Page 39 of Silver Fox's Intern Dilemma

"What? Why? You need that internship." I shook my head. I couldn’t let her give up this position when I knew how much shedepended on it, how much she needed to prove her worth to her family.

"Listen?" she said quietly, and she still kept smiling. Sophia reached out and took my hand and held it, and I tamped down my emotions for the moment to listen to her. "My parents know.” Her eyebrows rose. "About us, the job, the baby.”

My shoulders felt tense as she said that, but her smile didn’t fade at all. I didn’t understand. She was so worried about this before. How could she be so happy now?

"I don't get it."

"Jack, Mom figured it out. She said she knew a while ago… Don’t ask me how. But they know." Her eyes clouded with some sadness. "Dad is upset, understandably. But he is willing to support us if you can go talk to him, man to man."

The dreaded "meet the parents" talk was something every young man got nervous about, but a man my age meeting a very strict man like Sophia's father sounded even worse. Maybe the horror stories about him were worse than I thought, considering he was willing to support us if I could man up and go chat with him. But after seeing Sophia wrestle with dread for months, I wasn't sure.

"And?" I asked her, sensing there was a catch.

"And nothing," she said, and her smile returned. "He got me a spot at UCHealth. I'll have a full five-year internship with one of their trauma surgeons, and you can keep working at Twin Peaks just like you are now."

She brought my hand to her lips and kissed my knuckles, and when she looked back up at me, I was speechless. For weeks, we were concerned about things that now had become completely irrelevant. Life had worked out in such a way that everything we feared was washed away in less than a moment, as if it never existed.

"What?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing for the second time today. It was like the fates had spoken and with a single breath had removed every obstacle to our happiness.

"You heard me… Now, tell me again how you want to be a father, because I've been so sick with worry that you aren't wanting another baby."

I pulled her onto my lap and kissed her hard, smashing her against my chest. The word relief didn't even begin to describe what I was feeling. It was like the weight of the world had been lifted and the joy of a thousand lifetimes had flooded my soul.

"I love you, Sophia, and I want this baby more than anything in the world." I gave her no chance to respond as I claimed her mouth in another scorching kiss.

Now if I could contain myself long enough to meet with her father and obtain his blessing for dating and someday marrying his daughter, the rest would all be downhill.

31

SOPHIA

"Baba," I said, frowning. From the moment we walked through the door, Dad had done nothing but grill Jack.

Mom had made a lasagna, and while I fully expected Thomas and Andrew to be here, Maylin too, none of them had come. Our traditional Sunday evening family meal was just the four of us, a little too intimate, if you ask me. I would've preferred the distraction of my siblings to help keep a buffer between Jack, who seemed calm and collected, and my father, who was anything but.

The deep creases in his forehead betrayed his frustrations, but more so, it was the overly strict tone of his voice. Dad was roughly fifteen years older than Jack but spoke to him like he was only a rebellious teenager, not the experienced and wise doctor who was pushing forty.

"Sophia," Mom said cautiously. Her eyes warned me not to get involved, and she put another soft, buttery breadstick on my plate.

My shoulders slumped and I knew she was right. This was between the two men I loved more than anything in the world, and they had to work it out. Jack and I had a few longconversations over the past twenty-four hours. I knew without a doubt that if my father refused to give his blessing, Jack would care for me. He had no intention of letting me flounder. I'd still get the new internship at UC, but I'd be on my own for rent, food, and transportation—which Jack said he was happy to provide.

"I am saying a man of your age should have been more astute. You put my daughter's career at risk, threw down hurdles on her path to success, jeopardized her ability to care for and provide for herself, and now look. She'll miss at least two solid months of her second year due to maternity leave." Dad spoke with his hands, dropping garlicky crumbs of breadstick on the table and his plate.

I could see the veins in his forehead bulging as he spoke, and his eyes were wide and wild. He was so passionate about this, it was hard not to feel how much he loved me. But this wasn't a pissing match, and Jack was so respectful. I laid my hand on his thigh beneath the table and squeezed it as he started to respond.

"With all due respect, Dr. Chen, your daughter is the most powerful and capable woman I have ever met." I watched my mom blush and hang her head at Jack's compliment directed at me. She clearly loved Jack already. "I am positive that you raised your daughter with enough brains and ability to move mountains. She'd have pushed me aside to have my job in less than a year."

Dad harrumphed and scowled, then continued his lecture, but I could see him cracking. Jack pouring on the praise about Dad's ability to parent was helping my father see that Jack really did respect me and him.

"Now what will she do? She has a delayed start on her new internship. She will miss two months of work. And she will be a single mother. This is unacceptable. My daughter has been disrespected. Her honor has been shamed. She gave herself to you with trust and you?—"

"Qin'ài de," Mom said, and Dad stopped speaking. His nostrils flared and he glared at Jack, but he set his breadstick down on the table at Mom's gentle words. The term of endearment had always been her way of reining him in when he was upset with one of us children. Now, she used it to remind him that he was being hard on Jack, who might very well become one of his extended children one day.

When Dad had been quiet for a moment, Mom looked at Jack and nodded, her smile so polite you'd have thought she was the one feeling guilty for the entire event. Dad was upset. I understood that, but Jack didn't deserve the reaming he was getting. I was the one who let him do those things to me—those amazing, wonderful things that made me feel so incredible. We made the choice together and I wouldn’t let Dad pin it all on Jack.

"Baba, I love this man." I sighed. "One day, I hope you will see that even if we did things in the wrong order, in your opinion, that love is love, and we want you to see how our relationship is just as valid as yours and Mama's."

Jack reached under the table and took my hand in his and laced our fingers together, then lifted our clasped hands and rested them on the table. Dad seemed irritated and stared at our union but said nothing.

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