Dev had wanted to politely explain to the older man that he’d had richer and more famous actors at his seventeenth birthday party, but his mother hadn’t raised an asshole. “Not an issue,” he said to Hudson. “How are you doing?”
“Well, thanks. Glad we’re getting this show on the road finally.” Hudson leaned against the chair next to his. “I’ve been traveling a lot for features lately.”
Another humblebrag.
“It’s nice to work close to home sometimes. My kids are still young, I’d like to see them more. You got kids?”
“I’m raising my niece, Luna.” Dev braced himself, but Hunter didn’t change expression at all. It was kind of refreshing to meet people who didn’t know the tragic circumstances that had led to his taking care of his niece. “She’s thirteen.”
“Nice. My eldest is around her age. Where does she go to school?”
“We’re still looking.”
“Ah, well, Marymount is the best. It’s where my kid goes.”
Dev had slowly warmed to the thought of public school. If part of coming here had been to get away from his privileged name and the baggage it entailed, Luna was right. He had to take apart his own classism.
Hudson dropped into the chair next to his and examined his face in the brightly lit mirror. “This makeup job was terrible, huh? And they didn’t even do yours.” He raised his voice and called out to no one in particular. “We need makeup over here!”
Dev rubbed his chin. A smear of brown makeup came off. “I already had mine done, actually—” he began, but a young South Asian woman had already materialized, her brown cheeks flushed.
She looked at Dev. “I’m so sorry, sir. Can I help you?”
Dev hooked his thumb at Hudson. “I didn’t call for you, sorry.”
Her face fell. “Oh.” She turned to Hudson. “Yes, Mr. Rivers?”
“Mr. Rivers is my father,” Hudson drawled, his smile blinding. “Call me Hudson. And what’s your name?”
“Kalpana.”
“Well, Kalpana, this other little girl did my makeup in my trailer and I don’t think she got the blend right on my hairline here.”
The woman snapped to attention and grabbed a brush off the vanity. “Oh yes. She’s new, I’m training her.”
“Would have been a shame if we’d gone on camera like this, yes?” Hudson gave her a meaningful look and she nodded furiously.
“I’ll talk to her, I promise.”
Dev shifted. In the early years of his show, they hadn’t even had a makeup team, just a single woman with a brush and an attitude. “I don’t think it would have been that big a deal,” he said quietly. “They could have fixed it in post if necessary.”
Kalpana shrugged her thick braid over her shoulder and shot him an inscrutable look.
Hudson’s smile tightened. “Well, you gotta have something to fix. Kalpana, get some makeup on our friend here, eh?”
Kalpana came closer and peered at him. “Mr. Dixit’s skin is simply so good he doesn’t require much.” She pulled out a few pots and tubes.
Dev resisted the urge to examine his skin in the mirror. He knew it was too soon to credit Jia, but he had stopped on the way to work and picked up the drugstore cleanser she swore by.
“I wanted to tell you what an honor it is to work with you, Mr. Dixit.” Kalpana ran the brush over his face with brisk strokes.
Oh no. She was going to tell him how much she loved his family and give him her tearful condolences. Was it wrong to hate sympathy as much as he did? “You can call me Dev.”
“Dev. My grandmother nearly died when I told her you’d be here. She’s been watching Kyunki Mere Sanam Ke Liye Kuch Bhi since the very first episode. I used to watch it as a kid with her.”
Dev’s shoulders relaxed. Easier to deal with someone who loved his show rather than someone expressing sympathy for his brother and grandfather. “Thank you.”
“What’s that?” Hudson broke in.
“My old show.”
“It was on the air for eleven years,” Kalpana told Hudson. Then to Dev, “My grandmother was heartbroken when it ended. We’re so excited to have you back on our TV, even if I’ll have to translate Hope Street for her.”
“Thank you. I hope you both enoy it.”
She gave him a slightly adoring look. “I’m sure anything you do will be wonderful.”
A page popped up behind her, forestalling Hudson’s response. “Mr. Rivers, they’re ready for you. Mr. Dixit, we’ll call you in about half an hour.”
Hudson saluted him and stood. “Talk soon, Dev. Thanks, Kalpana, for the touch-up.”
“I appreciate it as well,” Dev murmured to Kalpana, as soon as the other man left.
She beamed at him. “No worries.” She cleared her throat. “Listen, since you’re new here, if you ever want to go grab a drink, I can show you around town. Open invite whenever.”
He stared at her blankly. He’d never been good with romantic cues. Was she flirting with him?
After telling him that she’d started watching his show when she was a literal child? “Ah.” His phone rang, and he snatched it up off his lap, grateful for being saved by the bell. “I have to get this.”
“Oh sure.” She looked disappointed, but she left while he answered.
“Devanand.”
He sat up a little straighter. That was what he got for not checking the caller ID before taking an exit to an awkward conversation.
No one used his full first name except for his grandmother, and the way she drawled it always made him feel like his shoelaces were untied or his hair messy. “Aji. How are you? Why are you calling so late?” It was late in the evening in Mumbai.
“I don’t sleep much.” Back in her glory days, his grandmother’s voice had been throaty on purpose, for sex appeal. Now it was raspy from years of cigarettes and cigars. “Why is Luna not answering my call?”
“She has certain times when she can’t use the phone, like during her studies.”
“That is cruel.”
He looked around, hoping the PA would pop up and tell him he was needed earlier. “It’s the kind of parenting her therapist recommended.”
“If she has no phone, she cannot talk to me. That is unacceptable. I shall send her a second phone.”
“You will do nothing of the sort.” He made his tone as firm as he could. When he and Rohan had been orphaned and sent to live with their grandparents at sixteen and thirteen, their elders had left them mostly to their own devices.
Dev would have much rather had some maternal softness or kind words. Rohan hadn’t minded, or at least not outwardly. He’d taken the credit cards the couple had tossed at them and followed their cousin, Arjun, down scandal’s path.
Luna was a different story. Aji wasn’t exactly maternal with the girl, but as far as he could tell, they had an easy relationship where they both sought each other out. Though he didn’t understand it, Dev was willing to respect their bond. But he certainly wasn’t going to let Luna be spoiled without any checks like Rohan had been, and a second phone he couldn’t monitor came under that category.