Date with Destiny

Chapter Twenty-Three

‘Whaff hyme iz Shahi geckin har?’

Myfanwy scrunches up her face, trying to understand what I’m asking. ‘Nope,’ she shakes her head. ‘No idea on that one.’

I finish applying my lipstick, popping the lid back on. ‘Sorry,’ I laugh. ‘I said what time is Sonali getting here?’

Her face clears. ‘Oh, she’s meeting us there,’ she replies. ‘She’s going straight from work.’ She checks the small clock beside her bed. ‘And we need to leave soon, so, quickly, I wanted to talk strategy for Project Proposal.’

‘Yes!’ I exclaim with excitement, picking up my eyeliner and squinting at my reflection in Myfanwy’s mirror. Shall I risk it? I will inevitably end up with wholly uneven unsymmetrical flicks, but maybe that is my fate. The fortune teller didn’t mention it, but it could be.

‘Want me to do it?’ Myfanwy offers, reading my mind, and I nod gratefully. She takes the eyeliner from me, pulling her best concentrating face as she begins carefully with my right eye.

‘So I’ve made a list of important moments from our relationship,’ she begins. ‘There’s that first moment I realized I loved her on holiday – that one I already told you about – then I’ve made a list of some others.’ With one eye still shut, I squint down at the piece of paper covered in Myfanwy’s handwriting scrawl. ‘There’s when we decided to live together, then moving day when we hired a van, there’s that minibreak in Winchester, when we accidentally drove to Windsor because I got confused with the Satnav. There’s that stupid day we laughed until we cried for literally hours because a guy walked into a glass door in front of us…’ She stops for a second, looking annoyed. ‘Can you stop blinking? You’re ruining the eyeliner!’

‘Sorry!’ I tell her. ‘I can’t help it, you’re making me emotional with all this.’ I scan the rest of her list, glancing over at the photos around the mirror of these two together. So many beautiful, silly, moving moments they’ve had together.

I wonder if I could make a list like this for me and Daniel? And what would be on it?

‘This is amazing, Myfe,’ I say with emotion.

She switches eyes, suddenly looking shy. ‘Thanks,’ she replies softly.

‘Being a romantic really suits you,’ I say, feeling so proud of her. ‘And – ooh! – I had a look on Etsy for you,’ I continue excitedly. ‘There are so many fun kinds of rings you can get made, they do basically everything! You could have a tiny moving van as one ring!’ I laugh and she joins in.

‘That’s amazing!’ She pauses. ‘Of course, I definitely also want a proper ring from Celeste’s Stones. I’ve already had a chat with Zach about it and he’s drawing up some suggestions for me.’

‘That’s great,’ I tell her, feeling all warm inside.

‘Is Zach coming tonight?’ she asks and I nod. She tuts at the movement but stands back after only a few more seconds.

‘There!’ she declares. I blink a few times, then turn to the mirror to review her efforts. The eyeliner is perfection. I take in the whole effect, head-to-toe, feeling pleased.

OK, so I moan about my mother a lot – a lot a lot – but there are some moments when having her around is oh-so useful.

‘Beautiful,’ I smile at Myfanwy. ‘Thanks.’

Tonight, Toni and Shawn are throwing a Christmas party and we were told to dress up for the event in South London. I’m wearing the most incredible outfit, courtesy of Celeste’s wardrobe. She gets sent so many free clothes, she barely even knows where to start with it all, and I found this dark blue jumpsuit with a feather trim around the sleeves. It’s possibly totally absurd, but I looked at my reflection and felt absolutely gorgeous for the first time in ages.

‘And what about Mikey?’ Myfanwy asks. ‘Is he coming?’

I look at my nails, freshly painted, already smudged and ruined. ‘I think so. He said he’d definitely try to make it.’ Myfanwy shakes her head. ‘You two are really taking your time. You had such mad chemistry at Toni’s birthday! But you haven’t seen each other since. What gives, Gin? You urgently need a shag and he is perfect shag material.’

‘Well, to be fair, he was away for a bit!’ I explain, feeling a bit defensive. ‘And with everything changing at the store, it’s been really busy with work. We are opening a new shop in a couple of weeks,’ I remind her. ‘But we’ve been texting each other a lot. It’s been very flirty.’

‘You know,’ she says dryly, ‘a shag takes, what, like, an hour?’

I snort. ‘Lesbian privilege. I think you mean, like, fifteen minutes, tops.’

She laughs. ‘OK, fine but either way, you could’ve sorted this if you really wanted to.’

‘I do really want to!’ I insist. ‘You don’t know what it’s like living in Celeste’s house. She’s been even more of a nightmare than usual, constantly asking what I’m doing and where I’m going.’

Myfanwy sighs. ‘Just tell her you’re staying at mine for the night.’

I raise an eyebrow. ‘You haven’t seen her lately. She’ll want an itemized breakdown of our plan for the evening: what we’re doing, where we’re going and what time we’ll be in bed. I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually calls you to check up on me and confirm the plan.’

Myfanwy shakes her head in disgust. ‘You really need to get out of there. She’s out of control.’

‘I know,’ I give a slight nod, knowing I have limited options. It makes me think again of that option I might have. With Daniel. I sigh, picturing his face and thinking of his last text about meeting up. The text I decided to treat as maturely as possible, by completely ignoring it. ‘And of course,’ I add, thinking out loud, ‘I still have to figure out what to do about Daniel.’

My heart thumps in my chest as I realize what I’ve said. I still haven’t told Myfanwy anything about the situation. She turns to me, her brow furrowed, eyes narrowed.

‘What do you mean? What do you have to figure out about Daniel?’

I stare down at my lap. ‘He turned up at the house.’

‘He what?’ Her mouth drops partway open. ‘Celeste’s house? When? Oh my god, what did he say?’ She leans closer, Project Proposal wholly forgotten.

I take a deep breath. ‘It was right after we got back from Madeira. Like a week later,’ I admit, shamefaced. ‘And I’m so sorry I didn’t say anything to you about it. It was, like, too big, y’know? I didn’t know what to think and I needed to process it for a bit before I talked about it out loud.’

She nods slowly. ‘OK, I understand,’ she says, but I can see she is a little hurt. ‘So? What did he say? Did he finally say sorry?’

‘Yes,’ I confirm, remembering his apology and the way he looked at me. ‘And he hinted that maybe…’

‘Oh my god,’ she breathes, waiting for me to continue, but I can’t. ‘You think he wants to get back together?’

I nod slowly. ‘I think so. Or maybe not, I don’t know! He keeps messaging about wanting to see me and talk. I don’t know what to think.’

Her eyes are wide. ‘Wow,’ she says in a whisper. ‘This is huge.’ She gives the moment time to settle before continuing. ‘But how did you feel when you saw him? How do you feel now? Are you angry or sad?’

I throw my hands up with exasperation. ‘I honestly don’t know! Both? Neither? One minute I think I hate him and will never forgive him; the next, I am physically aching for him. I want to cry with how much I still miss him and our life together. I know it’s been six months, and I feel like I’m supposed to be totally over him by now, but I was so happy with Daniel, and I do still love him.’ I sigh. ‘But would I ever be able to trust him again? Would I ever be able to believe he wasn’t going to do that to me again? Every time he went out or had a weekend away with work or friends, would I be thinking that he isn’t coming back?’

Myfanwy doesn’t answer and we fall silent.

At last I speak again. ‘I just wish I had more answers. I wish I knew if those predictions were real and what they meant.’

‘Of course they’re real,’ she frowns. ‘And at least you’ve clearly had all your losses.’ She ticks them off with her fingers. ‘A heartbreak with Daniel, the death of your Aunt Diane, and losing your flat.’ She looks up, smiling at me widely as if this is all good. ‘Yay! So it’s all gains from here on out!’

‘And I’ve had my life-changing honeymoon trip,’ I remind her. ‘So it’s just the last two left: someone I lost and my soulmate.’ I hesitate. ‘Do you think Mikey is the someone I thought lost? Or maybe he’s my soulmate?’

Myfanwy sighs. ‘It would really help if you could remember the fortune teller’s wording. Did she say you’ll meet your soulmate or find your soulmate?’ She raises her eyebrows. ‘Like, if it’s meet we know that it probably isn’t Mikey or Dan, because you already met. But find could mean that you already know them.’

I shrug sadly. ‘I have no idea what words she used. It’s all a bit hazy. I only remember that there were six predictions and that she had big hair.’ Another thought occurs to me. ‘On the other hand,’ I feel my nose crinkling, ‘Daniel is someone I’d thought lost forever and I already thought he was my soulmate. So maybe this was about proving that? What if all of this is a way for Daniel to prove himself as The One?’

‘It’ll take a lot of proving,’ Myfanwy mutters.

‘Argh! It’s all too cryptic!’ My voice is full of despair, as I put my face in my hands. ‘I just wish I could speak to the fortune teller again and ask her to explain herself better. Or at least repeat everything she said the first time. There must be so many details I’ve forgotten.’

‘These six predictions are a lot more specific than most people get!’ Myfanwy points out and I pout.

‘Yes, but they’re still not clear enough. If these really are real, then she obviously knew more. There must be loads of extra info that she didn’t share with me.’

Myfanwy looks thoughtful. ‘I know we gave up looking for her, but maybe we should try again. She’s got to be out there somewhere, right?’ She regards me fearfully. ‘Wait, how old was she? She won’t have died, will she?’

I shake my head. ‘No!’ I pause. ‘I mean, she could’ve died of a million other things, obviously, but not from old age. I’m not sure how old she was because everyone over twenty looks fifty when you’re sixteen, but I’m pretty sure she couldn’t have been much more than about forty-five.’

‘Good!’ Myfanwy’s grin returns.

‘But I know literally nothing about her!’ I remind her desperately. ‘I don’t know what her name was, where she lives, nothing.’

‘You remember what she looked like?’ Myfanwy asks and I nod.

‘Kinda,’ I admit.

‘Well then, we know kinda what she looks like, we know she’s a psychic and that she travelled with that local fair. That place still visits the same park, so we start there. Who knows? Maybe she still does readings at the same fair?’

We stare at each other excitedly.