SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 5

She'd spent half an hour the night before trying to find out anything you could about Abhishek malhan, but he remained a complete mystery to her. So much could be found out about She through a Google search, from her social media profiles to pictures of her r artworks as well photos of her at company events, dinners, galas, exhibitions and what-not.

Vishal:-"You sound like you're disappointed. But what I can tell you is that he's seriously good looking, like even from a guy's perspective,"
Manisha sat up a little straighter, "Really?"
She groaned when vishal laughed at the sudden eagerness that had creeped into her tone.

Vishal:-"Yeah, but from the few times I've met him, he seems like a reserved guy, doesn't speak much and always looks...cold and serious,"

She snorted, getting up from her bed and stepping into her walk-in room closet, "If you're trying to put me off, it's not really working," she said as she navigated through her clothes with stiff fingers, careful not to smudge her freshly painted nails or drop her phone.

Vishal:- "Nope, just warning you. You'd complement each other well though, because you act like the sun shines out of your  -"
She cut him off before he could continue,

Mani:-"Shut up, vishal,"
He wasn't necessarily wrong though.

Vishal:-"Anyway, don't feel pressured to do anything or agree or whatever. It's completely your choice at the end of day,"
She smiled as vishal's tone turned a little more serious and a little more protective,

Vishal:-"You literally listed all those great pros and now you're telling me not to feel pressured, that's unfair,"

What the hell should she wear?
Manisha didn't know why she is taking tonight so seriously or why she is aiming to dress to impress. To avoid complicating things for herself, she put it down to being an overachiever since birth.

Vishal:-"I'm being serious  I feel like you're treating this like a trivial blind date or something, but you're going to spend the rest of your life with him if you agree. That's a huge thing,"

Mani:-"I know, vishal. I'll try to feel like I have a choice in this," she humoured her cousin, holding two dresses against her frame in front of the mirror and wondering if navy suited her more or purple did. Would the purple dress complement her skin tone more, or would the navy
dress bring out the colour of her r eyes better?

Manisha grinned, trying to ignore the fact that she felt that the words she'd uttered as a joke were somewhat true, because even though the decision was completely hers to make, she didn't really know if she'd be able to say no even if she wanted to.

Before vishal could go into full-on concern mode, he told her to hold on for a minute because somebody had walked into his office. She took the break from the conversation to finally decide on a dress (by doing eenie meenie miney mo, as all smart and rational people do to
make decisions) and opted for the navy one, laying it out carefully on her bed.

Now she was faced with deciding how to have her hair styled. Curled? Straightened? Tied up?
Open?
"Sorry but duty calls, I'll have to talk to you later. Have fun on the blind date."
She said goodbye to vishal and threw her phone onto the bed before collapsing onto it herself, looking up at the constellations that she had painted across her ceiling. She
couldn't help but wonder when her life had to come to this point, and how she'd even let it reach this point in the first place.
---

Abhishek's father propped up the collar of Abhishek's blazer and smoothed it out, making sure that his son looked more than perfect.

A/D:-"Be nice to abhi beta. Make conversation with her but more importantly, listen to what she says with interest. And respond to her too, don't just let her do all the talking like you do with
most people," he instructed as he buttoned the top button of Abhishek's shirt.

Abhishek smiled humourlessly as his father fussed over his clothes and handed out directions that nobody had asked for, "Why don't you go meet her instead?" he suggested, undoing his top button again as soon as his father let go.

He sat down on the last marble step of the staircase and slipped on the polished black shoes, scrunching up his nose a little at his father's choice of footwear. He'd rather be dressed in his more normal, more comfortable and more subtle clothes, but his father had felt the need to intervene and force him into a formal outfit worth someone's entire college tuition since that
was 'more appropriate' for the occasion.
He'd also rather not be going, but his father had felt the need to emotionally blackmail him and coerce him into going to meet some random rich girl he'd never met before, with marriage on the table already.