Law and Maya have a long standing feud. He rigs the Mermaid Queen vote to make sure she's the winner every year; she tries to get his wood-fired pizza oven banned for having too much smoke. But underneath it all is a simmering awareness that their hate might actually be a bit closer to attraction.

Now that Maya is at the risk of losing her beloved theater AND having to compete with Law for a local small business grant, she surely should not be kicking her heels up at his apartment even if he does have the good cable with the premier league football she loves watching. And she absolutely should not be thinking about kissing him...

As for Law, he's always kind of pined for Maya and cannot fathom why she is so mad at him all the time. But as they finally start to have a gradually detente leading to friendship, can he risk making a move and scaring her away forever?

This was fun, with a returning cast of characters and a lot of trope-y deliciousness. I was yelling at these two to put their faces together but I had to wait for the slow-burn to spark. I was also glad to return to Matchmaker Bay and have a fun romp, as the previous installment, while an excellent romance, hit a topic that was personally very hard for me to read.

CW: drinking, mention of tragedies from secondary characters that happened in the past.