“Are you ready?” Pó Po whispers. She adjusts the cornflower blue vest she’s wearing over her white polo, her signature daytime look. Her short hair is freshly waved from hair rollers, a style she’s preferred for decades. “I’m going to make the announcement after the cake is served.”
“I think most people already know, Pó Po. Was it supposed to be a big secret?”
“Aiyah! I guess I should’ve expected the news to spread. This is the Huang family, after all. No respect, even at ninety-one years old.” Pó Po laughs and reaches out to rub a rose’s soft blush petal. “Ah well, I’ll still give a little speech. It’ll be nice.”
“Pó Po, you’re ninety! Not ninety-one,” I say, holding her gently by both shoulders.
Pó Po gives me a subtle wink. “When I was born in China, children were considered to be one year old at birth. That would make me ninety-one, but yes, let’s go with ninety. Oh, Liv? The cake. It’s hilarious. Thank you. Can I put in an early request for a unicorn next year?”
“They’re becoming harder to find, but if that’s what you want, I can make it happen,” I say with a mock-serious tone.
She pushes a loose strand of my dark brown hair behind my ear and takes a moment to study my face. “Why do you look so radiant? You’re practically glowing!”
I bring a hand to my cheek. “Am I? Well, I’m excited about today!”
“For the announcement?” she asks probingly.
“What else?” I say casually, fiddling with a plastic fork. I’mdefinitelynot glowing because of Bakery Guy. That would be ridiculous. I don’t even know his sign.
“Okay. Well, good.” Pó Po nods slowly. “Ah, before I forget, there’s someone I think you’ll want to meet. Should I set up a date?”
It’s one of Pó Po and Auntie’s favorite pastimes to introduce me to people they think I might want to meet. Really, they’re young mentheywant me to meet.
“Do you really think now is the best time for me to be dating?” I ask. “There’s going to be too much to do with Lunar Love.”
Pó Po narrows her eyes at me. “We’ll revisit this later. Auntie also has someone you might like. Choices are never a bad thing! One way or another, we need to get you matched,” she says before fluffing her hair and twirling off to find more family members to charm.
I pluck the melted candles out of the horse and smooth over the icing. When I cut into the cake, it becomes apparent that this looks very wrong. In its entirety, the cake looked great. Dismembered, not so much. I divide the tail into six pieces, placing each one onto small round paper plates. I line the plates up next to each other and attempt to re-create the shape of the horse so that it doesn’t look like a bunch of body parts scattered on the table.
A bracelet-covered arm jingles past me to grab half a hoof. Without needing to look, I smell Alisha’s gardenia perfume and know it’s her. Alisha Lin, my co-matchmaker at Lunar Love, always looks put together in stylish clothing. She sweeps her long, dark brown hair over to the side, the curls cascading over her shoulders. Ever since Alisha was hired at Lunar Love three years ago, she’s quickly become one of my closest friends and confidants.
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 manis 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.
“Youdidn’t analyze him?” Alisha asks. Her widened eyes are as round as full moons. “I don’t believe you.”
