Love At Last Sight ✔

Chapter Six

Nandini Murthy

"Hello Mr. Malhotra." I greet my uninvited guest with a fake smile. All I want is some alone time which I have been getting after ages but no, he has to ruin it.

"I see, Nandini Murthy remembers me."

"How can I forget you Mr. Malhotra?" I smile smugly as I attempt a smart pun. But it isn't for him to understand. Obviously, how can I forget the man who made a $3 million contribution to my collection? That would be so ungrateful of me, wouldn't it?

"I'd like to know the private joke behind your words." His tone is quite casual. Damn! How did he guess that?

I seal my lips shut for almost a minute, not knowing what to say. "Uh—there wasn't any joke. I'm sorry if it offended you, Mr. Malhotra." I say apologetically. There isn't a second thought to the fact that I'm faking it. I'm hell lot away from being sorry.

This is what my life had taught me. Fake it and do whatever you want to. The more good you be to people, the more they use you for their own benefits. There were times when everything my xyz set of parents would say used to hurt me. But I'm much better when I now follow 'Fake a smile and fuck it!'

"Do I look like some fifty-year-old hag?" Manik Malhotra makes a dramatic bad face. But still, he looks a way too better than I usually do.

Ugh! I so hate this perfectionist sitting in front of me!

"Uh—no!" I answer. If only he knows how flawless he looks all the time. "Why did you ask that?" I quiz further. I'm glad, he has left that 'pun' part behind. I don't want to talk about it.

"Because you always keep calling me 'Mr. Malhotra'!" He snorts, "It makes me feel like an oldie. Like—c'mon man! I'm just twenty."

I laugh out loud but this time, I'm not faking.

"Okay, Manik." I speak between my laughs, "I won't call you Mr. Malhotra anymore."

"You better don't, Nandini." His eye drops in a wink when he calls me 'Nandini' instead of 'Miss Nandini'. I nod, chuckling.

"What are you doing here, by the way?" I ask, wondering why he may be on a beach instead of partying in clubs like other rich brats.

"Am I not allowed here or what?" He raises his eyebrow, unknowingly, better intentionally, multiplying his sexiness by a thousand times.

"No, it isn't like that." I flush; both, by my question and also by that thought.

"I like being here." He admits, throwing his head up towards the starry sky. His eyes gloss over as he admires the starts with a smile on his face. In that moment, he doesn't seem the multi-millionaire bossy Malhotra. Instead, he just looks like a lost kid searching for long lost peace.

"Me too." Tilting my head up, I look at the vast expanse of beauty spread all over the dark sky. A lump forms in my throat as the thought of never being able to see the world crosses my mind.

I blink rapidly to push back the tears. It is difficult for me. A lot difficult. It isn't like I was born blind or I lost my eyes all of a sudden in an accident. I've to live with the fact that I am slowly, yet constantly, losing my eyes. It isn't easy to know that you are going blind with each passing day, hour, minute—with each freaking second; and you can't possibly do anything to put a hold onto it.

I take a deep breath to control myself from bursting into fervent tears in front Manik. I am anything but weak. I've survived a lot and I shall survive this phase of my life too.

"You know?" Manik initiates a conversation but his gaze remains glued to the stars above, "Stars always fascinate me."

"Why so?"