Page 60 of Boss with Benefits

“I was debating how to get out of this,” she said. “Maybe we could go work on your problem and forget about mine.”

“Boundaries, Arya. Boundaries.” It was taking everything in me not to wrap her up in my arms and relieve the tension that was radiating off of her.

She hurried down the steps to the street but stumbled on the last one and barely recovered.

“You good?” I reached out, but she batted me away.

“Don’t coddle me. I’m fine.”

“Wanting to help someone who’s obviously struggling isn’t coddling. It’s called being a friend.”

She stopped abruptly, causing the man walking behind her to trip. He cursed her and went around us. Rachel ignored him and put her hands flat against my shirt and looked up at me with a stern gaze. “I don’t want to be fussed over, patronized, coddled, pandered to, or babied. Not by you. Not by myAmma. Not by anyone. Got it?”

Her palms felt like fire on my chest, and I quickly rushed ahead, her hands dropping. She scurried to keep up.

“Got it,” I said when she reached my side. “Who’s Amma?”

“Oh. That’s the Indian term for Mom. It’s what I call her.”

Despite her bravado, when we approached the Thai restaurant, Rachel’s steps faltered. I placed a gentle hand on her lower back. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and pushed open the door, the bell ringing.

The scene inside wasn’t quite what I had expected. Mrs. Arya was sitting at a table in the back. Across from her was an older Chinese American man I assumed was Hao Lin. But there was also a young Chinese American woman around Rachel’s age sitting next to Hao.

Mrs. Arya stood, her smile a bit strained. “Rachel. You made it. And Derrick, nice to see you again.”

I nodded politely, but my focus was on Rachel, gauging her reaction. The young woman stood up, her smile nervous but warm.

“Hi, Rachel. I’m Lulu. I’m ... well, I guess I’m your cousin. This is kind of weird, huh?”

Rachel blinked, seemingly at a loss for words. I reached around Rachel and shook Lulu’s outstretched hand. “I’m Derrick.”

“Oh, her boyfriend?”

This seemed to shake Rachel out of her stupor. “God no,” she snorted. “He’s my boss and emotional support animal this evening.”

I didn’t care what she called me. I was relieved to see a bit of her spark back.

“Nice to meet you all,” I said.

We settled into our seats, Rachel next to her mom, me at the end of the table with Rachel on my left and Lulu on my right. An awkward silence descended over the table.

Lulu cleared her throat. “So, um, here’s the four-one-one on me. I’m twenty-four. I grew up in Connecticut with my dad—he’s your mom’s brother, Rachel. I know this is all probably really overwhelming.”

Rachel nodded stiffly. “No one told me you were coming. Or that you even existed.”

“Yeah.” Lulu eyed Hao to her right and then said softly, “There’s been a lot of surprises in the past six months.”

I could see the questions burning in Rachel’s eyes about her mom, her new cousin, her family history, but she said nothing, just sat with her back ramrod straight.

Hao said something in Mandarin, and Lulu translated. “Grandfather says he’s sorry for the surprise. He doesn’t speak English very well. He moved here when he was twenty but he lived in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood where they didn’t speak much English day-to-day. He owns a couple of laundromats now.”

Rachel snorted a laugh and her mom frowned at her.

“Cliché, right?” Lulu laughed good-heartedly. “But my brother and I helped him create this new app. It’s like Door Dash but for laundry. You put in a request for your laundry to be picked up, then a driver grabs it and delivers it to us. When it’s done, it’s delivered back to you. We’re actually doing really well in the city and about to expand.”

I glanced at Rachel. She had a robotic smile on her face. My hand itched to reach over and settle on her thigh to help calm her nerves.

“That’s pretty cool,” Rachel said.

---