Make good on your commitments today. Don’t cancel any appointments or forget any promises you have made for the day. Making a list will be helpful. If there are too many things, ask for help. Do a good job, shortcuts should be avoided.
~Daily Zodiac App Sunday, July 19, 2020

“You left while he was in the shower!” Megan asked. “Don’t nod. Unless you want to pull your hair out while I’m rolling. Use the mirror, look me in the eyes, and answer.”

“Yes.” I certainly did not look her in the eye to answer. I was too busy looking at the sideways glances after the sudden public service announcement informing the entire salon about my life.

“So to recap, you felt heartbroken and went to a club with the three idiots.” At least the summary volume was low enough that only her cute assistant, Scott, could hear. Fortunately and unfortunately, he was busy crushing on her while helping to apply chemicals to my head to care.

“They’re your friends too.”

“Wei Shiao-shu, how do you think I know they’re idiots? Now don’t interrupt me. I can’t process everything I just heard, wrap your hair, and deal with your sass at the same time. You’re the one starting a new job tomorrow. Imagine day one with a bad perm.”

I shut up. I was unlucky enough this year for her joke to come true. It was my zodiac year, which put me in direct conflict with the Tai Sui. Thanks to the yearly god, a clerical error delayed my graduation, a small fever barred me from entering the bank where I got my first interview, a busted water pipe flooded half my apartment building last week, and “a fun few years” with my boyfriend came to an end.

“The idiots took you out where you got drunk enough to dance. Some guy actually thought your dancing was cute. He carried you back to his apartment, where you’re mostly sure that you attacked him after he tried to be a gentleman. You woke up naked in his bed, heard him in the shower, gathered up your clothes, and ran.” She continued filling my hair with chemicals and rolling.

“Yes,” I groaned. “And spent the rest of my Saturday nursing a nasty hangover and guilty conscience.” I wanted to bury my face in shame, but my arms were trapped under the styling cape. “I really should have checked my horoscope more carefully.”

“I’m surprised you went out at all after reading that,” she said after I repeated it to her.

“It was Saturday’s horoscope. We left on Friday night, but technically I was at the club past midnight. I should have looked ahead.”

“If you regret it so much, you could have gone back and asked him out to dinner as an apology.” A rubber band slipped from her fingers, snapping the back of my ear. The sincere look on her face did not guarantee her innocence.

“Even if I had the guts to do that, which I don’t, I have no idea where he lives. I didn’t pay attention to the address on my way to the nearest taxi. It’s somewhere in Ximen.”

“So he lives in the same area as the club, maybe he’s a regular. Just go back there every night for a week and see if you can find him.”

“Let’s say I ignore the part where dancing isn’t my thing and apparently gets me in trouble. I doubt I would be able to recognize him. The club lights and cocktails made it hard to see his features clearly.” The fact I was focused on features that were not his face probably didn’t help either, but I was being judged enough. No need to add that part of the story.

“You slept with a guy and you can’t remember what he looks like and never knew his name?!” I needed a new hairdresser, one that didn’t broadcast my life mistakes to the entire salon. But, where would I find one that gives the best-friend-of-the-salon-owner discount? I’d have to give up things like professional digital perms for things like home color kits.

The conversation paused for Megan to set up the heating machine while Scott attached the wires to the clay rollers. I prayed the science fiction machine wouldn’t leave me looking like the Bride of Frankenstein.

“So, going back to relying on the stars to find a man from the safety of your rooftop balcony?”

“If I had been at my rooftop apartment looking up at them like I usually do when things aren’t going well, I wouldn’t have been scrambling to put a shirt on in an elevator, trying to remember what happened the night before.”

“Well, you could always stop by a fortune teller and ask how lucky you were yesterday around four in the morning.”

“Very funny.”

“We both know you’re going to a temple to pray for luck tomorrow.”

“Joke’s on you Miss Know-It-All. There are no fortune tellers at Rabbit God Temple.”

Crap.

An evil smile grew across my best friend’s face, notifying me of my pending doom. “So instead of going to perhaps Taipei Xiahai City God Temple, where someone might normally go to pray for success at a new job, you are going to a temple where a healthy, young, gay man such as yourself might go to pray for a boyfriend?”

“Lucas made me promise to go with him a week ago.”

“And you probably planned to make up some excuse not to go when today came.” She circled around behind her immobile prey, picking up my phone. “But your horoscope won’t let you do that today, will it?”

“What are you doing with my phone?” I squirmed in my chair.

“Going to a temple to get a lucky talisman won’t do anything if you don’t even have open opportunities to meet people.” I didn’t like the direction this was heading. Her fingers furiously moved back and forth across my screen.

“So?” I dared.

“So, being the great friend I am, I’m helping you avoid shortcuts and to do a thorough job of putting yourself out there. You’re all tied up at the moment, so I don’t mind downloading a dating app and setting up your profile.”

“What?”

“Oh, this guy is cute.” Her eyes scanned the screen for a moment before her finger tapped. “Liked.”