Only Where Roads Take Us

Barcelona II

I walk with James up La Rambla, the most famous street in Barcelona and find a tent outside a large museum opposite the Christopher Columbus statue standing proudly in the sun. James and I both go to enter the tent when a short woman with dreadlocks and a long patterned skirt and long earrings comes out telling James to wait on the bench next to the statue and invites me inside. 

She sits me down on a cushioned chair around a table with a large fishbowl full of water in the middle and burning twigs of incense on the other side. I sit politely while she takes my hand and mumbles something in Spanish as she reads my palms. She then stares into the water to see my reflection. I stay confused yet in awe of how she can read me so easily. 

"You are extremely lucky." She says pushing the bowl of water away from her staring up at me with a smile. 

"How do you mean?" I ask. 

"Love is strange." She says "I haven't quite got an answer yet." 

The fortune teller pulls a wax candlestick out from under the table and places it in front of me and lights it. I am told to watch the flame carefully and not let myself be distracted. The flame waves gently as I focus on it intensely. I flinch and jump back when the flame breaks to one side and the teller blows out the candle. 

"Just as I thought." she began. "You don't realise but your love is waiting for you. You haven't seen him as a partner before other than a colleague and a friend. I see a promising relationship blossoming." She says clapping her hands happily. I thank her and pass her some money and leave the tent where I see James sat on a bench scrolling through photos on his phone. 

"Hi." He says with a smile offering me a seat next to him on the bench. "How was it?" He asks.

"Fascinating." I say confused and trying to process what the fortune teller had said. James sits up and walks over to the tent and enters leaving me on my own. I watch him go and sigh. 

I had an amazing best friend. 

I sit and wind myself mad about James. I tried to cancel out all my colleagues I was really close to:

David? 

Rob?

Alex? 

Couldn't be. James knew so much more about me and had seen me through thick and thin. I question myself about him all day. 

A few moments later James reappears from the tent, making me jump as I am lost in thought. We walk together around the street and even take a few selfies with Columbus' statue behind us. I ask James about the fortune teller but he smirks and stays quiet. 

I begin to wonder if we had both been told the same thing. What did he know that I didn't? I was going mad over this. Barcelona has so many secrets that I have to unlock. 

For the rest of the day I watch James' behaviour carefully as only I can admit that there is something in the air between us that is now different, I just can't put a pin on what it really is.