Celebrity Castaway | COMPLETE | MaNan Fiction

16| Press Conference

A/N: Hello Readers, I hope the first week of the New Year went well for all of you? All your resolutions made? How many of you broke it already? ;P

So we are back with another installment of the story & I hope you enjoying reading this as much as all the other chapters so far.

By the way, about the progress of this story, well after a break of almost a month (Holiday season!) I got back to writing this book again, and well I wrote one portion of Chapter 24 (baby steps!). Hopefully I will find the rhythm soon & see the book through to it's completion. Until then, you guys enjoy reading, and do tell me your thoughts on the book :)

On that note, Happy Reading!

***

Nandini was fidgeting as she sat at the high table next to Aryamann, with Zubin & Navya by her other side. They were in the banquet hall of a posh hotel in Mumbai, and seated before them were at least a hundred people from the press. This was the most talked about press meet & greet in the industry for the last one week. It had been five days since the internet broke with her news of pregnancy & after brainstorming on the content for all these days, Manik's PR gave her the green signal to attend this press conference, to tell the world that she wasn't going to be doing the movie with Aryamann Khanna, after all.

Sitting here wasn't exactly comfortable, since she was wearing a thin belt around her belly with a negligible bump around the lower belly. It wasn't visible of course, with the loose fitting dress she wore for the occasion, but to keep it real, they had put stress detectors & reaction simulators on it. She was practising wearing it for the last five days, and truth was she wasn't too comfortable with the fit. She had mentioned this to her designer & gynaecologist, both, but she was told that after the first trimester, a would-be mother never really felt all comfortable. The little bit of discomfort was necessary to keep it real, so even if she forgot to act for a bit, it would induce the discomfort & she'd automatically react correctly.

She was also told they were regulating the stress detector in the belt & once it received signals of stress beyond the level specified by them, it would induce mild electromagnetic radiations into her belly that would in turn induce bodily discomfort that the mother's body faces, when in stress at the initial phase of pregnancy. It wasn't harmful for her of course, but a necessary evil for the sanctity of their act. Nandini had to give them for the meticulous planning & air tight execution of the whole drama. She doubted they'd ever get caught!

Aryamann on the other hand was behaving quite cold with Nandini. She knew he still doubted the sanctity of her pregnancy, and hence he probably thought lowly of her. This did hurt her, but she reminded herself of his stabbing. She didn't start this, it was Aryamann. He didn't have the right to be mad at her either.

"Nandini, we're ready if you're ready.." she heard Aryamann whisper, looking at her, with a perfectly convincing yet fake smile.

Nandini nodded, but she was feeling nervous. She really wished Manik was there with her, but this was about her movie & the whole idea was to show that the Malhotra's weren't influencing her decision, so he couldn't be here of course! She would have felt comfortable with Aryamann's presence, had their equation not changed this drastically, but it did & that added to her nervousness. What if she goofed up? She didn't want Manik to land in more mess.

"Don't worry, you've got this Nandu" Navya whispered encouragingly, and she smiled a little. She could feel the sweat in the root of her hair, despite the central air conditioning.

"Good morning to the ladies & gentlemen from the press.." began Aryamann, after nodding at his publicist & Nandini turned her attention towards him. She knew her cue, she was waiting for it.