“Patience, darling, patience. It’s worth waiting for the right one. I like this man. He’s important, powerful, very tall, and good-looking. I think you’re going to meet him through your work.” Valerie laughed at that.

“Not in my business. Any guy involved in decorating, lifestyle in the home, or the wedding industry is not likely to be straight. I’m going to have to meet him somewhere else.”

“Maybe he’s one of your producers,” Alan said, concentrating on the cards. “I definitely think you’re going to meet him through work.” He had said that before, and no one had appeared. His other predictions were often true, but lately not about men. “I think your daughter might have a baby this year,” he said, turning over the queen of diamonds and handing her the deck again. Valerie smiled and shook her head.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. She works harder than I do. She doesn’t even have time to date. She’s not married, and I’m not at all sure she wants a husband or a child.” Nor was Valerie anxious to be a grandmother — that was definitely not on her wish list or her radar screen, and fortunately it was not on her daughter’s either. Alan was off on that one.

“I think she might surprise you,” Alan said, as Valerie turned over five more cards and the reading continued. It was similar to what he always predicted for her, success in business, a new man on the scene, and an assortment of small warnings about upcoming projects and deals and people she worked with. But this time the new man came up several times. Alan was adamant about it, and Valerie sighed as she listened. People always told her that she couldn’t have everything, a fabulous career and romance in her life too. Life just didn’t work that way. No one got everything they wanted, they said, and Valerie hadn’t either. Like most people, her success hadn’t come easily, and in her case she had wound up alone. The two of them chatted as she continued to turn over the cards, and Alan told her what he saw ahead for her.