I flopped onto my bed in my hotel room. Dealing with Dimitri was emotionally exhausting. Not to mention that he’s an A-grade jackass. Dread knotted in my throat as I swallowed down my fear audibly. I had to call Charl and inform him about how it went. I hated disappointing the Club, but if this was going to be one of my last jobs before I was forced to throw my hat into the ring, then I wanted to ride the wave like a fucking pro - not with a two card reading that I got escorted off the property after conducting. Jesus. Honestly, after this morning that was nothing short of a disaster, I wasn’t even sure if Dimitri would want to continue to work with me - or the Tarot Club for that matter.
Shit, if he wouldn’t work with me, maybe there was a chance that I could convince him to use someone else from the Club. Zoey would be perfect for this job - she had family in the city and seemed to be energized every time she visited this place. I just felt off balance here. The truth of the matter was that Dimitri hadn’t liked me from the moment he laid eyes on me. I annoyed him. Actually, scrap that, the very concept of Magick seemed to annoy him. Still, the Club shouldn’t lose a client simply because I had a personality clash with Dimitri.
My breaths became shallow as I lingered on what would happen to Jeanette - had I offered her up to the wolves by providing Dimitri with the little information I gave him? I rolled onto my stomach, procrastinating the phone call I needed to make. I wasn’t the right person for this job - I couldn’t determine how much information to feed Dimitri so that the result wouldn’t be someone’s death, and there was no point in me even trying to do a reading on him for myself, after today’s debacle, my chances of reading for him was well and truly fucked.
Guess I won’t have that story for the grandkids.
I snorted at such a ludicrous thought. Honestly, I needed to have sex to even get to the point of grandchildren.
My exhale was one of resignation as I lay with my back on the bed and stared at the high pressed white lattice ceilings. I loved old architecture, it was at such odds with our modern apartment in Manhattan. My phone vibrated next to me, Charl’s name flashing through on caller ID. I groaned loudly, letting all my frustration out behind closed doors, where no one could see. Judgement day had arrived all too soon.
“Hi, Charl”, I answered, my voice devoid of my usual upbeat inflection.
No doubt Dimitri had called him and he’d heard about my disastrous first reading by now. Or, he had seen through his own connection. The man was gifted, I’d give him that. He often knew how situations planned out within the Tarot Club before they even occurred.
“So that went well,” he drawled down the line.
I shut my eyes as his words echoed through me. Charl had connected and seen just how disastrous it was for himself. I supposed this would make the conversation easier, it required less explanation.
“Do you think he’d still want to work with us if you swapped me out for someone else?” I aired my concerns.
There was no point in lying to Charl, or trying to salvage the client myself. Dimitri despised him, and even if I could still keep working with him, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
He started laughing, which just made me grip the phone tighter in frustration.
“I’m so glad you find my disaster of a reading this morning amusing,” I huffed. Honestly, the man was a loon.
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” he finally answered, the laughter still lingered in his voice, which only irritated me further.
“Are you kidding? Did you not see the debacle that occurred that we’re going to call a reading?”
“Relax, Corinne, it’s worked out beautifully, actually.”
My entire body stilled at his statement. I pushed myself up on the bed into a sitting position, the softness of the feathered-down duvet toying with me, beckoning me to collapse on the crisp white linen once more.
“Really? How?” I demanded.
I heard whispering in the background with a short “Hang on” from Charl.
I waited until he resumed the conversation as if he hadn’t just left me hanging.
“Well, you’ve been invited to some sort of dinner and show tonight with Dimitri and his grandfather, so it seems that you passed whatever sort of test he had in mind for you.”
“Is that so?” I asked sarcastically.
“Look, Corinne, he took the information badly. Some clients do that, you know that as well as I do. The point is that he didn’t doubt the information. At no point did he question whether it was true. He was furious because he knew it was true.”
His reminder soothed my bruised ego slightly. Some clients were just assholes, and Dimitri, it seemed, was exactly that. I had judged him fairly.
“What if I don’t want to attend this dinner?” I was feeling out the waters with Charl.
How badly did he want this client? Or rather, how badly did he want me working with this client. The more I thought about it, the more things didn’t seem to add up - I wasn’t the right person for this job. Zoey or even Marie were better suited at this than I was. I had absolutely no knowledge about the black market and how to deal with these shady, underground characters.
“Stop being dramatic, Corinne,” Charl sounded exasperated.
I bristled at his tone.
“Did you know,” I continued, “that I conducted the reading at his house.”