Page 18 of The Switch: A Friends To Lovers Romance

Ashanti watched, slightly overwhelmed and fascinated, as the trio shot words back and forth. Her head bobbed from the father, to the mother, to the son and back again. They were like chattering birds, some words overlapping but all of it loud and indiscernible.

There were moments when Mrs. Zhang would look at her and speak. She didn’t need a Chinese dictionary to figure that whatever she was saying was far from flattering. Ashanti smiled politely, however, and kept quiet.

As Luke continued arguing, Mrs. Zhang began to cry. The tears flowed down her face, and she shook her head. “No, this is impossible. Impossible.”

Her accent was heavy, but Ashanti got the gist. She bowed her head. “I apologize if I upset you. I care deeply for your son, ma’am. Please accept us.”

“Never!” Mrs. Zhang got up with a huff and stormed down the hallway. A moment later, a door slammed and things started crashing.

Luke winced.

His father turned to them with disappointed eyes. “Please take her and go.”

“Dad…”

“Now,” Mr. Zhang said. Ashanti was not his child, but in that moment, she tasted the fear that came with disobeying him.

She tugged on Luke’s arm. “Come on.”

He allowed her to help him up and, together, they fled the apartment with the sound of his mother’s tantrum chasing them all the way down the stairs.

When they were safely inside the car, Ashanti put a hand to her heart and found that it was racing. She blew out a breath and spoke to the silence. “So… that went well.”

Luke glanced at her like she was crazy. “Which part?”

“All of it? Except the end,” she tacked on. Her sleeve rustled against the leather seat of his car as she turned on her side and stared at his face. “What did they say?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Should I take a tape recorder next time? So I can translate later?”

“There won’t be a next time,” Luke said firmly. He shoved his key in the ignition and started the car.

“What do you mean? We just got started.”

He remained quiet.

“Luke, at least tell me what they said.”

He only worked his jaw and stared straight ahead, ignoring her.

A few minutes later, Luke parked in front of her house. “Goodnight.”

“Oh. Now you want to talk to me.”

“Drop it, Ash.”

She folded her arms over her chest and shook her head. “Not until you tell me what they said.”

He licked his lips and, for a moment, she wondered if he would try to physically out her from his car.

After a few beats, he shared—“Mom said that she was shocked I was dating a black woman. That I’d dishonored them by dating outside my race despite their instructions not to.”

“Really?” Ashanti frowned.

“They reminded me of everything they’ve done for me—paying my tuition, feeding and clothing me. They said they’d done all they could to accept my choices so far, but they would never accept or support us. This was a line I couldn’t cross.”

Ashanti’s head started to hurt, but she put on a brave face. “Is that all?”

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