“Fair litmus test. The cards always seem consistent on this point.”
“One-card draw?”
I nod. “The fewer cards, the less likely we are to get confused.”
Chelsea turns over the top card and sets it down between us. It’s the Queen of Cups. “Interesting,” she says, nodding her head.
“All I remember is that the Queen of Cups is also the Queen of Hearts, and all I remember about her isAlice in Wonderland.”
Chelsea shakes her head. “No, she comes up over and over. She… Something about art? Love. I think Emily gets her a lot. Or was it me?”
“It was you.” I do remember the Queen of Cups. Because I always thought it was funny—it made me think of Solo cups, some kind of drinking game. It’s so hard for me to take this tarot game seriously. Chelsea always got the Queen of Cups. I wonder if this means Chelsea is supposed to end up with Emily or Chase. But itisjust a silly game. So I play along to make Chelsea happy. “Maybe it means they’ll get together, but only if you help them.”
She nods. “Interesting.” She looks down at the cards. “What next?”
“Will Ryan and Chase work out their problems?”
“Good one.” She flips another card. The Nine of Swords. It’s a pretty bleak-looking card. Nine swords hang in the air, pointing down at a woman bent with her head in her hands, apparently heartbroken. “Hmm.”
“All signs point to no,” I say.
“Well, it’s all in your interpretation. Maybe it just means they have to have a painful talk. It obviously goes way beyondRyan hitting on Mila. He doesn’t want anyone to know this, but Ryan was cut from the team.”
I clap a hand over my mouth. “So that’s why he was so upset about the lacrosse story at dinner.”
Chelsea nods emphatically. “Yeah. It’s a lot of things. Losing his place on the team, his grades are slipping, and Chase doesn’t get it. Ryan feels like he’s just losing everything right now. And honestly, I think Ryan really does feel weird about the Emily/Chase dynamic. I don’t know if there’s something new that I missed, but… he seemsreallyfed up with it.”
“Right.” My legs are starting to cramp under me, and I stretch them out. “I got that sense earlier, too.”
Chelsea tilts her head and looks over at me. “You don’t thinkRyan…?”
I burst out laughing and then clap my hand over my mouth, glancing down at the floor. We should wrap this up. “If Ryan ever had any interest in Chase, that ship has definitely sunk. But I don’t think so.”
“Right.” She hesitates. “So what were you implying earlier with the secret-lover thing?”
“Oh my god, Chelsea.” I flip my hair over my shoulder uncomfortably. “Look, obviously you and Ryan had some kind of thing while we were broken up.”
She shakes her head vehemently. “It’s not true.”
I stare at her. I don’t get it. There are lies that are justified, but right here, right now, I don’t understand how she can look at me and lie to my face. Not if she wants everything to go back to the way it was. “Something. Maybe not everything. But something happened.”
She pauses. “It’s not what you think. I wouldn’t betray you.”
“Then tell me.” I reach for her hand. “If you want us to trust each other, we have to be honest with each other. Screw everyone else. Screw Ryan and Chase and even Emily. We come first, we come last. What happened with Ryan?”
Chelsea meets my eyes for just a flickering second. “Nothing that matters. I love you.”
But she’s wrong. Everything matters. I gather the cards and set them down, face-up. The devil smiles up at us.
Chelsea slowly turns the card over. “We didn’t ask a question.”
“That one didn’t count,” I say.
But his grinning face sticks in my head as we climb back down the ladder, carefully fold it up, and join the rest of the group. The game is still dragging on, but no one seems to be feeling it. Mila is hanging over Chase’s shoulder, sipping a glass of the sangria. Chelsea was probably right about the drinking—we’ve been at it for a while now. I can feel a definite buzz, and it’s going to take a while to wear off. Chase is drumming his hands on the table, humming under his breath and rattling the hotels on his side of the board. Emily is glaring unabashedly up at Mila, fanning her money between her fingers, and Ryan is drinking straight brandy, no ice.
“Bored,” he says in a monotone.
“Guess I win, then?” Chase sweeps the contents of the board into the box, and Emily swats his arm.