Celestial Bodies by Laura Leone

mouth again, and his tongue entered boldly as he kissed her deeply. Everything was dark and swirling around her, everything smelled and tasted of him, and she slid her trembling arms around his neck so she wouldn’t fall off the edge of a cliff and into the dark void beyond.
    She could hardly breathe by the time she felt him tear his mouth away and press her head against his shoulder. She was gasping as if she had just run five miles. She didn’t know which way was up. He packed quite a punch.
    It seemed a long time before she became aware of simple sensations again—the feel of his hand stroking her hair, the cotton fabric of his shirt against her forehead, the hard cast-iron seat under her bottom, the smooth cobblestones under her feet.
    He gripped her shoulders and shifted her position, so that their foreheads rested against each other.
    “Is the Moon in Venus tonight, or something?” he whispered.
    “Must be,” she mumbled.
    “Don’t you have a company policy about this?”
    “Huh?”
    “You know. Fraternization.”
    “Is that what we’re doing?” She smiled with him.
    “Not many places let a guy kiss the boss during business hours,” he explained as his hand wandered down her back.
    “Actually, I think we’ve been closed for a few minutes. But I’ll write you a memo about it later.”
    She pulled away gently, ending the moment, and met his eyes with her customary candor. His expression melted her for a moment, then she felt him withdraw. Whatever he intended to hide, he was hiding it again.
    “Still mysterious,” she said.
    “What?”
    “Nothing.”
    He rose abruptly and moved away from their little table. She could see that he was troubled. Now she felt uneasy, too. Getting interested in a man who lived under her roof and worked in her employ was pretty foolish, particularly when that man obviously had problems he hadn’t worked out and wouldn’t tell her about. Maybe she had just made a mistake.
    They both jumped when they heard the door chimes. Felix and a customer were coming out of the shop. Felix bade the man goodnight and came over to sit with Diana.
    “He was here awfully late,” Diana remarked to fill the silence.
    “We were chatting,” Felix said. “Hey, is that rose-hip tea? Do you mind if I have a sip, Nick?”
    “Please. Finish it.” Nick slouched into a chair across the table from Diana, avoiding her eyes.
    Diana noticed the small silk bundle in Felix’s hands. “What’s that?”
    “He came here to show me his mother’s tarot deck. She died recently. He didn’t want it, but it’s such a beautiful deck that he offered it to me.”
    “As a gift?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s very nice,” said Diana.
    “He read about us in the city’s New Age Guide . He wanted to see Ishtar,” Felix explained.
    “Ah,” said Nick.
    “Let’s see the deck,” Diana said.
    Felix spread the cards out before them, face up. It was indeed a beautiful deck. “I’ll have to do some research. I think this deck is old. Victorian, perhaps.”
    “Really?” Nick asked, studying the cards with interest. “Does that make a difference?”
    “In the readings? Sometimes,” Felix answered. “I’ll have to work with these cards privately for a while before I know if I’ve established a reliable empathy with them. I’d like to use these with clients eventually, though. They’re very unusual.”
    He gathered up the cards and shuffled them with great concentration. “Let’s get started.”
    Nick looked at him blankly.
    “Practicing with them,” Felix clarified. “Diana?”
    Felix spread the cards once more, this time facedown, in an even line, and gestured for Diana to pick one. She had done this for him more times in her life than she could remember, especially before exams and job interviews. Tonight, for some reason, she felt a curious reluctance. She didn’t want to disappoint him, however, or appear foolish, so she let her heart guide her and reached for a card. She flipped it