SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 14

Karan:-"Wait, let me get this straight. Your dad suddenly sprung it on you that he wants you to get married to JDB's heiress and you protested and said no, but then you ended up meeting her and said yes and then your families met and now you're getting engaged on Sunday night?!"

Abhishek slurped on his coffee, "Yeah, pretty much," karan had summarised the events of the past two weeks quite neatly.

Harsh whistled at Abhishek's confirmation while karan held his hand in front of his
mouth, his eyeballs looking like they were a split second away from popping out of their
sockets.

Harsh:-"Wow, mr.abhishek malhan, you honestly just keep exceeding our expectations,"he said in
awe, dunking his French fry in the tub of  sauce on abhishek's tray.

Abhishek had known that his friends would react exactly like this so he'd come prepared for the audacious gawks and the barrage of questions.

Abhi:-"I know, it's kind of crazy," he replied calmly, his eyes trained on his plate as he took a bite of his burger.

"Kind of?" Karan squeaked, marvelling at how abhishek could carry on eating casually after dropping the biggest bomb on them. An hour ago, he would have never imagined that this was the reason Abhishek had assembled them at such short notice. He hadn't thought much of it when the cold natured  boy had messaged in their group chat, simply saying that he wanted to meet up for dinner and nothing more.

"Is she nice?" Harsh questioned with narrowed eyes. The Abhishek he knew only did flings with no strings attached - not a single one - and would have never agreed to something like this. He would have never agreed to be a pawn in his father's business without putting up a fight, and he definitely would have never agreed to tie himself down to someone, which is
why harsh was struggling to conceal his surprise at the revelation.

"She must be if he's agreed to go through with it," karan said, fanning himself with the
menu on the table because this was all a little too much for him to process.

Abhishek remained quiet for a moment, drawing in ketchup with the French fry in his hand,

Abhi:-"She is," he answered finally, and Harsh and karan exchanged curious glances, "She's pretty and she smiles a lot. She said that she thinks we can be good friends and make this arrangement work,"

He met his best friends' shocked gazes once he finished speaking. Karan's eyebrows crawled into his hairline, and Harsh almost choked on his drink when Abhishek began...dishing out compliments.

"Abhishek, this isn't exactly the same as making a new friend though, is it?" Harsh
pointed out carefully, not sure he agreed with how lightly Abhishek seemed to be treating the situation.

Abhi:-"Look, I tried to fight it but it's not like Dad's ever going to listen. Plus it's the best thing for both our companies and we're both on the same page about where we stand. It's literally just for show, an extension of the business deal...a bit like a contract I guess," he said, his
explanation getting messier and messier the more he spoke.

"So you'll marry her but see other people on the side?" Harsh raised an eyebrow in
question.

Abhi:-"God, no, never," Abhishek was quick to protest, "You know I wouldn't...that I couldn't do that," he twirled his straw around in his cold coffee before sighing softly, "Trust me, I know
what I'm doing," Harsh still looked unconvinced but karan put a hand on his arm before he could say anything else, shaking his head when harsh looked at him questioningly.

Karan:-"I can't believe my best friend getting married first out of us!" He exclaimed a moment later, trying to ease up the slightly tense atmosphere, "I get the best groom side role, right?"

Harsh:-"Excuse me, no you don't, I want to be Abhishek's best groom side too," he argued, throwing a French fry at karan.

Both of them looked at Abhishek expectantly, wanting him to pick one of them for the honourable side so they could win over the other, "Flip a coin to decide or something, don't look at me like that," he grinned, raising his hands up in his defence.

Harsh was still a bit unsettled by how laidback Abhishek appeared and how easily he seemed to have wrapped his head around the idea of being bound for life to a girl he'd only known for two weeks. Karan, on the other hand, had his own doubts too, but he'd known Abhishek for more than 80% of the boy's life; he knew that if abhishek had wanted to complain or rant, or if he was particularly unhappy about anything, he would have said it already.

Which meant that as odd as it was, he was genuinely fine with it.

Karan"Does she have cute friends?" He asked eagerly.

Harsh:-"Yeah, does she?" He leaned forward with clasped hands and a newfound interest in the conversation.

Abhi:-"I don't know," he chuckled, of course they would be curious about this.

"You're sure you're okay with all of this?" Harsh couldn't help but ask, earning a sharp
look from karan.
Abhishek looked out of the window, watching as the rain came crashing down onto the ground, "I wasn't really given much of a choice to begin with," he shrugged, his gaze shifting back to his friends, "But yeah, I'm okay with it," he was quick to add when he saw the alarmed looks on both their faces.

"That's kind of weird," harsh replied honestly. He really didn't know how abhishek was managing to remain level-headed and composed, especially given how broody and temperamental he was most of the time.

"I know it is," Abhishek agreed, "But you haven't met her," The corners of his lips turning upwards ever so slightly at the thought of manisha and her radiant
smile and her breezy voice and karan smirked as he observed the change of expression on abhishek's face.

"As long as you know what you're doing,"
Karan was now really eager to meet you because Manisha had to be some magical, godly being if abhishek had warmed up to the thought of her so quickly.