SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 16

If only sidharth knew.

Sidharth caught the interaction between both of them on camera, the embarrassment diffusing a little as identical smirks overtook her features and the two of them looked at each other as if
there was an inside joke that only Manisha was allowed to enjoy.

Sid:-"Just pretend we're not here," he coaxed, assuming that the two of them just weren't big fans of this.

Abhishek took another step forward and hesitantly placed his arms around her waist under sidharth's pointed gaze, feeling like somebody had drastically turned up the heating as he gently pulled her closer.

Sid:-"Great, now put your left hand on his shoulder," he urged and Manisha coyly followed, apprehensively resting her hand on abhishek's shoulder as instructed, feeling her face growing warmer by the second, "A bit more upwards, a little more, ah, that's perfect! Now look here and smile,"
"Okay, now look at each other," sidharth carried on. Manisha looked up at Abhishek as he looked down at her and she sent him a small but sunny smile even though sidharth hadn't dictated it.

Abhishek instantly felt himself relax a little and he smiled back instinctively, his thoughts shifting to how comfortably she fit in his arms and how her hair smelled like flowers and how he kind of maybe liked this warm feeling.

Sidharth excitedly clicked away, 100% sure that these pictures were going to come out
absolutely amazing and he couldn't wait to go through them. He asked the two of them to do a few more poses and the awkwardness that Manisha and abhishek had initially been wrapped in
slowly evaporated into the air as they got used to it.

"That should be fine I think...let's take a quick break while I review the pictures and see if we need to do any re-shots," sidharth declared, putting his camera down as he stretched his back and asked Amit to hand him a bottle of water.

Abhishek let go of manisha hand and they both eased, remnants of laughter still present on their faces because both of them had literally laughed through the last three minutes of the shoot.

Manisha had caught the giggles and hadn't been able to stop since then, no matter how hard she tried to keep it in. Her laugh sounded like spring and abhishek found it extremely contagious, so both of them had just sunk together.

Vishal walked back into the room just after she'd been ushered back to the suite for touch-ups by the make-up artist. He made his way to Abhishek, the latter looking up from his phone when he felt someone standing next to him.

Vishal deliberated over his words for a couple of seconds, wondering if he should even be saying this, "manisha is my little sister, and she means the world to me. I know I don't need to tell you this because I've seen it for myself today, but please be nice to her and treat her well,
like she deserves. And please keep her happy," he requested, his gaze firm and protective.

At that moment, Abhishek couldn't even think about how this was yet another frightening reminder of the heavy responsibility he'd have to shoulder without asking for it or wanting it. No, all he could think about was how blessed Manisha is to have a big family that loved her so
much, how fortunate she is to have so many people around her that cared so much about Manisha and her happiness.

It was all Abhishek had ever wanted.
He watched as her floated down the stairs and returned to the lobby, and he watched as her face lit up with laughter when sidharth enthusiastically told her that she were the second most beautiful woman in the world (after his mother of course).

Manisha literally spread sunshine everywhere she went and abhishek couldn't find it in himself to keep his distance.

Abhi:-"You don't need to worry," he replied, his eyes lingering on her for a moment before he turned to look at vishal, "I promise I'll take care of her."

HEADLINES....

Golden Inc. And JDB Foods to Join Hands And Families JDB Heiress And Golden Heir Engaged, To Wed In December
JDB and Golden's Surprising Announcement: Marriage and Merger
What Will JDB Foods and Golden Inc. Deal Mean For The Food Industry?
Golden and JDB - Real Love In The Air Or Carefully Planned Strategic Alliance?

Manisha paused, her nose scrunching up in displeasure as she finished reading the last headline.

She tapped the thumbs down button next to the title of the article, "I don't like the tone of that last one,"

"It is kind of the truth though," Abhishek said as he shoved a forkful of chocolate cake in his mouth, shrugging defensively when manisha looked up with a pout.
The two of them was leisurely seated side by side at a cosy coffee shop on a Sunday
afternoon. It was a day of firsts for both - first time hanging out without being told to,
first time hanging out casually without any pressure or agenda, first time hanging out after officially getting engaged to each other.

The engagement news, accompanied with a picture of manisha hand in abhishek's and a ring glittering on her finger, had been released in the press that morning. Manisha fathers had held a joint press conference a few hours ago to formally declare the deal, announce the fine print details and answer the press' overbearing questions.

As expected, the business world and the economist newspapers had been swept up in a frenzy due to the shocking news of a union between two of the biggest companies, stock prices had
skyrocketed and dozens of articles relaying the hot news had cropped up on the internet within minutes.

Manisha had called Abhishek first - since she had the tendency to initiate things between the two of them - and had asked him if he'd like to meet her for coffee. She weren't entirely sure why dhey'd done it, but her engagement news had just broken and he was the only person she could really discuss that with; he was the only person who could understand exactly how she
felt.

If that wasn't a good enough reason, she justified it as an attempt to establish a friendship with the guy she'd going to  be marry in a few months. Being friends at least would make both of their lives a little easier from this point onwards, she guessed.

Sunday was the only day abhishek had off work and he had been blissfully snoring in bed when his phone rang. He'd set his text notifications to silent as usual, but he'd never had to silence the call ringer before because everyone who ever called him (i.e. his dad, karan, Harsh and a handful of his colleagues) were well aware of the fact that he did not emerge from his soft safe haven of pillows and blankets until at least 1:30 p.m on Sundays and shouldn't be called before then unless it was an emergency.

He'd almost fallen off his bed
with a start when his ringtone blared out at 10:45 a.m and startled him awake.
Upon seeing manisha name on the screen, he'd instantly sat up and declined the call, preferring to have a conversation via text instead because he didn't want his voice to betray the fact that
he'd been knocked out cold 30 seconds ago. It was a miracle that he hadn't just angrily shoved his phone under his pillow and gone back to his dreams. He probably would have if it was anyone but her.

Forty five minutes later, after having a quick shower, shrugging on his leather jacket and
grabbing his wallet and keys, Abhishek is now sitting next to manisha on the comfy couch, blissfully digging into a slice of chocolate cake and a steaming hot coffee. His lips had automatically stretched into a small smile when he'd arrived at the coffee shop and the first thing he'd seen was the ring that was hugging the fourth finger on her left hand; he honestly didn't know why he liked the sight as much as he did, but he'd decided stop questioning everything to do with her. It was much easier that way.

He had been so occupied with work recently that he hadn't realized that the engagement news was meant to go live today, and upon closer inspection of his notifications after getting ready,
he'd noticed that there were in fact 67 unread congratulatory messages in his inbox. He'd also figured that was probably why she had asked him to meet up. He sipped on his coffe, not so annoyed about being woken up stupidly early anymore.