Did The Stars Align?

Recently I met up with some friends, for a coffee, we had planned months in advance to meet, but in the small group of us who would be there was one person I wasn’t keen to have coffee with, it would have been perfect if she wasn’t going to be there, but it was out of my control and I am big enough to not let it bother me too much, to turn around and ask that she not attend would cause too much trouble and it might stir things up, so I decided to just accept it.

The day arrived, and it was lovely to see everybody even her, she seemed in a nice mood and friendly enough. Drinks were ordered, mine of course was a hot chocolate, sweet and with lots of cream on top.

The atmosphere was good, in fact much better than I could have hoped for. And as we all talked and laughed all my worries faded.

Then we talked about birthdays, why that should come up was strange in itself. Luan that is her name, the one I was dreading, we mentioned dates and that we were born in the same month, and our birthdays were a certain number apart, then it turned out during the course of the conversation that she was a certain amount of age older than myself, it was all getting a bit strange and I could feel the hairs on my legs standing on end, metaphorically speaking, then the two others at the table pipped up and things got stranger and stranger, we all seemed to be connected with these set of numbers, we couldn’t get away from these numbers, it was like they were simply given to us, effortlessly, it was as clear at that. It was proper fascinating, and we just couldn’t understand the uniqueness of it all, none of us there could deny it, the numbers that connected us all together, even the time we met up, the table number, us four, finally the bill itself! WOW! It wasn’t a penny less nor a penny more, it was the exact number. The numbers kept repeating itself, we just couldn’t get away from it.

Luan looked at the time on the wall, there it was again, that same exact number. Luan said, “There is a newsagent across the street, I’m going over now to buy a lottery ticket.” None of us did the lottery, some of us had done it briefly in the past but that was many years ago. The last time I did the lottery was about ten years ago, I did it for one year the same numbers every Saturday and had won zilch! But I didn’t see it as a waste of money, I had set out what I wanted to do and had got it off my chest. There were no regrets.

We all decided to do the lottery too and quickly put our pound on the table, I said, “I think it went up a few years ago,” Louisa looked it up on her phone and sure enough it had gone up to two pounds, so we put another pound on the table.

We decided on the numbers again, so we were all clear what numbers we were going to all put forward, “The table number, us four, the month, the time, our ages apart, my birth date and Luan’s.”

Luan said, “I’m going to ask the newsagent Sales Assistant to put the tickets on at the exact time,” We were all SO excited and all started to talk at once. We watched at Luan went across the road opposite the café.

On her return she said, “I asked the shopkeeper to put it on the exact time and he did, and I’d said, ‘don’t ask,’ he waited until it was that time.” She handed the tickets to us and for a moment there was silence as we looked at them.

I then said to Luan, “What would you do with your money?” She replied, “I would open a little shop,” I added, “And where would you like to go on holiday?” Luan said, “Somewhere in Greece,” I asked the others and it was lovely to hear their replies, then it was my turn, “I’d love to go to Malta for one year, and forget about Brexit, I’ve never been, but that’s the only place I’d like to go.”

Luan asked us all, “What would you buy first?” I replied, “I’d buy a leather jacket a fitted leather dress, leather shoes, leather handbag, and I’d pay off my mortgage.”

Louisa said, “I’d go to Bora Bora,” And showed us some beautiful pictures of the country on her phone, it was indeed beautiful, just like paradise. Louisa continued, “I would buy something for £100 and see it come out of my account to know that it was real and not a dream, and that millions would still be there, I wouldn’t believe it, until I have the cheque and that it is all official.”

We all debated about our various jobs, would we leave straightaway? Or would we give notice? We all decided we would give notice, as it would take time for it all to sink in.

We were all happy, I had warmed to Luan and had seen her in a completely different light, but she was very cautious the most in the group, to reassure her I said, “Maybe the stars have aligned,” I really wanted the best for her now.

Macie said, “I would have a tummy tuck, new teeth, my hair done and I’d move.” Looking at her, I didn’t think she needed new teeth, tummy tuck or her hair done, she looked stunning!  

To celebrate we all had another drink and this time a cake too….. watch this space.