Chapter 16: Do Dil Mil Rahe hai...
After freshening up, she plops herself in bed. It had been a long day, first visting Devgarh Industries(DI) office, then meeting with Giriraj uncle, and coffee with Luv. She was confused, part of her wanted to join family business, while other didnt. She pulls out a pen and paper and starts writing. *knock on door*
M - "come in"
Arjun- hi momo, where did you go after office?
"I had meeting with giriraj uncle"
She fills him in with her conversation with Giri.
Arjun - hmm sounds very interesting
"Ya dada, but i am not sure.... i guess i feel guilty!"
Arjun who knew what she was referring to "dont be, you dont have to join family business. Do what makes you happy". She sits quietly thinking. Arjun further adds "waise bhi once Tiny (Jay) graduates and joins DI, we will all be out of job"
Smiling she says "good luck with that dada". Arjun's eyes falls on the paper, feeling happy he says "pros and cons list?"
"Always make your best calculated decision, i learned from the best! Akhir I am Yuvraaj Arjun Singh's mini version." He lights taps her cheeks saying "im so proud of you, and know that i will support you with whatever you decide." Shortly after, he bids her good night.
She goes back to her list. After a while, Vijay and Jay rush into her room. Manyata - kya huya
Jay - jiji remote? dada's roka news is on
M - "haan i know DS announced to media
Jay turns TV on and says "dont i look amazing in this pic" M shakes her head. It was breaking news segment, covering the royal ceremony. Devgarh's PR team had provided some pictures, and after lot of convincing one pic of Manyata with the whole family. M - so all the fuss is about this?
Jay - oh come on jiji.
M - i am joking, you look stunning (jay hugs her)
News caster: for those viewers who are just tuning in, our beloved Yuvraj of Devgarh and CEO of Devgarh Industries, fashion icon company of Asia, is getting hitched to Rajkumari Unnati of Jaigarh. Stay tuned to Sony News for exclusive pictures from the roka ceremony.
After short break, newscaster talks about all adults. Then they come to Jay, displaying a picture of Vijay, Jay and Udayveer from the ceremony. Newcaster shifts to India's top eligible bachelor, Udayveer. With a history like his, it was like media hit the lottery. They start listing names of national and international models & actress he had or rumored to have been with. Hearing this, Manyata's heart sank. From their days in Boston, she knew he was a flirt... a typical royal playboy. But actually seeing and hearing names of these women...felt different. She couldn't hear if anymore and turns the tv off. "Sorry guys im tired" says M and Jay and Vijay leave.
On other side, Uday was watching the news too.
Newscaster: Yuvraj Udayveer is back in India after years. It is rumored that he is here for his marriage? (at which Kush says "inko bada pata" which makes Uday smile).... back to you Shreya.
Shreya (newscaster): thats wonderful, lets see who can swoon our beloved prince.
All the boys start laughing at the last statement, sid almost falls off and says "There is only one who has swoooned Yuvraj", while others give a curious look. "Mr. Walker" (whiskey brand) sid adds
After what seemes like ages, they finally control their laughs. Kush gets a call and walks way. he comes back shortly & luv says "kiska call tha jo itna dur jaana pada" as he winks at his little brother.
Kush blushes at which sid and uday tease him.
U - pehli baar ek ladke ko blush karte dekh rahe hai
Kush "udalo mazak, jab aapki bari aayegi tab dekenge"
U - thats impossible hum aisi galti kabhi nai karenge waise as i have said before pyaar vyaar kuch nai hota hai, its just a fantasy"
Luv smirks shaking his head while kush says "bhai aap bhi na".. sid gets up and says "kush i had read somewhere...The higher a person builds a wall around their heart, (then looking straight at uday) the harder they fall when someone tears them down" he brushes kush's hair & leaves for his room. While, Uday smirks at his antics.
An hour had passed since she was in bed, tossing and turning. Giving up, Manyata decides to head up to her hideaway, the terrace. Thoughts from news story were trying to creep up as she sat on swing shooing them away. she gives him benefit of the doubt as she knows media tends to exaggerate everything. She was almost at peace with her decision ...but they resurfaced this time with strong force as her mind recollects the incident she seem to have blocked from her memory...."Has he really been with so many women?" "Why?" Does he do that with all girls he meets?" But all of these questions were masking the one thorn that was poking at her heart "the kiss they shared... Was i just one of his timepass?" She curses herself for not listening to advise she gave Isha about him. After lecturing herself enough, she goes to sleep.
******************************************
Its been 3 days since her meeting with Giriraj. After lot of convincing from Arjun, Devgarh family approved Manyata to follow her path. Her thoughts break..."Rajkumari ji, hum aa gaye hai"
"Thanks Madhav"
As she headed to the entrance of the office building, shs sees that the "Oberio Corp" board was coming down and was being replaced with "Jaigarh Group". Mr. Milind Oberio, one of the kindest business man, was retiring and with no heir decided to sell 3 lavish hotels to Jaigarh family. The receptionist takes her to the executive floor, where she is greeted by Giriraj. The meeting begins, she looks around to see mostly all elderly folks. After what seemed like a ages, they finally take a break. She goes toward bathroom, when she gets pulled yet again into a corner. She knew who could it be "Kya tum normal insan hi tarah bula nai sakte, yeh baar baar kyu kopche mein le jate ho?" Says M while brushing his hand off.
"Hmm kopcha?? Okay meri mawali princess aur nahi isme humhe maza aata hai" replies Udayveer
"What are you doing here?" Says M
Coming closer to her he says "Ummm are you forgetting i own this company"
"Dur rahke baat nai kar sakte?"
He puts both his hand on the wall, next to her on each side, leans in and says in a husky voice "kyu kuch ho raha hai?" Pushing him back "koi aa jayega"
"Oh so you dont mind me coming close then?" She wacks his arm. Uday says"Waise koi nai aayega, this is my office...so shall we continue" leans in again
"Hat halkat veda, i dont want to be one of your ... timepass"
Surprised at her comment, Uday moves back. He was hurt...not at what she thought of him but at what she thought she meant to him... "I was just joking.. I wouldn't..." awkwardness was slowly taking over when she says
"I have to go... back to the meeting" He nods yes and gives her half smile. She leaves feeling stupid about what she said and thinks "god Manyata, what happened to ignoring all this.. stupid news people... ugh why did i have to say that."
Meeting resumes. Giri "thank you all for your hard work over last few days. I have selected the teams, each team will focus on different strategy." He assigns executives to their projects, while he is doing so Udayveer joins the meeting "As you know Oberio purchase was just one step in our plan for India. We want to expand further. The expansion project will overlooked by my son, Yuvraj Udayveer. I will be traveling between London office and here, so he will be your go to person. Rajkumari Manyata, a recent Harvard grauduate, she will be consultant for the project, use her expertise. I am appointing a small Board of director team for India business. It will consist of Yuvraj, Mr. Patil, Mrs. Mehta, Ms. Manyata and myself." After the meeting, eveyone disperses. Giriraj wanted to introduce M to the team so he takes her with. Once its over, she thought to say bye to Uday before leaving. She walks up to his office door & stops, debating whether she should go in after what happened earlier. Then walks away deciding against it. It happens couple of times. As she is deciding she get a call.
M - hello
"Are you okay?" Asks uday
"Yes why do ask?"
"i can see you"
She comes inside embarrased "didnt know you can"
Pointing at office glass he says "its smart glass, I can switch between two way and one way view"
"Ohh.. well i just wanted to say bye"
"Okay..bye"
M was stunned and disappointed by his response. She was expecting him to make his sarcastic or flirty comments. She about to leave when her phone rings... "its isha" she says excitedly.
They chat for a bit. A plan to meet for dinner was made including Rohan. Manyata says she has surprise for them. After she hangs up, she looks at busy uday, she says "Udaaayyyyy...."
He says "hmmm" without looking up. She gets irritated, but calmly says "tum chaloega na dinner pe?"... he says "nai hum busy hai aaj"... now frustrated she says "fine" & storms out.
She was wishing he would stop her but nothing.
Uday takes deep breath, disappointed he gets back to work. But to his surprise he hears someone storm in and say "kya problem hai?!" Says M. He gets up and walks towards her, standing few feet away "why should i come?"
"Because we are all friends. You should join us"
"No thanks" he says while walking back. She grabs his hand and he turns back .. "im sorry uday- i guess i overreacted earlier." Smile takes over his face, he says "you certainly did..." she lets go of his hand. "But promise that you will never say something like this again... you are (pauses) i just don't like that at all." He adds. She nods her head, forgetting how hard it can be to keep promises
At night at the restaurent, Manyata arrived and secures a table. Isha arrives with Rohan. They greet and hug each other.
Isha - what is the surprise ?
Manyata - i wanted you both to meet my childhood best friend?
Isha - oh is that the teddy bear friend?
Rohan - what teddy bear?
Isha - she had this teddy bear in her closet, her friend has given her when they were kids
M nodes yes... isha: "toh kab?" M says "sabar karo?"
They are sitting and chatting when a voice comes from behind Rohan that says "What would you like to drink sir?" Rohan without look says "i'll have a cosmopolitan" the person starts laughing, Isha looks behind and jumps up in her seat "UV..."
She hugs him. Uday still laughing & Rohan who knew why says "yaar woh Manyata k liye tha i was going to have a beer you know"
"Chal jhute" as they hug
Uday sits in empty chair next to M and he greets her "hi Man-ya-ta" says Uday stressing her name and She responds to him.
Isha says "what are you doing here?"
Uday - visiting india for a while
Isha - ohh thats exciting!
Rohan - my man! (Hifi's) All of us here.. awesome!
Uday - lets eat!
Isha - we are waiting for her childhood friend
Uday - hmmm friend... so Man-ya-ta kaisi ho
It finally hits Isha that Uv was not there when Manyata told them her identity - wait how do you know her real name? You were not there"
"Oh ya" says Rohan
Uday and M smile and M says "tubelight dono. Abhi notice kiya! " M fills them in on all the details and they are shocked and happy. After what seemed like million questions, they have dinner. Then, end up at a club. They get into the vip section and boys go to get drinks. Rohan says to isha "greyhound with gin?"
Isha nods yes, which surprises M.
"Tu aur gin? Kabse?" Asks m
"I like Gin, have liked it a while now" says Isha
Finally getting to a point m says "kya chal kya raha hai? Since when are you so nice to him?"
"Aisa kuch nai but he can be sweet sometime" M gives her a curious look so isha adds "after you left, rehanbhai left with jen to Chicago, chris busy with his new job. It was just me and him. We hung out a lot,.... i guess he is tolerable"
M raises her eyebrow at her and say "just tolerable?"
"Yes! Waise bhi i have to see him at work so need to get use to being nice"..."Matlab" asks M
"He got me job at his dad's IT company"
"Oh yeh kab huya?"asks M "Few days ago" replies I
"Hmmm" says smiling M. Isha start defending her side. M could see a spark in her eye when she spoke about Rohan. She wanted to say something but figured she would let her realize it on her own.
******************************************
The week passes by without any contact as Rohan and Isha go on business trip to Delhi. Whereas, Manyata and Uday were having blast working together, even texting on phone after work. They were back to their friendship zone and manyata had forgotten/ignored those thoughts from news.
She was in office, fully focused in file in front of her, when door next to her flung open and she jumps in her chair. "Udayveer Singh, kitni baar bataye hum... use the main office entrance?"
"Why princess when i can use the connecting door?"
"I need to switch my office" says m under her breath but Uday who heard says "my office is open, we can switch". M gives him a fake smile. "Chalo princess?" "Kaha?" Asks M....
"I want to show you something....no more questions. Trust me you will not be disappointed" ... M agrees and they head towards Colaba.
M says "is this the Uday Niwas in Colaba?"
"Yes, this is the third hotel we got from Oberio deal. i came here in the morning and i wanted to show you something" says Uday. As the elevator stops at the last floor, he covers her eyes. "Uday yeh kya kar rahe ho?" "Just wait" he says. He guides her through the floor. They get to a door where Manyata hears him entering password on keypad. The door unlocks and he guides her in the terrace. He take his hand off and she is amazed with the view of the city and the sea.
"Oh my god this is breathtaking, Uday?"
"Right"... they both stood enjoying the cool breeze when manyata says "i can sit here for hours"
"You can come anytime, here (as he takes his phone out) ill text you the code for the door"
Taking in the view she says "i have missed this city" Both smile at each other.
Then, he takes her up on the water tank. They sit on the edge swinging their legs & enjoying the 360 view from up there "Whats that?" Says Manyata pointing at the double glass order in the corner of the terrace. "That door leads to the penthouse in the hotel."
"Why don't you live here?" Asks M
"The other penthouse is bigger so we decided to stay there. And its close to office". M nods.
Night sky slowly takes over,as both sit quietly taking in the views of their city and chatting about random things. After a while, M shyly says "uday...... umm i am hungry." "Why didnt you tell me before, hang on" he quickly orders food. The hotel staff comes with food along with candles to the watertank and sets it up for them to dig in. After they eat, what seemed like a feast to Manyata, she leans back and lies down, gazing at the stars. Uday follows. Manayta looking at the stars says "it sad we dont get to see their beauty in the city"
"Hmmm" he didnt know what took over him. His family left months after his mom passed away. That year he lost two people that loved him the most! He didnt get the support and love he needed to fill that void at the time, and so it was filled with other meaningless things. But today his soul knew he was in presence of his best friend and his princess. He unknowingly adds "as long as i can see my mom" while pointing to a bright star. Manyata not expecting such answer from him sits up. She slowly turns to him and asks "you miss her a lot?"
"Hmmm......all the time" she can feel the emotions in his eyes, he was holding back a lot. She lies back down and holds his hand in comfort. As their eyes meet, M gives a sweet comforting smile to Uday
Just like that the evening passed away in silence and stargazing. They didnt need words, it seems they never do as just a small gestures can do the talking and right now it was holding hand.
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