The Marriage Contract

1 - Troublemaker

The curtains to Abhimanyu's room flung open as the sunlight hit him across the face. He shifted his hand slightly to the side and came across the bare back of his last nights conquest. He placed an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"Abhimanyu, get up!"

That was the voice of Neil. His personal assistant, his friend, and more so his boy Friday.

"And tell your guest to get up and leave too."

"What do you want Neil? Let me sleep." Abhimanyu mumbled in his sleep.

"You have a board meeting in 30 minutes. And it's going to take you 45 minutes to get up from one end of the city to another. So yes, get up!"

Neil flung clothes at his bare naked body and at his lady friend too. Abhimanyu got up groggily and sat up on his bed. His lady friend —whose name he didn't bother remembering got up from the bed and grabbed her clothes and began to dress herself up. Neil turned around to avoid looking at a stranger dressing herself while Abhimanyu could care less.

As she began to leave, she leaned in to give Abhimanyu a parting kiss on the lips but he moved his face away just in time. "No lip kisses." A rule he always stuck by.

"I'll see you later?" She asked, hopeful.

"I don't think so." He replied, not wanting to give her false hope.

But he actually didn't believe in love or relationships or even sleeping with the same person —especially a one night random hookup more than once.

Neil turned around to face his best friend, trying to mask his displeasure. Abhimanyu turned around to face him.

"Don't give me that look."

"Take a Tylenol and drink some water. Take a hot shower and be down in 5. You reek of booze and sex. I'm sure the board members do not want the next CEO to be a drunk sex addict."

Abhimanyu flipped Neil the bird before making his way to the washroom, in all his naked glory.

~*~

"Neil, where is he?" Harshvardhan Birla asked, furiously throwing the expenses file he was holding onto the table

"He must on his way, Sir."

"I told you to stay with him! Why did you leave him? Tum toh jaante ho ki yeh ladka kitne careless hai!"

"Yes Sir, I understand. But Anand sir asked me to come to the office immediately and when I left, he was already in his car, and ready to leave."

Before Harshvardhan could reply back to Neil with a few choice words, the door to his cabin opener and in walked in Abhimanyu, wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, leather jacket and dark lensed sunglasses.

"You called?"

"Do you know what time is it now?" Harshvardhan asked, annoyed at his sons attitude.

"Neil, what's the time? I think Sir's watch stopped working." Abhimanyu asked rhetorically; taking his glasses off and folding them before slipping them into the pocket of his jacket.

"Oh grow up, Abhimanyu! We had a board meeting, 1 hour ago! It was your time to tell the board why you deserve to be a CEO. But no, where were you? At home, sleeping with another one of your meaningless one night stands. Do you not care about your future at all? What do I tell the board?"

"That I am a very good and dedicated doctor."

"The board doesn't care if you are good or dedicated. It cares about how you come across to the general public and what kind of publicity the hospital gains from having you as the face of it. And this. This is me helping."

Harshvardhan threw a newspaper across the desk. "This. This is exactly what the board doesn't want in their next CEO. You can't go around punching bouncers at a club because they are kicking you out for being too unruly."

"I punched them because they shoved me first. They could have asked nicely."

"And you could have left nicely instead of becoming the front page headline of today's newspaper. Look Abhimanyu, the board wants someone who is very trust worthy, someone who will be in the news for good reasons. Not bad ones."

Abhimanyu folded his arms around his chest in a defensive stance.

Harshvardhan took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. "I know you don't like me meddling in your life. And I get that. I'll be the bad guy here. But you need to clean your act up. The board is voting for the next CEO in one month's time. And the choice is between you and Parth."

Abhimanyu's lips tightened onto a flat line at the mention of Parth's name.

"And you don't want Parth to become a CEO, do you?" He stated, putting a final nail in the coffin.

Abhimanyu refused to say anything and looked away; avoiding any sort of eye contact.

"I didn't think so. So clean up your act. Now. Stop picking random bar fights, stop sleeping around like a man-whore and most importantly, stop becoming front page news. Or I'll have to clean up your act for you. And we both know how you feel about that."

Abhimanyu turned around to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"I have patients to attend to. I may not become a CEO but I'm still going to be the best cardiac surgeon in town. So now if you'll excuse me, my patients need me."

And with that, Abhimanyu made an exit from Harshvardhan Birla's cabin.

"Do you see how he talks to me? I'm his father goddamnit."

"Yes sir." Neil lowered his head to avoid the brash lecture he was going to be receiving regardless.

"You need to keep him on a tight leash, Neil. He can't afford anymore screwups."

"I know, Sir. I'll try my best."

"Not try, Neil. You have to be the best if you want to reign in the best."

"Sir..." Neil hesitated.

"What?"

"I have an idea. I don't know if Abhimanyu will like it but it can work."

"It doesn't matter what Abhimanyu wants. What's the idea?"

"I know of this company. Who provides services. Under the radar. And it's damn good at it too. Abhimanyu comes off as rude, brash, playboy to the media. And we both know he has no plans to settle down."

"And?"

"But what if we make him a well rounded, family man who has a stable girlfriend, possibly marriage, is known for charity and all the good in the world? We can manufacture well publicized relationship for him."

"You're right. It doesn't matter what Abhimanyu does behind closed doors as long as the public does or get a whiff of it."

"Exactly. But..."

"But it'll have to be a gradual change. So for that you may need to push the board to delay the vote, at least by a few weeks."

"That's my problem. I'll handle it. You get Abhimanyu a girlfriend and get him on board with this plan."

"Yes, sir."

Neil exited the room and let Harshvardhan Birla maul over in his own thoughts. Talking about the contract girlfriend was one thing, but finding one who wouldn't be easily charmed or phased by Abhimanyu was going to be the hard part. But most important was to convince Abhimanyu to be okay with this contract relationship. And that he knew for sure wasn't going to be easy.

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I tried something new! I hope you guys like it. Please do give me your inputs and I hope you give this one as much love and support as you give to Gulabi and A Flight of Love!