Super-effective Indian mothering is what just happened. He’s going to need to get used to that if he wants to stick around.
“This is a small plate?”
“Of course,” Mom says as she cleans up the counter. “Priya has larger plates if you want more?”
“I’m good. Thank you for this. It smells wonderful.” He raises the plate at Mom in thanks.
He’s gonna put on so much weight. He should always offer to make his own plate. Amateur.
“Now that both of you are happy and fed, I’ve got a charity board meeting to attend. Gavin, give my love to your mother and tell her I’ll see her next week for our brunch.”
Gavin gives me a questioning look as Mom leaves.
I shrug. “Apparently they’ve been having a secret friendship all these years.”
Gavin’s eyes get bigger. “And no one noticed.” He nods. “Impressive.”
Gavin takes his plate to my living room, making himself at home on my couch. I take a moment to bask in the sight of Gavin in my apartment, new puppy jumping up his shin to get to his plate of food.
“When you’re done with that food... I think you have some puppy responsibilities to attend to.” I jerk my head to the messes Leo made in the corner of my living room in the few minutes he’s been here.
“Since you’re such a big fan of technicalities, I feel obliged to point out again that neither of us won the bet.”
I stare at him, internally acknowledging I don’t have a leg to stand on but not wanting to deal with the mess. It’s smelly.
I look back at the puppy, who gave up trying to jump on Gavin and instead is chewing on my coffee table leg. How can something so precious make such a terrible smell?
“Since no one won the bet, this ankle biter is a present.” He nudges the puppy with his foot. Leo ignores him, doubling down on the table leg. “So you should pick that up.”
I keep up the stare. He makes sense, but I don’t want to do it. Gavin keeps eating, so I sigh deep and take the high road to clean up Leo’s surprises.
But Gavin gets to clean up the next one. Since he’s so determined to stick around.
The thought makes me smile while I do the smelly work.
Halfway through my midmorning lounge, I hear a knock on my door.
My midmorning lounge is different than my morning lounging, because by midmorning, I manage to open my iPad and check out the news while I watch Netflix.
It’s also separated from my morning lounge by a midmorning snack and taking Leo out for his second potty time.
It’s been a few days since Gavin and I told each other we love each other. We’ve settled into a nice routine where, after work, he comes over, or makes me (and Leo) go all the way to the Upper East Side (which I don’t argue against because he has a backyard so when I need to take Leo out I don’t have to take a long elevator ride). Then we eat together, work out together or watch some TV, discussing the market throughout, and enjoy some sexy times before bed.
Before he gets done with work, I spend the day learning to watch TV without doing anything else and reading all the books I’ve been too busy to read until now.
It’s been kind of nice since I pushed through the initial boredom.
I wonder if the knock is Gavin leaving work early. Or Mom and/or Sonia coming to check up on me again. I swoop up Leo who started yapping at the knock like the best little guard dog, and get up to open the door, ready to tease Gavin about being away from work in the middle of the day.
I wasn’t expecting my dad.
But here he is, Kabir Gupta in the flesh, looking uncomfortable. This is why people look through the peephole. Well, this situation and murderers.
I still feel hurt when I see him, but the anger is mostly gone. I’m tired of being angry over this situation and that anger not doing anything productive.
But it is time to have this conversation, as much as I wish I could push it off and close the door on his face. Best to get it over with and not have it hanging over my head.
“Hi,” I say when he doesn’t say anything to me.
