Magic (14 page)

C
hantal and Xavier fell into a comfortable routine once they got back from L.A. He spent most nights at her apartment, but occasionally he went back to his place for a night if she was working. They went to museums, movies, and art openings, and dined with friends. She introduced him to a few people, and he was enjoying having her meet his circle of friends, which was wider. Once in a while she felt like the elder statesman in the group, but he had friends of all ages, social strata, and walks of life. And by October, her children no longer sounded shocked when she said she was with him, or that they had gone somewhere together. She went to Germany with him to see a client, and afterward they drove to Berlin to have dinner with Eric, who was delighted to see her and meet Xavier after hearing about him from his brother.

They were slowly merging into each other's worlds, and the ripples around them seemed small. It all felt very natural and normal. Xavier was very interested in contemporary art, and Eric had liked him. Chantal was surprised to discover how much he knew about conceptual art, which impressed her son.

She occasionally still worried about his meeting a younger woman, and kept telling herself that their relationship was too good to be true or to last, and tried to remind herself not to get too attached to him, but by mid-October they had been together for four months, and it felt as if they had been in each other's lives for years. He even talked to Jean-Philippe with her on Skype one Sunday, and he thought they made a nice couple. He was envious when he saw them together and had admitted to Chantal that he missed Valerie and the kids terribly. She said she hadn't spoken to her since he left, but kept meaning to invite her to lunch.

“She sounds very busy. She's going crazy at the office, and she has a new consulting client who's eating up her time, and she's got the kids on her own on the weekends.”

“That'll teach her to let you move to China without her,” Chantal said, only half joking. She still thought it was a huge mistake that they were going to live apart for a year and too hard on both of them. But she didn't say it to Jean-Philippe. He had enough on his plate without his friend being a doomsayer, but she was worried about them both, and he sounded desperately unhappy in Beijing. The opportunities were fabulous, but the living conditions and quality of life were abysmal. He had no friends there yet, and no social life in the foreign community, and he missed his friends in Paris too. Chantal felt like she was calling him in prison every time they Skyped.

“Poor guy, he looks unhappy,” Xavier commented one day after they Skyped. “Why did he go without his family?”

“His wife wouldn't give up her job to go with him.” It was a modern-day dilemma that they both knew didn't always have a happy ending. “She's worked hard to get where she is at
Vogue,
and she's in line for the position of editor-in-chief. And initially, he wanted her to commit to go to Beijing for three to five years. Now he's trying it out for a year, although I don't know if that's clear to his employers. I hope they make it.” He nodded, thinking about how lonely it must be, but more and more women had careers and weren't willing to sacrifice them for their men. And their men weren't always willing to impact their careers for them. Too often it became a standoff, and the relationship became the sacrificial lamb they both put on the altar for their careers.

“I wouldn't want to be in his shoes either way,” Xavier said with feeling, and Chantal agreed. There was always the possibility that their marriage wouldn't survive the choice they'd made.

They went to the food hall at Bon Marché later that day, and stocked up on things they both liked to eat. They were learning each other's ways, and they enjoyed cooking together, although he claimed to be the better cook, and she let him think so. They had a nice way of accommodating and adjusting, and giving each other enough space to breathe. She never felt crowded by him, and he never felt she was intruding. They were both respectful people.

They went for long walks in the Bois de Boulogne, and sometimes drove out into the countryside on the weekends to have lunch at some small country inn. They came back happy and relaxed, made dinner on Sunday night, and curled up in her bed to watch a movie, since she had the bigger TV. Everything about the arrangement seemed to suit them. She didn't see how it could last, given the difference in their age, but it worked and just seemed to get better and better.

In mid-October, after a business trip to Rome, Dharam went to Milan for the weekend to see Benedetta. She was still reveling in the success of her new line at Fashion Week, and she was happy to see him. The orders were pouring in, and everything she had done to streamline her business so she could manage it on her own had worked. She was the talk of the fashion press, and their sales figures were better than they ever had been when she and Gregorio ran the business together. She had taken a huge risk forcing him out of the business, but it was paying off big time, and his brothers were gnashing their teeth and blaming him for what could turn out to be the downfall of their family business. Benedetta had no regrets at all. Years of silent humiliation had suddenly turned to rage, but instead of waging war on him, she had put a positive spin on it and restructured the business. It was the ultimate revenge, and Gregorio had become the laughingstock of Milan.

Benedetta didn't waste time talking about it to Dharam. He had come to see her, and had waited three months to do so, since his trip to Sardinia in July. He stayed at the Four Seasons, and took her to Ristorante Savini in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for dinner. And they drove into the countryside on a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon. At the end of the day, they came back to her chic apartment. She had made some changes to it since Gregorio left, and Dharam admired the classical paintings she had collected.

“So when are you coming to see me in India?” he asked her with a warm smile. “It would be fabulous inspiration for you. You would love Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, and of course the Taj Mahal, but there are so many beautiful things to see and places to go in India. I would love to share them with you. I would be your personal tour guide.” She smiled and handed him a glass of wine. “The light and the colors in India are exquisite. There is a hotel in Srinagar that is the most romantic place in the world, and the Shalimar Gardens on Lake Dal are unforgettable.” His dark brown eyes were warm and gentle as he said it. He was offering his world to her on a silver platter. “Even the jewels might inspire you for your work. We could go to the Gem Palace in Jaipur.” She knew of them from the designers there who came through Europe to sell their magnificent jewelry.

“You make it sound very enticing.” She smiled at him, and sat back comfortably in an oversized chair in her living room with a sigh. She had enjoyed being with him in Sardinia in July, and had thought of him often ever since, but she'd been busy unraveling her marriage and reorganizing her business, and she hadn't felt ready to see him, knowing that he had more than just a friendly interest in her.

“I would love to spend some time with you, Benedetta,” he said simply, “if you'll let me.”

“Yes, I would like that now.” She wanted to be candid with him. Even though her husband had left her for another woman, and he had a daughter with her now, she needed time to get her head out of her twenty-year marriage. Gregorio's and her lives had been so entwined for so long that sometimes they felt like one person, and she had needed a meat cleaver to separate their two worlds. “The divorce is filed, and it seems right to me. It takes a long time in Italy, but at least the intention to divorce is clear. I didn't want to be as sloppy as Gregorio has been.” She realized now how wrong she had been to turn a blind eye to his affairs, but he had always come back to her and assured her that the other woman meant nothing to him.

“Is he going to marry the girl?” Dharam asked cautiously, not wanting to upset her, but curious about her husband's plans and how they might impact her.

“I have no idea. It sounds ridiculous, but he didn't expect me to divorce him. He thought we should just stay married, keep the business intact, and he would live with her and their baby. Once he told me he was leaving me for her, I didn't see any point staying married. And we couldn't run a business together. Now he'll be free to do as he wishes.”

“I wouldn't want a young Russian supermodel as a wife,” Dharam said ruefully, and Benedetta shrugged and then laughed.

“Maybe he won't either. That's up to him now. In any case, we're both free to do what we want.”

“Do you really feel that way, Benedetta?” Dharam asked her. “It's not easy separating from someone you've been married to for that long.” He didn't want to ask her if she was still in love with him, and hoped she wasn't.

“No, it's not,” she agreed.

“I had a hard time when my wife and I divorced. At least you don't have children, which complicates matters even more.”

“No, but we had a business. And our families have worked together for generations.”

“It must have come as quite a shock to him when you wanted him out.”

“Yes, it did, and to his brothers.” She smiled at Dharam then. “It's amazing how life changes sometimes in the blink of an eye. When we went to the White Dinner in June, I thought we'd be married forever. Now my whole life is completely different.”

“Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes change brings wonderful gifts,” he said, looking at her intently. “I felt a strong connection to you that night, but I know these months have been hard,” he said and sounded as though he meant it about how drawn to her he felt.

“How would we spend time together, though? You live in Delhi, I live here. We both have businesses we can't ignore. I could never live away from Milan. All my work is here.” She wanted to be honest with him right from the beginning. She wasn't going to drop everything and move to India if they fell in love.

“I know that. I've thought a lot about it. There's no reason why we can't go back and forth to see each other if we want to be together. People do that. I'm quite mobile and can work almost anywhere. I spend a lot of time in London, Paris, and Rome. And New York.” She knew that from his calls and emails in the past four months—he was always traveling somewhere, or writing to her from his plane or from a hotel room in the different cities he had mentioned. “Would you be willing to give it a chance?” He was a good person, and very appealing, and what he was saying to her was very tempting.

“Yes, as long as you understand that I have to live here. This is my home base. My business is here, and even more so now that everything depends on me.” She could have sold the business and retired, or given it up to Gregorio and his family, or continued to run it with him. Instead she had chosen to run it all herself. She wasn't about to lose that now, or give it up for someone else. And he didn't seem to expect that of her.

“I think we're both modern people,” he said sensibly. “You're not a housewife somewhere. I don't run a grocery store in Delhi. I think we both have options that people with less imagination don't,” he said, smiling at her. He put down his glass of wine, and came to sit in the oversized chair with her. “I think we were destined to meet that night at the White Dinner. Something sad and difficult was happening to you, and I think the fates, or the gods, or whatever you wish to call them, sent me to be with you.” She had thought of that once or twice too. The coincidence of their meeting that night had seemed impressive, and he had called her faithfully, though not intrusively, ever since. Had she told him that she was staying with Gregorio, she knew that Dharam would have accepted it with grace. And he had waited a respectable amount of time to come to see her. He had let her do what she had to do. “I think we're forgetting something important,” he said, gazing at her seriously.

“Like what?” Benedetta looked surprised.

“How we feel about each other,” he said gently. “You can't legislate everything and figure it all out. The heart can't be dictated to or managed. It does what it wants.” And as he said it, he leaned down and kissed her, gently at first and then passionately as he put his arms around her and she responded. It was a long time before they pulled away from each other, and he glanced at her again. “I think we should just relax and see what happens. Perhaps you will hate India, or take a strong dislike to my children, and they're very important to me.” Now it was her turn to explore his life, how they got along, and the people in his world. He kissed her again then, and she forgot everything he had been saying.

They sat and talked for a long time, and then he took her out to dinner, and asked her again about coming to India.

“November is always busy for me, I work on our new designs. And in January and February I get ready for our show. What about the beginning of December? I could get away then,” she said, looking at him shyly. She was about to discover a whole new place, a whole new universe, and a new man. It frightened her a little, but it was exciting. And he had assured her she would be safe with him. She believed him. From everything she knew about him, she trusted him. He was a responsible, thoughtful person, and she also knew that he already cared about her. He had demonstrated that to her in his patience for the past four months. And now she was excited about going to India with him. And he couldn't wait to make plans for her trip.

By the time Dharam left Milan on Monday morning, Benedetta felt totally at ease with him. She went to have breakfast at his hotel, in his suite, before he left. And he held her in his arms and kissed her again. It had been a wonderful weekend, and worth waiting all these months for. If he had pursued her any sooner, other than with occasional phone calls, it would have felt wrong to both of them. Now they had nothing to feel guilty about. He hadn't swayed the balance of her decisions. He had stayed low-key while she worked it out for herself, and now they could move forward together, in measured steps, to see what life had in store.