“I found them.” Soraya’s cheeks got warm.
“Do you want to draw a new card?”
Soraya shrank back. “I think I’ve dabbled enough for one night.”
“You don’t seem like you’re freaked out.”
“I feel like ... I’m tired of letting everybody else tell me what I want or don’t want. What’s wrong and what’s right. I feel ... I feel like I’m okay.”
She kept thinking about what Aggie had said, that this didn’t require her to turn away from her whole belief system. It wasn’t turning away from God. But of course she would have told Aggie that her beliefs were wrong.
Aggie was less judgmental than she was.
A shock to her, since she’d been told it was people like Aggie who wouldn’t accept her.
“I’m doing it. I’m giving you a reading.” Nora started to shuffle the deck in her hands. She cut it three times and then pulled a card off the top while looking at Daisy. “Six of Wands.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll have to look at the book.” Nora set the cards down on the table and pulled out the guidebook. “Victory. Success. Bringing out the best in others.”
“That’s better than the Tower,” Daisy said.
“No kidding.” Nora cut the deck again three times, looking at Soraya. “Queen of Cups.”
“I have no idea what that is,” said Soraya.
“Romance.” Nora raised her eyebrows. “Seduction. Focusing on what moves the soul. Slow and deliberate pleasure.”
Soraya blinked. “Could not be me.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re going to have a fling.”
“Save me. I can’t do witchcraft and fornication.” She was sort of kidding, but just saying that made a zip of something go down her spine.
“Why not? Your husband was doing it.”
“I’m not really worried about sex.” After the explicit clip of Nora’s husband, Soraya didn’t think she’d be aroused for ... a while.
“I kind of am,” said Daisy. “I’ve been celibate for two months, and our sex life was garbage for a year before that. It sucks.”
“Sorry.” Nora didn’t look sorry. “The Wands didn’t say anything about seduction.”
“What aboutyou?” Daisy asked.
Nora took a breath. “Okay. Do me.”
Daisy frowned when she looked at the card. “Two of Wands.” She picked up the guidebook. “The choice between your comfort zone and new adventures.” She shut the book.
Nora scowled. “It doesn’t really feel like an adventure.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never really wanted to be adventurous,” Soraya said. “I feel like this is why. It’s kind of scary.”
“I didn’t think I was going to be doing a whole ... new life.” Nora picked at her nail polish. “I thought I would get over this bump in the road.”
“Well,” Daisy began. “You are separated. Maybe he intended to come back and have whatever happened during the break be ... not a thing.”
“The problem with that is we didn’t discuss sleeping with other people. I look like we might, but we don’t have an open marriage.”
