“Esteban, you need to tell her. She’s leaving at the end of this week. I mean, she has the right to know, don’t you think?” Lupe argues.

“I know, I know, I should have told her already.”

“Told me what?” I ask as I enter the store. Both of them stare at me, eyes wide, mouth agape. A laugh escapes me, mostly out of surprise. What are they talking about?

“I know you guys were talking about me, but…would you like a minute? Should I leave and come back later? Should I worry?” I ask, frowning.

“No. No you shouldn’t worry,” Esteban says firmly. “But there is something you should know.”

Lupe stares at me with an expression that’s a mix of consternation and worry.

My stomach flips, because I can’t imagine what it is that Esteban hasn’t told me. Maybe I don’t know him as well as I think I do after all, and maybe Dolores was right to warn me…maybe he’s been playing games this entire time. What if he’s not completely done with Reagan after all these years? What if there’s someone else I don’t know about?

“Is there someone else?” I ask him as my heart sinks in the pit of my stomach, my voice just a whisper.

“What?”

“Is there someone else, Esteban?” I yell, frustrated.

“No, Ines! Of course not!”

“Okay, you two need to get out of here. Go to the back or go upstairs. I’m sorry but I can’t have a scene in the store. Tell her the truth, once and for all, Esteban. It’s not as bad as it looks, Ines, I promise,” she reassures me, giving me a quick hug.

Esteban and I walk out of the store, but I’m suddenly wary of him.

“Should we sit down over here?” he asks. He doesn’t want to go upstairs? Is he breaking up with me?

“Sure,” I reply. We sit next to each other on the same bench we sat on when I first got here. In three days, I fly out to California. By next Monday, I should be a divorced woman.

He takes a deep breath and seems about to say something, but then he shuts his mouth again.

“Esteban,” I tell him as calmly as I can muster, “if you’re going to break up with me, please hurry. Just say what you need to and put me out of my misery already!”

“What? No, it’s not like that at all. You might be the one who’s going to run for the hills after this.”

“Oh, this again. Whatever it is, can you please get it over with? The suspense is pissing me off.” He smiles at me, his eyes sweet, and then he clears his throat.

“This is a story that I’ve been waiting to tell you for a long time. I know you’re worried…but it’s nothing like what you might think…”

“Okay…” I reply, even more confused.

“You remember Reagan,” he starts, and I already don’t like where this is going.

“Yes, and you know I wasn’t really impressed with her.” He snickers, and I shrug. “She’s just not a nice person.” I let out a breath, suddenly worried. What does Reagan have to do with anything? Is he having doubts about us? Does he want to get back together with gothic Barbie?

“Are you sure this isn’t about the two of you getting back together? You two had a long history…”

“No, it’s not like that at all, but she’s part of the story I need to tell you. Ever since we were in school, she’s always been into esoterism and whatnot. She never missed a chance to mess with Ouija boards, or whatever she could get her hands on. She had a wild side…” He trails off and I raise my eyebrows and sigh loudly. Jealousy stabs me right in my gut, even though I know I shouldn’t react like this. He has a past, just like I do. Esteban responds with a shy glance. “I’m sorry, I swear I’m trying to get to the point. Reagan loved tarot readings and was trying to learn how to read cards herself. News spread around town that a new tarot reader from New Orleans had opened a place on Central Avenue, and whoever went there raved about her. So, Reagan being Reagan, she went there as soon as she could, and a few weeks later she convinced me to go to a reading with her. I was indifferent to the whole thing and didn’t really believe in any of it at the time. I’m still firmly of the opinion that you shouldn’t meddle with your future. It’s not for you to mess with, just like the past, just like ghosts. You should just focus on living your life, work into building the future you wish for and be happy with the fortune you’re given.”

Frowning, I narrow my eyes at him, almost surprised by his speech, even though I still don’t understand what it has to do with me, or us.

“I agree with you, but I’m afraid I still don’t understand…”

“I promise I’m getting there. Reagan wanted me to get a reading, but I was…skeptical at best. Besides, it seemed that every story I’d read that centered around a prophecy, about interpreting the future, always seemed to end badly. Think about it…from Greek mythology to stories like Harry Potter, humans—or wizards, in J.K. Rowling’s case—always seem to end up misinterpreting things. I didn’t want to know about my future. In the end, I still went along with it because…well, you’ve met Reagan. You can understand when I say she’s very persistent.”

My heart is racing, and my cheeks are flushed. I’m confused and still don’t understand what this has to do with me to begin with. I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. If it’s something I shouldn’t worry about, he would have told me already, wouldn’t he? I exhale and tell myself to wait for him to finish his story.

“A lot of things that the fortune teller read in my tarot cards turned out to be true. Most of them were about my professional life, about finding my path in life, but she also warned me about being on the lookout for my grandma. She insisted I make sure to tell her to go to the doctor. A few weeks later, we found out that my abuela had a nasty tumor, but we were able to move quickly and buy her some time. Then, when Reagan pressed the fortune teller about our future together, she told us we weren’t going to be happy. Our relationship was going to be long but with many painful breakups. The fortune teller then turned to me to tell me I wasn’t destined to be with Reagan for the rest of my life, but that I wasn’t going to meet my true love for a very long time. She told me that even though I was in love right then, I shouldn’t think I’d found the one because it wasn’t going to happen until I became a grown man. She said that while my sister was going to marry and have kids rather young, that wasn’t in the cards for me.”

I frown, because none of this makes any sense…yet.

“Reagan was pissed. I’d never seen her so mad...not until she came after you on my birthday. At the time, we were young and crazy in love. We didn’t think there could ever be another person we’d spend our life with. We thought we were the endgame. She was pissed off about what the fortune teller said and started yelling at the poor woman, but the fortune teller wasn’t having it. She told Regan to get lost and never come back. I was about to follow her, but the fortune teller stopped me. She told me to sit down, and so I did. She pointed at The Lovers card in front of her and told me that I would meet my soulmate one day, but that I would have to be patient. I remember every detail of that day so…vividly. She took my hands in hers and examined both of my palms. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was silent for what felt like an eternity, and I was utterly confused. When she finally spoke, she almost startled me. ‘Ines,’ she said. ‘Ines is the name of your soulmate. Ines is the name of the woman you’re destined to be with.’”

I choke on a breath, and start coughing. Esteban starts patting me on the back.

“Yeah, I know. Trust me.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“I swear to God.”

“This sounds…”

“Stupid? Impossible? Unbelievable?” he asks, worried.

I frown, considering my choice of words as I take in his worried gaze.

“A little far-fetched?”

“I know. I know I struggled with what she told me for a very long time. I can see that if you don’t believe in readings, or in esoterism, which at the time I didn’t, either. But in the years that followed, every single thing she’d told me during the reading became true.”

“I’m not sure I really understand, Esteban. Are you trying to say that all this time you’ve been waiting for me? This is wilder than any ghost story, and we’ve heard some crazy ones…” God, I’m aware I sound like a bitch, but my brain is in complete upheaval, like it’s refusing to believe this story, or even comprehend it. This is not possible. These kinds of things don’t happen in life, right? How could a human being have any idea what another person’s future will be like? Esteban always made fun of ghost stories and has struck me as a pragmatic person, but now he’s telling me that a fortune teller told him I was his true soulmate? I’ve always been someone who wanted to believe in signs, but now that I find myself facing something so monumental, I don’t know how to react.

“More or less. To be honest, I had lost all hope I’d find you someday.”

His words warm my heart, and the rush of heat runs through my veins, igniting my body. I feel so conflicted. I don’t want to hurt Esteban’s feelings, but I also need to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground. This is wilder than any ghost stories I heard since I started living here.

“You’ve been looking for me? This whole time?”

“I tried, but strangely enough, I’ve never met an Ines before you.”

“Are you telling me that your whole life you’ve never met someone with my name? This is New Mexico. It’s not like there’s a shortage of people with Hispanic names, after all.”

“The women I met with a name like yours were named Inez, not Ines. Before I left the fortune teller that day, she said to me I had to wait for an Ines, who’d come from far away.” He stares at me, a look full of love mixed with the worry I’ll slip away at any moment.

He takes one of my hands in his and the air leaves my lungs. Confusion takes over, and I can’t breathe. There’s a knot in the pit of my stomach and I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel. I don’t know how I feel right now. I’m…confused? Yes. Terrified? Maybe.

“I know this is hard for you to believe, but I knew there was something about you the night we met, even before I learned your name. Even when I looked at you from afar, you took my breath away.”

I start laughing nervously. Fitting, I think, since right now I’m the one who can’t breathe. He frowns, and the worried expression in his eyes sobers me immediately.

“I’m sorry, Esteban. I feel a little out of breath myself,” I explain. I look into his eyes, trying to come to terms with everything he’s said. The strange need that I had to be around him since the beginning. Most of the time I’ve lived here I’ve done nothing but obsess about Esteban in a way that I didn’t understand, in a way that wasn’t like me. I couldn’t make sense of it. Instead of reassuring me, his explanation frightens me. He’s right about one thing. People should never meddle with predicting the future. Why do I feel like our connection is less special now that I know the truth? I worry he pursued me just because of what he’d been told years ago by a shady fortune teller, and not because he really likes me.

But no, that can’t be true. I know how I feel about him, and I know how he feels about me. Prophecy or not, we fell in love. I can’t disregard what we have just because I’m wary of it all. In a way, I’m surprised by my thoughts…I didn’t even know I could be this cynical.

I replay the night we met in my head, and suddenly, every piece clicks into place. Everyone’s reaction makes sense. Now I get why everyone was so excited to meet me when they heard my name.

“Everyone knew. Your sister. Your parents. Everyone knew the whole time I have been here,” I say, matter-of-factly.

“They’ve known for years. It was almost an inside joke between us. Your name represented the woman I was probably never going to meet and obsess over the rest of my life. You were a mythological creature that was never going to materialize. For the record, I tried to find the fortune teller years ago, but she’d moved away.”

“Shocking.” I can’t contain the sarcasm in my voice.

“Unfortunately for me, no matter what I did, no matter who I met, I always had that woman’s words in the back of my head. Every single time a relationship ended, or when things with Reagan would get ugly once more, I told myself it was because the fortune teller was right, and it wasn’t meant to be. It was because none of those women were right for me. It was because I was waiting to meet you, Ines.”

If I believe everything he’s told me so far—and I really want to—that would explain why I’ve felt the kind of pull I’ve felt for him since the beginning. It would all make sense, right? However, the rational part of me refuses to believe. This can’t be. I can’t let myself believe this is the truth. I can’t let myself believe that a man I didn’t know at all six months ago has been waiting for me his entire life. My brain refuses to let me accept Esteban has been waiting to meet me since he was seventeen years old.

This sounds like some Twilight shit, and I can’t take it, even though I love Twilight.

“Breathe, Ines,” he cautions, and only then do I realize I’ve been holding my breath. How very Bella of me. “For the love of God, please say something.”

“I don’t know what to say.” I pause. “This whole time I’ve been trying to make sense of why I was so crazy about you since the beginning, why I ached to see you again. But now I know the truth…and I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know how to wrap my head around it.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I believe you,” I reassure him. “I don’t know what to think about the whole thing though, mainly because it feels like it’s too much.”

“Too much?”

“In a good way?” I say, uncertain. The look he gives me breaks my heart. This is not the reaction he was hoping to get from me. “Y-you do know this is a bit too much to handle…which is why you haven’t told me until now, isn’t it?”

“Yes and…no. God, Ines. The night we met you were having one of the worst days of your life. I couldn’t say anything then, and how could I tell you the truth when you were trying to put your life back together? I couldn’t be the jerk to come into your life telling you this, like you owed me something. I realized after I met you that if the fortune teller was indeed right, and we were destined to be together, I would only have to wait a little bit longer. I had to wait for you to be ready. How would you’ve felt if I’d told you sooner, ‘hey, by the way, I know this sounds crazy, but I think you’re the girl I’ve been waiting for this whole time’? That would have freaked you out, wouldn’t it?”

I nod and look away, because I can’t take the uneasiness in his eyes. I’m hurting him, and I can’t stand it.

“I wanted to know if you were my Ines,” he adds, his voice so soft, tears prickle my eyes. “And you are. I have no doubt about it. I saw you even before I knew your name, remember?”

I do remember. I remember him looking at me before he came over to the table.

“You have to know how afraid I’ve been that I would ruin everything. Staying away from you at first was torture…and when we finally got together? I couldn’t get enough of you. I fell so hard…so fast.” He pauses, his eyes meet mine, and I nod in understanding, pursing my lips to hold back my tears.

“That’s how it’s been for me too,” I tell him, my voice gravelly and uneven.

He breaks eye contact, closes his eyes and licks his lips. My hands are still in his, warmed up by the heat of his skin.

“These months…they have been some of the happiest I’ve had,” he says, and I have to let him know that’s how I feel, too.

I lean in and press my lips to his, softly, taking him by surprise. My mouth lingers on his, and it’s the most contact I can handle right now. A touch of his tongue would probably make me come undone. Too many emotions fight to occupy the confines of my heart, and I can’t decide how I feel.

But I’m sure of one thing.

“I can’t remember if I’ve ever been as happy as I am with you,” I tell him, but my words aren’t enough to reassure him.

“Are you about to pack up and leave?” he asks. “Because for some reason, that’s what it feels like.”

I give his hands a squeeze. “I don’t want to run away from you, Esteban.” Not now. Not today. Maybe, not ever, if I can work through the shock of this. His gaze softens as he exhales. My hands release his, and his arms wrap around me. I let him embrace me. “But I have to be honest with you. I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I feel like I’ve just been bestowed with an enormous responsibility. You’ve been waiting for me your whole life. I didn’t know you were ever going to be in mine until a few months ago. I need some time to come to terms with this.”

“Do you believe what I told you? Do you believe we’re fated to be together?”

“Honestly? I want to believe, but right now I don’t know how. All I know is that I never would have imagined that you’d become part of my life, but I’m so happy you are. I want you to know how important you are to me. I know I love you, but I’m also confused, Esteban. Now more than ever. It would be stupid not to question things, wouldn’t it? Would you expect me to accept everything you just told me without questioning it a little?”

“No, I wouldn’t. You’re right to be suspicious. And you’re right to be mad I didn’t tell you sooner. I just didn’t know how…I didn’t want to ruin what we had.”

Nodding, I press my lips against his, trying to heal his wounded ego, and I’m soon lost to the passion of his kiss, unraveling me and dissipating the doubts my mind keeps feeding me. When we break apart, I have to catch my breath.

“What if the shoe was on the other foot? What would you do if a girl came to you and told you she’s been waiting for you her whole life? You’d be a little freaked out by it, wouldn’t you?” He considers my words for a moment and lets out a deep breath.

“I suppose I would.” He reaches for one of my hands and holds it in his. He brings it to his mouth and then places it over his heart.

“This is why you’ve always looked at me like this,” I tell him adoringly, cupping his jaw.

“Like what?” he asks sheepishly.

“Like I’m destined for you.”

“It’s more than just that. I don’t even know if I fully believed the prophecy this whole time…but the night you walked into my life? I knew there was something about you, even before I knew your name.”

“I knew it too.” He smiles at me, reassured by my words.

“After everything happened, when we got to talk that night, I knew I couldn’t miss my chance.”

“I was desperate to see you the whole time we were apart. I wanted to tell you for weeks, but I was too ashamed of it and I didn’t want to freak you out. You were all I could think about and I didn’t understand why.”

“It was the same for me, and I had to stay away from you, remember? I had to make sure you were ready to move on. And then I got to know you and fell in love with you, the real you.”

“I fell in love with you too…and everything has been so perfect since. Almost…magical, in a way.” I laugh at my words.

“I know it’s hard for you to believe, but what else can I do? I love you. I didn’t think it was possible for me to fall for you the way I have, but it happened. I understand you’re confused, but prophecy or not, all I know is that you are my destiny and I have no choice but to wait for you to believe it too.”

 

 

My body is in California a few days later. But my mind? My mind stayed in New Mexico, along with my heart. My chest is heavy, and I’m conflicted about so many things.

It’s raining when I land in Los Angeles and everything plays like the sad part of a movie, before the hero and heroine are reunited. Are we going to be? Is there going to be a happily ever after? I don’t even know.

Things between Esteban and me have been slightly weird, and after the most recent revelations I’ve been holding back a little, but somehow, he doesn’t seem frustrated with me. He’s been trying to give me time and space to let me process what he told me. He knows better than to put more pressure on me when I have the divorce hearing in just a couple of days.

After that, I’ll have to box up everything I own and decide where my future will be.

Esteban told me to text him when I landed, so I do just that, and edit the text I send him to refrain from telling him I miss him already. I don’t want to give him false hope if I’m not one hundred percent convinced that I want to move permanently to Albuquerque and be with him.

We finally talked about it after he told me about the fortune teller.

He told me that of course he’d hoped I would want to move out there and be with him, but he hesitated to discuss it with me because he knew he had to tell me the whole truth first, and also because he wanted to make sure it was my decision alone.

“I love you,” he said last night before we parted ways, and even now the gravity and emotion in his voice echoes in my ears and my heart clenches, missing him even more.

“And I love you,” I replied to him. I held him tight to me and tears fell from my eyes. Just the thought of leaving him made me feel unsettled.

After I make it through arrivals, I take an Uber to Lily’s house. She opens the door and exclaims, “Darling! You’re here!” Then she kisses me on both cheeks, like a French girl. I frown, and she says, “You looked like you needed it. How’s Esteban?”

I sigh and explain everything, since I didn’t have a chance to do it over the phone.

She listens and gets incredibly excited hearing that Esteban and I might have been brought together not so much by chance but by fate, but then quiets down when I tell her I’m not sure what to think.

“What do you plan on doing?”

“I have no idea. I do like him…I love him, Lily. But now that I know everything I’m confused. I don’t know how I feel about all of this and I’m afraid I’ll end up hurting him. I don’t want that. I want to go back to him absolutely certain that it’s the right thing to do, you know?”

“I get it. You don’t want to let him down.”

“Your dad emailed me and said to meet him tomorrow for breakfast. Are you coming along?”

“Yep. It’ll be like old times, when you used to stay at our house. Only this time we’ll be discussing your divorce.” She makes a sympathetic face, and I groan.

“Har har. By the way, thank you for the hospitality.”

“Do you even have to say that? Are we friends or what?”

“You know you’re my best friend,” I tease her.

“Are you sure? What about Lupe? She sounds like she’s trying to replace me.” Lily cocks one suspicious eyebrow.

“Lupe is…a force of nature. She loves with all her heart. At first, she told Esteban to stay away from me because she knew I couldn’t possibly be ready to date, and then she nagged him to tell me the truth. However, I honestly believe she’ll have my head if I break her brother’s heart, so I better tread lightly.”