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"Where is she?"
"Sir, she is inside if her experimental room and we are here in her office room. She didn't let us enter in that room saying she won't be able to concentrate."
"Give her the phone."
"Sorry sir, we are not allowed to do that."
Manik cursed and cut the call. She did not come to his office but sent two of her staff.
"Why she wants to create new delicious dessert when she already has so many? She just wants to stay away from me and this party gave her the perfect opportunity. I am already missing her god damn.."
Then Manik thought something and smiled evily.. He got out of his cabin and told his assistant Jason to cancel the meetings for the day.
After few minutes he reached to Nandini's shop and went inside. He saw that the shop was doing well and a waiter approached him. "Can I help you, Sir?"
"Where is Nandini?"
"I think you need to talk with our manager first. Please come this way." Manik huffed.
"Sir, this gentleman want to meet Nandini mam."
"I don't think she has any meeting today." Manager said and looked at him. "Mr. Malhotra, you are here.."
"I want to know where is she? Just show me her office room." Manik said coldly.
"Yes, of course. But I don't know if she will meet you or not."
"Leave that to me, Manager."
Manager brought him to Nandini's office room and the bodyguards all stood up after seeing him. He told that manager to leave and the bodyguards to do what they were doing.
He entered to her experiment room and saw her doing something with liquid nitrogen. She was wearing the big goggles. He decided not to do anything before she was done with that. What if she hurt herself after being startle.
Soon Nandini finished what she was doing and checked the oven first and then checked something on the fridge. She didn't realize that someone entered and was observing her every move. She sighed and started to clean the messy counter.
That was the time when Manik decided to speak up. "You do all this alone?"
Nandini jumped bcz of the sudden sound and turned with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?" She asked and a bit breathless.
"I was watching you working."
"Manik! I clearly told your guards to not disturb me yet you are here scaring the hell out of me."
"I am sorry." Manik said directly.
Nandini sighed and asked again "What are you doing here?"
"Why didn't you come to the office?"
"Because I decided to create new flavors and combinations for your party. That's why I need to be in this experiment room." Nandini said in a 'duh' tone.
"You could have do that there too."
"Are you serious?" Nandini frowned. "I can barely keep my desserts in that cafeteria and you want me to experiment there like how even.."
"I told some people to fix a place for you to experiment there. So you will be able to do all the work from there."
"Gosh! I thought, I won't have to see you for some days but no."
"You can't get rid of me that easily Nandini."
"Yeah yeah... 4 more months to go."
Nandini cleaned her counter and then she brought out things from oven and fridge. She took a plate and start decorating. Manik moved forward to stand beside her so that he could see properly.
She was plating very beautifully with the elements she made.. And Manik's jaw was hanging. "This looks so good but u never served me something like this." he frowned.
"Because we only plate like this in parties and ceremonies. Now dig in, boss and tell me if u approve of this in your party." Nandini said giving him a spoon.
"Should you not take a picture first?"
"I should actually." Nandini brought out her phone from her pocket and saw 20 message and 40 missed calls from Monster.
Nandini looked at Manik before shaking her head and clicked a picture. Manik attacked the dessert at the same moment when she clicked.
" Yum. It's good. Really good."
Nandini narrowed her eyes. She knew for a fact that he would eat anything and praise if it was made by her. So she took another spoon and tasted.
"Something is missing." Nandini said. Something more need there to uplift the level. But she couldn't figure it out.
"No.. It taste good."
"Something else needed Manik. I can't serve this if I don't figure it out and I need to think for few more desserts to serve too." Nandini said with a sigh, pressing her side of the head.
"Okay.. Look at me. You will figure it out. I know you can do it. Don't be hard on yourself." He said holding Nandini's cheeks. Nandini closed her eyes and Manik rested it on his chest.
"Let's go for a outing."
"Outing? Don't you have work to do." Nandini asked raising her head to see him.
"We both need a break. So please come with me." Manik was literally pleading as he knew Nandini was going to refuse.
"Alright let's go."
They went to the biggest park in their neighborhood and Manik drived deeper. There wasn't much people as it was working time so thd deepest part was isolated.
Manik parked his car and got out along with Nandini. Soft breeze was passing them and Nandini smiled at the serenity.
"We are going to take our break here?"
"Yes. We are going to take a walk."
"Thank god. I wore my sneakers today not heels."
"That would have been better. I could use the chance to take you in my arms."
"Tch tch tch." Nandini shook her head. They were walking side-by-side until Manik hold her hand.
"Manik.."
"Don't talk just enjoy the nature."
"Hmm.. Maybe I should put some green on it."
"What?"
"My dessert. Something was missing so I am taking inspiration from the nature."
Manik made an what the hell face and Nandini was looking at everything happily. "Or maybe I can use breadcrumbs to give a sandy look." Nandini said scratching the earth.
"Nandini, I brought you here to relax not looking for your missing ingredient." Manik scolded.
"I have better plan for your party." Nandini said excitedly.
"What?" Manik said suspiciously.
"I should make 'The naked Manik Malhotra' cake. It would represent your party better. Just imagine, a cake looks like you with a towel hanging on it's hips."
The comical reaction on Manik's face made her laugh out loud. After a hysterical laugh, Nandini started to calm down and wipe her tears. But what Manik told her after that, vanished her laugh.
" Nandini, you can tell me directly if u want to see me naked, again."
Someone sent some photographs of Murat to Hayat. In a typical wife instinct, she thought maybe one of ex sent her their photos of passion. But she frowned when she saw him and a man talking.
" Why would someone send me his meeting photos?" Hayat asked. It totally didn't make sense. So Hayat just put those photos back in the envelope and kept it aside.
Suddenly Angela barged in with a panic look and Hayat sighed. Anyone could guess when she looks like that. Another bad news.
" We are doomed."
"What happened, Angela?"
"Craftie clothing brand was supposed to release their new collection today and they did release it some time ago."
"they have good design? We are bound to cross each other in designs. Nothing new."
Hayat thought she was overreacting.
"No!! They stole our design just changed the color of the clothes!"
"What!!!!"
Angela passed her tab to Hayat and Hayat frantically looked at the clothes. Same to same design that they created for their big project. The project Murat's friend gave them.
Hayat was feeling numb. She was thinking what went wrong and how that happened. Specially who leaked it. Then it clicked and she took the photos out and watched it.
In that photo Murat was giving something to Craftie's owner.
When Murat entered in the building, Everything was silent. Workers had a no sprit expression as if they all lost something. He became tensed and hurried to Hayat's cabin.
In the way he noticed Angela and she also had the same expression. Murat entered inside the cabin and saw Hayat giving off cold vibes and observing some designs.
"What’s wrong? Why everyone looked like something is wrong?"
"Because something is indeed wrong."
"What happened?"
"You don't know? I thought you would know since you knew Craftie's owner so well."
"What was that supposed to mean? Why are you talking like this?"
"You know I selected designs for your friends project."
"Yes."
"Well they got leaked. Craftie used it as if it was their own design."
"What?? There must be a misunderstanding. That man is too good to do this."
"Look at you, defending him and all. He did that along with you."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Congratulations. You successfully make me look like a fool and half ruined my company." Hayat said angrily throwing the photos towards him.
Murat looked at them and understood what she meant. "I did nothing like this."
"Of course you didn't." Hayat said sarcastically.
"Hayat, why would I do this? I was the one who brought that project why would I ruin it?"
"To destroy me. To hurt me yet again. First you behaved like you are genuinely concern about the company, made me trust you in this, make me weak after bringing that project, it all was an act. You played with me again."
"You are saying this because of these photos. You really feel that I can do this."
Murat was hurt but he knew she had no fault. He was working to gain her trust but before she could trust her fully that incident happened. But he hoped she would trust him. She would notice the change in him after staying with him but she didn't.
"I think I was forgetting what you did to me. Thank you for this reminder." Hayat's eyes were teary now.
Murat gritted his jaw in anger after seeing her tears. "I will bring the real culprit to you, I promise. And I will ruin him such way that he will never get to live a normal life."