SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 10

A couple of days later, Abhishek's family had arranged to meet with Manisha family to plan the events that would occur now that Manisha and abhishek had both given her consent.

Abhishek's father was still amazed by the fact that Abhishek had returned after his first meeting with her and simply announced that he was ready to go through with it. There had been no other words exchanged or explanations given and he had just disappeared
into his room after uttering that single sentence. His father had brought it up again at breakfast the next morning but Abhishek had just shrugged and repeated what he'd said the night before, adding in the sarcastic promise that he wasn't going to mess things up on purpose or something, so there was no need to worry.

Abhishek's father had no choice but to take his word for it, optimistically presuming that his consent was genuine despite how vigorously he had initially contested the idea. Both of the families had decided to have a meal together so that she could all get to know each other a little bit better and discuss the details now that the first hurdle had been crossed;

a hurdle nobody had thought would actually be crossed in the first place.
Abhishek and his father were currently waiting for her and her family to arrive and he felt this strange sense of anticipation at the thought of seeing her again. He was a little nervous at the thought of meeting her parents though. He'd never let himself reach the point of meeting
a girl's parents before (heck, he'd never even met the same girl twice) and even if this was an arranged marriage and her parents' opinion of him didn't technically matter, he still couldn't help but feel anxious.

He happened to look up just as she sauntered into the room. The world seemed to stop whenever she made an entrance, as if it wanted the centre of focus to be her, as if it wanted her to shine the brightest. She carried herself with nothing but confidence and grace and she demanded the attention of anyone and everyone around her.
Abhishek found it remarkable.

Greetings and pleasantries were exchanged and positive impressions were immediately
formed before everyone took their place at the table. The parents manipulated fate a little and she ended up sitting in the seat right next to Abhishek at the circular table.

Abhi:-"Hi," abhishek murmured as the older adults at the table descended into small talk, "You...you look nice today," he leaned in and whispered so that only the two of them could hear, wanting to die as soon as the words left his mouth.

Initiating conversation like that - especially in such an awkward way - was terribly
uncharacteristic of him, but he'd been instructed (more like nicely threatened) by his father to compliment Manisha on her appearance. Plus he'd always been an advocate for telling the truth so the words easily went flying past his lips.

Her grip on the glass in her hand almost faltered but she made the biggest effort to not let it show.

Mani:-"Thank you. You don't look too bad yourself," she replied, incredibly flustered by the completely unexpected compliment. She looked up at Abhishek to find that his eyes were already on her and she smiled at him, earning a small smile from him in return. The exchange definitely didn't go unnoticed by any of the parents at the table. Her parents exchanged discreet glances before her father turned to Abhishek's father with raised
eyebrows. Abhishek's father simply supplied a shrug, although there was a pleased grin on his face; Abhishek's quiet acceptance was slowly starting to make sense to him now.

After the food had been ordered, both of your fathers were quick to involve themselves in a discussion about their companies and all the ambitious plans they wished to execute once the deal had been signed, featuring some of the complex words from vishal's business books that
sounded like gibberish to her ears. Her mother asked Abhishek a few basic questions to which he politely obliged, and Manisha had to control her laughter when she started talking to him about the best way to cook some dishes (which the chefs at her house followed), hoping the restaurant chefs followed a similar technique.

The food arrived fifteen minutes later and everyone was quick to dig in. Manisha wanted to cry when she took a bite of the pasta; she had eaten pasta at a lot of places but this one had just catapulted to the top list of her list. She put a chunk on abhishek's plate and excitedly urged him to try it too, solemnly swearing that her tastebuds were in heaven. Abhishek couldn't help but give in to her antics, his own eyes widening a fraction in
surprise at how delicious it actually was.

What she didn't realise was that her mother had been watching Manisha and Abhishek like a hawk for the past forty five minutes, her uneasiness as well as her opposition dissolving more and more by the second.

A/D:-"Firstly, I just want to ask both of you one last time if you're really sure about this", Abhishek's father began after a while, taking a sip from his glass of red wine.

Abhishek nearly scoffed at how his father was talking about choice when he had barely given him any at all in the matter.
It was almost unnoticeable but she felt abhishek slightly stiffen next to her and when she glanced at his face, she noticed that his expression had hardened a little.

She might have been reading too deeply into things but she was getting the impression that abhishek's relationship with his father was a little strained and she couldn't help but wonder why. She had been able to tell right off the bat that akash malhan was a clever businessman and he had been friendly enough, but there was clearly something she was missing.

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