Page 78 of Something Like Fate

Based on his expression, he has no clue who it is either.

I think about all of our hostel friends. Only one person could possibly know we were staying here, since up until a few days ago, he was supposed to join us.

Caleb.

Teller must have told him about the surprise booking. I set my napkin on the table and follow her. He came back for me. Holy shit.

I pause before heading into the entryway, trying to collect my thoughts. I’m cautiously ecstatic, because this means Caleb has come back. I didn’t entirely scare him off. But after last night, the timing couldn’t be worse.

I round the corner, bracing myself to see Caleb’s sun-kissed curls, his surfer charm on full display. Instead, there’s a man in an all-khaki outfit, complete with a safari hat, towering over a dark-haired woman in a hot-pink tunic with matching hot-pink wedges.

Dad and Aunt Mei. What are they doing here?

27

Imust be hallucinating.

It’s only when Mei shuffles toward me, chunky wedges clunking against the tile floor, and flings her arms open that I know it’s real. They’re actually here.

Seconds into the hug, she shrinks back like I’ve burned her. A simple hug. That’s all it takes for her to pick up on my negative energy. And while I haven’t told her about Caleb leaving me in Florence, or about Teller, I get the feeling she’ll figure it out. If she hasn’t already. I deliberately avoid eye contact as she gives me a once-over.

“What are you guys doing here?” I ask before she can interrogate me.

“Had to make sure you didn’t get any weird face tattoos or body piercings,” Dad says.

I cough, shoving my hand in my pocket to hide my moon tattoo. That’s a conversation for a different day.

“Three weeks was too long to go without seeing you,” he says, oblivious to the weird vibes as he wraps me in a bear hug. I let myself sag into him as he rocks me back and forth, grateful for his solid, steady presence.

“I thought you never wanted to travel again,” I say to Dad.

He shrugs. “Well, you know I’ve always wanted to see Pompeii. When you told me it was next on the itinerary, on the way to Amalfi, I couldn’t resist.”

“He’s been having total FOMO,” Mei explains, taking her sunglasses off to get a better look at the villa. “Personally, I came for the pasta. I’ve been thinking about it ever since your mom and I left this place. And you’ll never believe the promo on travel points with my credit card. And being back here is just—” She pauses, eyes welling for a flash. “This place hasn’t changed a bit.”

Before she can get too teary, Dad’s arm shoots up in a wave. “Teller!”

Behind me, Teller approaches sheepishly. We make brief, yet hesitant, eye contact before he turns on a smile. Dad is eager to hear all about Teller’s first year at college, while Mei demands to know when he got so tall. And fit. She hasn’t seen him since Lunar New Year three years ago.

After they check in, we take the evening to drive around Tuscany with no specific agenda. Mei likes to be in control of her transportation, so she and Dad rent a small hatchback. It’s nice to go at our own pace for once. We stop at a few farms and vineyards that Mei has a “feeling” about. Neither Dad nor Mei are huge wine drinkers, so we don’t spend long at any one place.

“I hope we didn’t cramp your style,” Mei says once we’ve settled in bed. I opt to stay in her room tonight, for obvious reasons. Frankly, Teller seemed relieved, and I don’t blame him. Space is good. We need this.

“Not at all,” I say, staring at the ceiling. Of course, I was initially disappointed it wasn’t Caleb coming back for me. But it’s hard to be sad when Dad and Mei flew halfway across the world to be with me. They’re also proving an excellent buffer between Teller and me. “I really needed you here, actually.”

I mean that. Teller and I may be back on speaking terms, but there’s still limited eye contact. Long bouts of silence that don’t feel natural. Teller is usually one of the people I’m most comfortable with, but being alone with him right now is almost unbearable. Besides, it’s much easier to pretend you didn’t hook up with your best friend when you’re around other people.

“I know,” Mei says simply. She justknowsthings, sometimes even before me. When I was twelve, she kept me home from school one daybecause she had a “bad feeling.” Turns out, a couple girls at school had started an “I Hate Lo” club based on some lie that I’d held hands with one of their boyfriends at a birthday party that weekend (I did not). And while Mei wasn’t able to protect me from finding out about it, she saved me the humiliation of seeing their “I Hate Lo” friendship bracelets, which soon came off when they found out it was Becca Ryan, not me, who’d held said boyfriend’s hand. There is truly no one crueler than a middle school girl.

I let out a shaky sigh. “Yeah. I officially scared Caleb off for good.”

She gives me one of those looks, as if to say,You’re being dramatic. “What happened?”

I tell her that I’d come clean about my vision, revealed the whole soulmate thing. Then how he checked out of the hostel without even saying goodbye, without leaving any contact information.

Why did I even have these visions in the first place? Things were better when I was just Ordinary Lo. Sure, it sucked that I was the one big fat failure in the family, but at least I’d gotten used to that reality. By nineteen, everyone had stopped expecting things from me.

“When I first told Layla, she laughed her ass off and asked if I was on drugs,” Mei tells me to make me feel better. It doesn’t work.

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