Dressed as Rembrandt, I wear a vintage black cloak and beret that Pó Po was able to find in her boxes of old clothing, and I’m armed with a plastic painter’s palette. The outfit wouldn’t be complete without a stick-on mustache and mouche.
Around me, people dressed in skintight tiger costumes, snake-print jumpsuits, and Cupid outfits carry drinks and mingle. Michael Jackson’s song “Thriller” blasts from a speaker near the bar. I scan the crowd for Bennett so I know the general vicinity to hang around.
I wind through people in animal costumes and walk toward a woman with long, wavy platinum-blond hair cascading down her back. The guy next to her in a chef’s outfit lifts his toque and immediately I know it’s Bennett from the way his hair falls. My palms break out in a light sweat at the sight of him.
My steps slow as I observe the situation. I take cover behind a witch’s cauldron of punch bubbling over with dry ice fog. The woman with platinum hair smiles at something Bennett says and rests her hand on his shoulder. In my mind, I see his peony count number increasing. He’s the start-up world’s most eligible bachelor, after all. Why wouldn’t he be dating other people? Other people clearly want to date him.
I crouch lower to get a better angle of him and the woman who’s giving a solid A-effort to imitate Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons. She leans forward to better hear him and then laughs vivaciously at whatever it is he said that probably wasn’t even funny.
I’m bumped from behind by a man circling the cauldron, and he almost knocks me off balance.
“Olivia?” a voice says.
I hold my beret to my head and angle my face up toward the stars. Standing over me is the host from our live panel interview.
“Marcus?”
Marcus waves from above. What was a stylish suit at the live podcast interview is replaced by a bright red bacon strip costume. His face appears through a cutout hole in one of the pink layers.
“Well, well, I didn’t expect to see you here tonight,” Marcus says. “Especially after everything with the wager. That’s very big of you.”
“It was a last-minute decision to come. Don’t tell anyone you saw me,” I instruct as I stand to face him.
“Are you meeting your date here?” he asks excitedly. “Or rather, your love.” He squeals. “I can’t believe ZodiaCupid actually worked. Secretly, I had my money on Lunar Love.”
“Hold on.” I smile to be polite but am downright confused. “What do you mean, ZodiaCupid worked? And did you say love?”
“We were notified yesterday that a winner had been established. You both went on dates, and apparently, you fell in love. Congrats!” Marcus says with a laugh.
The pieces fall into place. Finally, I have clarity. I’ve been played.
“I’m not…I can’t be in love,” I stammer.
Marcus grins. “You’ve got the glow of a woman in love.”
Never in my life have I hated a piece of bacon more. My thoughts race in every direction as Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” flows from the speakers. I abandon Marcus mid-sentence and make a beeline for Bennett.
“Who do you think you are?” I blurt out, interrupting his conversation with one of his probably many women.
The Mother of Dragons awkwardly backs away.
Bennett’s caught off guard when he sees me, his eyes widening. “Olivia!”
I should’ve trusted myself. Of course he’s exactly who I thought he would be.
“I’m leaving,” I say, gathering the fabric of my cloak and turning to go. I push through a group of partygoers in uninspired dog ear headbands.
“Wait,” Bennett calls out. He catches up to me faster than I expected. “Slow down. I’m so glad you made it.” He bends down to hug me, and my cheek smushes into the shoulder of his chef jacket. Sweat forms on my lower back, and I’m thankful my perspiration won’t be visible through the cloak.
“I’m sure you are,” I say. “I’m going now, so you and your dragon lady can get back to your date, or whatever this is.”
“Our what?” he asks, his eyebrows scrunched. “We’re not on a date. I don’t even know who that was.”
“Says the man with the high peony count. Looks like you gamified, after all.”
“Uh, what? You know my peony count is high because my profile is how we test features. You’re the only peony for me.” His look of excitement to see me turns to confusion.
I scoff. “How can I believe that?”
He frowns. “We spent a lot of time and money building the gamification feature. We at the very least had to try it. I owe that to my team.”
“I had a long talk with Harper and heard about your plan to manipulate me,” I say. My heart thumps wildly inside my chest. How could I have let this happen? I can’t fall for a Rat. It won’t end well, it never does.
Bennett thinks for a moment. “Manipulate you? I wanted to spend more time with you. That’s the only reason why I worked with her. I thought we had a good time.”
I laugh bitterly. “You can manipulate numbers all you want, but you shouldn’t manipulate people.”
Bennett gently guides me to the side and out of earshot from an eavesdropping Easter Bunny. We tuck under an arch of plastic skulls while a group of Monkeys watches us from the dessert table.
“I have explanations for everything but you’re not listening,” Bennett says, getting visibly frustrated. “You did some things for us to meet. I did some things for us to keep seeing each other. Our efforts brought and kept us together. I wasn’t trying to work you over or sabotage you. Never have, never will. And there’s definitely no one else.”
I hear him, but his words aren’t convincing me otherwise. “This isn’t a situation that you can handle or control,” I inform him.
“I’m not trying to control you,” he says. “Though that’s perfect for you of all people to say that. You think you can control who loves who and the outcome.”
“I just want people to be happy. Oh, and you haven’t heard the best part yet. Yesterday, you go and tell Marcus that I’m the one who fell in love and that Lunar Love lost.” I clap a hand against my palette. “Power play. Very nice. Kick the small, old, traditional, boring matchmaking business while it’s already down and going under.”
Bennett holds his toque against his chest. “I did no such thing. I haven’t talked to Marcus since our panel.”
I cough out a laugh at his denial. “Bullshit. I just saw him, and he told me everything.” I’m such a fool! On what planet did I think being with Bennett and running Lunar Love could work?
Bennett thinks for a moment and looks like he has a realization. “Elmer,” he mumbles. “Elmer must’ve told him. He’s probably still feeling resentful for being tricked.”
I shake my head. “Everything’s Elmer’s fault, isn’t it? Even though it’s your business. We had a pact. And we called the bet off! There wasn’t supposed to be a winner.”