Lunar Love (7)

Randall Zhu, Lunar Love’s finance, admin, legal, and human resources teams all wrapped into one, follows closely behind. Randall joined as an intern around the time Pó Po retired and worked his way up, so he knows practically everything there is to know about Lunar Love.

Alisha and Randall deeply inhale the chocolate-on-chocolate cake scent. “Your Pó Po is major goals. She doesn’t look a day over seventy. What’s her secret?” Alisha asks.

“Full-moon milk baths, red wine, and dark chocolate,” I reveal.

“I’m lactose intolerant, but I’ve got the other two covered,” Alisha jokes.

“It’s working. You don’t look a day over thirty-three,” Randall says, teasing Alisha.

“These days it takes skill to actually look your age,” she says with a mock-defensive tone. Alisha takes a bite of cake and groans. “This is perfect. Not too sweet.”

“Yeah,” I mumble, half my mind still stuck on the man from this morning. Why is this happening?

Randall takes a step back and shoots me a concerned look. “Are you okay? You feeling nervous about your first day as Head Matchmaker on Monday? It’ll be fun since we have that conference to attend.”

“I’m not nervous! You know that’s my favorite event of the year,” I say. I try to find the words to explain what happened this morning, but they jumble in my head. I met a man is all that comes out.

Alisha gasps. “Ooh, who is he?”

“No, it’s not like that. It was at the bakery. He took Pó Po’s cocktail bun, I made a trade for it, and he works downtown. That’s really all there is to know.”

Alisha’s eyes glimmer as she closely watches my face. “What sign is he?”

I fiddle with the cake server. “I didn’t ask for his birthday or analyze him that closely,” I admit.

“You didn’t analyze him?” Alisha asks. Her widened eyes are as round as full moons. “I don’t believe you.”

“I didn’t expect to be engaging in negotiations this morning,” I say. “It caught me off guard.”

“Okay, well, what were his traits? Could he be a candidate for one of our clients? Let’s debrief,” Alisha says, taking another bite of cake. “You said you made some kind of trade? Maybe he’s a lawyer.”

I cross my arms. “Let’s see. He’s overconfident and engages in social behaviors that are a little too forward for my taste. He told me he likes to go to Lucky Monkey for breakfast, but he works all the way downtown, which indicates that he puts his needs before his company’s. Yes, he was eventually charming and was surprisingly good-looking. He had stunning eyes. Hazel! Well-dressed. But he probably knows that, and in a relationship, he’d likely want to be told those things. I wouldn’t tell him what he needed to hear; we’d fight about it.”

Without stopping for a breath, I add, “I can see it now: A couple of months into the relationship he’d be frustrated that I prefer doing things the way I want to do them. I’d be annoyed that he can’t sit quietly with himself and that not everything can be a negotiation. That kind of dependency, paired with my need for alone time, would never work.”

Alisha and Randall look stunned for a moment. Then they finally break the silence by clapping against their plates. “You continue to impress us. But who said anything about a relationship?” Alisha says, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Oh, I didn’t mean relationship. They’re just always on my mind for our clients,” I hurriedly reply, fumbling over my words. “You know how I feel about being matched.”

She sighs. “Right, of course. You’re the matchmaker who can’t be matched.”

I shrug. I know how people will act—and how things will turn out—because I know their traits on a deep level. I’ve accepted my fate. For everyone else though, there’s hope.

“By the way, we were debriefing about him. You brought yourself into this,” Randall adds with a gooey smile.

“I was just trying to put it into context. Enough about him,” I add defensively.

Alisha wags her finger in thought. “You’re right. Enough about him, more about you. Monday is coming up, and we need to get you out there more. Podcasts, listicles, interviews with young professionals–type stuff. You’re the new face of Lunar Love. Let’s show the world that. Maybe the media, and a younger clientele, will find it interesting that the new owner of LA’s original zodiac matchmaking company is a gorgeous young woman.”

“That’s exactly what we should do. Try to reach a younger market,” I agree.

“I have a contact at WhizDash. They’ve become really popular. I’ll let her know that we want to get something up on the website,” Alisha says. She crams the rest of her cake slice into her mouth, licking the crumbs off her lips along with some of her berry-colored lipstick. “If you want to write something, I can send it to her.”

“I’ll start thinking of article ideas,” I tell her, ideas immediately flooding my mind.

“Perfect. I—ooh! Randall, there’s Aunt Vivienne!” Alisha says, becoming distracted by my aunt across the yard. “She has that list of art documentaries for us to watch. Liv, we’ll catch you in a bit!” The two of them shuffle through the grass, leaving me alone with my thoughts.