Page 19 of Meet Me on Love Street
I laugh. “Yes! We need your knowledge on this permit and bureaucracy stuff! We may have…opposingideas, but our goal is the same—we both want Love Street to thrive!”
“Are you always so…positive?”
“Yes.” I wave my hands at my bright smile. “It’s like my whole thing, and I’m not ashamed of it.” I kick the side of his sneaker with my shoe. “Come on, Miles. I want to prove you wrong. Love is real, and it’s the best thing in the world. Once you see how much everyone loves the love festival, you’ll see I’m right.”
“Hardly. If the festival’s a success, all it would prove is that everyone else in the city has been indoctrinated like you.”
“Maybe so,” I say, keeping my tone light because I’mabout to suggest the second-best idea I’ve had today, after the festival idea. “Or maybe you’ll let me change your mind about love.”
He raises a brow. “How?”
“Let me set you up with someone.” I managed to find someone for Priya to fall in love with. I know I can do it for Miles, too.
His eyes go so wide that he looks like Zuri when she hears the can opener. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously! I’m an excellent matchmaker—I always set up my friends! You’re only skeptical because you haven’t met the right person yet! IknowI can find you someone who will make you fall head over heels.”
A little voice in my head tells me that this idea could backfire on me, I mean, I’m now dateless for my own prom because I set Priya up with Amber. But I shush the voice.
Miles shakes his head, eyes still enormous. “I don’t know about this. I don’t want to go out with randoms I’ve never met before.”
“I’ll come along if you want. They don’t have to beformaldates, just a bunch of friends going out.”
Miles is silent for a while, clearly thinking. I know this idea is perfect, and I really hope he sees it too. Miles isn’t actually a bad guy, just a guy going through a rough time who needs to be knocked off his feet in love. And also? He’s much, much too cute to be single.
I scoot forward onto my knees and put my hand out to shake on the deal. He stares at me for several long seconds before finally exhaling and shaking my hand.
“Fine. Go ahead and fix me up with someone,” he says.
I beam, our hands still touching. “And we’ll work on the festival together too?”
He nods, taking his hand back and rubbing it on his jeans. “Yes, I’ll work on the festival proposal with you, too.”
This is going to be so much fun. I love a summer project. Two in fact. Planning this festival to save Love Street, and make Miles Desai fall stupidly in love. I can’t wait.
CHAPTER SEVENTHE DATE WITH THE FLYING FISH
Miles and I talk a bit longer on my balcony before he leaves. I try to get him to tell me his type to help with my search for his true love, but he says if I’m such a good matchmaker, I should be able to figure it out. He has a point there. Eventually he leaves, after thanking me again for helping with his bike. I grin as I watch him carry it down the stairs. I have such a good feeling about this. Who knows, maybe Miles and I are actually going to befriends.
But all my warm and fuzzy feelings for Miles Desai evaporate about five minutes into our first official meeting of the Love on Love Street Festival planning committee. Me, Cara, and Miles are in LoveBug, and I can tell right away that Miles already regrets agreeing to work with us. He’s punching holes through every idea we have. When I suggest we get a vendor to sell love locks for the chain-link fence at LOL Park, Miles asks us if we know how heavy those are and says they will cause the fence to buckle.
“They removed all the locks from the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris, you know,” he says. “All the extra weight made the bridge unsafe. Plus, they are terrible for the environment. People always toss the keys on the ground or in waterways, which hurts the wildlife. Not to mention—”
I shake my head. “Okay, but they’re soromantic. The locks signify an unbreakable bond.”
“You think the city is going to let us keep them on the fence?” Miles asks. “We’ll be the ones with the bolt cuttersseveringtheir so-called unbreakable bond after the event.”
Cara laughs at that. I glare at her. I don’t know why Cara doesn’t find Miles Desai as irritating as I do. It’s probably because Hannah being back is making Cara see through rose-colored glasses. Cara and Hannah have been spending almost every waking hour together when Cara’s not working, and Cara is walking around with rainbows and hearts in her eyes all day. It’s adorable.
“Well, I don’t see how we can have a festival of love and not have love locks,” I say, adding it to my list anyway. “I also think the statue is important. There must be a way to do a temporary version of it. It could be a big draw. Like… our signature attraction, you know?”
“I’m with Sana,” Cara says. “I think we should explore options for a sculpture.”
Miles shrugs. “We should really be finding sponsors first. Then we’ll know how much money we have to work with.”
“What’s the point of getting sponsors if we don’t even know what we want?” I ask, frustrated.
“And shouldn’t we be getting permits first to know if we’re having a festival at all?” Cara asks.
