She will kick herself in the morning when she woke with a pounding headache and an empty wallet.

“You worried about your new job?” the psychic said.

Bette just shrugged her shoulders, fingered the penguin pendant that hung from the delicate gold chain around her neck, and looked off toward Alice, Shane, Jenny and Helena who was the one who came up with the idea. They were pointing and laughing.

Bette crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at them.

The woman cleared her throat.

“I guess,” Bette said, straightening her back.

The woman cocked her head to the side. “You don’t believe, huh?”

Bette just shrugged her shoulders.

“Your job is fine. You’re doing just fine.”

The woman pulled Bette’s hand close to her face.

“Hmmmmmm,” she sounded, and Bette pinched her lips together to keep from smiling.

“You have a question. Ask it,” the woman said without looking up.

Bette hadn’t sat down with a question in mind. Was a question like a wish? Did she get three? Would they come true? She had to pick carefully, then. A giggle escaped her, and she moved her free hand to cover her mouth.

The woman raised her eyes, and a slow smile took over her lips.

“You are lonely, yes? You want to know will your soul mate every return.”

Bette twisted in her chair. “Well……….,” she started but the woman cut her off.

“You have been alone for awhile. Someone……….”

The woman’s eyes narrow, and she shook her head.

“Christina?” she said, and waited for Bette to react, but Bette kept a straight face, even though the liquor seemed to be draining from her body, even though her heart was thumping loudly in her chest.

“Christina, she hurt you even though you act as if she didn’t.”

Bette was sober now. She looked over at her friends again. Did Helena set this up? How did this woman know about Tina?

Bette started to feel angry.

“You have a question. Ask it,” the woman said again, and waited.

Bette wanted her hand back, wanted to get up and slap each and every one of those smiling faces she had thought were her friends. What kind of cheap trick were they trying to run on her?

It wasn’t funny, not at all.

Bette looked at the woman and scowled.

“There is someone coming back. She will be loving and looking for love, not like your last lover.”

Bette smirked.

“I see the name Jewel,” she said, and her dark eyes bore into Bette’s.

“Do you know a Jewel?”

It couldn’t be, Bette thought, Candace Jewel.

“No.” Bette lied.

“Hmmmm, this woman has very tired feet, she has been walking through your life for many years.”

Bette said nothing.

“The two of you have been together in a former life.”

Bette rolled her eyes.

“You will meet again at a gathering.”

The woman stopped, bit her lip, and looked a bit more intensely into Bette’s palm.

“Not a wedding, but……,” she trailed off. “I see a full moon. Music.”

Bette really wanted her hand back. No way in hell would she get back with Candace. The woman sensing Bette’s uneasiness and skepticism, released her hand.

“Twenty dollars,” she announced, and presented Bette with her own open palm.

Bette put the key in the ignition and headed to see the woman who had came back into her life and change it for the better.

TBC