The Last Card

The Lovers

My skirt lay discarded on the floor. I didn't even know where my top had ended up. I barely remembered deciding that the clothes were coming off.

It started with a kiss on Valentine's Day at the end of the work day. It should have been just a simple kiss―but there had been nothing simple about it. It was like a spark that unleashed an inferno. The kiss wasn't enough. His touches weren't enough.

The curtains of the shop were closed―only the faint light of candles brought a hint of illumination. At one point, I looked up from the table and saw our shadows entwined together.

The old table creaked and shook; expensive cards falling down to join the rest on the floor.

Nothing in the cards could have prepared me for this moment. No man had ever made me cry out this way.

He was the Magician―transforming the mundane to the mystic.

I was the Empress―embracing the joy of love.

If the passion was something entirely new, the aftermath was a revelation. I never had a man take me in his arms, stroke my skin and inhale the scent of my hair.

But I didn't feel as if I had been cheated by my past―I felt like the present had just given me a gift.

A gift more precious than a crown of stars.

"You are so beautiful," he whispered.

My stomach churned. No man had ever called me beautiful―at least not sincerely. "You didn't say that earlier."

His velvety chuckle made me tingle. "You were wearing a torn up top and an ugly long skirt. You look much better now."

"Now I'm not wearing it?"

He kissed me. "Yes―but you were always beautiful. Even in that horrible outfit."

I flushed at the compliment and picked up a card to distract myself. Somehow I wasn't surprised that it was his present card from earlier.

The Lovers.

The querent looked at the card. "What do you know? The cards were right."

"We see what we want in the cards," I told him. "You saw the card and decided you knew what it meant for your present."

"Are you sure that it didn't end up there on purpose?" he teased. "I thought you were dropping a hint."

I giggled. Since last November, we hadn't gone this far. We spent so much time together. He made me watch movies like Kangaroo Jack and I took him to a Tori Amos concert. He even bought Meadow a box full of presents for Christmas.

But we still hadn't crossed that line. It would have been easy to stack the deck tonight―I had considered it more than once. But I considered myself a professional.

A professional who just used the table for something completely unprofessional.

"You chose the card―not me," I told him.

He didn't use logic to dispute it. Instead, the querent touched the card. "I like how they are naked in the picture," he whispered. "Dirty."

"No―quite the opposite. It's a sign of purity. They wear nothing because they hide nothing from each other."

"What's with the giant peeping tom?"

I laughed. "That the archangel Raphael. He is watching over the lovers―protecting them. Giving a blessing to two very different people, opposing forces, coming together."

"Are you trying to tell me this card isn't dirty?" he teased.

"Well...maybe a little," I said playfully. "Do you see that mountain in the back...a nice phallic symbol."

He chortled. "Is this supposed to be Eden?" the querent asked, tracing his finger on the drawing. "Is that why the snake is there?"

"Yes, but it's all highly symbolic," I said, quickly pushing aside any uncomfortable associations. "Do you see the way it's wrapped around the Tree of Knowledge? All it means is that the Lovers are gaining self-awareness over their feelings and emotions."

I felt his warm breath on my neck when he exhaled. "That seems about right."

My eyes caught the tattoo on his arm―but for once it wasn't an ugly reminder of his future. It symbolized his past and what brought us together. I traced the ink lines of the upside down man. A dark picture etched on the warm canvas of skin. "I never thought we would do this," I admitted.

He laughed. "Some psychic."

"I'm not a psychic―I'm a pretty poor excuse for a reader," I joked. "The cards over the years...I think they were supposed to bring us together. And I didn't see it."

"Maybe you didn't want to see it." He pushed my long hair out of my face. "But that's okay. I was an idiot back then...but things are different now."

I never wanted to leave our eden. All I wanted was to feel his body pressed against me again. All I wanted was his touch to make me forget everything―past, present and future.

But I had a daughter waiting so we reluctantly dressed and I gathered up the cards. That's when I remembered we never looked at that future card―and now it was lost in the pile on the floor.

The future didn't matter―all that mattered was this moment. So I fixed my deck, took his hand and eagerly embraced the present.