Evan laughed as a blue silk curtain rustled and a short, dark-haired woman appeared in front of us, dressed exactly as though she had googled ‘fortune teller’ and ordered the first thing that came up on Amazon.

‘Come in, come in, child,’ she said, beckoning me inside before she took her seat opposite Evan. ‘Don’t you know it’s rude to linger in doorways.’

‘She stole that from The Little Mermaid,’ I whispered as I slunk across the room and pulled out the chair beside Evan, ‘and that does not fill me with great confidence.’

She took her seat and gave me a warning look. ‘My name is Ethelinda.’

‘Is it?’

‘Francesca,’ Evan shushed me with a smile on his face. ‘I’m trying to listen to Ethelinda.’

‘Tonight, I will read your past, present, and future,’ she said, flashing her green eyes at me as she pushed a deck of cards towards Evan. She was totally wearing contact lenses. ‘Shuffle.’

He picked them up and did as he was told, the cards passing easily between his hands.

‘Any chance we can just do the future?’ he asked as he placed them back down on the table. ‘I’m very familiar with my past and my present.’

‘It is the three card spread,’ ‘Ethelinda’ replied. ‘You cut the deck, draw three cards, and I will tell you what they say. You first, then her.’

‘Rude,’ I commented quietly, crossing my arms and legs at the same time.

‘Are you wearing sneakers?’ Evan asked.

I looked down to see my toe poking out from underneath my skirt and hurriedly tucked it back out of sight. ‘No,’ I lied. ‘You just worry about your cards.’

‘Try to hold a question in your heart while you shuffle,’ Ethel directed. ‘If you can focus on your question, the answer will come more easily.’

Evan was concentrating hard. The two little lines I’d seen at the ring toss reappeared between his eyebrows as he split the deck in two, his hand hovering in the air before he chose three cards, laying them out, face down on the table in front of him. Ethel turned over the first and the lights in the room flickered.

‘Oh, come on,’ I groaned.

‘The Knight of Wands,’ she cried, pushing the card towards us. ‘This card represents something in your past. A time when you were filled with energy, passion, adventure, perhaps a little impulsiveness. Does it speak to you?’

‘More like shouts,’ he replied hesitantly. ‘Passionate adventurer is the politest euphemism for me in my twenties ever.’

‘It could speak to anyone though,’ I said. ‘It’s a fairly general statement, you could read anything into it.’