The Marriage Contract

9 - Infamous Birla and His Mystery Girl

Akshara awoke the next morning, not to the sound of her alarm clock but to the sound of her phone blowing up with notifications from all her social media apps, WhatsApp, Instagram, texts, and even the rustic Facebook.

What the hell? She thought, as she groggily opened the WhatsApp notifications to see people —acquaintances that she'd barely even talked to in the last 5-6 years messaging her 'good morning', 'how are you?', 'so what's new with you?' Weird,

Amidst all the messages, she came across a video or rather videos of her and Abhimanyu from their first official 'date'.

She opened the first video to see it was shot inside the restaurant by one of the patrons or staff of Panache titled 'Infamous Cardiac surgeon on a date??!!!' All that was missing were a few wide open mouthed shocked emojis to convey the emotions. The video showed Abhimanyu and Akshara smiling at each other, lost in their own little world as they held hands.

In the short clip, it did look like they were staring at each other with love and admiration. Even though the reality had been far from.

Just as she had finished watching that short clip, another video popped up, titled 'Abhimanyu Birla's mystery girl?' The video was of him dropping her to her car after dinner and the little cheek kiss they had shared.

Her cheeks inflamed as she watched herself kiss Abhimanyu on the cheek. An act so personal and intimate that now was a 30 second viral clip on the internet for everyone to view.

Immediately, without any further thought her fingers searched up Abhimanyu's number saved on her phone and pressed 'call'. She needed to talk to him. She needed to hear his voice.

Ring, ring, ring...her patience waned out the longer the phone rang without hearing an answer from his end. The phone kept ringing and just as she thought the call would go to voicemail, she heard his voice. Finally. After what seemed like a million years!

"What?" A husky growl greeted her from the other end of the line. His voice very tired, much like she had disturbed him from a deep slumber.

And suddenly all thought flew out the window as she pictured him laying in bed, in probably nothing but his shorts. Now she was curious as to what he wore to bed. No Akshara, stop! Where are your manners? But further more, she couldn't remember why she'd called him in the first place.

"Someone leaked our clips on the internet and now we're going viral!" The words came out more high pitched than she would've liked.

No response.

"Abhimanyu!" Akshara cried out.

All she heard was soft snores on the other end of the line. What the hell? How could he be sleeping whilst she was out there, freaking out?

Akshara's brows furrowed. "Abhimanyu! Someone made not one but two! Two videos of us from last night! And posted it online!" She screamed frantically.

"Okay." He replied simply, closing his eyes again, drowsing of to sleep.

"Okay? Okay?!" Her heart was palpitating. How could he remain so calm when she was feeling violated of sorts.

"Yeah, okay. Videos of the date are circulating online. So?" She heard a loud yawn over the phone.

How could he be so calm while she was freaking out? Did he not care at all?!