Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Jude
The Chalice & Cherry was unusually mellow for a Friday night. No karaoke. No wild dance floor revival. Just soft lighting, low conversation, and the occasional clink of ice hitting glass. I sat at the bar, elbows resting on its worn mahogany edge, beginning to feel buzzed.
Percy, the bartender, raised an eyebrow as he slid another glass in front of me. “This your third?”
I didn’t answer right away. Just watched the amber liquid swirl.
“Normally you stop at one,” he added, giving me that pointed look only bartenders and mothers have perfected.
I sighed. “Yeah. I know.”
He gave a low whistle. “Damn. Must be serious.”
It was. Though I hadn’t said it out loud yet. Not even to myself. Not really.
Julian.
Even thinking his name made my pulse skip. Ever since he’d come onto me and then left town like a thief in the night, I’d felt unmoored. Not devastated. Not heartbroken. Just… rattled. Like someone had reached into my chest and rearranged everything without warning.
The alcohol didn’t make it better. But it kept the edges from cutting so sharply.
The door creaked open, letting in a draft of humid night air and the soft jingle of bells. I glanced over my shoulder.
Zephyr.
She stepped in as if the wind brought her, long linen skirts trailing behind, a moonstone pendant swinging above her sternum. She rarely came in here. The Chalice wasn’t exactly her scene. Not enough crystals. Too many carbs.
She sat beside me and offered Percy a serene smile. “A glass of Lotus Bloom Rosé, please. Chilled.”
Percy barked a laugh. “You want me to decant it into a mason jar and bless it under a waning moon while I’m at it?”
Zephyr smiled without blinking. “If it helps the bouquet, sure.”
I stared into my drink. “You don’t usually drink here.”
“No,” she said, accepting the wine with both hands like it was an offering. “But I felt a disturbance in the force.”
Percy snorted. “That handsome city boy drove our Jude to drink.”
Zephyr sipped. “I suspected as much.”
I groaned and put my face in my hands. “I am not talking about this.”
“You just did,” Percy said, leaning his elbows on the bar. “That’s what we in the biz call an opening.”
“He’s been like this since that night,” Zephyr added gently. “Julian comes along, throws a wrench into the cosmic gears, and you’ve been all off-axis ever since.”
“I don’t even know what happened,” I said, finally lifting my head. “One second we were talking. Next, he was kissing me like the world was ending.”
“Hot,” Percy deadpanned.
I ignored him. “I stopped it because I couldn’t… I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But I could tell he wasn’t present. Not really. It was like he was trying to distract himself from something.”
Zephyr nodded slowly. “Pain. I saw it in his eyes, too. Behind all that sarcasm and irony. Like he’s carrying around a wound he won’t admit is bleeding.”
“Exactly.” I pushed the bourbon aside. “I don’t want that. I mean, I want him, but not like that. Sex isn’t enjoyable to me unless there’s something real underneath. Something steady. I need to trust. To connect.”
Percy made a mock gagging noise. “Gross. Feelings.”
Zephyr scowled at him.
I stared at the back bar, at the shelves of bottles sparkling in the dim light. “And I think he took it the wrong way. Thought I was rejecting him. And then he left.”
“Without a word,” Zephyr said. “He returned to the inn, grabbed his things and hauled ass out of there.” She set down her glass. “Maybe he needs time to realize what you were offering. Maybe he wasn’t ready for something real.”
I dragged both hands through my hair and let out a long, low breath. “Why do I care so much? We barely knew each other.”
“Sometimes,” Zephyr said, “souls recognize each other before minds do.”
Zephyr reached into the canvas tote slung over her shoulder and pulled out a faded velvet pouch. She laid it delicately on the bar between us and began untying the cords with slow, deliberate fingers.
“Oh no,” Percy muttered, eyeing the pouch like it might contain snakes. “This is about to get weird.”
Zephyr smiled beatifically. “Only if you’re allergic to the truth.” She drew the deck out—large, well-worn cards, the gilding on the edges dulled by years of touch—and held them out to me. “Shuffle. Think of a question.”
I blinked at her, a little glassy-eyed, then looked down at the cards in my hands. They felt heavier than they should’ve. The backs were indigo and gold, covered in constellations.
“Zeph, come on,” I said, but there was no bite in my tone. Just weariness. “I’m three bourbons deep and five seconds from crying in public.”
“Exactly the right headspace for a reading,” she breathed. “Let your subconscious steer.”
I hesitated. Then, with a huff, I started to shuffle. The cards slipped between my fingers like silk, but not easily. They caught now and then, almost like they knew I wasn’t ready.
“Think of a question,” she prompted again.
So I did.
What am I supposed to do about Julian?
My jaw tensed as I rifled the deck one more time and handed it back.
She took the cards and laid them in a single stack before me.
“Three-card spread,” she said, already sliding them into place. “Past. Present. Future.”
The first card: The Lovers.
Percy let out a low whistle. “Well, shit.”
Zephyr tilted her head, considering. “In the past position, The Lovers can mean a choice. A pivotal moment where a path diverged. Connection, sure—but also temptation. Commitment versus impulse. Duality.”
I stared at the card. Two figures, naked and beautiful, reaching for one another while an angel hovered above them. Fire and fruit and a snake in the background.
“That was the night in the woods,” I murmured. “After the ritual. When he kissed me in the healing center.”
Zephyr said nothing. Just flipped the second card.
The Tower.
Even Percy winced. “Oof.”
“Destruction,” Zephyr said quietly. “Upheaval. Everything falling apart. The present. You’re in the rubble right now. Whatever wasn’t built solid is crumbling.”
“It didn’t even get the chance to be built,” I said too fast. “We only kissed each other twice.”
Zephyr’s gaze didn’t waver. “But it shook something in you. Didn’t it?”
I looked away. My throat was tight. My buzz had shifted, gone from warm to brittle. I felt like glass under pressure. If someone tapped me, I might shatter.
She turned over the third card.
The Star.
For a long moment, none of us said anything.
Then: “Well that’s hopeful,” Percy muttered.
Zephyr nodded slowly. “Healing. Rebirth. Faith. A return of clarity. It’s about hope, Jude. Light after darkness. Guidance.”
I stared at the card. A naked woman pouring water into a pool, the stars glittering above her. It didn’t feel like clarity. It felt like someone trying to convince me that drowning could be inspirational.
“I think the deck is drunk,” I said finally, pushing back from the bar with a scrape of the stool.
Zephyr didn’t flinch. She just picked up her cards and gathered them quietly, like she’d expected that response all along.
I stood, wobbled slightly, then righted myself with one hand on the bar. “This is bullshit. Cards, angels, cosmic gears… I’m over it. He’s gone. And good riddance.”
“You don’t mean that,” Zephyr said, still calm. Still maddeningly kind.
“I hardly knew him,” I snapped. “We talked for what, a couple of hours? He kissed me. I turned him down. He ran away. That’s not fate. That’s just a guy with a fragile ego.”
Even as I said it, something inside me twisted. Because that wasn’t the whole truth. And I knew it.
“He’s coming back,” Zephyr said softly.
“You don’t know that,” I snapped.
She didn’t flinch. Just slipped the cards back into their pouch with a faint smile, like a cat who’d already knocked the vase off the table and was waiting for you to notice the water on the floor.
“Actually,” she said, tying the cords into a neat little bow, “I do know that. Julian is definitely returning.”
I blinked at her. “What are you—? How—?”
“You don’t get to be this mysterious and smug,” Percy muttered, wiping down the bar with more aggression than necessary. “Jude’s about three seconds from flipping a stool.”
“I am not flipping a stool,” I muttered, even though my hands were clenched and I could feel my ears turning red. “I just… I don’t understand why you’d say that.”
Zephyr didn’t answer. She calmly pulled out her phone, tapped around for a second, and then turned the screen to face me.
There, glowing in the light of the bar, was an online reservation confirmation. Riverbend Inn. One guest. Two nights. Julian Reed. Arrival date: tomorrow.
My mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again.
Percy leaned in, squinting. “Well, hell.”
I stared at the screen as if it might vanish if I blinked too hard. “You knew this,” I said slowly, voice thick with disbelief. “You knew this the entire time!”
Zephyr just gave me that serene, smug smile again—the one that said I read the stars and your Google Calendar.
I covered my mouth with both hands and let out a weird, strangled giggle.
“Wow,” I said, sitting back so fast my stool creaked. “Okay. That’s… that’s real. That’s not a card or a sign or some damn moonbeam dream. That’s his actual name. On an actual reservation.”
“You’re blushing,” Percy said with a smirk.
“I am not!” I touched my cheek. Shit. I was. My skin felt like a stove burner.
Another giggle escaped before I could stop it. I suddenly felt seventeen again. Like someone had passed me a folded-up note in class that said Do you like me? Check yes or no.
“What the hell,” I said, laughing now. “Why do I feel like I just got asked to the prom?”
Zephyr stood and gathered her things with the air of someone who had successfully completed a spiritual side quest. “Come on, sweet boy. Let’s get you home before you float away on giggles and brown liquor.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted, though I nearly tripped standing up.
“Mmhm.” She reached out and gently took my elbow. “You can pay Percy and thank me in the morning.”
I tossed some cash on the bar, still dazed, still weirdly light. My heart was hammering, not with fear exactly, but with something restless. Hopeful. Terrified.
As Zephyr led me out into the warm night air, the clink of wind chimes and muffled laughter trailing behind us, one thought repeated in my head like a chant:
What the hell am I going to say to him when he shows up?