Curt, a college professor, lives with his lover of several years, a pediatrician of Chinese descent named Lee. Eager to write, he receives a grant to take the summer off and work on a novel. Then Lee's mother calls -- she wants to visit. Curt is eager to meet her but Lee isn't so sure ... she's of a different generation, a different culture even, and doesn’t speak much English. Still, Curt insists.<br><br>But when Mrs. Gui arrives, Curt finds himself struggling with writer’s block. He feels like an outsider in his own home when Lee and his mother converse in Cantonese, leaving him out of the conversation, and even his sex life suffers with her in the bedroom next to theirs. Can Curt and Mrs. Gui move past their cultural differences to see that they both love Lee and have his best interests at heart?

Just What the Doctor Ordered

“Now who’s the selfish one?” I laughed. 


I started to say something else but he turned my face towards him and covered my mouth with his. Whatever my witty comment had been, it disappeared in our kiss.


I didn’t bring up the phone call again until the next morning. 


I woke a few minutes before the alarm as I always do, but it wasn’t until I was already in the bathroom that I remembered classes were over for the semester. My sabbatical had officially begun. We celebrated my time off last night, downing both the wine andthe champagne and rutting like animals throughout the house. 


The way my head pounded when I flicked on the bathroom light, how could I forget? Vaguely, I recalled crawling out of the hot tub on my hands and knees to take Lee from behind. Later, he speared me in the living room, in the hallway, on the stairs. By the time we made it to the bedroom, both of us were too exhausted—and too drunk—to get it up again


Chapter 8