There was a lot of soulful gazing. It sounded cheesy, but it was . . . it was like coming home. Kissing was the best. Long, hot makeout sessions on various pieces of furniture or on a bench at the Roger Williams botanical gardens.

And sex . . . oh, God, sex was . . . it was fun and amazing and it had moments of utter . . . reverence. Because this was the last man she was ever going to have sex with. This was sex with the man she’d marry. This was the father of her future children, children she loved already.

When he asked her to meet his mother and the Kims, she was as nervous as she’d ever been. After all, Josh only loved a handful of people, and at least half of them would be at this dinner. She wore a modest dress, tried to look effortlessly perfect and natural in the hair and makeup area (which took hours) and called her sister eight times to get pointers on how to impress potential in-laws.

She didn’t have to worry. Stephanie, a tall, striking blond woman who looked nothing like Josh, opened the door, took a critical look at Lauren, and then said, “I approve. Come on in.”

She did, glancing at Josh with wide eyes. He shrugged.

The Kims, by contrast, fell on her. “At last!” Sumi cried. “Joshie has been telling us great things! Oh, sweetheart, you’re lovely! Stephanie, the babies they’ll make!”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Ben with a wink.

“That took . . .” Josh looked at his watch. “Sixteen seconds. Lauren, this is my mom, Stephanie Park, and our best friends, Sumi and Ben.”

The photo albums were next. Stephanie, who seemed warmly amused by this whole “meeting my son’s girlfriend” experience, brought out the photo albums of baby Josh and told the story of moving into this very house, eight months pregnant, having just transferred from Harvard to Brown. The Kims practically adopted her; Sumi had been Steph’s birth coach.

“The cutest baby ever!” she said, clapping her hands. “No offense to our own four.”

“They were funny-looking, it’s true,” said Ben.

Lauren drank in the pictures—the Kims throwing baby Josh a Baek-il, his one-hundred-day birthday. Steph laughing as Josh chewed wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Josh dressed in a little suit for Easter. Josh riding a bike, his face fiercely focused as Ben ran alongside him. At one of the Kim daughters’ weddings. His high school graduation. Pictures of him in front of the first-year quad at RISD.

It looked very much like a happy, full life.

Stephanie was the director of the Rhode Island Hospital lab, overseeing a staff of about twenty. Once Josh turned eight, he’d gone to the Kims’ house after school, which explained why he spoke Korean. The Parks were always included in holidays.

A small family circle—no mention of the deadbeat dad—but a loving, happy circle just the same.