Three days before her fourth Valentine’s Day alone, Avery Marshal found herself in the local occult shop, Rosemary’s Magick Apothecary, with her newly engaged best friend, Rachel Allen. Avery tried to keep a happy face as Rachel gushed about her wedding plans. 

“Anyway, I was thinking of using rose quartz for something, maybe the centerpieces. I don’t know yet,” Rachel explained as she ran her hands along the row of crystals in front of her, “but I wanted to pick some up to show Ryan what I was talking about. He’s clueless about this stuff.”

“Please don’t touch the crystals unless you intend to buy them,” a voice called out. 

Avery and Rachel turned to see the shopkeeper standing behind the counter, watching them closely.

“Sorry,” Rachel said with a polite cringe as she waved her fingers at the witchy looking woman before they turned back to the crystals.

“Well, I hope he’s going to contribute to the rest of the wedding planning,” Avery said pointedly. She liked Ryan well enough, but Avery never quite trusted men to pull their weight in a relationship, and she wasn’t going to let her best friend fall into the same trap their mothers had fallen into.

“Of course he is,” Rachel said with a dismissive wave. “And he has plenty of opinions about it too, don’t you worry. Oooh, here they are, look.”

Rachel tapped her fingers together excitedly as she found the small bowl filled with shiny pink pieces of rose quartz. 

“Pretty,” Avery said as she joined her friend’s side. Rachel had just gotten into this sort of spiritual stuff, but Avery had never really paid it any attention. She looked around the small occult shop, and she had to admit it felt pretty cozy. There was some sort of incense burning, so it was a little stuffy, but the bookshelves were filled with pretty books and interesting trinkets. 

There was something spooky about the occult shop, but she figured that was part of the appeal. It didn’t feel sinister or anything, just…energetically charged. Avery had never understood what that meant until she’d stepped foot into this shop. 

“Ever had your cards read?” 

Avery turned to see the shopkeeper grinning at her from behind the counter while she shuffled a large deck of cards in her hands. 

“Umm, no,” Avery answered with an uncertain glance at Rachel. Rachel nodded encouragingly, so when the shopkeeper waved her forward, Avery complied. Rachel joined her at the counter. 

“I’ll give you one each for free,” the shopkeeper said, and the black beads around her neck rattled as she shuffled the cards with quick, deft movements. Her gray hair sprayed around her head like a wild halo, barely contained by what appeared to be a homemade headband. The shopkeeper turned her wide, green eyes to Rachel and stared into her eyes as she continued to shuffle. “You first.”

The shopkeeper stopped shuffling all of a sudden, cut the deck in two, replaced the bottom half of the deck on the top, then flipped the first card around and tossed it onto the counter with a dramatic flourish. 

“The Sun, oh yay!” Rachel said as she clapped her hands, and she looked at Avery excitedly.

“Umm, yay?” Avery said with a forced smile. 

“It’s a good card,” the shopkeeper said sagely. “Your upcoming marriage will be successful.”

“Eeee,” Rachel squealed as she clutched Avery’s forearm. “That’s amazing, how did you even know I was getting married?”

“Because we’ve been talking about it since the second we walked in the door,” Avery said as she shrugged free from her friend’s grasp.

“You are not the quietest pair to grace my shop,” the shopkeeper said with a small chuckle. 

“Okay, fine, I’ll give you that one, but still. Yay for the sun card,” Rachel said, and she swayed her body back and forth, smiling broadly. Then, she shook her friend’s wrist. “Now, what about Avery?”

The shopkeeper returned the sunny card to her large deck and started to shuffle again. She held Avery’s gaze with her strange green eyes until Avery looked away. Avery plucked a section of her long, chestnut hair off her shoulder and twirled it around her finger. 

“There’s no reason to be nervous, dear,” the shopkeeper said as she continued shuffling the deck.

“I’m not,” Avery said, and she let her hair fall back on her shoulder while she looked around the shop again, pretending to be uninterested in the outcome of the shuffling. 

“Good.” The gray-haired woman finally stopped shuffling and cut the deck in two like she had for Rachel. Then she slowly turned the top card over and placed it on the counter . “Just as I suspected. The Lovers. Love is on the horizon.”

“Ha,” Avery barked, and she suddenly felt less nervous as her faith in the card reading drained. “Fat chance of that happening.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” the shopkeeper said with a knowing smile. 

“Rachel, tell her,” Avery said as she playfully slapped her friend’s shoulder. “I’m hopeless in the love department.”

“You haven’t had the best luck,” Rachel admitted with a sympathetic look at Avery. The sympathy was slightly undercut by the way she nervously spun her gigantic engagement ring on her finger. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t change.”

“I think I’d need to put some effort into it for that to happen, and, well, that’s not happening,” Avery said stubbornly as she crossed her arms over her chest. 

Avery couldn’t help but let her gaze fall on the card. It depicted a naked couple reaching their hands out to each other, overlooked by an angelic woman in the sky. Admittedly, Avery wouldn’t mind a naked lover to frolic with, but after a series of failed situationships after her long-term relationship suddenly ended, she wasn’t eager to get back in the saddle anytime soon. 

“You can’t just give up on love forever,” Rachel said, her voice tight with exasperation.

“I didn’t say forever,” Avery retorted. “But for now, yes.”