“Hello, I'm Jun Kyung Han.” I extend my hand to the very annoyed mustachioed Pakistani man.
“Dad, like I said, this is Jun, my boyfriend.” Mercy tries to smooth things over. Her dad just scowls.
We're at the Twisted Root Burger Company in downtown Carrollton. Her parents live close by. And I feel like I should crawl out a window to escape.
“Tarik, be nice. It's so nice to meet you dear.” Mercy's mother extends a hand and I shake it. “I'm Sania and this is Tarik.”
I think about what a normal person would do and say. “Lovely to meet you, Sania. Should we order and then sit?” I don't say “now I know where Mercy gets her damn sexy figure from” because that is not something a normal person says.
We order various delicious burgers, an order of fries and an order of onion rings, then sit in one of the big wooden booths and wait for the order.
Sania says, “my daughter says you have been dating for over six months now. Yes?” Her Pakistani accent isn't as thick as Tarik's.
I nod. “Yeah, that's mostly right.”
“Mostly?” Tarik asks sharply. “What is mostly?”
“Dad, calm down,” Mercy emplores. “Jun just likes to hedge almost every statement.”
“I do? Maybe I do.”
Tarik asks, “and why have you waited so long to meet us? Why do you not care about meeting the family of my precious daughter?”
I raise a finger as if to make a point, realize that I have no point to make, and then lower my finger. “I was busy?”
Tarik slams his hand down on the glossy, light brown wooden table. “For six months! SIX MONTHS?!?”
“Hey!” I shout back. “I didn't even know we were dating until three weeks ago!” That sure shuts him up.
Sania raises her eyebrows at Mercy. “So you suddenly move in with this boy after just starting to date? Mercy, Mercy, I am so scandalized. I must tell your poor grandmother about my wayward daughter.” She then picks up her phone and begins to dial. Tarik is seething.
I think that maybe this is not going well. I should say something that a parent would like to hear. Something old people like. I've got it! “Hey, did you see that new NCIS spin off?”
Mercy collapses her head into her hands. Tarik looks at me like I'm a complete idiot. Sania's phone call goes through and she starts speaking in Pakistani or some other language I don't know.
Without looking up, Mercy asks, “Jun, you've never met a girl's parents before, have you?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I have but it's been 15 years. And that was just me sitting there and nodding. I wasn't truly, deeply in love with her like I am with you.”
Mercy suddenly looks up. “You think it's true love?”
“Didn't I say that before? Yeah, of course, I'm crazy about you. Bought a damn house for you.” There's suddenly silence at the table. “What?... Was that not something everyone knew?”
They suddenly talk over each other.
“No I didn't-”
“You bought a house for-”
“Tarik he owns a house-”
They talk over each other more and I have to field rapid fire questions like location (north Carrollton), price (around 315k), mortgage (none, paid in full), backyard (small but enough for a dog) and security system (none it's a good neighborhood).
“You must excuse us,” Sania says after everyone calms down. “We've been in small apartments ever since we came here 26 years ago. So a home is quite impressive.”
“Show me this house!” Tarik Mahar commands.
“Can we eat first?” I ask.
Around 45 minutes later, we pull up to the house and I show them around. Mr and Mrs Mahar seem positively mollified. We then relax on the patio furniture, which is currently the only furniture. I offer beer, which is declined, but I pop open a Shiner for myself.
Sania abruptly asks, “so, when will you be married?”
I turn and do a spit take. “Ma-ma-married?” I stammer.
“Mom!” Mercy cries. “It's not like that. We've still got a long way to go before we talk about that.”
“Why?” Tarik asks me. “You love my Mercy, yes? What makes you wait to make her honest?”
“She's already very honest,” I reply.
Mr Mahar slams his hand down on the table. “Fool!” He turns to Mercy. “Is this one as stupid as he seems?”
“He has low wisdom but high intelligence,” she apologetically answers. Dammit Jose, who didn't you tell about that?
Tarik seems a little miffed. “I worked placing bathroom tile for TWENTY FIVE YEARS to keep my family happy and fed. Tell me boy, what will you do for work to keep my daughter?”
“Like I said earlier, I'm working as a Dragoon, in the-”
Tarik waves that off. “Magical nonsense! What will you do after they tear those hell mouths down?”
Again, I'm stumped. I still don't know what I'm fighting for. What I'm moving towards.
“No idea?” He scoffs at me. “Never, ever did I imagine my daughter with someone like this, this kamina, kodan, pagal!” Then, after calling me names in a language I don't understand, he storms off.
I turn to Mrs Mahar. “Well, it's been lovely to meet you, I hope we can get together again soon.”
She just shakes her head and says something in a language I later learn is Urdu. She pulls Mercy to the kitchen, talks to her rapidly for several minutes, and then leaves with her husband.
Afterwards, in the silence, Mercy slumps over in a patio chair. Biscuits J. Cannonball Jr. curls up in Mercy's lap. I crack open one of her wine spritzer cans and slide it in front of her.
She pets the cat, calmly sips wine and then says, “that couldn't have gone worse.”
As I stand behind her I begin to rub her shoulders. “Oh, yes it could have,” I say. “I didn't say half of the stuff I was thinking about.”
Despite this, or because of it, after that we have a relaxing evening. Several times she asks me to tell her that I truly love her, and several times I do just that. I tell her I truly love her as I carry her off to bed. I tell her I truly love her as I kiss the inside of her thighs. I tell her I truly love her as she falls asleep in my arms.