Tae sat up straighter and answered, “I’m actually unemployed at the moment.”
“Not really. You’re just taking time off to help your family,” Julia corrected. She didn’t like Tae selling himself short.
Tae gave a small shake of his head. “No, I’m unemployed. I exhausted my time off. And since I can’t go back to Chicago yet, they had to let me go. I guess I’ll just look for something new. I still have some things to figure out first,” he explained.
“Tae.” Julia laid her hand on his.
“It’s okay, seriously. Let’s talk about it later,” he said under his breath.
But Dr. Joshua Park was not going to let it go.
“Korean wordsworkKorean wordsmoneyKorean wordsbad.” Damn, Julia really wished she’d paid more attention during Saturday Korean school as a kid. But it didn’t take fluency or a translator to get the gist of his raised voice and incredulous tone.
Tae’s jaw ticked as he tried to hold himself together with patience and a prayer.
“Tae has a lot of talents like design and carpentry and...” Julia tried to explain in an ineffective combination of English and Korean words.
Tae touched Julia’s knee under the table. But it wasn’t a sexy, stolen touch. It was a request.Stop.He didn’t want Julia answering for him.
But she could see the judgment on Joshua’s face, and she wasn’t going to stand for it.
“He takes care of his—”
“Julia.” Tae’s voice carried a warning.
Joshua narrowed his eyes at Tae, his entire expression changing. The easyhey, buddysmile had shifted into a disdained smirk. The chin that had nodded at Tae’s opinions before rose in haughtiness now.
The one thing that successful Korean doctors could not tolerate, apparently, were people they believed to be lazy and unsuccessful for no reason.
Joshua’s attention shifted to Julia. He asked her a question and then flippantly waved his hand to Tae as if ordering him to interpret.
Heat rose to Julia’s cheeks as the anger grew. She was going to tell this doctor what an arrogant asshole he was, and she’d make sure he wouldn’t need to understand her words to get the message.
The server came to drop off the check, and Julia thought the good ol’ Dr. Park had better leave a fat tip considering the timing just saved his life. Tae reached for his wallet, but Joshua raised his hand to stop him, passing his Black Card over to the server.
“You did not eat much,” he said. “I pay.”
Julia thought back to the meal. Tae had only ordered a salad and side of potatoes. This was one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. She hadn’t even thought about Tae paying for his own meal. She hadn’t even considered how Tae was scraping by to get his dad’s medical bills paid. She was an asshole and had put Tae squarely in a position that would make him uncomfortable.
“I can pay.” He tried to hand his card over to the server. “Please split the check between the two cards.”
“I’ll pay,” Julia offered.
The two men were in a stare-down and didn’t even acknowledge her. The server gave her an apologetic expression.
“No job,” Joshua said to the server, pointing at Tae. “No pay.”
Julia watched as Tae’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He clenched his jaw. She’d never seen him this... angry.
“Tae, just let him pay, please,” Julia said, gently touching Tae’s hand.
Tae lowered his attention to where Julia’s hand lay on his. His eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared, lips pressed tightly together.
He pulled his hand away from her touch and put his credit card back in his wallet.
21
What About Julia?
