In about an hour, Deepika walked out of the studio stripped off of the heavy lehenga and jewelry. She wore an overflowing kurta that hung over her skinny shoulders and made her neck look exceedingly long, a little makeup, hair pulled up behind in a tight bun, and pair of sunglasses, all in all, a giant relief from the Rajputana costume.

Shahid Kapur stood beside her van talking to her makeup girl. A man, probably his assistant, was holding an umbrella over him. Deepika smiled as she approached. He nodded.

"Where is Sharin?" she asked.

"She's inside."

"She didn't call you in? Oh my God! I'm so sorry," Deepika was amazed at Sharin's unprofessional behavior.

"Oh no. She did call me. I thought I should meet you first."

Deepika was confused. What is up with this man? She had always been a city girl and never really understood unnecessary courtesies. "Alright. Come on in," she said.

She welcomed him in where Sharin already sat in front of the mirror in the makeup chair, her face buried in one of the entertainment magazines. There was absolutely nothing in those magazines that she didn't already know, but she still kept a tab on new effective journalists and brands that spent well on marketing. She didn't understand fashion so she skipped those pages.

A barrage of people entered the humble vanity van behind Deepika. Sharin eyed Shahid wondering what he wanted. She understood certain matters better than Deepika like, for instance, Shahid didn't wait outside out of courtesy towards Deepika, but as a precaution. He didn't wish to be seen entering an actress' van by some curious journalist and create a mini-scandal. The scoop could have helped him until a few years ago, but now that he was married, a scandal would only harm his brand value.

So Mr. Professional Kapur found a seat and made himself comfortable in the mini-meeting–room–cum– green–room. Deepika sat across him, while Sharin remained where she was, which was a position from where she could observe both the stars.

The man with the umbrella and the makeup girl waited at the door, though that wasn't far.

"Mr. Bhansali asked me to talk to you," Shahid began.

Deepika frowned. "What about?" she said. Bhansali could have directly talked to me.

"About the scene," Shahid said as if it was obvious.

Nothing seemed obvious to Deepika. She understood she wasn't on the level of Sridevi in acting but she couldn't be that bad if she had come such a long way in the industry. She didn't speak anything.

Sharin saw slight anger brewing up in Deepika's eyes. But she didn't speak either.

The silence made Shahid want to explain himself. "Look. Mr. Bhansali asked me to come to you to talk about today's scene. You were really... I mean.. you were not... in your elements... as they say. And he felt there was no point embarrassing you in front of the whole crew. So I am here to save the day," he chuckled at his joke. But no one else did.

"Why didn't he come himself?" said Deepika.

"Well, he says you seem intimidated by your co-stars."

"What!" Deepika blurted.

"You were all over the place today," Shahid felt an urgency to explain himself. He cursed Bhansali to put him in this position. "You were sneering, ogling...and smiling. Haha, what were you even thinking? You were pathetic," he regretted his words as soon as he said them. "I mean you have done a lot better in the past," he tried damage control.

Deepika gave him a dead smile. Sharin was thoroughly amused watching her boss get roasted by this awkward prick.

"And apparently," Shahid continued, "Ranveer didn't want to talk to you, and that is why I'm here. Should we talk about the scene now?"

Deepika's eyebrows furrowed at the news. What! Why doesn't he wish to talk to me? Is he angry with me with what I said? But why? And why is he telling everyone else but me?

"I think this is not a good time, sir," Sharin spoke for the first time.

"Huh?" Shahid checked out the confusion on Deepika's face. "Yeah. I guess."

"Thank you," said Sharin.

"You know what, this was equally uncomfortable for me too. I'm no acting coach. But you can't argue with Mr. Bhansali," he laughed nervously.

Sharin was kind enough to smile this time.

"What did he say?" said Deepika as Shahid got up to leave.

Shahid glanced at Sharin who looked equally confused at this untimely display of emotions. "Umm..excuse me?" Shahid managed.

"What did Ranveer say?" said Deepika looking straight at Shahid without flinching.

"Umm..I.. don't know. Just that he didn't want to talk to you about the scene."

Probably Ranveer was angry with what I said to him about what happened at the press conference!

A part of her told her she had done the right thing, that she couldn't have allowed him to run over her, it would have been disastrous for her self esteem, for her career, probably even for the relationship(if there really was any), but another voice within her constantly reprimanded her for the rash behavior, it couldn't have killed you if you let him make a joke at you expense, just for once, just once(!!), who else would you allow to do that, except someone you love.

The conflict wrenched her heart and the turmoil wet her eyes; tears rolled down her cheeks. Her face turned to the floor to hide.

Shahid had had numerous relationships with numerous girls that had worked with him on the sets of strictest of the directors, he sort of understood the workload on a heavy-duty film like Padmavati. He expected some consoling from Sharin but found her staring blankly at Deepika with her eyes wide.

"I thought it was just a PR exercise," said Shahid.

Deepika looked up at him, her eyes still streaming.

"Well, everyone guessed so in the PR circuits," Shahid explained. "Deepika," Shahid conjured up all his muscles of concern and asked in a low voice that he had learned from Vishal Bharadwaj. "Do you seriously love him?"

Deepika began sobbing. She got up and found tissue near the mirror avoiding Sharin's dumbfounded eyes.

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