Page 33 of Let's Talk About Love

“So do you believe, then? Inreal magic?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You implied that there’s a difference between this and therealthing.” He slid the cards out of the box and into his hand. “Here. Shuffle them and pick a card.”

“I’m not doing this. Go back to work.”

He set the deck down on the table and pushed it until it stopped right next to her wrist. Then Alice made a very dumb mistake—she’d always been a sucker for a pretty face. Willy Wonka could wrap her in plastic, market her, and sell her as a limited edition fool-flavored candy.

“Fine. I’m only doing this once.”

He grinned as she shuffled, and said, “That’s all I’ll need.”

She side-eyed him but continued to shuffle—pulling stacks of cards out of the middle and placing them on the top, turning them faceup to make sure they weren’t all the same card, and making sure she touched only the edges. For fun, because she hadn’t done it in some time, she performed a riffle shuffle and a bridge. She smiled, pleased with herself for not messing up, and realigned the cards into a neat deck.

“Now pick one card and place it back in the deck.”

“I know this trick,” she said, deflating a little. “The back of the cards are marked.”

Takumi turned around in his seat to face the wall. “Pick a card. Place it back in the deck when you’re done.”

Intrigued, she complied. Six of diamonds. “Now what?”

He spun around, took the deck, and shuffled for a moment before spreading the cards into a neat semicircle between them. He didn’t hesitate—he picked up the last card on the left-hand side. “Is this your card?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” He squinted at it. “Are you really sure?”

“Positive.”

He set it aside, selecting the next card just as quickly as he had with the first on the right-hand side. “Is this your card?”

“No.”

He squinted again, clicking his tongue this time. “Are you really, really sure?”

“I’m positive.”

Takumi selected a card from the middle. “How about this one?”

“Why do I get the feeling you know damn well that’s not my card?”

He snorted with laughter, seemingly surprising himself—his eyes widened and he covered his mouth. “Sorry,” he said, clearing his throat. “You’re right. I do. I was trying to build dramatic effect.” He rested his forearms on the table. “Let me ask you something: the concept of magic has been around as long as humans have. It persists even in the face of rapidly advancing technology and science. Why do you think that is?”

“Because people want to believe, Mulder.”

“Yes, actually.” His right hand hovered above the deck, slowly moving from one end to the other.

Alice waited patiently for whatever he planned to do. There’s no way he could pick the card she had. Unless there was some sort ofsmudge on the back. She’d seen that before—the cards had been heat sensitive. She had been careful to touch only the tiniest corner with her fingernails when she selected hers.

“I wanted to do this to cheer you up,” Takumi said, without breaking his concentration. Eyebrows tensed. Eyes relaxed. Lips parted slightly. Pausing for only fractions of moments over random cards before continuing his sweep. “You’ve been really upset lately. I know we only met two weeks ago, but I care. I’ve been thinking about you, wondering what I could do to help. You were right—people want to believe in magic, because when things seem terrible, magic and miracles give them hope. They want to believe something is working in their favor behind the scenes. Something good.” His hand stopped, selecting a card again. He laid it on the table in front of her. “Something that will surprise them.”

Alice sucked in a breath. “How in the hell?” She picked up her card, examining the front and the back. “How did you do that?”

“Magic.” He shrugged like he didn’t just impress the hell out of her.

“Do it again,” she said, trying to put the card back with the deck.