A Goddess Wears Orange

Chapter 13

The booths officially closed at five in the afternoon. Luck continued to be on Yumi’s side that day. At around four, a bunch of Ren’s teammates carted him off to some meeting regarding the basketball exhibition game on Friday, leaving Yumi free to head toward to the garden shortly after five, without her Goddess-trainer/attendant hovering over her shoulder. 

The garden was empty when she got there. She sat down at a bench and waited. Some minutes later, Laurence appeared, holding his cellphone in one hand. 

“Okay, I’m here.” He pocketed his phone as he walked over to her. His entire demeanor was neutral, neither welcoming nor hostile, which Yumi chose to take as good news. He didn’t look like he was going to immediately rebuff her, at least. 

Nervously, she got to her feet. He stopped when he was a few feet away, close enough to hear her but still well out of her reach. “Um, thanks for coming,” she began, then her mind blanked out. Good grief, hadn’t she mentally practiced her speech enough times already? 

“What’s with that?” 

She followed his gaze to the orange in her hands. “Oh, this? It helps me. It, um, keeps me from catching colds. Vitamin C is good for you, you know,” she said with a weak laugh. 

He looked momentarily confused, then shrugged. Sensing that the conversation was going nowhere, she took a deep breath and dived in. “I want to apologize to you for accidentally reading your threads—I mean, your love-fortune. And I know I said something weird about it, but I really was trying not to tell the truth back then. Also, um, you see, I wanted to tell you—” 

“It’s true, isn’t it?” he said, cutting her off. “You really do have ESP.” 

Yumi hesitated, then nodded. “When you agreed to—to help set me up, you didn’t believe I could do anything, did you? You thought Pauline was just being superstitious, or that I was a kooky fraud trying to get attention. But afterward…I don’t blame you for being scared of me or for thinking I’m a witch. And even though you don’t have any reason at all to trust me, I want you to know that I will never, ever tell anyone about the things I felt from you.” She looked him straight in the eye, letting him know how serious she was. “You never meant for anyone to find out, and that’s how it will stay, until you decide to talk to someone else about it. I promise you that.” 

Laurence closed his eyes as if pained. Then he moved until he drew alongside her, propping a foot on the bench and leaning on his knee. “Thanks, I guess. What did you sense from me, anyway?” 

She sighed. A few short weeks ago, she would not even have waited for him to ask that before she rattled off every one of his innermost secrets, like a gossip revealing all the juicy tidbits she knew. It was a testament to how much she’d changed that she was wavering now. No, it was a testament to how much Ren had changed her. The thought was bittersweet. “Do you really want me to tell you?” she asked. 

He looked at her intently. “Yeah. Tell me everything.” 

She nodded, then summoned the memory of his threads and let the words come. “There’s a woman. Her name is Rhea, and she’s your mother’s friend. She’s beautiful and she seems to treat you really nicely. She’s the one who gave you the dog. A black and white one.” 

He smiled. “Beanie. Yeah, she’s a great dog. The day I got her was one of the best days of my life, which was why I freaked out when you said I was in love with my dog.” 

Yumi shook her head. “It’s not the dog you’re in love with, or you think you’re in love with. It’s Rhea. But Laurence, I felt the emotional thread connecting you to her, and it felt terrible. What she’s doing to you…she makes you burn, but it’s hurting you. You’ve got to find a way to stop it before it—she tears you to pieces.”