Lilah's List (6 page)

If Reggie knew what was good for both of them, he'd leave the city and head down to Atlanta. He could take up his buddy's offer to collaborate with Jermaine Dupri. Despite the positive buzz on his album, many of the critics were saying that his R&B ballads needed more of a hip-hop edge to compete with the reigning artists.

But Reggie knew his days of coasting were in the past. For the first time in his life he had a lot to lose. He was at the turning point where he could launch himself into superstardom or languish in the record bins as a one-hit wonder.

He couldn't afford to make a lot of risky moves right now.

No, the safest thing to do was to stay in New York where he had steady access to his brother's advice. After all, his parents were probably right, he could have ended up broke or strung out without Tyler constantly barking in his ear like a junkyard dog.

But that didn't mean he had to do every little thing his brother told him, Reggie thought.

Tonight's dinner, for instance. Reggie was sure he could come up with a good excuse to blow it off.

A
s Lilah and Angie rode the elevator down to the lobby Saturday afternoon, Lilah was disappointed at how much of the day she'd allowed to get away. She'd planned to wake up early and go ice skating at Rockefeller Center before climbing to the top of the Statue of Liberty. But, with the clock swiftly approaching three o'clock, Lilah knew there wouldn't be time for both before meeting Reggie Martin for dinner.

As the elevator doors slid open, Angie poked her in the arm. “Take that sour look off your face. You're going to be in the city for two weeks. You don't have to cram everything in on one day.”

“I know. I just don't like wasting time. If you didn't take such long showers—”

“Oh, don't start that again. I'm not the one who held us up. You're the one who couldn't leave until you created an ice skating playlist for your MP3 player.”

The women laughed. Lilah stopped in front of the lobby doors. “So, what should we do first? Skating or the Statue of Liberty?”

“Come on, Lilah. We can knock out something like that next week. Let's do something more daring.” She pulled a printout of Lilah's List from her pocket and studied it.

“Aha! Get a tattoo.”

Lilah rolled her eyes. “I really don't
want
a tattoo. And I'm certainly not ready for that one right now. Besides, I'll need a couple of glasses of wine first. Or bottles…probably a whole barrel.”

Angie laughed, but continued to scan The List.

“Why don't we go to the Statue of Liberty?” Lilah pressed.

“Okay, if not the tattoo then let's visit a fortune-teller. She can tell you how this whole trip is going to turn out for you.”

“If I'm going to fail, do you think I really want to know today? My first full day in town?”

Angie looked exasperated. “You're just full of excuses, aren't you? You're going to have to do all of these things eventually, remember? That's why you're here. What are you waiting for?”

“Can I help you ladies with something?” a female voice called.

Both women turned to see they were standing only a foot away from the front desk. The clerk had probably overheard their entire conversation.

“Yes,” Angie said.

“No thanks,” Lilah said.

But to Lilah's horror, Angie was already smoothing the creased sheet out on the woman's desk. “Do you know where we can find a fortune-teller?”

“Angie!”

“Hush, it's either that or the tattoo shop.”

The fair redhead, whose nameplate read Maureen, swiveled to tap on her keyboard. “Sounds like you ladies are planning to really live it up while you're in the city.”

“Yes, but I'm native and she's visiting. This is her first real day here and we need an ice-breaker activity.”

Maureen looked up from the computer screen. “If you want to show your friend New York with a twist, you should try the
Sex and the City
tour. Visit all the hot spots where Carrie and the girls hung out on the show.”

“That sounds great, but the activity has to be from this list.” Angie casually held out The List as though she wasn't baring Lilah's private life to a stranger. “We've got two weeks before her thirtieth birthday to get the rest of this stuff done.”

Lilah was swinging back a pink Timberland to give Angie a warning kick when the clerk shrieked with delight.

“Oh, this is amazing. I've always wanted a life list. I just never took the time to write anything down.” Maureen gripped Angie's wrist like an old girlfriend. “Does she actually know Reggie Martin?”

Lilah, who finally got tired of the two women talking about her as though she weren't there, elbowed Angie aside before she could answer. “Yes, I do. We went to high school together, and I'm supposed to have dinner with him tonight.”

“That is a-maaa-zing!” Maureen shrieked again.

“You see. I think that's traumatic enough for one day. So I thought my friend and I could go to the Statue of Liberty or ice skate at Rockefeller Center today. You know, to calm my nerves.”

Maureen reached over to grab a sheet of paper off her printer and handed it to Lilah. “No, you've got to see the fortune-teller. I don't know much about this kind of stuff, but we had a lady staying here about two months ago that swore up and down this woman is the real deal. It's a bit out of your way, but it could be worthwhile. Maybe she can point you in the right direction for your date with Reggie Martin.”

Angie smacked the desktop. “Maureen, you are a lifesaver.”

“Then you guys have got to come back here and tell me all about it. I'm off at six, but I'll be back at the front desk all day tomorrow. I've just got to hear about the psychic and especially your date.”

Lilah felt heat rushing up her neck to flame her cheeks. “Well, if you're really interested…”

“Oh, I am,” Maureen said. “A lot of people think you see it all working in the city, but to be honest with you, in a small hotel like this, most days are deadly dull.”

“Then you might want to check out my blog where I document my adventures with The List.”

Maureen eagerly took down the Web address and Lilah dragged Angie away from the desk before she could pull up the site.

As Angie looped her arm through Lilah's and directed her toward the cab stand, Lilah said, “FYI, The List is private. I don't want you flashing it around like it's some free-for-all invitation to a keg party.”

“Uh, private? Once again, I'd like to remind you that you're writing all about it for billions on the Web.”

“Once again, I'd like to remind
you
that I'll never have to face those billions of strangers.”

“Look, you're doing a really cool thing here. Most people are going to want to help you, not judge you.”

“I just don't want to have to keep repeating the story for everyone we meet.”

“You need to change your attitude, Lilah. You're going about this grudgingly instead of embracing it. That's a setup for failure.”

“That's not true—”

“Isn't the point of all this to find yourself? To have all these experiences before you get too bogged down in adult life to enjoy it? If you're going to approach each day like you did today, put yourself out of your misery and go back home.”

Lilah felt as though she'd been smacked in the face and didn't say anything for several blocks as their cab flew through the streets of New York. Angie was a terminally upbeat person, so when Lilah received a lecture from her, it was a big deal.

The truth was she hadn't entered this adventure with her heart in the right place. But she
was
investing a significant amount of time and money into this trip, so she knew she should try harder to stay focused.

The problem was that she didn't know how to recapture the fearlessness of her youth. Now all she
had
were fears. Fear of making a fool of herself. Fear of failure.

Lilah had never imagined herself as someone who would one day be divorced. Yet, here she was.

Just look how horribly wrong things had gone when she was playing by the rules. She could only imagine how bad it could get without any.

As the taxi pulled up in front of a brownstone in a residential neighborhood, Angie and Lilah sat looking at each other.

Lilah leaned forward to the driver. “Sir, are you sure this is the right place?”

He pointed to the address on the building. “This is the location you gave me.”

Lilah had been expecting something more obvious. Something that shouted fortune-teller with capital letters. At the very least a neon sign in the window. The two women got out of the cab and climbed the stairs.

Lilah hesitated before ringing the doorbell. She elbowed Angie. “Do you think the concierge could have made a mistake and sent us to the wrong address?”

Angie shrugged. “There's only one way to find out. Ring the bell.”

Lilah was still worried she was in the wrong place when a twelve-year-old Indian girl answered the door. Lilah looked down at her printout. “Hi, is Sushma Ghira here?”

The girl stepped back from the doorway, turning to shout into the hallway, “Mom, you have customers!”

They followed the girl into the living room and took seats on the sofa. No incense burning or colorful scarves draping a table with a crystal ball. It was a typical urban flat, bathed in earth tones. Lilah could see another younger girl sitting at the kitchen table coloring. The utter normalcy dashed Lilah's cheesy fantasies.

A few minutes later a petite woman descended the stairs. She wore a red pullover sweater with khaki pants, and her feet were bare.

“Welcome to my home,” she said with a heavy Indian accent.

Angie and Lilah rose to shake hands with the woman. Lilah took another look around and whispered, “We're sorry to barge in on you like this. I'm not even sure we're in the right place. The concierge at our hotel said—”

“Palm reading or tarot card reading? Is that what you're looking for?”

Lilah looked at Angie who just shrugged back at her. “Um, yes, I think so.”

“Then you're in the right place. Come sit down.” She led them through the kitchen and into another room, where a small table was set up in the corner. Sushma sat in a wing-backed chair against the wall and Lilah took the seat before the table in front of her. Angie took a seat on a chaise longue off to the side.

“What kind of answers are you looking for?”

“I don't know…I guess just…am I moving in the right direction with my life?”

“Okay. We'll do the tarot card. That will give you an overall view of your state of mind.”

Lilah felt her palms growing clammy. Thank goodness they weren't going that route. “How does this work?”

The woman reached out and placed the deck in Lilah's hands. “Each card has its own meaning. You will shuffle these cards, thinking about your question. As you do this, your energies will direct the cards.”

Lilah resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she shuffled. Even though the most rational part of her mind didn't believe in psychics, there was another part of her that desperately wanted it to work.

“Okay,” she said, handing the cards back to Sushma. The woman then began spreading the cards on the table in a complex pattern.

Lilah gasped when Sushma pulled out a card depicting the grim reaper. “Oh no!”

“Do not worry. That card does not mean death in the literal sense. It's change. Laying the old to rest so that new can begin. You'll understand as I go through the reading.”

Sushma began interpreting each card and its place in the spread she laid out for Lilah. “This first card represents you, and it is The Empress. She indicates that you must follow your instincts, your intuition, to find your success.”

Lilah watched with rapt attention as Sushma continued through the reading, drawing on each card to interpret the others. “And here are The Lovers. The most literal interpretation is a choice between two potential lovers. For you, it could be two men or just a choice between two paths. The choice is yours, but you'll only grow if you choose wisely.”

A choice between two potential lovers? Lilah had an instant flash of Tyler's warm lips. A choice between two brothers?

Somehow she knew that wasn't quite what the woman had said, but her mind locked in on the idea, even as Lilah tried to push it away.

When Sushma finally finished the reading, Lilah's head was spinning. She couldn't remember all the nuances of what she'd just been told.

The other woman must have sensed her confusion, because she said, “This is what you need to remember from all of that. You'll come to a crossroads and a choice must be made. It could be a choice between two men or just two ways of living. Either way, there will be conflict and change. Even the right choice won't be easy, so you must stay committed. Let your heart guide you through the fear. New growth and new opportunity await, if you choose wisely.”

Lilah nodded and thanked the woman, unsure of what to make of what she'd just been told.

“What a crock,” Angie said later when they were back in the taxi.

Surprised, Lilah looked up at her. “Really?”

“You ask her if your life is going in the right direction, and she tells you all this BS about crossroads and choices. They just rearrange and regurgitate the same drivel to everyone…new growth and new opportunity. Whatever. I guess she suckers people in with that accent. Oh well, I guess it was kind of fun, anyway, right?”

“Yeah.” Lilah felt her cheeks stinging with embarrassment because she'd completely bought the woman's speech. It might not have made sense to Angie, but the reading really resonated with Lilah.

In fact, it tied in with what her best friend had told her on the way over. She could either dive into this opportunity with both feet or play it safe and head back home. But, she certainly couldn't keep on wandering along halfheartedly.