Celebrity Castaway | COMPLETE | MaNan Fiction

57| Epilogue: End Slate

A/N: Hello readers, how is everyone doing? We are back in the Holiday seasons and honestly this is my most favourite time of the year! I hope you all have killer plans for the Holiday season and if not, I just hope MaNan writers are publishing enough stories to keep your fun going! :D I for one, I'm doing my part here, by sharing the last part of the Epilogue! I had given myself a deadline to wrap by 31st Dec, but looks like I don't procrastinate :P

Before you read on, let me assure you, this is NOT the last chapter of this fiction. I plan to give you a few bursts of short snippets before I draw the curtain on this one! One that note, let's not keep you waiting anymore!

Aah aah ahhh. One last thing, please do drop in in-line comments while reading and let me know your final thoughts at the end of the chapter! :D

On that note, Happy Reading! <3

(In case you've forgotten, italics = flashback)

***

Dhruv Vedant was a man of very few words, but his eyes were as sharp as they came. Nothing escaped his eyes. Nothing. For example, sitting in his plush Bandra office with the legendary Manik Malhotra on the couch opposite, any bystander would find nothing unusual in the visual, but Dhruv felt otherwise.

Manik, although resting lazily on the couch and scrolling through his social media on the phone, he was anything but at ease. If his frequent guarded glance towards the main door was any indication, one would think he was impatiently waiting for someone.

Manik was halfway towards home, halting at Dubai when Dhruv had reached out to him, and as much as Dhruv had imagined he'd need at least two weeks to get him to come back to India and set up a meeting, it turned out he needed just two days for it! Manik was first not receiving his calls, but when he texted he was trying to arrange for a reading with Nandini, and he was considering her as his leading lady, Manik called back himself in half an hour; from thereon, arranging a meeting in two days time, became Manik's headache, not his!

Here he was, reaching half an hour early, something Manik had never done in his entire career. He didn't even throw a fit, knowing he had to wait, again something unimaginable, coming from the superstar himself. He exchanged a few polities with Dhruv before settling in comfortable silence, doing his thing, occasionally glancing towards the door.

The ringing of his intercom broke both Dhruv and Manik's reverie. "Sir, Ms. Murthy is here. Since she arrived ten minutes early, should I ask her to wait, or send her in?"

"Send her in, it's okay." Dhruv replied before hanging up and turned to look at Manik, who was already standing in his place. "Let me get her" he mumbled and pranced out of the office leaving Dhruv chuckling behind. "Manik Malhotra, you're in deep shit! Who'd have seen this coming!" Dhruv muttered to himself.

As Nandini let go of a breath she was holding all the time the elevator took to take her to Dhruv's floor, she still thought she'd get a moment to prepare herself while walking her way to his office, but no, when did things ever go her way? As she stepped out of the elevator, she almost bumped into someone, who was standing alarmingly close to the door!

"Excus.." she began, as a gruff pair of hands grabbed her by the waist and balanced her straight.

"So..sorry, sorry, I mean.." he began, but Nandini stilled at his touch. It felt like it was only yesterday when he had held her this close, bidding her goodbye outside the courtroom after the hearing.

"Ma..Manik.." it wasn't a question, it was a statement. She hadn't looked at him yet. Her heart was thudding treacherously against her ribcage and she felt embarrassed thinking what would Manik think, if he heard it. Was she barking mad, what was she thinking? She could pull off being Manik's leading lady and romance him on screen and be cool with it, when a mere platonic touch from him had sent her out on a rampage like this?