“Hmm. He’s leaving at night-time. A coward’s move.”
“It’s not necessarily cowardly. Sometimes withdrawal can be a necessary refuge. And leaving in the dead of night can be to spare feelings.”
“So you forgive me for ghosting you?”
“For now. House eight, card eight. This one is going to represent your secrets. Are you ready?”
This one sounded intense. I nodded, and Ria flipped over the card. The ‘Nine of Swords’, which looked terrible.
“Someone despairing in bed, unable to sleep. There’s ten swords above him... or her. The background is jet black. Bad dreams?”
She nodded. “Bad dreams, turmoil, worry, depression... You said your sleep routine isn’t the best. Is there something keeping you up at night?”
This was hitting a bit too close. I had that urge again, the one to end the session and swiftly depart. Except this was my office. I could invent an emergency. Except it would be stupid to pretend to pick up a fake call. And Ria would know, of course, because we’d discussed me ghosting her, and I’d just had that card, that cowardly Eight of Cups.
My spiral was interrupted by a sudden scuffle and a flutter. I looked up.
“Whoops.” Ria had knocked the card onto the floor. She didn’t look ashamed this time, though. “Can you get that for me?”
I furrowed my brow. “Sure.”
Under the table, I wondered what game she was playing. It almost seemed like she’d done it on purpose, but she had enough plausible deniability that it would be weird for me to question her. When I retrieved the card from where it had fallen – underneath her chair almost, and the warmth of her thighs that I could almost feel radiating to me, which would have made me blush if I were so inclined – I climbed back up onto my chair and handed it to her.
She was glowing with a strange energy. “Thanks.” Without another word, she put it back into its place. “The next card represents your dreams, and potential for growth. Let’s see. Ah. The Fool.”
“TheFool?” I craned to look at the card. I was also dimly realizing that she’d maybe sensed I needed a break from the cards and that’s why she’d dropped one. I was grateful – I was less tense now. Or at least, I was a little moresexuallytense from being close to her thighs. I was less emotionally tense. “Let me guess, this one doesn’t mean I’m a total fool, somehow? Or is this a trick card, and it does mean I’m a fool?”
“Hmm. Tell me what you see.”
“Well, he’s not wearing a jester’s hat. Nice tunic, some kind of staff. Oh and there’s a weird little ferret rearing onto its hind legs next to him. It’s sunny. Oh... but he’s about to step off a cliff. That does seem quite foolish.”
“Is he foolish, or is he brave?”
“Well, it depends what’s at the bottom of the cliff, I suppose.”
She smiled. “Exactly. The Fool speaks to new beginnings, potential, opportunity, the start of a new journey, being open-minded. It might be bold of me to suggest that your new beginning starts here, with your new partnership with me... but... it’s a possibility.”
“You sell your services well. Did you cheat, count the cards?”
“If I could do that, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be at the casino, or home with all my riches.”
“Fair enough. Well, I don’t know what kind of new beginning I’m supposed to be dreaming of, but it doesn’t sound so bad. Even if it could be foolish.”
Ria winked across the table at me. “A few cards left. Tenth house, your career. We’ve got... Seven of Swords.”
“A lot of swords, isn’t there? Well, this one looks bad, too. This guy is carrying five swords. There’s still two on the ground. He might be struggling to hold them all, so he has to leave two behind. Except he looks kind of smug and sneaky, he doesn’t look unhappy. Is he... stealing someone else’s swords? Sneaking off into... the desert?”
“He is, most likely, yes.”
“So does that mean that I’m sneaky in my career? Or it’s a tricky career?”
“It can mean a betrayal.” Ria had gone a little serious in her expression. “By you, or by someone else.”
RIA
Abetrayal. And we’d been getting on so well. I tried to push Apollo out of my mind, but all of the guilt I already felt for the way Forest and I had met rose to the surface. Maybe now was the time to come clean. If we were to have a trusting relationship, I’d need to. But...
“Next card?” Forest was looking at me expectantly. He didn’t seem too worried about the betrayal card. Maybe he was planning to betray someone and so it didn’t faze him. But he didn’t seem the type.