TW: While the end of this chapter and the next few chapters don't directly connect to the pandemic, they do refer back to the events of Quarantine Parts One and Two.
As she had predicted, Mei-Li didn't get much sleep that night, though she was at least grateful that she had until the end of March to make a final decision in regards to transferring her residency to Jackson Memorial. And while she would have liked to see Jenny off at the airport, she had to work, so she sent her a quick farewell text before scrubbing in for surgery.
Meanwhile, it was a week before Valentine's Day and Shaun and Mei-Li were performing a coronary bypass when Shaun asked out of the blue, "So what are you and Caroline doing for Valentine's Day?"
"What?" asked Mei-Li, shifting her focus from the patient to Shaun.
"I asked what you and Caroline are doing for Valentine's Day. You're a couple and couples do nice things for each other on Valentine's Day to show how much they love each other," said Shaun.
"I…don't know what we're doing," Mei-Li admitted. Goodness, her life had been so busy the past few weeks, she and Caroline had only gone on one brief dinner date since Christmas, "I guess I'll have to talk to her. What are you and Dr. Browne-Murphy doing?"
"We don't do anything or go anywhere. We stay home because the restaurants are too crowded on Valentine's Day," explained Shaun, "But we always have wine even though I don't drink much."
They finished the bypass surgery and wheeled their patient to the ICU and Mei-Li decided to squeeze in her lunch break before making rounds. She scanned the cafeteria and found Caroline sitting by the window, so she walked over to her, "Hi," said Mei-Li and kissed Caroline on the cheek.
"Hi," Caroline smiled.
"So…" Mei-Li began, "Next week is Valentine's Day."
"I know," said Caroline.
"Do you have to work?" asked Mei-Li.
"From 7-3, then I'm off for the rest of the evening. How about you?"
"Same. I was hoping maybe we could do something for Valentine's Day. It will be our first," said Mei-Li.
Caroline smiled and said, "How about I make a reservation for a nice restaurant downtown and after dinner, we can go back to my place and spend some time alone together."
"As in?" Mei-Li asked.
"If you're ready," said Caroline. Mei-Li nodded, "Great. I have to meet Dr. Browne-Murphy for rounds. I'll call you and we can arrange plans. I'll see you later," Caroline kissed Mei-Li and left the cafeteria.
On Valentine's Day, Mei-Li took the opportunity to wear her favorite blue dress for Caroline and did her make-up perfectly. Her parents had gone out to dinner, but she had already let them know she would be going back to Caroline's apartment after dinner and that they might have the house to themselves all night. Soon, Mei-Li heard Caroline knocking, so she went downstairs to let her in, "Hi honey," Mei-Li kissed her.
"Happy Valentine's Day," Caroline answered. Mei-Li let her into the living room and Caroline gazed at some of the pictures on the walls: official family portraits, some of Lim and Melendez's wedding photos, most of them were of Carlos and Mei-Li throughout various times of their childhoods, "You look like a sugar plum fairy in this one," Caroline chuckled.
"That was my quinces; aka, when fifteen year old Latina girls become women in the Latinx community and wear the poofiest pink dress they can find," Mei-Li laughed.
"Your mother looked beautiful on her wedding day," commented Caroline.
"You're lucky they're not here right now, or you'd be forced to look at pictures of me with wedding cake all over my face," said Mei-Li.
"Our reservation is for seven. We should really get going," said Caroline. Mei-Li grabbed her purse and locked the front door before getting into the front seat of Caroline's car. As they were driving, Caroline said, "You're lucky, you know?" Mei-Li looked over at Caroline, "You're lucky to have such a supportive family. They don't care who you date as long as you're happy."
"Well, I can't say everyone reacted the way Mom and Dad did. Carlos was actually the first person I came out to and his response was 'that's the one where you like dudes and chicks, right?', and once I said yes, for me at least, he said 'cool' and went back to his video game," said Mei-Li, "But my grandparents were shocked, to say the least. It took them several months to accept the fact that I might marry a woman someday, which obviously eliminates the possibility of a Catholic wedding ceremony. And then there are a few tíos and tías who never fully accepted it. Always asking about my boyfriend, even when I was dating a woman," Caroline nodded in understanding, "How about you?"
"Well, I grew up in a traditional Korean Catholic family. All my life, I knew I was different, but I didn't come out as a lesbian to my parents until I was seventeen. After that…they didn't throw me out or anything, and they still paid for my education and all that, but I know they aren't pleased. They think it's a phase and that I just haven't met the right man yet. You know, all of the cliché and insulting phrases lesbians hear. Even though Massachusetts is an LGBTQ friendly state, I decided to move to California so I could have my own life and start over."
"I'm sorry," said Mei-Li.
"Don't be; I've been happier now than I ever was before in my life," Caroline assured her.
They arrived at the restaurant and had pleasant meal before Caroline drove back to her apartment. Mei-Li had never been in the room before, only the outside to pick her up for some dates here and there. She noticed pictures of Caroline with her parents, so Caroline obviously still cared about them enough to display them. There was a House Stark poster framed on the living room wall as well as some Berkley and Red Sox paraphernalia, "I can take down the Berkeley poster if it bothers you," Caroline said jokingly.
"No, just knowing that Stanford usually beats you is enough to satisfy me," said Mei-Li and took the glass of wine from Caroline. The two women sat down on the couch and Mei-Li said, "Besides, Carlos's bedroom is adorned with Berkley paraphernalia just to get on Mom's nerves. He even tried being a Dodgers fan as a teenager, but that lasted about three weeks until he realized he couldn't give up his love for the Giants just to be rebellious."
Caroline chuckled, "As long as none of your family members are Yankees fans; that's where I draw the line."
"No one that I know of," said Mei-Li and took a sip of wine. They drank their beverages in comfortable silence and set their glasses on the coffee table before Mei-Li hesitantly asked, "So…did you still want to, you know, have sex?"
Caroline stroked Mei-Li's hand and said, "Only if you're ready."
"I'm ready, but I haven't been with anyone since, you know, Jenny, so I might be a little rusty," said Mei-Li.
Caroline leaned in and kissed her, "That's okay. I want to, no matter how rusty you are," they continued their kissing when Caroline stopped her, "Do you have any sort of protection?"
"Oh I have dental dams, condoms, I'm on the pill…I have all my ducks in a row," Mei-Li confirmed.
"But I can't get you pregnant," said Caroline.
"Hello, the whole bi thing?" Mei-Li raised an eyebrow.
Caroline smiled, and that was when Mei-Li realized she was teasing her, "Shall we take this to the bedroom?"
Mei-Li nodded, "I'm all yours."
The couple lay in bed together, holding hands, enjoying the comfortable silence between them when Caroline said, "Well, even though it's been a while for you, you weren't half-bad."
Mei-Li rolled over and kissed Caroline softly, "You weren't half-bad yourself, Cho."
Mei-Li's cell phone began to ring, so Caroline asked, "Why is your phone on?"
"Because we're surgeons," said Mei-Li. She checked the caller ID, and it was her father, so she answered, "Hi Dad. Where are you? What happened: car accident, massive fire?" Mei-Li's face fell as she listened to Melendez on the other end, "What happened?" a few tears started to stream down her cheeks, "Okay, I'll be there soon. Te quiero. Bye," she hung up, got out of bed, and started throwing her clothes on, "I have to get to the hospital."
Caroline could tell something was seriously wrong, so she asked, "Honey, what's wrong?"
"It's Mom," Mei-Li answered, "Dad said he and Mom were…well, he wouldn't tell me what exactly they were doing, but I could infer from context," a look of disgust briefly overtook Mei-Li's face, "Anyway, all of a sudden, Mom started having trouble breathing and Dad had to take her to emergency room."
"Then we have to get you over there," said Caroline, dressing as well.
"No," said Mei-Li, "It's not your concern."
"Mei-Li," Caroline laid her hands on Mei-Li's shoulders, "You shouldn't be alone for this. I want to be there to support you. Please let me drive you to the hospital and stay with you."
Mei-Li wrapped her arms around Caroline and Caroline kissed her temple, "Okay."