Page 23 of Meet Me on Love Street
Mom nods appreciatively, laughing. “Good for him.”
I giggle too. The whole thingisfunny, actually. “Back to square one in finding Miles a girlfriend, though.”
“Why do you need to find him a girlfriend? Let Miles be.”
I shake my head. “He needs to fall in love! The guy seriously doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body. He actually called love locks pollution.”
“They technically are, aren’t they?”
“Mom, not you, too!” I know my mother isn’tromantic… but I thought she’d be on my side.
“Okay, okay, Sana. But have you considered that the guy might actually be interested inyou?”
First Cara, now my own mother thinks me and Miles should be together? “Seriously, Mom? I love grumpy heroes in romance novels, but not in real life. He’s way too pessimistic—we’d be terrible together! Miles Desai has only two things going for him: he understands the bureaucracy to get the approvals we need for the festival, and he’s committed to maintaining communities like Love Street. That’s why I want toworkwith him on this. My focus is only on the festival right now, not on my love life. Miles’s two positive traits aren’t enough for me to forget what’s important.”
Mom shrugs. “He’s got nice hair.”
Fair point. “Okay, three positive traits. It’s still not enough.”
“It might be enough for you one day, Sana.”
I doubt that very much.
CHAPTER EIGHTA CREATURE WAS STIRRING
Miles texts the next night in our festival planning group chat that he has a draft of the event proposal ready and asks if we could get together to work out some details, but we can’t seem to find a time this week when we’re all free. Eventually we decide to meet on Friday at seven, after I’m done at the flower shop. Neither Cara nor Miles is working, so I tell them to meet me at LoveBug.
Cosmic is dead on Thursday, so Jenn asks Cara and me to change the windows again. She thinks the eighties stuff might be bringing bad memories and preventing people from coming in, so we’re going nineties beach bunny.
“I can’t believe how bad Miles’s first setup went,” I say as I slip a Hawaiian shirt on the male mannequin. “I’m kind of surprised that he’s letting me set him up again, actually.” The shirt is way too big, but I love the color. The purple and green are so inviting. “I can’t believe we got kicked out of a festival on our first research trip! Or that Abbey accidentally threw a fish at him!”
“The date was dead even before the fish incident,” Cara says. “Her brother was terrible.”
I nod. Thankfully, Abbey hasn’t said a word to me at school since our trip to Little Portugal. And I’m not planning to tell anyone about the festival food fight.
“Abbey’s not the right girl for Miles, anyway,” Cara adds. Cara is wearing jeans and a pink and gray flannel today—uncharacteristically light colors for Cara, but she still looks great.
I pin the back of the Hawaiian shirt, but that makes it drape weird. I shake my head. This shirt isn’t going to work.
“Try that orange and blue one,” Cara suggests. She’s put a purple bodycon dress on the girl mannequin, and it fits like a glove. I’d picked the purple and green shirt to coordinate with the dress.
I grab the other shirt. “Why don’t you think Abbey is right for Miles?” I agree with Cara that Abbey and Miles are a bad match, but hearing another person’s opinion may help me pick better next time.
“She was sweet… but maybe too sweet? I think she was too quiet for Miles. Maybe because her brother is such an ass, she learned to be invisible.” Cara suddenly takes her phone out of her pocket. She looks at it for only a moment before putting it back. I can tell that whatever she saw upset her, but she’s trying not to let it show. I wonder if it’s Hannah. I got a weird vibe from her at the festival. Hannah didn’t really talk to anyone except Cara. I have no idea if there is trouble in paradise between Cara and Hannah, but if there is and Cara doesn’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to force it.
“What kind of girl do you think would be better?” I ask. I love matchmaking, but I’m kind of stumped with Miles. I can’t picture who would work for him. “Abbey’s so pretty and seemed harmless.”
Cara shakes her head. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just because you find Abbey pretty doesn’t mean Miles will. What did he say about her?”
“He said he didn’t like that she talked so little. He likes…invigoratingconversation.” Actually, what he said was that he liked talking tome, but I’m not sure what he meant by that.
“Makes sense. Miles needs someone who can challenge his brain, not just agree with everyone.”
“So… someone smarter? Someone who he’ll match with on an intellectual level more than a physical level?” Cara nods. I smooth the new Hawaiian shirt I’ve put on the guy mannequin. “But also, someone thatlooksgood with him,” I add. “Because someone who looks like him deserves someone equally… hot.”
Cara laughs. “You seem pretty preoccupied with how attractive Miles is.” She looks at the shirt. “That actually looks pretty good with the purple dress.”
I step back to look at the couple together. They do look good. Not matchy-matchy, but complementary. “Yeah, I like it too.” An idea suddenly comes to me. “Charlene! She’s studying biology at U of T! She’s perfect for Miles!”
