In My Veins
Authors: C.A. Madden
By C.A. Madden
©
2013 C.A. Madden
All
Rights Reserved.
No
part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who
may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either
are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This
is a New Adult Contemporary Romance novel recommended for readers ages 18 and
over due to language and sexual themes.
Cover
Image by conrado / BigStockPhoto.com
Cover
design by Najla Qamber /
NajlaQamberDesigns.com
Dedicated to…
My mom for being amazing.
My “VIP” friends who encouraged me to make this
story official.
Table Of Contents
I’m not sure if it was the area or why I was there
that was freaking me out. It was early mid-afternoon and the sun was bright and
shining in L.A. but I had the weirdest feeling that I was being watched.
There was no one in that shopping
area and I should have probably taken that as a sign that maybe she just wasn’t
as good as everyone said she was. But I was finally giving into it. I had been
on dates but always found something wrong with the guy before the second date.
Afterwards I would avoid the guy like the plague and not give them a chance to
redeem themselves.
I had yet to be in a serious
relationship. All my friends from college were getting married and majority of
my high school friends were already married. I should at least have one serious
relationship before deciding maybe love just wasn’t for me.
Being twenty-four, done with college,
and finally found a decent career; I didn’t have excuses anymore. I was ready
to put myself out there!
And it’s all going to start where it
starts for the majority of my friends here, with a coffee cup. I looked around
again at the eerily empty area and still felt like I wasn’t as alone as I
thought before reaching for the door to hurry into safety.
The door had bells that jingled when I
opened it. It was unnecessary though because there was a loud parrot perched up
on a bird stand that announced my arrival. The café was empty. No customers in sight.
The actual café was surprisingly homey looking with its wooden chairs and dark
warm colors.
Tiffany said Lana was the best of the
best. Lana was the to go girl for coffee and tea leaf readings. She’ll be able
to tell me what was wrong with me. I was ready to hear that I was going to die
alone and I might as well start picking out names for my future house of pets.
No offence to Lana and her bird.
Tiffany quickly became a good friend
when I met her at the gym. I was new in L.A. and had read that the best way to
make new friends and kill time was join a gym. So I did. Tiff invited me to her
yoga and boot camp classes and the rest was history.
And as smart and strong as Tiffany was, she
seriously had the tendency to be stupid. I still had no idea how a café was
going to help my love life, but I figured what did I have to lose? And it would
be the best way to get Tiffany and anyone else that believed these coffee readings
to get off my back and let me try online dating like I was planning.
California is the melting pot of
cultures and L.A. is the heart of the melting pot. Different cultures and
traditions make for some interesting places in the city. Lana’s Café was an
Eastern European café and was rumored that she read coffee grounds. My entire
future in a tiny cup of unfiltered coffee that I was forced to like thanks to
my background. Sometimes these little cups revealed tragedies and sometimes they
revealed love.
I always thought it was bull when my
grandma tried to convince me to drink the coffee, but desperate times called
for desperate measures.
“Hello?” I said looking around the tiny
space as if she would suddenly appear. “This is ridiculous. Why am I even here…?”
I mumbled to myself and stared at the green bird that was eyeing me. I never
liked birds. And I think he knows that.
If someone would have asked me to do
this two years ago, I would have made fun of them. This year… I’ll listen to
anyone. I know I might sound desperate. I’m all for being independent and I
pride myself for providing myself with everything. I paid my way through
college and bought my own car. But a year after college I discovered that I
can’t cuddle independently. Humans need other humans not matter how much we
want to deny it. I had to keep reminding myself that.
“Hello there, how may I help you?” Said
a woman knocking me back into where I was. I was startled at first since she
came from the back of the store. I had not realized it had a ‘back’ because of
the way she had decorated the walls with curtains. It kept the windows and
doors hidden. But I should have known.
She was in her mid-thirties. She had a
thick Eastern accent. Maybe Armenian or Russian, the common ethnicity in the
part of L.A. I was in. She had long black curly hair and a gorgeous olive toned
tan that made her green eyes look almost as if they were glowing. She was
wearing layers and layers of gorgeous jewel colored fabrics and layers of
actual jewels. She was gorgeous, no lie in that department. Whether she was
legit at this coffee thing, that was another question.
“Um... hi I was just hoping to get a
coffee reading maybe?”
Why did that come out so weak…She’s so going to over
charge me now.
“Oh…wonderful! Come over here.” She said
motioning to a small wooden table. I was half expecting her to say she was
expecting me like most of the creepy psychic witches did in movies.
I looked around the dark café as I
nervously pulled back my chair. She ran to the back to make my coffee as I
waited. There was some exotic music playing in the background that made me want
to stand up and belly dance if I wasn’t so freaked out by the parrot.
“Here you go dear.” She brought with her
my tiny little espresso cup of coffee along with some cut fruit and pastries. She
handed me the tiny coffee cup as she sat across from me and kept her eyes
locked onto me like her bird.
“Drink up, dear.”
She smiled at she stared at me about to
drink the coffee. I felt awkward being stared at but I downed the hot liquid
anyway. The faster I finish it the faster I could get out of there.
It was a bitter coffee. Unlike the
coffee at the office it wasn’t filtered and I had ruminants of its coffee
grounds on my tongue almost felt like dirt. I remembered why I never drank that
stuff when my mom had guests over.
She showed me how to flip the cup,
making sure that it faced me. “Now we wait for a moment. The magic has to
work.” She said her voice deep trying to make it all sound so mystic. I knew
she didn’t ‘do the magic’. The coffee did its thing and she read it.
“You’re Armenian?” She asked leaning
back in her chair. It’s the go to question in Glendale I’ve noticed since nine
times out of ten the answer was ‘yes’.
“Mostly…” I said quietly.
“Like most of L.A.” she laughed, “My
mama was Armenian too. My papa is Russian.”
“Oh…” I said never knowing how to make
these types of conversations last.
“Where do you work?” she asked putting
me on edge for some reason.
“Why is it that psychic always ask
questions? I thought they should know these things.”
She laughed, “Oh sweetheart I’m no
psychic. I’m sure people told you I was a gypsy too. I’m just a normal woman
making a living. I just learned to read coffee from my grandmother. Anyone can
do it.” she leaned forward and lowered her voice, “I’m just the best. And you
know what…?”
“What…” I mumbled aware that no one else
was in the café to witness anything bad that could possibly happen to me.
“Most people that say they can are
lying. And most that do know are too afraid to tell the truth. Sometimes what I
see in these cups are not pretty. Sometimes I see dark images.”
“Oh…”
“And that was the precaution warning to
you. Know that I will tell you whatever I read. I’m not promising you a cash
inflow with a handsome man coming to your door with a bouquet of daisies. If I
see anything bad…I will tell you like it is. It’s not my fault the bad things
will happen. Got it?”
“Wouldn’t want it any other way.” I said
pushing my cup to her.
She took my cup and started looking at
it. Her eyes were narrowed onto the things that just looked like streaks to me.
I guess if I really wanted to squint I could see a waterfall in my future or
something. Kind of reminded me of people when they looked at images in clouds.
“Ooh…” she said to herself, “I see… a circle.”
She said as she stared into the cup. She pointed at it showing me and all I saw
was a glob. I nodded anyway so she could go on with her story.
“What does it mean?” I asked, humoring
her.
She raised her brow clearly knowing I
thought she was a hoax, “I see that you are starting to want to have children. Yes?”
Majority of women my age want kids these
days. But I still felt my face heat up at what else should see in that tiny
cup. If she’s not a hoax. “Kids? Um... no. More like a boyfriend. But
they can be childish at times I suppose…” I laughed nervously regretting
letting this woman see what’s in my mind.
I stopped myself from even thinking she
could.
I can’t believe I’m actually starting to believe this.
She laughed at my attempt of a joke and
went back to the cup. She went on about a job promotion but something about me
losing money. After saying some more things, mainly along the lines of I’ll get
money soon, careful of the jealous people like any typical coffee reading.
Then she stopped.
“There is a guy in your very near future.
I see tattoos.” She frowned and eyed me.
“What is it?” I asked eagerly. Could
this be it? Maybe he’s a bad boy…
hell yes!
“I see…a dragon? I think it’s a dragon…”
“A dragon?” I asked disappointed. “What
could a dragon mean…?”
“I don’t know. There weren’t many
dragons where I came from.” She laughed at her attempt of a joke. I didn’t find
it so amusing.
“But it says that you will cross paths
with this
dragon
or whatever it is. And there is a candle next to it.
Whatever this dragon means, it is the answer to your wishes, prayers, and every
desire.” I noticed her accent becoming less and less strong throughout the
conversation and it was completely gone by now. She is such a fraud.
“The dragon…is the answer to my wishes?
And you don’t even know what it means?”
“Yes.” She said as if it was obvious.
“Okay…thank you.” I said finally hearing
enough.
I gave her the cash and was about to
leave but she grabbed my wrist. “You want to heart the rest. Trust me.”
I sighed and sat back down, “I have a
meeting. So can we just hurry?”
“Whatever this dragon means… do not
ignore it. It’s serious. It's something you have to hold onto. It will not be
easy…maybe even dangerous. But do
not
let it go.” she said still looking
in the cup. She handed me the cup so I could put my thumb print in it to seal
the deal.
I could just feel her eyes on me, “Who
are you?”
“Me?”
“I’ve never seen a cup so… I don’t know
the word… crazy? So crazy like this. I can’t read most of it. And most of it is
things I have never seen before to know what they mean.”
Okay crazy lady I doubt the answer to my
wishes at the moment, which is finding a decent date, is a dragon. “Okay well…
I have to go. Thank you for the coffee reading. It was…fun.” I grabbed my
purse, not wanting to spend another moment in that creepy hell hole and ran
off.
*
*
*
I left the café feeling more confused
than before. My only issue before that place was feeling lonely but now I felt
insane for buying that crap for even a second. I walked to the nearby outdoor
mall called Americana for my ‘meeting’ which was a shopping date with Tiffany.
I like to do some shopping when I’m feeling down, which I have been doing a lot
of lately.
I was about to go into my favorite
boutique but stopped when I heard someone call my name, “Karina!” I heard my
best friend’s voice across the street.
Tiffany. The one that had the brilliant
idea that I go to a psychic. A coffee reading psychic of all things. She said
it would at least help me eliminate the duds in the dating world and know what
I was looking for. The dating world isn’t my issue since I can’t even find the
date. But she wouldn’t let it go till I went.
“Hey.” I said as she hugged me hello.
“Hey, how did the coffee reading go?”
She attempted to flip her newly cut shoulder length dark hair to the side out
of habit. She had sunglasses on that took over her face and blocked her doll
like brown eyes.
I glared at her for even bringing it up.
“That bad?”
“While you were getting your gorgeous
haircut, I was finding out that I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life.”
I fake sniffled.
She laughed, “How about some sushi at
Lotus Dragon to cheer you up and you can tell me everything she said.”
“I don’t know…” I joked since she knew I
would never turn down Lotus.
“My treat…” She sang.
“I’m starving.” I said as we walked over
to our favorite sushi place in the area. We frequented it so much that the
hostess and majority of the waitresses knew us. We rarely even needed to actually
place an order because they already knew it by heart.
It was always busy and had a long wait
but luckily we were the only ones waiting for the first free table. Kristina,
Tiff’s cousin, was waitressing that day and she waved at us from the outdoor
portion of the restaurant.