“What’d you put in it?” I ask suspiciously. I lift a rice ball to my nose with the spoon and sniff it.
He laughs. “Just my love.”
I take a bite, the warm black sesame seed filling running into my mouth. “This is good.”
“Excellent. I have a one hundred percent success rate so far then,” he gloats, kissing the top of my head as I lean into him. “What’s that supposed to be?” He nods toward the cake on the table.
“It’s an Incompatibility Cake. The Ox’s horns got a bit tricky,” I explain.
“I hope it’s not red velvet,” he jokes.
“It’s made with Earl Grey and beet. Flavors you wouldn’t typically expect to work well together but actually do.” I use a knife to cut into the middle of the cake and add slices to our plates. “I made it for you.”
At the same time, we dig into the cake. I scrape the frosting off, careful not to disrupt the cake beneath it. Meanwhile, Bennett cuts in vertically, scooping up an even ratio of the cake and frosting.
Bennett gives me an odd look. “Frosting first?” he asks.
“This is me trying to see things from your perspective,” I say.
“Likewise,” he says.
We take our bites. Bennett shakes his head. “This is strangely delicious. These flavors…”
“They’re a perfect match,” I say, finishing his sentence.
Bennett smiles, and my heart tumbles and turns, even after all these months.
“I think that went well?” I ask.
“Very. This’ll be fun.”
“Or a complete disaster.”
“Maybe this is my way of infiltrating your business now,” Bennett says with a conspiratorial tone. “Or at least to stop you from poaching people off my platform.”
“We may be partnering, but the magic of Lunar Love can’t be replicated,” I inform him.
Bennett squeezes me tighter. “I think we have what it takes to make this work.”
“Just keep your hands off my buns, and we won’t have a problem.” I eat another spoonful of frosting. “So, do you happen to know what time you were born?” I ask casually.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to ask me that. Do you even know yours?” Bennett asks, polishing off the last of his cake slice.
“Of course I do. Year of the Horse, birth hour of the Horse.”
Bennett laughs. “I should’ve known. You’re a Horse through and through.”
I look up at him and wait. “So? What about you?”
“You want the truth? I don’t know what time I was born.”
“Can’t you find your birth record or something? There are ways to find out,” I say.
“Isn’t it kind of romantic not knowing?” Bennett asks, wrapping his arms around me.
I lean my head into his shoulder. “That’s one word for it.”
Bennett wiggles his fingers playfully. “Secretive. Mysterious. Ooh.”
“You joke, but this is our livelihood and culture and relationship,” I say teasingly, turning to face him.
Bennett shakes his head. “I’m just leaving room for magic!” he says playfully.
“Okay, okay!” I laugh. “Just kiss me.” I tug Bennett’s hair tenderly to bring him closer to me and give him a deep, hard kiss.
Maybe there is beauty in opening yourself up to the love you don’t expect and the traits that will keep you guessing. Because compatible or incompatible, we’re all just trying to love and be loved, however that might look.
We look up into the dark February sky, our attentions pulled toward the glow of the jade-white moon. The moon is practically invisible in its waxing crescent phase, its outer edge a thin pearly glimmer shining against the stars. New love a barely there whisper in the night sky.
As a matchmaker, I’m constantly learning. My most recent lesson: love is mostly like the moon. Whereas the moon and all its phases are predictable, love is not. Where I once thought I could predict how my relationships would turn out, I now realize that was as foolish as trying to keep the tides from rising and falling.
In the end, gravity always finds us, bringing us right back where we belong.
Acknowledgments
If you’ve skipped ahead to read the acknowledgments first, I’m right there with you, and I hope you enjoy the book. If you’ve already read this book, thanks for reading and for sticking around until the very end.
The very fact that these words exist in book form is incredibly meaningful. I grew up reading, watching, and loving romantic comedies, even when the heroines and leading ladies looked nothing like me. Being mixed-race Chinese American, I rarely read about or saw characters who I could relate to. Putting mixed characters into the forefront has always been, and will always be, important to me.
Thank you to my agent, Ann Leslie Tuttle, for seeing the promise and potential of this story and for helping me take it to new heights. Thank you to my editor, Alex Logan, for championing this story’s heart and purpose and for supporting Olivia and Bennett and the book’s underlying themes. Thank you to my film agent, Mary Pender, for being an early believer and supporter of this story even before edits came back. I am endlessly grateful to you all.
Thank you to Estelle Hallick, Daniela Medina, Abby Reilly, Dana Cuadrado, Sabrina Flemming, Ambriah Underwood, Grace Fischetti, the production team, the sales reps, and everyone on Team Forever. It’s a thrill to join the Forever family.
It’s emotional for me to see a mixed-race illustrated character on the cover of a book. Thank you, Sandra Chiu, for capturing Olivia’s spirit and making this cover look like a piece of art. Thank you also to Rosemary Gong and Eugene Moy for your encouragement in this journey.
To the authors who replied to my cold emails, met for coffee, picked up my calls, and responded to my direct messages, I think about your kindness often and am so glad to know you. Thank you for helping a new author through the daunting yet exciting publishing process.
To my parents, for a childhood filled with good books and good food. Thank you for supporting my journey full of twists and turns every step of the way. To my mèi mei, I am grateful for your unwavering support and encouragement. To Auntie Rae, thank you for your cultural and Mandarin language insights.
To the booksellers, librarians, bookstagrammers, book bloggers, book clubs, and podcasters, your vast knowledge of books never fails to impress me. Thanks for all that you do in spreading the love of books to others and for always knowing just the right story to recommend.
Thanks to you, reader. I know that there are thousands of books out there for you to choose from, so from the deepest depths of my heart, thank you for choosing to spend time with mine.
And finally, to my best friend and husband, Patrick, the Snake to my Horse. Thank you for reading literally every single version of this book and for caring just as deeply as I do about these characters. You are my living proof that happy ever afters can be found through online dating. I am the luckiest that the algorithms brought us together.