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

In my mind I remembered the night before. The hot tub, the steak, the phone call before dinner…“So what’s this about your mom coming down for a visit?”


“I don’t think it’s a real good idea,” Lee replied. He let go of one side of the paper to sip his coffee. I got a quick glimpse at his face, closed as a fist, before he raised the paper again. His doctor face, I called it, the mask he wore at work. I hated when he wore it around me.


Beneath the table, I kicked at him playfully. “It took me six months to break through that frown of yours. Don’t play the doctor with me. Why’s it not a good idea?”


Lee gave me his not nowsigh and shook his head. “You don’t know my mother.”


“I told you, she can’t be all bad. She had you, didn’t she?” 


Chapter 9