The sun slowly appears over the horizon, its rays poking up from behind the jagged hills. I push my sunglasses up the bridge of my nose to cover my puffy eyes from a week of on-and-off crying. Bennett and I are better off without each other. Our traits won’t clash to the point of destruction, and he won’t have to lose someone again. Neither will I.
I find Alisha, who’s graciously agreed to join me this morning, at the bottom of the trail stretching out her quad muscles. Even at 6:00 a.m., she looks stylish in her leopard high-waisted leggings and crop top.
“Ready?” I ask.
Alisha stands with her hands placed firmly on her hips and nods begrudgingly.
We begin our journey up the path toward the Griffith Observatory, home to space and science exhibits and telescopes that transport visitors to the cosmos. Used as the backdrop for many Hollywood movies, Griffith Observatory is a white concrete structure topped with penny-colored domes resting on the slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. In the morning light, the cobalt blues and dusty purples of the park glow.
“I don’t know how you got me to do this. Thank god for gel undereye patches. You’ve got to try this new brand I found. My eyebags look nonexistent, right?” she says.
All week, she’s tried to distract me from thinking about Bennett. Her energy is usually contagious, but as of late, it hasn’t quite caught on.
“Like it was fifty percent off at Chanel. Not a bag in sight,” I deadpan.
Alisha laughs. “Oh, sweetie. As if Chanel would ever have a sale.” She stares up at the mountain with a look of dread. “You promise the view at the top will be Instagram-worthy?”
“It’s worth the burn,” I assure her.
We follow the zigzags of the well-worn path, nodding to fellow early birds getting their heart rates up. Alisha breathes heavily and stays a few steps behind me. We take a few breaks around every other bend so her heart doesn’t “pop.”
I’m quiet for the first half up the mountain, trying to sweat out any remaining tears still inside of me. It’s for the best, I repeat to myself. There’s a Bennett-sized hole that can’t be patched up. I’m walking at a snail’s pace, trying to work through my thoughts while stepping one foot in front of the other.
“Liv,” Alisha starts, “we can head back down if you’re not up to this.”
“I can do this,” I say, pushing through the hurt. “I know I’m no fun to be around right now.”
We pass a girl using her phone. On her screen is a monkey icon. “Give me a break!” I shout. “We’re on a mountain. This is a ZodiaCupid-free zone.”
The girl glances up and shoots me a dirty look.
I stand on my toes to get a better look at her screen. “You’re a beta tester, though? On a scale of Strongly Dislike to Absolutely Despise, how much do you hate the app so far?”
Alisha grabs my arm and pulls me away from the hiker. “Sorry! Have a lovely day!” she calls out to the girl, who’s already started jogging away from us.
“You’re scaring innocent hikers,” Alisha says, tugging me along.
“If they’re using ZodiaCupid, they’re not so innocent,” I mumble.
We find a spot on a bench just below the Observatory, overlooking the city, and sit for a water break. I stretch my legs out in front of me, recalling out of nowhere that this is where Bennett has his Shoot for the Stars volunteering every week.
A more serious look settles on Alisha’s face. “You know I love you. And I love Lunar Love,” she says. Then in a more playful tone, she adds, “But damn, you are stubborn.”
A laugh escapes me.
“Joining your family’s business was the best thing I’ve ever done. Helping people find love is truly a dream job,” she adds.
I nod. “You’ve made Lunar Love better.”
“Thank you. We always talk about how people are complex and that their signs aren’t the only thing that makes them who they are,” she says. “Right?”
“It’s true,” I agree. “Humans are more complicated.”
“I’ve never seen you be so die-hard about compatibility until your last breakup. And I don’t only mean the one with your ex-boyfriend.”
“And the one time I dated someone incompatible, well, we know what happened,” I say defensively. “Since I was a kid, I’ve been learning about and promoting compatibility.”
“But not like this.” Alisha tugs at her leggings. “I know you’re the matchmaker who can’t be matched, but what if you’re the only one who believes that?”
I draw circles in the dirt with the tip of my shoe and stay quiet.
“What happened is in the past, but it’s very much affecting your present and future,” Alisha says. “It seems to me you’re clinging to the idea of compatibility because you’re scared. You’re scared that you’ll lose someone you love again, and that by not honoring the traditional way of matchmaking, you’ll also lose Lunar Love.”
“I’ve lost love before,” I say, “but I don’t think I could bear losing Lunar Love.”
“No one doubted your ability to matchmake after what happened with your ex and friend. So what if you dated an animal sign that didn’t pair well with yours? You could’ve had the same result even if he were compatible.”
“But when I doubted my beliefs, that happened. It’s better to not question them anymore,” I say. I distanced myself to avoid feeling the way I feel right now. So if I still feel like this, what was it all for?
“So you want to stay on the safe path,” Alisha says, air quoting safe. “You’re not someone who sits back idly while others take risks. You go after what you want. You always have. Just as you’d do everything you could to save Lunar Love, why wouldn’t you do everything you could to be happy?”
Her words cut to the core. I’ll risk everything I have for Lunar Love, for clients, for family, but not for myself.
Alisha smiles. “Remember the woman who came in because her parents sent her to us when they discovered that the guy on her screensaver was Henry Golding, and her engagement ring was actually costume jewelry? You worked day and night, went around town on Singles Scoutings, and thought through different trait matchups to find her someone to bring home for Lunar New Year. You wanted their relationship to be more than that, though.”
For the first time all week, I feel my cheeks widen in a smile. “She had to want to find love for the right reasons. I still remember her face when I told her we weren’t a rent-a-boyfriend agency.”
“Exactly.” Alisha nods, her high ponytail swinging from side to side. “You worked with her, coached her, taught her. And she eventually came around to wanting love for herself, not for her family’s sake.”
I nod. “You’re right.”
“You work hard to put love out into the world. And your method works.” She pulls her phone from her waist pack and taps into Twitter. “Look, two of your clients posted using the #LoveInTheMoonlight hashtag.”
Two smiling faces shine back at me, along with a few nice words about us. A surge of promise jolts through my veins. What was once an idea is now a living concept out in the world. Two strangers were brought together because of Lunar Love.
“But your method is also not the law,” she continues. “I can’t tell you what to do. No one can. Maybe think of yourself as your own client. Maybe you’d be telling her something different than what you’re telling yourself.”
I consider her words. “Thank you,” I say, leaning over for a hug. “I may have been slightly irrational.”
We sit quietly for a few minutes. “You know, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are both Year of the Rat,” Alisha offers, breaking the silence.
“That changes everything,” I joke.
“There’s also something else I wanted to show you,” Alisha says, scrolling through her emails.
“We’re supposed to be disconnected right now. Immersed in nature,” I say.
“The word disconnected is not in my vocabulary. This morning, my friend sent me a link to the latest Dating in La La Land episode. Lunar Love gets a shout-out at eight minutes and twenty seconds.” Alisha looks nervous when she shows me her screen. “It’s the podcast episode with Bennett,” she says. “Do you want to listen?”
My heart starts pounding in my ears. It’s the podcast episode. The one we wagered on. The one that I lost.
Alisha already has the podcast launched on her phone. She slides to the specific time in the episode and hovers her finger over the Play button.
“Play it,” I say, bracing myself. If he has something to say about Lunar Love, I need to know what it is.
My throat tightens when the sound of Bennett’s voice fills the air.
“The only reason I’m on this podcast is because of a silly wager,” Bennett says. “But—”
Marcus’s voice interjects. “That’s episode thirteen, for those who want more context. I’ll link to it in the program notes. Please, continue.”
By the way Bennett clears his throat, I can tell he’s annoyed. “As I was saying, I’m here because of three very important women who paved the way for a business like mine to even exist. And I’m not talking about apps. I mean Chinese zodiac matchmaking. In 1970, a woman named June Huang started Lunar Love, a matchmaking company here in Los Angeles, and she built it up to be one of the most special matchmaking businesses that exists today.”
My nose and eyes sting as I hold back tears.
“Lunar Love is truly one-of-a-kind,” Bennett continues. “I honestly don’t consider ZodiaCupid to be their competition. They’re in a league of their own. June was my inspiration, and I’m lucky to have learned a lot from her. Over the years, one of June’s daughters took over, and now, one of June’s granddaughters, Olivia, is in charge. I consider myself lucky to have also learned a lot from Olivia, too. She was actually supposed to be on this podcast today instead of me. In no way did I win this wager. In fact, I lost pretty badly.”
“How so?” Marcus asks.
There’s a long pause. “I fell in love,” Bennett finally says.
I gasp, my breathing becoming faster. I bite my lip and lean closer to listen.
“So, per the terms of the agreement,” he adds, “Lunar Love should get the social media placement and new clients. They deserve it. I met an amazing woman because of them. I may not be what she’s looking for, but if I’m lucky enough to have a second chance, I won’t mess it up. Someone much smarter than me once told me, if it’s something that you feel and experience, that makes it real. What I feel, it’s real.”
Tears prick my eyes. “You didn’t think you should lead with this?” I ask Alisha.
“I had to let you get there on your own first,” she says. Alisha hits Pause and grabs for my hand. “He really sounds like he misses you. What do you feel?”
“That it’s real,” I say softly.
My phone buzzes with a ZodiaCupid notification with a message from Parker. He’s open to talking, even though he chose to use ZodiaCupid for whatever reason in the first place. He didn’t flat out reject Lunar Love. Maybe he’s even into the zodiac, and at the end of the day, isn’t that the type of excitement we’re trying to instill in our clients?
I look out over Los Angeles as the city starts to wake up for the day. It’s the city where people come to make their dreams come true. Where anything feels possible. The place where anyone can freely reinvent themselves over and over again. The town where competition is fierce, but ambition is fiercer. Competition doesn’t stop people from chasing after what they want. It’s not going to stop me, either.
Even Lunar Love is in its own process of reinvention. Maybe it’s not completely unreasonable to think that the merging of traditional and modern can actually do some good in the world.
“I have to go,” I say, checking the time on my phone. I take off running down the mountain. I have a pitch to get to.