“A little,” I admit, smoothing the dress over my hips. I’ve only talked to Bandit a couple of times in the last month. Both conversations were…distant. Awkward. I have no idea why he wants to see me tonight. Even less sure why he suggested a double date with Cristela and his cousin.

“Have faith.” She checks her hair in the hallway mirror. “He’ll fall in love with you eventually. He has to. It’s his destiny.”

I bite my lip. But what if he doesn’t? I’ve never confessed to Cristela the fear that keeps me up at night, chewing through my intestines.

Bandit is the love of my life. My soul mate across time streams. The man to whom I returned, again and again, no matter what obstacles were thrown in our path.

Or at least, he used to be. Before I changed the future so drastically that I (hopefully) wrenched us onto a brand-new thread.

What if in the process of trying to stop the Virus Maker, I’ve also shaken up the unshakable? What if, in this new time stream we’ve built, I fall for Bandit…but he doesn’t love me back?

The doorbell rings.

I freeze, my palms turning into ice. My spine into petrified wood. I might’ve stood there for the rest of eternity, a redwood tree reaching for the sky on the California coast, but Cristela nudges my shoulder.

“Your life will happen, with or without you,” she says.

My breath rattles free. I don’t know if her wisdom comes from her glimpse of the future or from her natural genius, but she’s right. Before I can second-guess my decision, I open the door.

Two strikingly attractive people stand, one with an adorable pixie cut and a metal bar in their eyebrow, the other with an athletic build and brilliant blue hair, freshly dyed.

I only have eyes for the latter.

Bandit steps over the threshold, his mouth solemn, his expression serious. My hands twitch. I want to run them over his lips, to tease them into a smile. But I don’t have that right. Not yet. Maybe never.

“Hi,” he whispers.

“Do you, uh, need to introduce Cristela to Mali?” I gesture at Bandit’s cousin.

“They seem to be doing just fine on their own.”

I peek over his shoulder. Cristela is shuffling her feet, already laughing, and Mali grins so broadly, I can count every one of their teeth. Instantly smitten.

Unlike some other people I know.

I turn back to Bandit, and he hands me a flower garland. My breath catches. It’s a puang malai, like the ones I’ve seen from time to time at Lalana’s house. Tight jasmine buds are threaded together to form a wreath, and half a dozen strands dangle from the circle, comprised of red roses and bloomed jasmine flowers. It is intricate, exquisite, and it smells just like my favorite perfume.