All Aaron wanted for his daughter was for her happiness and safety, which is why when she started the young Korean woman, he saw on Facebook he was happy. A nice, young woman he was sure. So, he didn’t warn Wendy that he and his wife were going to be visiting. He wanted to see how amazing this woman was going to be all on his own. She probably only wears modest skirts with beautiful sunflowers on it he thought. All below the knee, maybe even ankle length. Ahh, yes. Wholesome, safe and perfect for his little girl. 

He was wrong, oh so very wrong. Arriving at Wendy’s shared apartment was nerve wracking. He was always nervous visiting his children, what if they suddenly shaved all their hair off? What if one of their roommates was a drug dealer and had turned his babies into drug mules? It was Irene who opened the door, she was as beautiful and innocent looking as the last time, he had seen her. “Oh my god! Mr. And Mrs. Shon! Hi!” they hugged, and Aaron smiled once again. Irene smelled clean, like fresh laundry and Dove soap. No drug dealings here.  

“Please, call me Aaron, Irene.”  

“Of course, come in Aaron and Stephanie”. Aaron walked in with his wife, pulling along their luggage. “Wendy didn’t tell us you guys were coming.” 

“Oh, I didn’t tell her. I wanted it to be a surprise. Is she here?” Aaron looked at his wrist watch, it was 9 at night, she better be home, it’s a Tuesday; she has work tomorrow.   

“Um, yeah she is. I'll just go get her.” Aaron waved her off. 

“Nonsense, let me. I want to surprise her.” so excited to wake his daughter, Aaron missed the nervous gulp Irene had taken.  

“Are you sure?” Irene’s voice was shaky, her best friend was about to be caught in bed with her girlfriend. Oh god, she’s not even married! Irene, looked around frantically trying to find something to distract Aaron and his wife. 

“Of course, I'm sure, why? Is she sick?” Irene shook her head, but Aaron was already panicking. “Oh my god, she’s on drugs, isn’t she? Oh no, she’s probably got the flu. Oh god, Steph, where’s the Nyquil and Theraflu. Make some quick, our baby is sick.” what is going on? Irene wondered, watching the Shon’s break out into a beautifully designed unit. One going to cook, the other grabbing a snapping heating pack and thermometer. They let this on airplanes? “What in the world? Irene wondered to herself, Aaron flew through Wendy’s door.  

Dad of the year was here; he was going to help his baby.  

Irene winced; he is not going to like what he’s about to see. “Dad!” Wendy shrieked. 

“Pumpkin!” Aaron yelled. Irene chose this time to back track to her bedroom, where it was safe. Where Seulgi was. Where she had locks for this kinda thing.  

When Aaron stormed through the door, the lights were all off. He expected to see his daughter under a mountain of blankets, red nosed, sniffling. Instead, he found his daughter red faced and sweaty, and on top of another person. Said person was tall, tan, and oh no. It’s the wholesome Korean. Wendy’s reaction wasn’t as quick, in fact Joy noticed first. Unfortunately, it’s because Joy made perfect eye contact in the middle of Wendy’s downward motion. Joy whispered a quiet, oh , to which Wendy misunderstood as mind blowing pleasure and flipped them over so Wendy was on her back. This, is when Wendy saw her father.   

Joy tried pulling the sheets as high as she could, while covering her ears from all the yelling. She thought she was safe, that she only needed to contend with Wendy’s father, but then in came her mother who started screaming her head off and she threw her hot tea all over Joy and Wendy and it burned like absolute hell. Joy and Wendy flew out of the bed screaming, but then Wendy’s mom passes out when she realized the huge Puerto Rican flag printed between Joy’s legs was at one point inside of her baby girl.  

“Mom!” Wendy yelled, getting ready to help her mom before Joy threw a pillow at her.  

“Your are out!” Joy yelled. 

“Dad! Take Mom and get out! I'll be out in a second!” Wendy finally got out, running to her closet to find clothes. Aaron took his wife outside; his head was a mess. Why was his wholesome child doing that? They weren’t even married; how could she be doing these things? Inside the bedroom Joy was laughing her off, because of course this would happen. The one time they decide to try something new, Wendy’s parents decide now's a good time to pop in. Literally. They literally popped in. How ed up is that!? 

“Joy, I literally have no idea why the hell you are laughing. This isn’t funny, my dad literally walked in on me riding you. How could you be laughing at this?” Joy grinned, walking up behind Wendy and pulling her close to her front by her hips.  

“Because babe, who would have thought. That your dad, who was half away across the world would be the one to walk in on us. It's freaking hilarious baby”, Wendy groaned at Joy’s words. Joy just continued to laugh; she pressed a kiss to Wendy’s temple still shaking from laughter.  

“Look on the Brightside, that thing is huge. So now your parents know they ain’t raise no quitter”.  

Meanwhile, Aaron was pacing the room. What was he going to do? Clearly this woman was not innocent and wholesome. How was he to break them up? Obviously, Wendy could not continue to see this woman, it’s not right. Not healthy.  

It was Joy that came out of the bedroom first, she was dressed nicely. But all Aaron could see was her body and that, that thing that was between her legs. Joy held out her hand to Aaron and smiled sweetly, “Hello Mr. Shon, my name is Joy. It's great to meet you”.  

Aaron just stared at the hand, no way he was touching that hand. He knew where it’s been, absolutely not. “I’m not touching your hand.” 

“Oh, um. Sorry.” Joy awkwardly rubbed it down her t-shirt, unsure of what to do until Wendy finally stepped out. 

“How long have you been seeing my daughter?” Aaron asked, eyes narrowed at the ruiner of innocence. 

“eight months sir.” Joy replied, hoping her smile was winning him over. 

“And you’re already having ! Have you been taking advantage of my baby?”  

Joy’s eyes widened at the accusations, taking advantage of? Wendy jumped her bones! “no, of course not! We made that decision together, and I'll have you know it took a long time before we even touched without clothes on! Not even a !” that might’ve been too much information Joy decided. 

“Why has she not spoken of you then?” 

“Well, she said she was nervous. She was afraid of letting you down or something.” 

“Why would my daughter be afraid to let me down? I love her, she could be dressed in a bag of and I'd be proud of her.” Aaron was pacing again, his heart aching. His daughter was having already, where did he go wrong? Sure, she's 25 but still! She's not married. 

“Well sir, you’re being kind of judgy right now. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want to say anything. Look at you, you flew all the way to the US, to what? Surprise Wendy? You do know that she works right? You must have known you popping up was going to be throwing a wrench in whatever Wendy was doing. So, what, you came here unannounced to catch her doing something. Maybe to see what she was doing. This wasn’t a visit; it was a wellness check. But from what I've heard about you. If you deem something unsafe you take it away from Wendy.” Aaron glared at Joy. How dare she! 

“It is my job to protect my daughter, Joy. If I pop up to see what she’s doing then I will. It's my god given right.”  

“She’s almost 30. You do not get to control her life Mr. Shon. You may not like me, but I love your daughter. And we’re together, and your intimidation tactic isn't going to work. Because my mother is actually terrifying, and she’s taller than you.”  

“Why do you speak like that?” 

“Like what?” 

“With that stupid accent. Why do you sound like that?” 

“Because I have an accent, I can’t control that.” 

“It’s not a Korean accent, where are you from?” 

“Puerto Rico.” Joy answered, waiting for the shock to register on the man’s face. 

“Puerto Rico? You’re Puerto Rican! You look Asian!” Joy just shrugged.  

“I hear that all the time. Look, sit down. I'll make some tea; Wendy will be out in a minute. She's just scared.” Try as he might, Aaron couldn’t seem to hate this Joy woman. He didn’t enjoy the fact that she was coupling with his child, but she seemed protective. He liked that. Wendy got into a lot trouble as a kid, always finding ways to get hurt. He wasn’t sure if he could protect Wendy from this though, the hearts a treacherous thing. 

Wendy finally came out of the room ten minutes later, she sat next to Joy and held her arm like a lifeline. Aaron glared at this, that used to be him. That used to be his arm she used to protect herself, why would she be using someone else to protect her from him? His wife was still lights out, Stephanie would be no help in this.  

“Daddy, what are you doing here?” Wendy’s voice was calm and even, a complete 180 from what her hands were doing; squeezing the blood right out of Joy’s arm. For her credit, Joy stood still, face revealing nothing of the pain she was in.  

“Well, I just wanted to see my little girl. And see her I sure did, Wendy. You're not married, and, that kind of ual position is really bad on the knees baby girl.” Aaron made a show of rubbing his knees, really trying to carry the point home. Joy simply stared in bewilderment.  

What the hell is wrong with this family? 

“I know I'm not married dad, but I'm not a kid. Joy and I have been together for a while.” 

“Only eight months honey, you don’t know anyone until the fifth year.” Wendy laughed. 

“Dad, you knocked mom up on your first date.” 

“Yes, but I knew that she was the one for me. So, it was okay.” Wendy looked up at Joy, seeing the slight flair in her nose. She looked down again, where her nails were digging into the flesh of Joy’s arm out of anxiety. Here Joy was, being scrutinized and judged, but still being Wendy shield against prying eyes and hurtful words. 

“Well daddy, I waited eight months. And I know Joy is the one for me, so it’s okay.” The room was silent at Wendy words, had Wendy looked over at her father she would have seen the shock in his wide brown eyes. Wendy would have seen the bittersweet smile on his handsome aging face. She would have seen the pride that oozed from his eyes, but she didn’t. Instead, Wendy looked into the beautiful dark brown eyes of one Joy Garcia and there she found home, safety, and love. Joy would make mistakes, because all people do. But Joy would away be there, silent, and strong for Wendy to dig her nails into.  

Joy charged into gunfire to save her friend, who was her father to say Joy was no good? Joy is sweet, kind, maybe not innocent, wholesome and perfect by her father's standards. But by god, was this woman perfect for Wendy Shon.  

Joy’s lips were tender and sweet against Wendy’s and for the first time it dawned on them both. “I’m going to marry this woman.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

I've been with Joy for a long time, I've slept beside her plenty of times. We've made love and been intimate more times than I can count. I've held Joy close before, so close that I heard her heartbeat and let him lull me to sleep. Joy had held me close, so close that I thought she’d bend me in half. I've known love with Joy, but this, this is different. This is, so much more real, and impactful. I feel like our love is on steroids.  

Doing everything together feels different this time, Joy’s not going to have to leave early to get dressed before work. I don’t have to think about how much clothes Joy brought with her in relation to when she has to go back home. When I get up, I don’t have to worry about being too loud for Seulgi and Irene, I can just love on my woman and let the neighbors suffer.  

It's awesome, even now. With Joy sitting a foot away, it feels different. We've sat together before, we’ve watched TV together before, we’ve done this before. But it’s different, we’re home now. And home smells, like bleach and coffee.  

Know what else is awesome, I can just throw my leg over Joy’s hips, like so. “Whoa there tiger, what’re you doing?” I don’t answer, I can just sit here forever. I don’t have to worry about anyone coming in and seeing us like this.  

“Just enjoying my newfound privacy with you is all.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Mhm, kiss me.” 

“With pleasure miss Shon.” I can do whatever I want, I can feel however I want now. And let me tell you, it feels amazing. Have Joy’s lips always felt this perfect? Has she always been this warm? This inviting?  

Joy’s hands are warm against my hips, her need to feel skin when we kiss feeds perfectly into my need to be touched. Her nose, per usual, is cold. But that’s okay, it’s her, my Joy. I laugh when Joy fights to take my t-shirt off, her groans are annoyed. “Bed?” I question. Joy shakes her head, “Nah, I like you like this. Right here, on top of me. You're so beautiful, do you know that?” I smile into our kiss and mumble a ‘tell me more’.  

As much as Joy says she likes me on top of her, her quick change in position to have me under her tells a different story. “Bella” (beautiful) Joy mumbles against my neck. Is this how love is supposed to feel? Like a warm tight hug? Like this heat, that just envelops you and never let's go? Love feels like Joy’s wandering hands, her soft lips making their way down my stomach, her thigh between mines, her words quiet and sultry. Joy feels like love, which is why I'm startled beyond belief when our front door comes flying open and my future in laws come flying in with bags of groceries.  

Joy is off me in seconds, helping my find my clothes that I was hoping would all be on the floor soon. “Mami!” Joy yells, I'm not sure what Maya says to Joy. I'm too focused on a different thought, I locked both of our locks, how did they get in? I smile at Cristobal when he comes and gives me a hug and kiss in greeting, he asks me about my day and I tell him but I'm very focused on the keys Maya just put down. They look an awful lot like the spare keys I gave Joy a week ago to give to our neighbor. 

“Wendy, amor how are you?” I smile at Maya and hug her; I wince at the wet kiss she leaves on my cheek.  

“I’m fantastic, how are you guys?” I don’t care, why are they here? But if I ask that, I'm pretty sure Joy is going to have a hernia. While Maya is taking out the groceries, she brought for us, I try to wipe my cheek. 

“It’s cold outside, but other than that. I'm good, the apartment is coming along nicely.” 

“Thank you, it’s a lot of cleaning. But we’re having fun doing it together.” Maya turns to me and smiles sweetly, if she wasn’t always butting in at the worst times and Joy wasn’t so terrified of her I could say I have the perfect mother in law. But Joy is scared of her and Maya does enter at the worst times.  

“Well you make sure my daughter helps you, she’s just like her father. Lazy.” I grin and walk forward to help unload the bags. Plastic bags, so bad for the EnvirOmint. Almost everything I pull out of the bag is only appealing to Joy. Passion fruit juice? That’s a thing? What the hell is this red ball? I hold it up. “That’s cheese nena”, (term of endearment, means girl) cheese? 

“Why is it in a red ball?” 

“It’s called queso de bolla amor”, Joy says as she passes by me with two cups of coffee, she stops to kiss me first though. I would have found it cute, but her parents are in my house. My locked, no spare key given house. I'll kill her.  

The next thing I pull out is two packs of 8 cartons of what I can only say is chocolate milk. Yoohoo! “We have chocolate milk Maya”. 

“Oh no bebe,(baby) this is Yoohoo. No powder, Joy doesn’t drink that”. I smile, she's wrong. Joy does in fact drink powder chocolate milk. In fact! I made her some last night, and she was plenty happy. Why would you by premade chocolate milk? It’s waste of cardboard, the containers are tiny, they have plastic straws which are horrible for the environment, and imagine how processed this stuff is.  

While I'm putting away the cancerous chocolate milk, and knock off Lunchables (what are we, children?) I hear Joy laughing with her father about something. I don’t understand what they’re saying. Suffice it to say, I am pissed. Why did she buy so much damn yogurt! Scratch that, why in the world, did she buy five cases of soda? Maya is still laughing about something, I don’t know what, but she’s loading my fridge with pinnacles soda, pepsin, and whatever the hell Cola Champagne is. Why is the orange juice practically see through? I need a break.  

“I’ll be right back”, I say. Not even sure if anyone heard me because they’re all so damn loud. Do Puerto Ricans not know about inside voices? We’re all a foot away from each other, why are they yelling? I walk down the hall to my bedroom and sit on the bed. I take it back, I hate Joy. She’s a horrible monster, and I shall runaway and find true love in the arms of someone who doesn’t give their mother a spare key.  

“Baby?” I groan. 

“Go away, I don’t want to talk to you right now.” the bed dips and I hate that I immediately curl into Joy.  

“I’m sorry baby.” 

“I asked you not to give your mom a spare key Joy. You said you wouldn’t, but you went and did it anyway.” Joy takes a deep breath and lays beside me, pulling me closer. 

“I know and I'm sorry okay? I messed up; I just don’t know how to tell my mom no.” 

“So instead, you lie to me. And do exactly what I asked you not to?” 

“I didn’t lie, I just. Didn’t say anything.” 

“That’s called a lie Joy. That’s how liars justify lying.” I sit up, not wanting to be so close to Joy. We need to talk about this, or she’ll continue this crap and I'll continue to let it go because she me in.  

“Wendy, you just don’t understand.” 

“Joy, you’ve been saying that since we got together! And you refuse to explain, why don’t you stop saying the same stupid and make me understand!” I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I'm not one to raise it, but hearing the same stupid line over and over again like it’s an explanation gets so annoying. Joy looks hurt when she looks at me. I swallow and take a deep breath. “It was cute at first Joy, the fact that you waited six months just to introduce me to your family. The fact that you literally gave me a crash course to get along with them, was funny. I let it go that you completely rejected my proposal of you moving in with me, because you were afraid of your mother. I let it go again when you made me get proposed to you twice. I let all of this go, and those are only the big things! Not even all the little you’ve done over the years. And all I asked, was that you let what’s ours be ours, but no. You lied to me. You went behind my back and gave your mom a spare key anyway.”  

Joy scratches the back of her neck and looks everywhere but at me. “I’m sorry”. She mumbles. 

“I’m gonna go hang with Irene and Seul for a while. Have fun with your parents okay?” I start looking around for my shoes. 

“Wait, Wendy babe. Hold on. Let's just talk about this. I’ll take the key back alright? Just come on, let's talk.” 

“It’s not even the key Joy. It's your blatant choosing of everyone over me!” 

“They’re my family Wendy.” 

“We’re getting married! I'm your family, what about the future? You gonna raise our kids depending on what your family says? Should I just leave now, since clearly, it's not you and me. It's you, your mom and then me.” god this is so frustrating, it’s like aging with a scared child. I find my shoes and shove my foot inside, not bothering to put them on properly.  

I head to our bedroom door when Joy pulls me back, “babe, stop. You gonna leave every time we get into fight? Just talk to me. I'm sorry Wendy. I'll be better. I promise. But don’t just leave like this. We can’t get married like this.” 

“Then maybe we shouldn’t get married”, I don’t mean that, I don’t even know why I said that. I would have said sorry, quickly eat my words but Joy’s eyes are wide and she takes a step back. 

“You don’t mean that”, Joy whispers. For the first time her eyes look wet for a completely new reason. Did I do that? Did I hurt her?  

“No, I don’t mean it. But it still stands, we just got engaged and this is already happening. Maybe, we should forget about the engagement. And just be a couple that lives together, work on one with before jumping into another.” 

“Stop the engagement? But, Wendy. I'll be better.” 

“You said that last week Joy and then you gave your mother a spare key right after.” 

“Okay, what do you want from me?” 

“I just want to come first Joy. I want our home to be our home. I want my refrigerator to filled with things I like too, just because you have a more interesting family and life doesn’t mean it should overshadow mine. There is literally not one thing in our fridge I like, we don’t even have Tea. You know I love tea. Your mom threw it away last week to make room for your Kuerig.” Joy nods. 

“Okay. I'll do better. I mean it this time okay? I love you Wendy. I love you more than I've ever loved anything before. I know I'm not showing that by not choosing you. So, I’m going to make up for that okay? But, no more crazy talk okay? I love you; we’re engaged. I want a family with you.” 

“You promise?”  

“I swear.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The rest of Joy’s parents stay was less painful, they still stayed way longer than I would have liked them to but I figure it's just a cultural thing. I've always liked rice but threes something about the way Joy’s mom cooks rice that just makes my little gay heart sing.  

While her mother was cooking, I watched. I was always taught that water you put in rice ends at the first line on your pinky, but I guess. To spanish people, if the spoon stands on its own, you put enough water. Its little things like this that remind me how different Joy and I are. Sure, we look like each other you know? We share what many people of the same ethnicity share, small markers that tell you where you belong in life. All the markers are there for Joy, I bet if she grew up in Korea, she’d be more than perfect for me. Maybe she’d be quiet, less opiniated, probably the same amount of racist. She'd be calmer, that’s for sure. She'd cook different, her hips would sway as much I bet. She'd probably not be with me actually, she might be closes minded and married to guy, and thinking gay people are weird. I take it back. My Latin muchacha is the best, I can’t imagine how she’d be if she weren't my Joy. 

“Hey mayo, can I ask you a question?” she hums in response, pouring red beans into the rice. “When Joy was younger, was she as confident as she is now?” Maya smiles, I can’t help but think it looks sad. 

“No, she was scared actually. In Puerto Rico she wasn’t bullied like she was when she moved down here, when we were still there, she was just another person to the people there. they watched her grow; they didn’t have the prejudices. So, back home she was confident. But she was always a little insecure. She used to come crying at home wondering why she looked so different from everyone. Explaining it to her was absolutely the hardest thing for me to do. I felt like I was telling my baby that her parents didn’t want her. Her father, he's the one that really doted on her when she was a baby. Use to take her out on his boat, he used to make her these promises, he’s the one who told her she was adopted. Oh god, she cried so much.” I can literally feel my heart breaking at the thought of little Joy crying. My Joy? My happy Joy? 

“He told her that to him, it didn’t matter how she looked. That to him, she was blood. After that day, she was attached to the hip with him and she really broke out of her shell. Then we moved here, things were really hard for her here. It was as if, the more people, the more inclusive it should've been. But it wasn’t. It was so much worse. The people she grew up being around told her she didn’t belong, that she didn’t fit the style. She was being abandoned for how she looked, but she didn’t feel how she looked, it was horrible seeing how broken she was. One time, someone called her a chink, and she had no idea what that meant. I didn’t know if that hurt more, or the slur did. Because it was intended to hurt her, but it wasn’t her and it was so sad. Then, in school she would get paired off with kids because she looked like them. But she didn’t understand them. I went to the school so many times, because Joy was acting out. But she was acting out because she just wanted to be understood but all anyone saw was the Asian girl with dark skin talking spanish. I told her principal, she needed to be in a spanish speaking class. But they put her in a Korean speaking class, thinking it would help her more. I was like how, how in the world does that help? If you take a black kid from South Africa, who speaks Afrikaans and put him in a class full of black kids from Brooklyn do you really think he’s going to fit in? Think he’s going to feel like the rest of them? Sure, he looks like them. But he isn't them, he doesn’t share their culture, their language. Just their skin color. And that’s what happened to my baby, I understood they meant well. But they should have listened to me. It was clear Joy didn’t speak Korean, she walked into that class with a lunchbox of rice and beans and totones. Every other kid had soup and this thing they called kimbap.” 

I chuckled, “What’s totones?” 

“Plantains love. Anyway, to answer your question. She wasn’t at first, it took Joy awhile to break out of her shell. But she did eventually with the help of her cousin Junito and her friend Katy. Together those three raised hell. But I got my baby back. And now, I look at her and you. And I'm so happy.” 

“Why?” 

“Because, you challenge her. You make her think, you make her happy. All parents want one basic thing for their children, their happiness. And you bring her that. I know that you guys are completely different, but somehow. You make it work. All I ask, is that you continue to love my little girl. Continue to be patient, it takes her awhile to get things, but once she does; it's amazing.” 

I smiled to myself, Joy is pretty amazing. She's laughing at something her father said, I bet it wasn’t even funny. She's a dork. I'm going to marry that dork; it’s going to be difficult I bet. But the greatest things are worth fighting for. Now if I can just get her to stop trying to give everyone a spare key, I'll truly be the happiest woman on the damn planet.