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I give it to him and strike a pose in front of the tree. After he takes a few shots, he hands my phone back. “There are so many people around, I couldn’t get you alone,” he says.

“Why would I want to be alone?”

His forehead furrows. “Don’t you just want you and the trees with your matching dress?”

I shake my head. “No! The very last thing I want to do is erase all these people. It’s the coolest thing about this place…

Everyone came to see the same thing I’m here to see.

Thousands come every year to see some trees bloom.

I love it.” I scroll through the pictures Miles took.

He has quite an eye—the pictures are great.

I start to upload a few to my grid right away, then look at Miles. “Come here,” I say, smiling.

“Why?”

“I want a selfie with you. You’re wearing flowers, too. We both match the trees.”

He laughs, but then comes and lets me take the selfie of us with our heads leaning into each other, surrounded by the pale pink trees behind us. I upload the picture along with the others he took, tagging Miles again.

“Question,” I ask as I put my phone down. “Did you wear that shirt with flowers on it because we were coming to look at flowers? Because I think I’m a good influence on you.”

Miles laughs again. I can’t get over how much his face changes when he smiles.

It’s almost as if there are two Miles Desais—the nonsmiling surly one who is irritated at about every third thing I say and this easygoing one who laughs a lot.

This Miles looks like it matches the rest of him.

Like his bright eyes match his expression for the first time.

I turn away, exhaling. I’m way too fascinated with my frustrating new friend. Maybe it’s because he’s so completely different from me. But I need to stop this. Miles is my friend . We’re literally here because I want him to fall in love with someone else—my stepsister .

“I see your real reason for dragging me here, by the way,” he says as we walk to the next tree.

“I have no ulterior motive,” I say. “I wanted you to meet my stepsister. What do you think of her?”

He looks over at Sarina, then shrugs. “She seems nice enough. Quiet, though. But I mean why you brought us here , specifically. You wanted me to see how many people will come to a place just so they can post it on their social media.”

I tilt my head. I actually hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, the number of people here at High Park proves my point that we should have some sort of installation in LOL Park that people can post to their socials.

“Yes, exactly,” I say, smiling. “We need something this photogenic.”

He nods. “I don’t see how we can do anything to this scale, but yeah, I see your point. We need a signature attraction. Social media bait.”

I grin, clapping my hands together. “Yay! We can brainstorm ideas after we get the festival permit. We’ll think of something iconic .”

“ If we get the festival permit.”

I shake my head, poking his shoulder with my pink-painted fingernail. “None of this if business, mister. We’re getting it. You and me? We’re an unstoppable team.”

He laughs, and again my heart flutters. I really shouldn’t be craving the rush of making him smile so much.

“Where’s Sarina?” I ask, looking around. I need to get them together again and then escape without her following me so Miles and Sarina can be alone.

I see her several trees over. She’s not really with Cara and Hannah, but she’s watching them.

Weird. Cara and Hannah are standing under a tree with their arms around each other, and Hannah has an arm out to take a selfie.

She kisses Cara on the mouth as she takes the picture.

From my angle, I can clearly see Sarina grimace and take a step backward the moment Hannah and Cara kiss.

What is that about? I wonder if Sarina overheard Hannah say something not great to Cara earlier, so she doesn’t like Hannah for Cara.

I’m about to go ask her what’s wrong when Sarina takes another step backward and trips over a tree root. She falls quite spectacularly to the ground, knocking over two other tree photographers with her.

“Oh no!” Miles says, rushing to Sarina. I follow him, saying “excuse me” to the dozen or so people between us and Sarina.

When he gets to her, Miles kneels at Sarina’s feet and asks if she’s okay.

I slow down to give them a moment alone.

I love that he ran to her rescue immediately.

But also, I feel a twang of jealousy of the attention Miles is giving Sarina, which is ridiculous.

I brought Miles and Sarina here because I wanted him to fall for her, and the fact that he’s currently helping her out of the dirt is a good thing.

As is the fact that he’s gently picking off the cherry blossom petals stuck to her sweater.

Then Sarina says something I don’t hear that makes Miles smile. The same smile he just gave me. I step closer to them.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Sarina says. “Just embarrassed. I’m such a klutz.” She apologizes to the people she knocked down, who’ve already gotten up from the dirt. They look annoyed—especially the girl in the cream dress that now has dusty brown splotches on it.

Cara and Hannah come to see what’s going on, along with Ajit and Julie. Sarina again assures us all that she’s fine. But when she starts to walk, it becomes clear that she’s not fine. She nearly falls again after taking only one step. Miles is still next to her and catches her.

“I just need to walk it off,” she says.

Cara looks skeptical. She’s studying physical therapy, so she knows. “Let me look at your foot,” she says.

While Sarina stands on one foot holding on to Miles for stability, Cara inspects Sarina’s ankle. Cara turns it a bit, then asks Sarina to put her weight on it, which makes Sarina cringe with pain.

“I think it’s twisted,” Cara says. “It doesn’t look like a break. But it might swell up. I’d stay off it as much as possible to let it heal.”

Sarina’s already-wide eyes go even wider. “Do you think it’s okay for me to take the subway home to Vaughan?”

Cara shakes her head. “Can you get a ride or an Uber home?”

Sarina sighs. “Yeah, I suppose.”

“We can split an Uber,” Miles says quickly. “I’m going to King City to see my mom. Vaughan’s on the way.”

Great . So now Miles and Sarina will have a long car ride alone.

I exhale. This is good . Sarina is smart and stable and is a perfect match for Miles.

This could make them both happy. “That’s a great idea!

” I say, laying on the enthusiasm. “It’s so convenient that you live near each other.

This is why I wanted you to meet. You have so much in common! ”

Miles is still holding Sarina up, but glances at me with an unreadable expression. Maybe I was laying it on too thick? I smile at Miles, but I wonder if he can see right through it.

After Sarina calls for a car, Miles and Ajit support Sarina as we walk to the main street to meet the Uber. Sarina still looks embarrassed, and the peaceful, serene look on her face seems to have left her. Probably because of the pain.

Miles barely even looks back at us after helping Sarina in. But when I call out that I’ll text him later, he gives me a nod and a small, almost knowing smile. And then the car drives away with my stepsister and Miles.

I stare at the car as it leaves.

“She’ll be fine,” Cara says, maybe noticing my expression.

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure she will be. Sarina’s always been clumsy.” I have no idea if that’s true. For some reason I want to sound like I actually know my stepsister.

We start walking back toward the trees, taking pictures as we walk, but I’m not in the mood for this anymore.

“You finally did it,” Cara says.

“Did what?” Hannah asks.

Cara looks at her girlfriend. “Sana’s been trying to set Miles up with someone all month. I think this date was the best one. That was a very Jane Austen meet-cute, wasn’t it? Unless Sarina did break her ankle. That wouldn’t be good.”

I shake my head. “I mean, her getting hurt makes the date a disaster, but I guess this was still better than the others.”

“Sarina’s sweet, too,” Cara says. “I don’t get why you always complain about her like she’s an evil stepsister. She’s a bit normcore, but I like her.”

“She… used to be kind of mean to me when we were kids.”

Cara shrugs. “So? People grow up. She’s great now.”

Yeah, Cara’s right. Sarina has grown, and she’s probably not that bad a person.

She doesn’t really talk to me when we have brunch, so I figured we were polar opposites.

But Sarina is more cheerful and chatty away from our parents.

Today she has been perfectly pleasant—just a little clumsy.

I need to stop resenting her like this. Why wouldn’t Miles be into her?

I don’t realize I’m clenching my jaw until Hannah speaks up.

“I don’t think she’s into Miles,” Hannah says.

“Why not?” Cara asked.

Hannah shrugs. “She didn’t look interested in him.” She kisses Cara on the cheek. “You’re coming back to my place after, right?”

Cara nods, smiling widely. She really does look happy.

We all hang out in High Park for about an hour more, taking pictures of the flowers, then eating the little veggie sandwiches and warm chai Ajit brought. As the sun sets, the hazy dusk adds a really cool vibe to the park. It’s actually gorgeous.

But I don’t enjoy it. I still feel down. I should be happy that I finally succeeded at setting up Miles, but I feel far from happy right now.