Page 31 of The One I Need
Oh for fuck’s sake…
I do as he says, because I’ve now learned that if I don’t he’s just going to tell the audience to “help” me do it. So I pretend to slide a card out of the deck and “show” the audience. This gets me a few chuckles, which I’m sure are pity ones.
“Now, slide the card back into the deck, but make sure it’s facing the opposite direction of the rest of the cards. After that, put the deck back in the box and give it back to me.”
I do as instructed while wondering how much longer I’m going to be up here.
“Now, Izzy, you pulled out one card,” he says as he suddenly makes a real box of cards appear out of seemingly nowhere, though I think it was in his pocket and he just moved super quick. “What card was that?”
“There was no card. I pulled out air.”
“But did you?” he says, giving me an elbow nudge. “Come on now. Don’t be shy. What was your card?”
The quicker you answer the quicker you’re done…
“Seven of spades.”
“Seven of spades, ladies and gentlemen!” The magician makes a show of taking the cards out of the box. “Now, I told Izzy to put her card back into the deck facing the opposite direction of the rest of the cards.” He fans out the deck, showing me and the audience all the cards face down…except for one card.
“Izzy, will you do me the honors of picking up the card that is currently face up?”
I can’t believe my eyes as I take the card. Because it’s the seven of fucking spades.
“Care to tell us what card it is?”
I don’t think I’ve blinked. How the hell did he do that? “Seven of spades.”
The crowd goes wild. He takes the card for me, tells me to take a bow—which I don’t—before I head back to my seat. And when I say head back to my seat, I mean make a beeline. When I arrive back at my table, there’s a fresh drink waiting for me, thankfully. I know Manhattans are meant to be sipped, but I chug it in one gulp.
What the hell was that? I mean, I thought of the seven of spades in an instant. He didn’t tell me a card to say when we were walking up, and he had plenty of opportunities to do so.
Was it magic? No. It couldn’t be.
But maybe…
“So?” Oliver begins with a sparkle in his eye. It reminds me of the look he had that morning in the hotel room when he was asking me out for the first time. “Are you a believer now?”
“No,” I begin. “But, I can see where it might be a possibility.”
I didn’t know his smile could get so big. “That’s all I needed to hear.”
“Really? That’s it? I could have avoided all of that if I would have just said maybe?”
He laughs. “No, because I appreciate that you don’t bullshit. You’re a straight shooter, so I know what you’re saying now is the honest truth. And I wasn’t expecting you to believe something after one experience. I was just hoping that you would open yourself up to the possibility.”
“The possibility?”
“Yes, the possibility,” he says as he takes my hand and scoots in a little closer. “Because when you have a possibility, anything can happen. Possibility leads to hope. And hope can take you anywhere.”
I don’t know what has been happening on stage since I exited, but apparently something exciting as the crowd breaks out in applause. Honestly, I kind of forgot anyone else was in the room besides us.
“Hey,” I say. “Can we get out of here?”
“Absolutely,” he says. “We’ll just start the second part of our date a little early.”
Chapter11
Oliver
