Page 58 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

together. He came into the branch and was impressed. He
definitely saw it as quite a prestigious job, and it was around this
time that he seemed to understand why I hadn’t wanted to join his
business and started to accept that I probably never would. After
that, I sensed we would be able to rebuild our relationship.
I guess I thought I was doing pretty well for myself, too: I was
maybe nineteen by this stage, I managed quite a few staff, most of
whom were older than me, and had good clothes, some money in
my pocket and I drove a nice car. It was a completely different life
from the one my mates from school were living, and I rarely saw
them now: some of them were resitting exams, others had signed
on after their A levels or had jobs in retail earning less than half
what I was taking home. It’s sad, but I suppose it was inevitable
that we would drift apart.
As my career progressed, my relationship with my dad con-
tinued to thaw, though it was still too much of a touchy subject
for me to say something casual like ‘How’s business?’ It was an
area we just didn’t touch on, and as long as we skirted round that
topic of conversation I could really enjoy going home for lunch
and watching my younger brothers and sisters grow up. When it
was announced that my elder sister Nahid was getting married,
much of our conversation for the next few months was about the
wedding.
Nahid had an arranged marriage, which was something my
parents never suggested for me. My sisters were all quite comfort-
able with the concept of arranged marriage; they had been brought
up to accept it, so when my parents selected somebody for Nahid
it was the natural thing to marry him. As it was the first wedding
in the family it was a big event, and whenever I went home there
were preparations going on. My dad was in charge of the
arrangements, and we were all given our tasks to carry out. I was
very proud of my sister, and it was important that the family
appeared united at the wedding, so I was included in all the plans.

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