Page 52 of The Switch: A Friends To Lovers Romance

Luke had drafted a dozen messages to her since their estrangement, but he never sent any of them. What should he say? They’d kissed, but he was pursuing Michelle so it didn’t matter. Didn’t mean anything.

He still felt uneasy though. Hopefully things settled down in the next few days.

The bell above the door jangled and he glanced up to find his father walking through. Luke stiffened, waiting tensely while Yong Chung made his way through the rows of tables and to the counter.

“Dad,” Luke said, “what are you doing here?”

“Do you have a minute?”

Luke glanced around at the empty store. It was two o’clock, so his older customers were at work and the young ones were at school. He had an hour to spare until things picked up again.

Luke led his father to a table. “Do you want me to call Uncle Eddie or…?”

“No. I already told him I would stop by today.”

“I see.”

Awkward silence fell between them. Luke wondered what his father was thinking. There had been many moments in his life when he felt the weight of Yong Chung’s disapproval, but this was the heaviest his disappointment had ever been.

Luke was almost crushed beneath the weight of it.

“How is Mom?” he asked hesitantly.

“Do you really care?”

“Dad, come on.”

“She hasn’t been eating properly. She’s so worried about you that she can’t even bring herself to get out of bed anymore.”

“Are you serious?”

“What did you expect, Luke? You’re tearing our family apart. None of your other siblings gave us this much heartache.”

There it was again. His father’s propensity for comparing his children to each other was one of the main reasons they’d fled Belize as soon as they got the chance.

Jason, the youngest, was the last to go. He’d chosen to skip junior college and head straight to a foreign university right after high school.

Maybe Luke should have followed in his siblings’ footsteps and put as much distance between his family and him as he could. Then he wouldn’t be in this mess.

“Well?”

Luke sighed hard. “What do you want me to do, Dad? You threatened to disown me and take the café. As you can see, that hasn’t changed my mind. Isn’t it time we compromise? Why don’t you and Mom try and get to know Michelle before you judge her?”

“Michelle?”

“I mean, Ashanti,” Luke quickly corrected.

That was close.

“No way. Your mother already tried that.”

“Tried what?”

“Getting to know your ‘friend’.”

“What are you talking about?” Luke yelled.

“Watch your tone, young man,” Yong Chung warned. “It was a few nights ago. She went to her house to talk things out. Make her see reason.”

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