About What You Wish For
Written by Alex Marcus-Jacobs
34 pages / 16500 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-777-0, 1-60370-777-8
Available file types - html,
lit, pdf, prc, epub, Sony-optimized pdf
Jared Cross is a desperate man. After an unending string of failed relationships and messy break-ups, he's at the end of his rope. So when his best friend's cousin offers to perform a Tarot reading for him he figures he has nothing to lose.
When that same reading reveals a few truths he's not yet ready to accept, Jared makes his way to a new nightclub to lose himself for a few hours. Wanting at first to be left alone, Jared strikes up a conversation with Nicol Romanenko, the owner and manager of the club. Much of what Nicol says resonates with Jared, right up until the moment Nicol makes a rather startling proposition.
Sample
Snowflakes fell from the sky, millions of tiny little crystals of ice, each and every one of them unique. As he stepped out the door of the upscale restaurant called the Hyacinth, Jared Cross silently wondered to himself if those myriad shapes falling about him represented the number of failed relationships and false starts he would have to weather before finding just the right girl. Not five minutes before, he’d told Alex, his girlfriend of six months, that he just didn't feel right in the relationship. She'd not taken it well, and had even tried to guilt him into staying, but he'd known that he had to end it after their most recent (and disastrous) love-making session.
Breathing a sigh of regret, he took a few steps out into the night. The door behind him opened, and for just a moment he was worried that Alex had followed him out, to continue her begging and pleading at the side of the busy city street. He didn't know if he had the heart to listen to it again, and knew that if he'd had to deal with her for even a little longer, he would’ve lost his resolve and caved in.
With no small measure of dread, Jared turned to see who had opened the door. When he saw only two other patrons of the Hyacinth, he breathed a sigh of relief. Pulling his trench coat around him tighter to ward off the cold, he began to walk down the street toward the bus stop when his phone buzzed. Once again, he felt dread and apprehension wash through him, along with the tiniest flash of hope, that Alex was now trying to call him. Drawing it out from the small pocket on the inner lining of his coat, he looked at the name on the tiny screen.
Confused by the disappointment he felt on seeing that it wasn't her, he answered the phone. "What do you want, Jess? You knew what I was doing tonight. Don't you have any fucking decency?" he said, irritated at himself more than the caller for letting himself feel so conflicted about Alex. Normally he'd not talk to his best friend like that, but the torrent of emotions left him feeling drained.
When Jess responded, there was a bit of hurt in his voice, and Jared immediately felt bad for being so harsh. "Come on, Jaybird... you know I'm looking out for you. I wanted to know how it went. Figured you'd not answer if you were still, well, you know?"
Jared grunted a little. "It went as could be expected, I guess. She didn’t take it too well. There was much crying and begging. I almost didn't do it. Hell, I almost want to go back in and try it all over again."
The tone in Jess' voice as he responded was severe. "No you don't, Jaybird. You know it won't work, and you know what could happen otherwise. Need I mention--"
"No, Jess, you don't," Jared cut his friend off, and retorted, "Now, is there a reason for this call? Because what I really want to do is go home and play Everworld for a few hours and fucking forget that the real world exists."
"Nuh-huh, Jaybird, you are not going home and moping. Let's go out. Have a little fun. Come on now, hop on the route eight bus and get over here. I'll give you a dollar." Jess laughed a little, making Jared smile a bit despite himself. The last line was the delivered the same way he always did when asking Jared to do something, with a little bit of a sing-song tone and a hint of mirth.
If the route eight bus had not somehow mystically appeared at the bus stop in front of Jared right at that moment, he might not have given in. Instead, he found himself responding, "All right, Jess, I'll be there in twenty. Have a hard lemonade open for me?"
"Already in the freezer, man. See you soon."