Emoni nods her head. “Poor guy. But necessary.”
“Very necessary,” Halmoni says, finally eating a French fry. “You did the right thing.”
I know it, but it hasn’t felt right all week. “I’m just not sure how to approach Daniel in a way that isn’t going to be heartless to Ellis.”
Emoni rests her small hand on mine. “You’re a good girl, Cassia. You always were.”
“Yes. But you barely know Ellis, you don’t have to be this careful about his feelings,” Sunny says. “He’s a twenty-eight-year-old hunk, he’ll be fine.”
Something about that stings and I’m glad when the server returns to take our lunch orders.
After the orders are put in, Emoni then holds up her glass and says, “Cheers to Cassia, here’s to the start of a beautiful love story.”
“Our most important match yet,” Sunny says with a smile.
We drink to that.
Halmoni smiles, too, her eyes shining. “You’re in for a wonderful journey, my Cassia. And I have some ideas about how to approach Daniel.”
“You do?”
She takes a sip of champagne. “Of course. I do run a matchmaking agency after all.”
“We’ve got to make it seem natural,” Sunny says, tapping her fingers on the table, deep in thought. “A meet-cute.”
“A what?” Emoni asks, her face scrunching up.
“You know, the cute way that people meet in romantic comedies,” Sunny says. “Like, how J.Lo meets a man while getting her shoe stuck in a grate.”
Emoni is so confused. “What? Why not just the regular way, like a date?”
“No, no,” Halmoni says. “This is a more delicate situation because of Ellis. We have to make it seem like an accident.”
“Like a real accident?” Emoni says. “How many times can we make Cass get hurt?”
I wince. Yes, I did actually already have a movie meet-cute with Ellis. “No, we’re not gonna go that far, guys.”
“No physical injuries necessary,” Sunny says through a mouthful of fries. “Maybe something related to plants. These men seem to love their plants.”
“Oh, maybe they can meet in the Huntington Gardens!” Emoni says with starry eyes. I suddenly get this nightmare image of Daniel and me bumping into each other at the Japanese Gardens, an Asian couple farce.
I wave my arms. “No, no weird meet-cute setups.”
“But you have to dosomething,” Emoni says, the stars in her eyes replaced by something more cunning. This is the Emoni who haggles at both the farmers market and Neiman’s. The Emoni who once, while getting mugged in New York City, took off her sandal and whaled on the mugger on the head so many times that pedestrians had to stop her. Basically: This look terrifies me and I glance at Halmoni imploringly.
She gets the hint. “You are all thinking less simply about this. What do we do? We are a matchmaking agency. How do we match people? At our events. When is our next event?” She looks straight at me.
I smile. “The summer event at LACMA.”
“There you go.” Halmoni sits back and eats a second fry, the matter settled.
Sunny nods. “Okay, now all we have to figure out is how to invite him in a way that seems natural.”
“This is not a group project,” I say, swiping some fries. “I’ll figure that part out on my own, thanks.” Our food arrives and everyone blessedly tucks into their lunches, the Eye of Sauron off of me briefly.
19
It’s a gloomy Saturday, a dull haze over everything, but it feels amazing to shoot the shit with Mar again as we feel the wind in our hair.
