High Priestess

2.3

Walking into the bar, it was smokey and Sharon's voice was filling the background of the pretty full Jazz Club. Stevie waved to Sharon briefly who faltered slightly and what scared Stevie was after the song had finished, Sharon immediately retreated to the corner of the stage and faked taking a drink of something but Stevie knew that Robin was having a vision. 

It worried her slightly, but she just pulled Lindsey to the bar and they made themselves cozy. In the surprisingly full club, the only ones at the bar just so happened to be Lindsey and Stevie. 

"So you and Mick are in a...what did you call it a business marriage?" Lindsey asks.

"Yeah, it's a...it's a long story." Stevie sighs as the barman comes up to them.

"What can I get you guys?" 

"Um, I'll have a bourbon. What are you getting?" Lindsey looks to Stevie.

"Oh um, a long island iced tea." She smiles.

"Long Island, she and I are on the same tab tonight," Lindsey replies.

"Oh you don't have to..."Stevie starts.

"I want to...tell me your story," Lindsey demands as the barman hands them their drinks.

"Well, I came to Los Angeles to start a business. Divinity. I um, I plan to sell like Tarot Cards and Crystals. Sharon, the lady singing is my best friend she can tell fortunes and we are going in on it together with two other women. Hopefully, it'll open around Valentine's Day...Um, we couldn't get an investor so Mick offered up a contracted marriage. He would take care of the funding for Divinity if I married him and let him make the decision on where the shop was going to be and the hours we'd be open and so on and so forth. I agreed because my friends and I had been working towards this for years with absolutely no luck. But a year in and he still hasn't even taken an interest and he told me just a couple of weeks ago that he has no intention of helping us with the business. Luckily Robin, one of the other girls I'm going to work with...well her grandmother died so she inherited a lot of money and that's how we got everything together. But I'm stuck in this contracted marriage and I hate it. I absolutely hate it." She states sipping her drink.

"Contracts can be broken you know." Lindsey shrugs.

"I know that, and when I tried to say that to him after I found out he wasn't going to help me, he flat out said that I'm locked in because there were no dates or anything stated in the contract. It was honestly so stupid of me to sign the damned thing." Stevie sighs laying her head in her hands. 

"That's Bull Shit, you can get out of it, you just have to be smart about it. Anyway, you should tell me about yourself." Lindsey urges 

"Oh, what's there to tell. I was born in Phoenix Arizona, I have a younger brother named Christopher. My parents are Barbara and Jess. My dad was the head of Greyhound, he retired at the end of 76 and that's when they moved from San Francisco back to Phoenix. We traveled a lot for my dad's work. Despite being born in Arizona, I grew up in Dallas, Chicago, We were here in Los Angeles for a hot minute, and ultimately San Francisco. At least that's where we were the longest and I graduated high school from there. Menlo Atherton Class of 1966 at your service. God, I'm so old...I'm 29...Jesus Christ. I got a degree from San Jose State, Business, and Speech Communication. My aunt's Carmel and Alice got me into the Crystals and Tarot Readings, and such." Stevie shrugs.

"It's all a crock of shit in my opinion." Lindsey shrugs.

"What?" Stevie asks.

"Magic and Crystals and such. It's a crock of shit. They're literally colorful rocks. And Tarot's and Fortunes they're stupid. It's just someone making a false statement about something. Half of the time they don't even come true." Lindsey explains.

"Well, every time I've done it they have...but they are not just rocks they have healing properties, and they change the environment...Oh who am I kidding, there's no use in educating you it's just going to go in one ear and right out the other." She shakes her head. 

"Well, I was born and raised in San Francisco. Menlo Atherton class of 1967 at your service. I actually just turned 29 in October. You do kind of look familiar." Lindsey points.

"Do I...well you certainly don't." Stevie shakes her head.

"You do, you remind me of a girl that approached me. I was playing my guitar. California Dreaming, I was at some church social thing on a Wednesday night. I'm not religious or anything, but it was just my way of getting out of the house." Lindsey shrugs.

"Lindsey...that was me...I went to a Wednesday Chruch thingy too and I remember going up to a boy with blue denim eyes. Short almost buzzed hair, and I knew he was on the swim team but that's about it. I never got his name I just sang California Dreaming with him." She states.

"Well I was on the swim team and in high school, my mother made sure my hair was well tamed, not like this." He chuckles running his fingers through his afro-like brown curls.

"No, you can't tell me that Destiny is a crock of shit. There was some divine intervention that wanted us to meet again." Stevie points out.

"Okay, I'll give you that one." Lindsey nods

They had just started their second round of drinks when chords that they both knew very well started playing through the bar and Sharon started singing California Dreaming.

"Sharona...you're kidding," Stevie says loudly enough for Sharon to hear it and she masks a chuckle as she sings. 

"Mick doesn't dance with me..." Stevie says after a beat.

"What?" Lindsey asks.

"Mick never slow dances with me, Lindsey do you think you could?" Stevie inquires.

"I don't see why not, come on." Lindsey grabs her hand and leads her to the middle of the floor.

They sway to the sound of the music and Stevie closes her eyes against Lindsey's heart feeling butterflies stir up in her stomach and the overwhelming feeling of comfort and belonging fluttered through her. She felt safe with Lindsey like she belonged to him. Like they were two halves of a whole and at that moment she had let one lone tear slip down her face.