SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 4

Vishal:-"Are you actually, seriously, legitimately considering this?"

Mani:-"Yes, vishal," she answered the same question for the fifth time in the past fifteen minutes, swiping the brush over her nail and smiling in satisfaction as the red glittery paint perfectly coated it in one clean brush stroke.

Vishal:-"You're batshit crazy. It's an arranged marriage, why would you possibly agree?"

Manisha rolled her eyes, shifting to adjust the position of the phone that was wedged between her neck and ear, "How much is it going to help JDB? Be brutally honest. Give me the pros and cons as they are...in simple, non-business terms,"

The last bit was necessary to ensure that vishal didn't start sounding like an economics textbook and using complicated words that sounded like they belonged to a foreign language.

Mani:-"Pros? Signing this contract with Golden will be great for PR. We'll have more resources at our disposal, it'll allow us to target a larger audience and possibly international customer base. It'll boost production and exports which will in turn boost sales and revenue, increase clients and secondary contracts....basically, bottom line is that it can only take us upwards,"
She paused in her movements, biting her bottom lip, "Is the marriage part extremely
necessary?"

"Well...we weren't the ones to propose it, but I guess it does kind of set things in stone and maybe Golden needs that kind of reassurance for a deal this big? Like a marriage between companies provides the kind of guarantee that a contract can't, because the stakes get so much higher with the families' honour and reputations and stuff getting involved. Plus it's going to be great for both companies' images and reflect positively on both families' images
too,"

Manisha heart sank a little. She'd pretty much known the answer already but hearing vishal say it out loud only made it more real.

Vishal:-"What about the cons?"
She needed to find at least one straw to grasp at, just one strong reason to squirm out of this.

Mani:-"There aren't really any, at least not major ones. Unless the marriage ends in divorce, which could potentially messed a lot of things up because there'll definitely be some kind of no-divorce-
unless-absolutely-deathly-necessary clause. So division of assets could get messy, and there'd probably be some kind of fine for breaking the contract...and not to mention the media would have a field day and rip both companies to shreds."

She almost cursed when her grip on the brush slipped and a splodge of red smudged onto Her finger. She really wish her favourite nail tech wasn't currently on holiday; she was loyal to a fault, and she was so good to her that she couldn't even dream of cheating on her.

Vishal:-"Okay, then I want to at least meet the guy," "Why are you doing this? Don't you want to marry and settle down with someone you truly love one day? Plus you're so young , why are you even entertaining this arranged marriage bullshit? The company won't fall apart if you say no, you know,"

Mani:-"You've met him, haven't you? The Golden heir," she asked, completely disregarding what vishal had just said as she swiftly steered the topic into more comfortable waters. She really
didn't want to discuss her feelings right now, because they were a mess and she was a mess. Besides, she didn't think he'd do it, but she really didn't want vishal to start talking about reyansh.

Vishal:-" Abhishek malhan? Yeah, briefly a few times,"

Vishal's answer piqued her interest and piqued her ever-present curiosity even more.

Mani:-"How much do you know about him?"

Vishal:-"Well, he's your age. He's a director at Golden and obviously a major shareholder, but that's all I know about him to be honest," she frowned at the superficial information she is provided with,

Mani:-"That's all you know?"
She tried to hide her disappointment.
She knew literally nothing about the guy she is going to meet in five hours, and she is a bit nervous  because she had absolutely no idea what to expect. Manisha wondered what he was like, whether he was kind, what his smile looked like, how tall he was, how nice his laugh was, whether he would give her a positive first impression or make her want to run for the hills.

Vishal:-"He's kept a low profile and stayed out of the spotlight. He's only accompanied his father to a couple of social gatherings so not much is known about him. I've not heard any bad rumours about him though, no scandals or anything like that, so he's probably an okay guy...no news
is always good news,"

Mani:-"Yeah, I did a quick Google search...didn't find much except for the fact that he's the chairman's son. That's literally all I could find. There were no pictures or anything either,"
She said, blowing on her nails.

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