Nicholas Davenport surveyed his quiet co-op apartment on New York’s Upper East Side with a certain amount of resignation. He’d received phone calls from Lisa and Eli, but he still hadn’t heard from his mother on this, his thirty-sixth birthday. They hadn’t spoken since she found out that he wanted to sell his shares in Davenport Technology to Eli. Moreover, Nicholas refused to let her win this passive aggressive game she loved to play with him. Well, reasoned Nicholas, if he didn’t hear from his mother on his birthday, then he really didn’t want to deal with her going forward.
He rose from his sofa, padded over to the large windows, and surveyed the hundreds of thousands of people rushing here and there throughout the streets of New York City. In that moment, Nicholas felt as empty as he had after seeing Eli in San Francisco. Nicholas didn’t know how to fix his feeling of loneliness mixed with restlessness, yet it nagged at him every second of every day. Just then, a knock at the front door startled Nicholas back to reality. “Hold on,” he called as he pulled on a pair of sweatpants over his underwear.
“Happy birthday!” said Dylan as Nicholas pulled open the door. He thrust two presents into Nicholas’ arms as the doorman passed a cake and magnum of champagne to Dylan. “You should be happy,” teased Dylan.
Nicholas forced a tight smile as he hugged his big brother. “Dyl, what’re you doing here?”
“It’s your birthday. You know how much I love to celebrate a birthday which isn’t mine…” Dylan placed the cake on an end table as he handed the magnum of champagne to Nicholas. “I spoke to Lisa who spoke to Mom and…it seems like you two are on the outs.”
Nicholas carried the magnum of champagne into the kitchen before returning with two glasses of champagne. “Have you spoken to Mom today?” asked Nicholas as he walked into the living room.
Dylan let out a small sigh. “No. Actually, I haven’t spoken to her in a few days.”
“It’s three-thirty in the afternoon on my birthday and she hasn’t so much as called, texted, or sent me a birthday card.” Nicholas clinked his glass to Dylan’s before taking a much-needed sip. “I’m so sick of her.”
“Hey… Be nice.”
“Don’t enable her, Dyl.”
Dylan bit his lower lip. “I’m not. I promise. She’s… Mom is very hard to get along with because her views are fixed when they should be a bit more malleable.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice!”
“This is who she is. Nicky, we’ve all have all had our run-ins with Mom. After I resigned from Davenport, she didn’t speak to me for two months because I hurt her,” recounted Dylan with an eye roll. “Lisa and Mom aren’t really speaking right now, either. And, well, you know how Mom is with Eli.”
Nicholas nodded. “I kinda do, but no one ever tells me the truth.”
“Just forget about it,” sighed Dylan. “It was a long time ago. You were a baby.”
“I just… Never mind. Are you staying in the city tonight?”
“I’ve booked a room at my club…”
“Stay here,” said Nicholas, eagerly. “I don’t have any plans tonight and, well, I’d like the company.”
“I thought you’d be out on the town with your friends doing whatever people in their mid-thirties do these days,” laughed Dylan.
“Hardly,” Nicholas said, coolly. “Most of my friends are married, partnered, or have children. They moved out of the city last year with no intention on ever coming back. I’ve never felt so alone in my whole life,” sighed Nicholas.
“Nicky,” Dylan said, softly, “I know you won’t want to hear this, but why don’t you move back home?”
“To Kingsport?!? Dylan, you’ve lost your mind!”
“Ouch.”
“I can’t go back to Kingsport. It’ll look like I failed. I can hear the country club dragons now, ‘Oh, look. Sheila Davenport’s son has left New York because he fails in everything he does and now he’s just living off his trust fund.’ No, thank you!”
Dylan laughed, lightly. “You kinda do live off your trust fund.”
“Yes, but on the Upper East Side, I’m in good company. In Kingsport, unless you’re Charles Montgomery, you have to work or volunteer or…be a socialite. No thanks.”
Dylan studied his baby brother for a moment. “Nicky, you may not want to hear this, but maybe it’s time you gave up this…life…or whatever you call it in Manhattan. Come home. Sell this place, buy a mansion, settle down, and do whatever you want. Don’t live here without any friends or support system just because you don’t want some country club dragons to gossip about you.”
“Did Mom or Lisa ask you to say that?” asked Nicholas, quietly.
“No. I’m your big brother. I worry about you. You and I have a little bit in common: We’re both single and ready to mingle!”
Nicholas broke into horrified peals of laughter. “Don’t ever say that again!!!”
“I mean it. Come on, you know what I mean.” Dylan surveyed his brother’s perfectly appointment co-op apartment before saying, “How much did you pay for this apartment?”
“That’s a rude question,” snapped Nicholas.
“Just tell me.”
“$1.5 million…but it was money from the trust granddad left for me. Mom didn’t lend me the money.”
“I bet this place is worth no less than $3.5 million right now. You could easily buy a five bedroom, six thousand square foot house in Kingsport for that money. Nicky, I don’t want you to stay in New York, completely miserable, just to prove a point. You deserve to be happy.”
Nicholas let his brother’s words sink in. He hadn’t admitted to anyone how lonely he was in New York or how much he missed being around his family…even his mother. “I’ll think about it,” offered up Nicholas, lightly.
“That’s all I can ask. Hey, you can stay with me while you house hunt because, well, staying with Mom is akin to being in prison. Why don’t we go to The Ritz for a few cocktails before dinner at eight? Sound good?”
“Yes. That sounds wonderful,” smiled Nicholas. “Thanks, Dyl.”
“Happy birthday, Nicky.”
In our next installment, Ada gets suspicious…
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