,
and she could tell he was annoyed. “Let’s just say I discovered my
talent when I dated my first girlfriend in high school.”

A few nervous chuckles rose, then were
quickly stifled. The silence that fell on the group grew heavy.
Daisy was starting to regret not having told her friends about the
details now. It had seemed like a harmless trick to play on them
after they had pestered her for so long to arrange that séance. But
what if none of them wanted to go through with it, now that they
knew? She’d never live it down, and she’d have embarrassed Woods
needlessly. As much as she thought what he did was on the same
level as fortune telling, she had nothing against him.

“So, who’s first?” she asked, subdued.

Joan and Brad exchanged a look, silently
asking each other if they really wanted to do this. Across the
circle, Jack and Lydia were doing the same. Everyone else was
looking around, hemming and hawing, clearly unwilling to take the
lead. After a few uncomfortable seconds, Alicia took a deep breath
that drew all eyes to her.

“Well… Where are we doing it, then?”

She seemed to realize too late that, said in
this low, shaky voice, her words were taking an entirely different
connotation. She blushed and laughed, and a few of her friends
joined her. The tension was broken.

Woods smiled. “A quiet place is best,” he
said. “Noise can pull you out of the showing sometimes.”

They both turned to Daisy. She thought fast.
The open floor plan of the kitchen, dining room, and living room
gave little privacy, but she didn’t want to suggest a bedroom. “How
about the balcony? It’s pretty quiet out there with the windows
closed. And the air is still warm tonight.”

She led Alicia and Woods there, and gave
Alicia an encouraging smile when she pulled the sliding door almost
all the way closed behind them. She still didn’t think this was a
good idea on principle, but Alicia had been the one who wanted this
the most. She had had a string of disappointing relationships
lately. And then there were the two puncture marks she hid beneath
the ever-present bracelet on her left wrist, the scars fresh again
almost every time Daisy caught a glimpse of them. Maybe a look at
where she was headed would help her figure things out, or at least
Daisy hoped it would.

She watched them stand by the railing and
share a few words that she couldn’t hear. After a short moment,
Alicia turned to Woods, and Daisy could guess the words on her lips
before he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.

“I’m ready.”

* * * *

As soon as Daisy appeared on the threshold,
Alicia’s tears returned, unwanted yet unstoppable. Through the
blur, Alicia could see that her friend looked crestfallen, and she
felt yet another pang of pain. This was really happening. As
unexpected, as out of character as it was for Ben, it was really
happening. Daisy opened her arms to her and enveloped her in a hug,
patting her back and murmuring soothing words.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie. It’ll be OK. Calm
down now.”

Alicia didn’t quite know how they ended up
sitting on the sofa. She didn’t recall stepping away from the door
or even closing it. She was glad she was seated, though. She wasn’t
sure her knees could have supported her much longer.

She leaned
toward the coffee table and tugged a couple of tissues from the
box. She dabbed at her cheeks. Feeling very self-conscious, she
took deep breaths to calm down and offered Daisy a tentative smile,
wordlessly thanking her for being there. She didn’t know who else
she could have called. She didn’t know who else would have dropped
everything and come to her.

Daisy reached over and squeezed her shoulder
once. Very quietly, she asked, “How did you find out?”

Swallowing back the fresh wave of tears that
was threatening to submerge her, Alicia clung to her friend’s hand
as though to a safe line.

“I was running errands downtown.” Her words
were no louder than a whisper. She tried to raise her voice, but
without much success. The tears were still too close, waiting for
an opening. “They were in our favorite restaurant. Right by the
window.”

Part of her wondered if it would have hurt as
much had they been elsewhere. Every time she would think of her
first date with Ben or the anniversaries they had celebrated in the
candle-lit atmosphere of that restaurant, she would recall that
image of him and that woman.

“Are you sure that’s what it was?” Daisy’s
voice was gentle, as though regretting that she was even voicing
the thought. “Maybe—”

Alicia’s hand clenched on the damp tissues.
“I’m sure,” she cut in.

How could she have any doubt when their
fingers had been linked on the table, when they had sat so close
together, when—

She shut her eyes tight, willing the memory
away along with the ache in her chest that had left her lightheaded
and gasping for breath. She didn’t know how she had managed to come
back home without wrecking the car.

“I’m so sorry,” Daisy said again. “What are
you going to do?”

Alicia had been asking herself the same
question for almost four hours now. She was no closer to finding an
answer than when she had first caught sight of her husband of five
years with another woman. “I don’t know.”

When she had arrived home, she had been too
numb at first to do anything more than sit in the living room and
stare at nothing in particular. Then the tears had come, followed
by anger. She had packed a suitcase haphazardly with any clothes
that she happened to grab. The suitcase still lay in the bedroom,
open on the bed. Another round of tears had overtaken her in the
middle of packing. She had only shaken herself out of it to call
Daisy, needing someone to talk to, someone to share her pain.

“I think…” she took a deep but shaky breath.
“I’ll leave. I don’t want to see him tonight.”

Without a word, Daisy took Alicia’s left hand
between both her own, squeezing lightly even as she smiled. Alicia
tried to smile back. She and Daisy had known each other since they
were children, and every time life had tried to push them apart,
sending them to different schools or towns, Daisy had kept their
friendship going, contacting Alicia every so often when Alicia, too
caught up in her own life, might have left it drift. She squeezed
Daisy’s hand back. What Daisy had seen in her she would never know,
but she was more grateful than ever to have her here.

“I’m so glad you’re my friend.”

“
I
am
your
friend.” Very gently, Daisy turned Alicia’s hand between hers,
exposing the inside of her wrist. The charm bracelet slipped. “And
as your friend, I have to say this. Maybe he’s seeing another
woman, but he’s not the only one hiding something. Maybe you should
talk to him. Really talk.”

Blinking furiously to push back yet another
wave of tears, Alicia stared at Daisy before dropping her gaze to
her shaky hand. She tried to pull free, but Daisy held on, keeping
the two red, puckered marks on her wrist exposed. She swallowed
hard and looked back at Daisy, her mouth already opening for
denials, rebuttals, promises—lies. What came out was something
entirely different.

“I’m scared,” she whispered, the words
scratching her throat like steel wool.

Daisy finally released her hand. Without
thinking, Alicia hid it and the scars between her knees.

“I know you are,” Daisy said, reaching to
tuck a strand of hair behind Alicia’s ear. “But I also know you
love him. Don’t you?”

Alicia’s heart felt like it was breaking all
over again. “I always loved him,” she said. The words shook, as did
her resolve to leave. “From the first time you introduced us.”

Even as she said it, she prepared for the
questions she expected Daisy to ask. The scars on her wrist had
nothing to do with love, or even attraction. They never had.

Daisy didn’t ask, though. All she said was,
“Then talk to him. About everything.”

Talking to Ben
was the last thing Alicia wanted to do. She felt betrayed, more so
than she thought she could express in words. Beyond that, she also
knew she wasn’t blameless, and telling him about it was terrifying.
The alternative to talking to him, however, was to lose Ben. She
couldn’t even imagine it. As difficult as things had been in the
past few months, she didn’t want to lose him.