Chapter 9

 

~ * ~

 

 

“Hello, Mother,” Dilvan said when Padma opened the door.

Padma frowned and checked her watch. The time was 2:23 p.m., and she had not been expecting Dilvan today. “Dilvan, what are you doing here?”

“Just figured I’d pay my mother a visit, especially since you don’t visit me any longer.”

“Come on in, son.”

He obliged, and with his hands in the front pockets of his slacks he asked, “Is dad here?”

“No. He had to meet a client.”

“On his day off?”

“You know your father...always working, as am I.”

“Yeah...always working.”

Padma walked to her office.

Dilvan followed. “So you’ve been busy, I see.”

“Yes, trying to wrap up a few things before I head out of town.”

“Where are you going?”

“To an expo in Chicago.”

“Chicago,” Dilvan said. “I was supposed to have a shoot there this weekend, but I turned it down.” Dilvan paced back and forth in front of her desk, glancing at a desktop full of papers.

“Why’d you turn it down?” she asked him.

“Well, I didn’t think it is what you guys wanted.”

“Dilvan, Dilvan, Dilvan...your father and I only want you to be happy. You know that, don’t you?”

Dilvan hadn’t responded. He was too busy staring at the papers on her desktop where he saw Gabrielle’s name marked as an attendee on the restaurant expo along with Lalita’s.”

Gabrielle is going to be in Chicago, he thought quietly to himself.

“Dilvan?” Padma said to get his attention.

“Yes?”

“Boy, have you heard a word I said?”

“Yeah...just thinking about it. So you said you want me to be happy.”

“Of course. You’re my son and I love you. I just don’t want you to get mixed up with the wrong crowd, and you need to watch the way you treat people, especially your family. And you know what else, Dilvan?”

“What’s that?”

“I need you to improve your relationship with your brothers. You know there’s tension between you guys and that needs to be remedied right away.”

“Well, it takes more than one party to agree to sit down and make things work.”

“Of course.”

“Then why are you talking only to me? What about Heshan and Prasad?”

“I’ve already spoken to them.”

Dilvan sighed and fiddled with his keys in his right front pocket.

“Well, that must mean that I have to reach out to them because they certainly haven’t contacted me.”

Padma shook her head, frustrated. When was Dilvan ever going to grow up, become a man and quit acting like a boy? “Tell me this, Dilvan. When was the last time you asked your brothers to do something with you...go to a game or go fishing? Something. Anything. Do you even know your niece and nephew?”

Dilvan ran his hands across the soft, black curls of his hair. He hadn’t taken the time to get to know his brother’s children. At some point, he had to mend his relationship with his brothers and that time was now.

A tea kettle whistled from the kitchen, interrupting his thoughts.

“Want some tea?”

Dilvan grinned. “You still make tea the old-fashioned way.”

“Yes. I like old-fashioned. What’s wrong with the way I make tea?”

He smiled. “Nothing, Mother, and yes, I’ll take a cup.”

Following Padma to the kitchen, Dilvan took out his phone, pulled up the email from his manager about the Chicago shoot and responded:

 

TO: Len Phillips <LenPhillips@lpmodelsinc.com>

FROM: Dilvan Alexander <DilvanAlexander@gmail.com>

SUBJECT: New Gig in the Windy City!

 

Len, changed my mind about the shoot. Send me the details right away. Oh, and I’ll make my own hotel arrangements.

 

Thanks,

 

D.

- - -

 

Dilvan slid his phone back into his pocket. Over tea, he planned on casually finding out which hotel his mother would be staying at for the weekend. Most likely, Gabrielle would be staying there too, and he couldn’t wait to see her again. To talk to her again. There was something about their situation that didn’t seem final, no matter how much Gabrielle said it was over. And if he could keep a level head, he could find out if she really meant what she said on the beach that day when she told him he wasn’t the man who could make her happy.