Natasha Sizlo - All Signs Point to Paris: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Destiny

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

HarperCollinsPublishers

1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road

Dublin 4, Ireland

First published in the US by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2022

This UK edition published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2022

FIRST EDITION

Natasha Sabrina Sizlo 2022

Cover layout design HarperCollinsPublishers 2022

Cover illustration Hea Eun Han

Le Jardin by Jacques Prvert in Paroles copyright Editions Gallimard 1949.

Star-Crossed from All the Boys I Never Kissed is reprinted courtesy of Nicolette Daskalakis.

Natasha Sabrina Sizlo asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Designed by Emily Snyder

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780008508425

Ebook Edition August 2022 ISBN: 9780008508432

Version 2022-07-28

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

• Change of font size and line height
• Change of background and font colours
• Change of font
• Change justification
• Text to speech
• Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008508425

For my sister, Tara

For my mother, Edna

And for my father, the Great Bob Sizlo

The wind beneath my wings

This book is the true story of my quest for love. As such, a persons truth is subjective and I recognize that some peoples memories of the events described in this book may be different from my own. To protect privacy, certain names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed. Dialogue and events have been re-created from memory and, in some cases, have been compressed to convey the essence of what was said or what occurred. Due to the confidential nature of the real estate industry, the houses, sellers, and buyers mentioned in this book are a composite of the many transactions I have been privy to throughout my career in Los Angeles real estate. This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians, real estate advice, or the guidance of an astrologer. The voices in my head are all real.

Each chapter opens with a short passage about one of the twelve houses of the zodiac. These passages are meant to spark both curiosity and introspection. The renowned astrologer Stephanie Jourdan, PhD, advised me in writing them, but any errors are mine.

12:37 a.m.

Paris

W hat the hell was that? Tara said as we rounded the corner. She stopped cold on the sidewalk and turned to me, eyes wide.

We stood in the soft glow of a streetlight. My pulse pounded. Was that real? Did I just meet I dont know, I replied, catching my breath. He just appeared. Out of nowhere. Like in a dream. He said hes a writer. Working on something about love and destiny. And hes only in Paris for tonight. I dont understand what just happened. It all felt so familiar.

Oh my God, could he be The One? Holy shit, Tasha, you have to go back. Right now. Before he disappears.

But is that weird? I mean, hes probably gone inside the hotel by now. How would I find him? He could be in the bar or on his way to his room. What am I going to do, knock on every door? I dont even know his name.

Yes. That is exactly what you should do. After what weve been through in Paris, not to mention this past year, you running through the streets after the hottest guy in all of Europe is literally the most not weird thing. He said it himselfyou just had a brush with destiny. Does a crystal ball have to fall from the sky and hit you on the head? Its meant to be. This guy might be your soulmate.

This wasnt how Id pictured it. I was supposed to be dressed in my midnight-blue velvet gown, with strappy heels, a smoky eye, and the sexiest lingerie in my suitcase. My hair was supposed to be a cascade of effortless waves, damn it. I glanced down at my chipped nails, at my jeans and boots, then back to the Htel Costes, its grand outline just barely visible in the dark.

Tara sighed. Isnt this what you came here for?

She was right. I was supposed to be running toward instant sparks and undeniable magic, not walking coolly away. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to focus on where I was and why: A cobblestone sidewalk on rue Saint-Honor in the first arrondissement, the windows of Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Louis Vuitton dim around us. The heart of Paris. Love. The Eiffel Tower glittered in the distance, a spire made of stars bright against the vast black sky.

Stars. Id followed them halfway across the globe, all the way to Paris, in search of love. No joke. Im not dreaming, am I?

Its late, but youre not dreaming. I was there too. Theres something about him. Hes different from the others.

Shit. Was I really going to do this? Break the one promise I had made in Paris, forget about my crack-of-dawn wake-up call, and run back to a hotel that we werent even staying at in search of a possibly destined-for-me man Id only just sort of met? I couldnt believe it, but my sensible, look-before-you-leap big sister was ordering me to do exactly that.

Maybe it was a sign?

If only the stars could truly tell me what to do.

T he starting point of an astrological chart, the First House, is also the starting point of a persons life. The chart, a circle, is divided into twelve portions called houses. Each house represents a field of potential power and growth, such as relationships, health, money, or purpose. When you were born, each of the planets, along with the sun and the moon, were in one of the twelve houses. Sometimes more than one planet occupies a house, and sometimes a house is empty. A birth chart (also called a natal chart) reflects where the planets and luminaries were positioned on the date, minute, and location of a persons birth. The chart changes roughly every four minutes, which is why having your time and place of birth is important.

The First House is about how you define yourself. Appearances. Beginnings. It invites us to ask, Do I like this? Does this feel good? What do I want? How do I get what I want? The First House also reflects your first seven years and how those formative years created both your personality and alter ego that later becomes your other side, your partner in life. The alter ego consists of aspects that are discarded from the whole of a persons identity, but they are not lost. The aspects reside as the alter ego in the Seventh House and are a gold mine of hidden wisdom, talents, and desires.