SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 32

Manisha remembered that there'd been more messages and she opened the second unread chat, which happened to be a single message from Abhishek's father, who had resorted to texting her when she failed to answer his calls.

[01:02]A/D:- Hello manisha beta,kya Abhishek tumharye sath hai? Maine karan or harsh se bhi puch liya, vo unlogo k sth bhi nhi hai. Mujhe aisa lag ra hai ki shayad vo tumharye sth hi hai. Please text me agr tum uske sath ho ya firr tumye pta ho ki vo kaha hai. Mai bhut pareshan hu , or mai tumharye message ka intezar karuga, no matter how late it is.

She honestly felt like the worst person in the world when she finished reading that text, and she instantly began composing a reply to send to Abhishek's father. She really wanted to smack her forehead against the counter for looking at her phone and reading all these messages so terribly late.

She felt absolutely horrible because she imagined that Abhishek's father had probably been glued to his phone for the past half an hour, anticipating a response that would calm the panic and anxiety that was probably driving him crazy. And on top of that, her heart was overflowing with sympathy because she realised that if abhishek had faced his mother, then
his father had faced the woman he loved too.
[01:29] Manisha:- I'm really sorry about the late reply,  actually pichlye half n hour se Abhishek mere sth hi hai. Vo thik hai, ap chinta mat kijiye, mai pura dhyan rakhugi uska. Usne bola ki vo aj raat ghr Jane k liye ready nhi hai... mujhe lgta hai ye sab bhut mushkil hoga uske liye or ye ap bhi samjh saktye hai aisa kyu hai. Ap please apna dhyan rkheyega or tension mat lijiye..mai Puri koshish krugi ki shubha Abhishek sbse phle apse baat krye😊.

She scanned over the message and after she was satisfied with what she hoped was an appropriate reply, she sent it off and shoved her phone in the pocket of her silky pajama bottoms. When she looked up again, she had to lunge to switch off the stove when she saw that the milk was frothing over and starting to spill out of the pan. Manisha shook her head at her own absentmindedness as she threw spoonfuls of cocoa powder and sugar into the pan,
deciding to give her full attention to the hot chocolate for now because she didn't want any more messes to clean up.

Ten minutes later, two mugs of hot chocolate with generous helpings of whipped cream on top were ready and the stove was wiped down and milk-free and shining once more. She unravelled the towel from her head and dunked it into one of the baskets in the laundry room before she returned to the kitchen. Then she carefully carried the mugs into the living room and placed them on the coffee table, fetching a blanket from the shelf under the TV and
plopping down onto the couch with a sigh.

Manisha reached out for the remote and switched on the television to drown out the unnerving silence, flicking through the channels as you searched for something that would serve as good background noise.

While she was going through the movie channels, Abhishek finally emerged from his
shower and shuffled into the room with a towel loosely hanging around his neck. She
watched as he made his way over to the couch and settled himself right next to her.
She had to suppress the attraction rising in her stomach and she had to ignore the speed that her heartbeat had picked up because Abhishek looked fresh and cosy and like he'd been stitched up from boyfriend material, and she was struggling to cope with it. It also wasn't helping that the couch was massive and he could have chosen to park himself literally
anywhere, yet he chose to set himself down right next to her; and not only that, but he sat so close to her that her shoulders were touching and her knees would knock together if either of she moved even slightly.

As he leaned forward to pick up one of the mugs of hot chocolate, she caught a whiff of her lavender shower gel, and it made her fall even deeper into the pool of bubbling attraction to know that he smelled like her.