Along the Lines of Love | ✓

Chapter 5 : Approval?

Tere liye ek rishta aaya hai

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Saying Sharanya was embarrassed would be an understatement. Her father had prepared a mental list of personal questions that would best be called intrusive, for Nikhil Kumar. Her sister, Akshaya, kept looking at her as though she had been in a secret relationship with Nikhil. Her brother was also a little surprised throughout. Thankfully, Arun and Gargi were present, they were the saving grace of the evening.

Sharanya was in for a lot of surprises.

Nikhil owned DreamDigital.

He was the CEO!

It was a startup that was now valued in millions.

All this was news to her. Just like her father, she was dumbfounded. Her father had very subtly gone on to ask what his salary was, "Sharanya makes around nine lakhs per annum, how much do you manage?"

She had discretely placed a hand on her father's arm, hinting him to stop. But her father had just given her a look that said, let me do the talking. When Nikhil announced his salary, in a very soft voice almost and whisper, she wasn't the only one who was shocked in the room. Her dad had to take a minute to recover from that. 'Close to twenty lakhs per month' was a big deal. She made almost half of it in a year.

Confused, she had looked at Gargi and then at Nikhil. He had forced a smile and met her gaze. She could say he felt like a fish out of water.

Thankfully, Gargi had come up with a suggestion of letting the two of them privately. She could clearly observe the instant relief on the poor guy's face. She had immediately begun to construct her apology in her head.

After giving Gargi and Harshit, a pleading look, she had led him to her a room and then into the balcony. She hoped Gargi would talk to her father about toning down his line of inquiry, it was embarrassing.

"I am so sorry for Papa's questions."

"Hey, it's not a big deal. He has to ask those, doesn't he?" He managed to pull his lips into a polite smile.

"I actually didn't know you...you were the CEO of DreamDigital. I just assumed a— you know, regular IT job. You said you worked at DreamDigital the other night. Had I known ...things would be different. I mean, we come from two very different parts of the society, financially." Sharanya spoke. As much as she had started looking forward to a change in her life, she didn't want to be part of a rich family. Things went on differently in rich households.

"I beg to differ. We come from the same society. I understand sometimes lifestyle differences do come in. But trust me when I say.. until few years back even we lived in an apartment like this. It's only in the past three years that life has turned around for us."

Sharanya didn't want to come off as small minded. But her mind had already begun to calculate the expenses of the wedding. Her father had already very subtly insinuated that dowry was off the talk. But the expenses of a wedding would definitely make a long bill. Her savings were around eight lakhs, from that she had to also manage the hefty fees of Akshaya's education. The month's rent was also pending.

"All okay?" Nikhil asked.

"Yes, of course. I—" She gazed at him.

Nikhil looked at her, waiting for her to say something.