Al was relieved, for the vast majority of his date with Hannah the following night, that she’d never brought up the subject of meeting his family and having dinner with them. She’d never even mentioned it in her texts or phone calls that day, prior to their date.
The fact is, she was worried herself that he was going to try to get out of the family get-together again.
Still, as he was walking her home in her neighbourhood, and they were holding hands and looking up at the stars, admiring their shining beauty, she knew she had to bring up the dinner sooner or later. So she took a deep breath and looked at him, having noted his thinly-disguised nervousness right from the beginning of their date.
“So,” she asked, “have you talked to your family about me going over to your home and having dinner with you all?”
She felt his hand jerk in hers and saw his whole body shake in a set of spasms.
“What is it, Al? Surely it won’t be that bad for me to meet them. Have you talked to them about it at all, or not?”
“N-not yet,” he said. “But I w-will s-soon.”
“Al, you had all of last night after our date and all day today to talk to them about it. Why are you delaying it?”
“I-I told you before. They’ll bully me and make me look stupid in front of you. I don’t want you to see that. I’m really sensitive about it; it really upsets me when they do that.”
“Oh, sweetie,” she said. “I told you before. If they treat you badly, I won’t see it as a fault in you. I’ll see it as a fault in them. After the one dinner, I won’t have to see them again. I won’t want to.”
“Please, Hannah. This is so hard for me.”
“Surely it can’t be that bad, Al. It’s just a dinner.”
“Can we please just not have the dinner with them? Everything is so nice when it’s just you and me.”
“This isn’t about them having a low opinion of you, is it, Al?” She was getting angry now.
“It is, it is, Hannah. It’s just as I said.”
“I don’t think so. They don’t like you dating a non-Chinese, a non-Asian, and you don’t have the guts to stand up for your girlfriend!”
“No, no, it’s not that. It’s…”
“It’s…what?!“
“It’s…well,…”
“If you truly loved me, you’d stand up for me, and you’d get them to grow out of their xenophobia.”
“My family isn’t racist at all, Hannah!”
“Then what is it?”
He remained silent for several seconds.
“Well, whatever it is, Al, you’re hiding something from me, and no relationship can ever work if either of the people involved is hiding something from the other. There has to be openness and honesty for a relationship to work, and if you can’t be open and honest with me about your family, then I guess we should break up.”
“No, no, no! I love you, Hannah, more than anything!”
“Then you know what you have to do to prove your love to me!”
He took a deep breath. “OK, OK. H-how about…w-we have your whole f-family…come over?”
“My whole family?” She sneered at him in disbelief. “We just went from you not wanting me to meet your family to my mom, dad, brother, and me meeting them, all in one fell swoop?”
“Well, I f-figure i-if I have to go through you meeting my family, w-we’d might a-as well have our whole family meet them, all at once, and just get this all over with. They’ll all have to meet each other eventually anyway, right? And after that, you and I can just be together without w-worrying about whether or not my family likes you, whether or not they respect me, or if your family likes me or my family. You and I will still have each other, and that’s all that matters, right?”
“OK,” she said slowly, still looking askance at him. “Are you sure you want us all there?”
“Yes, I’m a-absolutely sure,” he said.
“Really? You still look a little nervous about it.”
“Well, I am, ’cause my family will make me look stupid in front of all of your family, but if you don’t care about that, who cares if your family cares about it, right?”
“Still, it might make you a little too uncomfortable. I don’t think they should come; only I should.”
“Well, think of your family coming as me making it up to you, f-for my reluctance to have you meet my family.”
“Oh, Al, that isn’t necessary.”
“I think it is. Our whole families should meet each other, as a test to see if they’re cool with us being together. If they don’t approve, fuck ’em. We love each other, that’s all that matters.”
They’d now reached the front porch of her house.
“Well, OK. We can have the dinner tomorrow night, at about…8:00?”
“That sounds good. Can your whole family make it?”
“They should all be free, and they’ll be happy not to have to cook their own dinner, and they all love Chinese food. I’ll tell them about it as soon as I go inside, so you tell your family we’re all having dinner together, OK?”
“OK, I’ll tell them for sure. I promise.”
“Great. We’ll see you at your home tomorrow night at 8:00. If there’s a problem, text me, as I will you if my family can’t make it.”
“Sure. Good night, Hannah.” They kissed.
“Good night,” she said with a smile, and she went inside her house.
Al just stood there for a few minutes, frozen on the spot.
I hope Hannah and her family can forgive me, he thought.
Infinite Ocean 