Taking A Chance On Mr. Wrong (Taking Chances On Love Book 2) Page 5

  “Good to know. If I get tired one day of teaching math, I’ll think about becoming a philosopher.”

  “Or maybe a therapist,” she joked. “You seem to know how to get people to empty their guts to you.” She paused. “Wait, did I say that right?”

  “It’s spill your guts, but I’m happy to be on the receiving end, no matter how you want to do it.” Ben reached out and gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “You’re cute when you get flustered, you know that?”

  Melanie doubted that was the case, but his comment made her cheeks warm. She attempted to turn his attention back to their earlier conversation. “To answer your previous question … I guess the hardest part about immigrating was leaving the people I cared about behind.”

  “Family? Friends?”

  “Yes, friends. Some close ones.” She let out a deep breath, then squared her shoulders as if to add conviction to her next words. “But all the changes I went through helped me grow. There were so many things out of my control, but it was reassuring to know God was always there.”

  “I understand what you’re saying.”

  “Do you believe in anything?”

  “You mean God? Yes, I do. My parents took me and my sister to church every week, but I didn’t take my faith seriously until I went to college.” His face grew serious. “It’s a good thing I did because I don’t know how else I would have gotten through the past couple of years.”

  “What do you mean? What happened?”

  “My parents passed away in a car accident almost four years ago. I moved back home and have been taking care of my sister since then.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” This explained why he was at the supermarket the day they met. His big brother role had turned into that of a parent. Melanie’s heart softened to know how much Ben had gone through. “That must have been so difficult for you, for both of you.”

  “It’s been a journey. But Ash has had a much harder time than me. She was only fifteen when all this happened. I was already done with college and living on my own. I had just started a teaching job down in So Cal, but moved back here as soon as I could. It was pretty rough in the beginning learning how to walk a fine line between being a brother and a parent. I’ve had a crash course on hormones, that’s for sure. Somehow I lived to tell about it.” He grinned and wiped imaginary beads of sweat from his forehead.

  Melanie couldn’t help but stare in awe at the man across from her. Ben was certainly nice to look at, but his story now made him even more attractive in her eyes. “You’re so positive despite everything you’ve been through. How do you stay so strong?”

  “Lots of prayer … and soda,” he quipped as he raised his glass, “and reminding myself to be thankful for what I have. I had two wonderful parents who raised me well and introduced me to Jesus. A kid sister who loves me. Friends who have stood by me. I have a job I love.” He paused as a goofy grin lit up his face. “The chance to meet a new friend in the supermarket aisle. Life is good. I couldn’t ask for more.”

  “Oh, but you do want more, don’t you? That’s why you have a bucket list.”

  Ben nodded. “You’re right, I do. It’s something I made after my parents died. I realized how unpredictable life is and how there’s still so much I haven’t experienced. But the way my life is right now is all right with me. Getting to do the things on that list would only add to it.”

  “So you’ve got donating blood as number ten. Trying authentic Chinese food as twenty-one. What else do you have on there?”

  “Hug a koala, learn a new language, shake the hand of Stanford’s mascot …”

  “You want to shake a tree’s hand?”

  “What can I say, I’m a proud alumni. I tried my senior year to get onto the field to see the tree, but some students from Cal got to it first. It wasn’t a pretty sight when they were done with it.”

  “I heard about that Big Game. My roommates tried to get me to go, but I think I was too busy studying.”

  “You went to Stanford, too?”

  “I went to Cal for undergrad and Stanford for med school. My friends still haven’t forgiven me for joining the enemy,” she said with an eye-roll. “But I liked the medical program they offer.”

  “I have a friend who went there as well who recommends it. I wonder if you know him. His name’s Melvin, Melvin Lai?”

  Melanie’s jaw dropped. You must be joking. “I do know Melvin. I met him in med school, and we’re in the same residency program now.” And we’re technically engaged to each other, too, in some strange alternate reality.

  “No kidding. He and I were roommates freshman year. We ended up in the same fellowship and even led a Bible study group together. He’s a great guy. Loyal to the end.”

  “Sounds like you guys are close. I’m surprised he’s never mentioned you. But all I remember talking about before was our classwork; he was always focused on getting the highest scores. These days, it’s all about work.”

  “That sounds like the Melvin I know and love. It took everything in me to drag him out to a party our senior year. Four years of college and he still hadn’t gone on a date or even tried to ask a girl out. He was so pale from staying indoors to study that I nicknamed him Snow White.”

  “I can assure you he hasn’t changed much. My mom—our families know each other from church,” she explained, “says his face looks like silken tofu, soft and creamy.”

  “Isn’t that a great imagery. I’ll have to remember that so I can make fun of him the next time I see him. Well, if he’s still so pale, then he must be going out at night. I got an email from him last week and was shocked to hear he’s getting married. Imagine that!”

  Melanie began coughing uncontrollably. The onion ring she’d been in the middle of swallowing had lodged itself in her throat. She forced out a smile to ease the worry on Ben’s face, then took a large swig of water to wash it down. Uh-oh. If this conversation was a moving vehicle, it was on the verge of heading off a cliff. She had a sinking feeling it was too late to make a U-turn. “He did?”

  “I didn’t even know he was dating, but I couldn’t be happier for the guy. I can’t wait to meet this girl. She must be something to have caught his attention. It sounds like he’s eager to marry her.”

  Wasn’t that the truth? Eager was a mild choice of words though, driven was more like it. Melanie nodded, busily working on keeping her mouth too full to speak.

  “Wait until I tell him we met. He’s going to get a kick out of that. Maybe we could do a double date sometime with him and his fiancée.”

  Melanie placed her half eaten burger on the plate, her stomach suddenly weighed down by dread. If there was one thing she was certain of, it was that Melvin would not be pleased to discover she and Ben knew each other. He would more than likely be squinting in confusion at the mere sight of them together. Kind of like the man who had just entered the restaurant and was approaching their table.

  On second thought, make that exactly like that man.

  “Ben? Melanie? What are you two doing here?” Melvin’s head jerked back and forth between his friends’ faces, one beaming from ear to ear, the other one wincing in discomfort.

  Someone needed to do some explaining soon, and Melanie was sure not looking forward to how it would play out.

  Chapter 5

  “OMG!” Sam shrieked and plunked the stack of dishes in her hands down onto the circular table. The plates clanged loudly against each other, causing several heads to turn. “Then what happened?”

  “Sam, watch out,” Melanie scolded under her breath as she offered an apologetic smile to their customers. “Ba still hasn’t recovered from the time you dropped that plate of sizzling beef and cracked a tile on the kitchen floor.”

  “Good thing I didn’t break my foot in the process! How was I supposed to know an iron plate would be so hot?”

  “Maybe the cloud of smoke coming from it should have given you a hint.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Sam replied with a rol
l of her eyes. “Don’t change the topic. I can’t believe Melvin showed up when you were out with Ben! It’s like one of those soap opera cliffhangers: What will Mr. Peters say when he finds out his new love interest is engaged to his old roommate? Find out on the next episode of A Tale of Two Friends.”

  “Hm, I wonder if Dickens would have been proud or offended by your choice of title.”

  “Who?”

  “Charles… oh, never mind.”

  “So, spill it, what happened next?”

  Melanie shrugged as she took a couple of plates and set them down on the white paper placemats. “Let’s just say I came home last night in Melvin’s car, not on Ben’s motorcycle.” Sighing, she paired each plate with a napkin and a set of plastic chopsticks. She recalled how Ben’s smile had faded as he began connecting the dots and realizing he was the third wheel. “As soon as Melvin said I was his fiancée, Ben gave him his seat and left.”

  “What? That’s it? Didn’t you tell him you’re not going to marry Melvin?”

  “I tried. I ran after him as he was leaving …” Her voice trailed off when their mother emerged from the kitchen with a dish of salt and pepper fish. She walked past them, giving them a look of disapproval at their lack of progress, along with a heady whiff of oil and spices.

  Melanie grabbed the remaining plates and moved to set another table. Sam followed her, napkins and chopsticks in hand.

  “Okay, good, so he knows you’re interested in him,” Sam declared with a grin. “Good thinking, Ga Je, seizing the moment like that.”

  “I wasn’t trying to seize anything,” Melanie retorted with a frown. “I felt bad our dinner got interrupted. I just wanted to explain the situation to him.” She recalled their conversation in the restaurant lobby.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you. The engagement was arranged by our families, and I did agree to it at first, but I just called it off. I didn’t know how to bring it up without making things awkward.”

  Ben nodded. “I understand. It’s not something you normally talk about on a first date,” he said with a wry smile. “I hope the two of you can clear things up. Melvin’s my friend, and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.” Taking a pen out of his shirt pocket, he reached for her hand. “I had a really good time though, Melanie. I hope we can go out again.”

  “Okay, so, did he reschedule your date?”

  Sam’s question brought Melanie back to the present. “No. He paid for our meal and gave me his number and told me to call him when things get resolved.” She held up her left palm which still bore a faint outline of black inked numbers.

  “How cute! Kind of a high school move if you ask me,” Sam commented, “but he is a high school teacher, after all.”

  She sighed. “Exactly. I just don’t see how it could work out. Ma and Ba would never accept Ben. Even if he changed careers and became a doctor or lawyer or engineer, he would always be a foreigner to them. It’s not something I should even be considering.”

  Sam raised an eyebrow in exasperation. “Have you not learned anything from meeting Ben? He’s proof that true love is possible, and that’s anything but hopeless. That’s all that matters. He likes you, you like him, everything else is just minor details.”

  “Minor details? We’re talking about major problems.”

  “You worry too much.”

  “You worry too little.”

  “Your main problem is that you’re always so serious. You don’t need to worry about marrying the guy, just get to know him first. If you end up falling for him, then you can think about how to tell Ma and Ba.”

  If only things were that simple. But Melanie knew from experience that once she fell for a guy, she fell hard. It was like being in the middle of a free fall dream and feeling your stomach drop; the sensation was scary, yet exhilarating at the same time. Which was how she was starting to feel about Ben … before Melvin showed up and exposed her dream for the nightmare it could be.

  She didn’t need a degree in math to know the chances were slim to none that her parents would ever accept someone outside of their race. They had survived in a Chinese bubble for the past decade, speaking English only when absolutely necessary. For her father, this involved the handful of days when the health department conducted their biannual restaurant inspections. For her mother, this meant any time she got pulled over for speeding, which the whole family agreed were the least opportune moments for her to practice English.

  Melanie had been the one who had persuaded them to print bilingual menus in order to broaden their customer base. That decision had doubled their income, yet her mother still had reason to complain about those foreigners. They tipped too little, they tipped too much, they always asked for fortune cookies—the list went on and on. She could only imagine the judgmental comments her mother would make about Ben. Did she want to put him through that?

  More importantly, would he accept the challenges of dating her?

  But Sam was right, she was jumping ahead of herself. There was a more pressing matter at hand that she needed to address.

  “What I need to do now is tell Ma and Ba that Melvin and I aren’t getting married.” If she had learned anything from Ben during the brief time she had known him, it was to seize the day. The sooner she put a stop to her mother’s plans, the sooner she could move on with her own. Her eyes trailed her mother’s petite frame as she headed back into the kitchen. “Say a prayer for me.”

  “You go, girl!” Sam pumped her fist into the air. “Holler if you need backup.”

  Melanie pushed the sleeves of her black cardigan up and exhaled. She made her way to the kitchen and stepped inside. The clanging of pots and pans, along with flowing water, met her ears from the left, while the sizzle of hot oil met her from the right. She walked over to her father who had just dumped a colander full of bok choy into a wok. “Ba,” she greeted him in Cantonese. “Is that for table four?”

  Her father smiled and nodded in response. “Bring me a dish. This will be ready in a few minutes.”

  Melanie grabbed a plate from an overhead shelf and set it on the counter. “Do you need me to come help tomorrow night? Business usually picks up on Thursdays. You’re going to be busy.”

  “No, no need. Miss Chan said she’ll be back. Her daughter’s fever finally went down.” He waved the metal spatula he held in his hand. “Aren’t you on call this week?”

  “I will be starting this weekend.” The sound of metal scraping against the floor caught her attention. She turned around and saw her mother sitting on the stool behind her, her salt and pepper head buried in a bowl of green beans. Great. It was now or never. Taking a deep breath, she continued, “Ma, Ba, I need to talk you about something important.”

  Her mother’s head jerked up, her fingers pausing mid-way as she snapped off the end of a bean. “Is Billie failing her classes? Did her teachers say she won’t get into a good college?”

  “No, Ma, that’s not it. Not at all. School just started and she’s doing well so far.”

  “What did you think about her teachers? Are they good? If they are not good, she will not learn anything.”

  “Ma, we live in one of the best school districts in the Bay Area. Billie has good teachers.” Her thoughts turned to a specific one with dimples. Memories of her brief date with Ben brought a sudden calmness to her racing heart. “Her math teacher went to Stanford. He’s very smart.”

  “Stanford? Why didn’t he become a doctor then? Why waste his education?”

  Melanie frowned. Here we go. “Ma, not everyone needs to be or even wants to be a doctor. Being a teacher is an honorable job. You want Billie to have teachers with a good education, don’t you?”

  “Of course,” her mother replied curtly before picking up another string bean. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

  “I’ve, uh, I’ve been thinking and praying a lot and… I’ve decided I’m not going to—,” she halted her sentence when Sam entered the kitchen.

  “Hey Ba, is th
e bok choy ready?” Sam asked in her heavily accented Cantonese. “Mr. and Mrs. Ma keep giving me these looks like we’re starving them.”

  Grunting in affirmation, their father transferred the vegetables from the wok onto a plate and handed it to Sam. “Be careful,” he warned with a stern look, “this is hot.”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “I know, I know.” She shot Melanie a curious look and mouthed the words, Did you tell them yet?

  Melanie gave a quick shake of her head and mouthed back, I’m working on it. She attempted to continue the previous conversation after her sister left the room. “What I was saying is … Ma, Ba, I decided I don’t want to marry Melvin.” She braced herself and waited for the hysterics to start. When her words were met with silence, she wondered if the din of the kitchen had drowned out her voice. “I said I’m not going to—”

  Her mother glanced up, her glasses resting on the tip of her nose. “I heard you the first time. You don’t want to marry Melvin.” She pushed the brown frames up with the back of her hand. “I know it’s a big decision, and you are getting scared. I didn’t want to marry your father in the beginning either. It’s normal.” She returned her focus to the bowl of string beans.

  “You’re right that it’s a big decision, which is why I know I can’t marry him. He’s a good friend, but not someone I want for my husband.”

  Her mother’s shoulders raised and lowered as she sighed deeply. “Nonsense. He is perfect husband material, and he treats you well. Don’t be ungrateful. You will get used to the idea. It just takes time.”

  Melanie watched her mother’s quick movements as she snapped off the head of a bean, pulled the fibrous string from one side of the pod, then dumped it into a bowl. Snap, snap, snap. For a moment, she felt like the beans in her mother’s hands, dismembered and disregarded without a thought. Did her opinion matter at all? She turned to her father to gauge his reaction. “Ba, you understand what I’m saying, right?”