Page 17 of Should Our Stars Collide

Jesus Christ, the weirdo is actually enjoying this.

“Yeah, look…” Kieran discreetly pushes his chair back. “This is all very fascinating, but I gotta run.”

“You don’t want to know more about your soulmate?” Zeke asks, pouting.

“Not really.”

“But—”

“Soulmates don’t exist,” Kieran says with finality. “It’s all about finding a person who doesn’t completely suck or make you miserable 24/7, so you can live in a two-income household and reproduce. I’m not interested.” Throwing back whatever is left of his coffee, he stands up, leaving the cup for Zeke to get rid of.

“Soulmates do exist!”

“Sure, sure. Well, I don’t need one.”

“Oh.” Zeke blinks, his expression going from defensive to sympathetic. “I see what the problem is.”

“That this is all just a bunch of woohoo crap?”

“Nope.” He pops the ‘p’. “It’s not that you don’t believe in soulmates, it’s that you don’t think you deserve love.”

“Oh my god,” Kieran cries, marching towards the exit. It’s one thing to sit and listen to Zeke’s psychic bullshit, but now he’s gonna turn it into a therapy session? Fuck no. “You and Gabe really are birds of a feather.” But at least Gabe isn’t so persistent.

“But Gabe can’t see the future, unlike me.”

“Yeah? Do you see me walking out of this door and never coming back?”

“Oh, you’ll be back. And you’ll owe me an apology when I prove to you that you do have a soulmate.”

“You’re gonna prove it, huh?”

“Yeah.” Folding his arms over his chest, Zeke leans back with a self-satisfied smirk. “I know a spell.”

“A spell.”

“A love spell.”

“A love spell. Right.” Kieran pushes the door open. “Well, why don’t you do that, and in the meantime I’ll try to get myself laid?”

“You don’t have a romantic bone in your body!” Zeke complains.

“There’s only one bone I care about right now.” Kieran grins slyly, saluting him. “Laters.”

Before he even makes it to his car, Zeke throws the door open and yells after him, “Just wait and see! One day you’ll wake up and the love of your life will be right there next to you! And I’ll be there to tell you ‘I told you so’!”

Kieran speeds up, not wanting anyone to see him associate with a lunatic.

A soulmate. Right. He already has one. It’s called tequila. The one girl in the whole world who’s stuck by him through his highs and lows. In fact, he has a date with her tonight. At least then he’ll be able to forget about Zeke’s stupid shrink comment.

4

Tapping his fingers against the bar top, Kieran sweeps his gaze over his surroundings. People. So many people. He needs to press down on his leg to keep it from bouncing nervously. How is he supposed to talk to a girl with so many eyes around? He really misses the security of the phone screen.

Damned Dawson. This is all his fault. Why does he have to be all reasonable and shit?

Whatever. Tonight is the night—he’s gonna approach a nice girl and charm the pants off her. But first things first—liquid courage. While it might be wiser to stay sober, since experience has shown he tends to do and say stupid shit when he’s drunk, this is an emergency.

On cue, the bartender slides a shot-glass towards him. “Here you go.”