“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.
Chapter 21
Iarrive at the Pitch IRL venue in downtown LA to find Bennett. The venue is small enough where every angle is considered a good seat. On the large screen behind the stage, I see the ZodiaCupid logo displayed. Perfect. I made it just in time to catch Bennett in the middle of his pitch.
Up on stage, Bennett paces back and forth. He looks nervous. This isn’t what I expected when I envisioned him pitching all his past businesses. As he starts to describe ZodiaCupid, he fumbles over data and statistics. He takes a second to drink water.
I approach the stage looking sweaty and disheveled in my leggings and oversized T-shirt. When Bennett places the cup down and looks up, I’m able to catch his eye. I give him a small wave and mouth the words “From the heart,” pointing to the left side of my chest. He returns the smile and quickly inhales before letting out a long breath.
“People are more than just line items in an Excel spreadsheet,” Bennett says. He stands up straighter, his grip on his notecards relaxing. The confidence that was lacking in his voice before is now present and commanding.
“There’s no algorithm in the world that can capture what it’s like to laugh uncontrollably with the person you love or that feeling when you’re sitting next to someone for the first time at a movie and wondering if they want to hold your hand just like you do,” he says, taking deliberate pauses and steps across the stage. “Or when you bomb so badly on a date but don’t care because every second you spend with them is more important than any second you had without them.”
Just when I think he’s finished, he looks up at me and dives into why he started ZodiaCupid. He shares a condensed version of the story he told me about finding his mother’s journals, and how his parents were mismatched yet perfectly matched, and the importance of discovering your culture no matter what age you are. It’s when he speaks from the heart that I notice the young audience shifting in their seats and focusing on him instead of ontheir phones.
He hits his stride and returns to the data and statistics. He discusses the beta version of the app, who they’ve been able to hire with savings, their marketing plan and how the strategy has been working, estimated expenses and anticipated revenue, and potential user numbers post-beta. At first, he captured their hearts—a feeling I know well—and then he captured their wallets.
As I watch him in his element, I think about all the ways that online dating has benefited me. While Lunar Love lost clients, it made me figure out how to be smarter about the business and our offerings. Without the app, I may never have found Parker to match with Harper. Without ZodiaCupid, I may never have found Bennett.
On my phone, I see my dad’s name light up the screen. I decide to call him back after the pitch, letting his call go to voicemail. When he calls a second time in a row, I can’t ignore it.
“Hello?” I whisper, ducking out of the audience and into the lobby.
“Hey sweetie,” Dad says quietly. “Where are you? Can you talk?”
Through the windows, I watch as Bennett speaks animatedly. The crowd loves him.
“I’m actually in the middle of something.”
“Would you be able to get out of it and come home?” he asks.
“Why? What happened?” I ask, my tone more urgent. “Can you tell me now?”
Dad clears his throat. “I hate to tell you over the phone…” I sense a shift in his voice. I press the phone harder against my ear and search for a private corner.
“Dad, what is it?”
“Pó Po passed away in her sleep last night,” he says sadly.
