For the first time in my life, I felt like I didn't know what I had to do next.

Would I ever divorce him? Or would I be stuck in this loveless marriage forever? Or would I ever fall in love with him ? He was behaving properly... at least till now. Should we at least give this marriage a chance?

I had read unholy matrimony on Wattpad. The leads were forced to marry each other but later they fell in love. But I guess, such things only happened in stories...

Or maybe I would also have a happy ending like them. Stay positive Nishtha.

Suddenly someone knocked at the door of my cabin.

"Come in..." I said.

"Good morning ma'am, I just got a call from Singhania and Co. You are requested to be there for a meeting at 2 p.m. regarding the merging of our companies and introduction of new partners." My secretary said.

What the hell ????!!!! Merging of the two companies ????? I wasn't even made aware of it.

"Ok" I replied hastily and left for my dad's cabin. As soon as I reached the door, I barged in the room.

"Oh Nishtha, what a pleasant surprise. What makes you visit your old father this morning?" My dad asked.

"Dad... Marriage and all ... I somehow agreed for it. But merging our companies???? You didn't even mention it in front of me!" I shouted.

"Lower down your volume woman. I thought it was better if your husband told you about it." I was shocked.

"Yeah right! He knew everything about it!" I said, disappointment was evident in my voice.

"And wasn't it obvious? Your grandfathers wanted you both to get married so that our families would become one and so would our companies." He added. Wow, I was speechless. It wasn't obvious at all !

I ran to my cabin and dialed the number which was the last one on the list of important numbers that Paras had pasted in my room, yes it was HIS personal number.

"Hello? Who am I speaking to?" He asked in an irritated tone.

"Who are you speaking to my foot!" I shouted probably breaking his eardrums.

"Nishtha, I told you not to initiate a conversation with me until and unless it's an unavoidable emergency." He said in an annoyingly calm voice.

"Oh shut up!! You knew about the merging of our companies and you didn't even speak a word about it to me!!!" I shouted again.

"What the hell!!! I came to know about this bullshit today morning only! And my dad told me that YOU knew about it!" He said seriously.

"And my dad said that YOU knew about it." I said while sitting down on the couch.

"We'll do something about it..." He said.

"We have no time! The meeting is at 2 p.m. and what can we possibly do about it? We aren't even the CEOs yet..." I said getting frustrated.

"If we can't do anything about it then let them do what they want to because that's what they have been doing all along." He said sounding frustrated and then hung up the call.

I went and sat on my chair and put my head down on the desk. What the hell was going on in my life??? Nothing was going on as I had planned!!!

This marriage and all had affected my mental health so much already. I had become so aggressive and short tempered because of that and now this.

It was 1:30 p.m. already and I left for Singhania and Co. I entered the office building and everyone greeted me. I straight away went to Paras's cabin after asking for the directions.

I knocked at the door and heard him saying,"Come in."

I went inside and sat in front of him.

He lifted his head from the file and then looked at the clock. "It's 1:50, you're here already?" He asked.

"Yeah... I always come before time to meetings... There's no backing out now... Is there?" I said coming straight to the point.

"I don't think there is ... But we are in this together alright?" He said in a soft tone. I guess he was talking about the companies but I don't know why I felt a little warmth in those words.

"Yeah... Our grandfathers really created a big mess." I said fidgeting my fingers.

"Yeah ... This is the second time we're on the same page about something, that too in a single day. Good progress. " He said referring to that unnecessary conversation we had about our duties this morning.

"Yeah , it's the demand of the situation." I said.

"I think we should go to the conference room now. We are the hosts after all!" He said and I nodded.

We went to the conference room and all the dignitaries started entering the conference room including my father and Paras's father.

But the entry of the last person really shocked me. It was Akshay... My Akshay ... Who wasn't mine anymore.

He looked at me and lowered his eyes. I guess he was too embarrassed to meet my gaze. But he wasn't surprised to see me. I think he already knew about this meeting and all. I and Paras were the only people who didn't know anything about it.

I had seen Akshay after a really long time ... I wanted to hold his hand... to cup his cheeks... but I couldn't.

"Good afternoon everyone, we all have gathered here to sign the declaration of the merging of two of the leading companies of India, Singhania and Co. and Oberoi Enterprises!" My father in law declared and everyone started clapping. I looked at Paras and he was also looking at me.

I knew what he was thinking. We were told that this meeting was REGARDING the merging of the two companies. But they had so much hurry to merge the companies that they had to sign this deal today itself.

"Our companies will together be called PaNi, signifying the names of our future CEO's Mr. Paras Singhania and Mrs. Nishtha Oberoi Singhania." My dad said and everyone clapped again. I looked at Akshay who looked a bit uncomfortable. Of course he was uncomfortable because who would want to be stuck in a meeting with their ex?

BTW what the hell is PaNi , seems like a ship name of the main leads from a hindi TV series. But our ship was more like titanic.

"Today, we also have with us, the CEO of our new supplier company Dixit textiles and supplies, Mr. Akshay Dixit, the newly crowned king of his empire." My father in law said. Newly crowned king? Such fancy words they were. Akshay stood up and shook hands with my dad and my father in law.

The meeting was finally over after the signing of the documents and a long discussion over the company matters.

As everyone was leaving the room, I and my dad were the only ones left there.

"You know about our past! Then too you thought of it as a great idea to give the contract of the new project to their company." I stopped dad and said.

"You know, what a quality of a good CEO is? He or she always keeps his or her professional life and private life separate." My dad said tapping my shoulder and left. Such hypocrisy it was, merging the companies and getting me and Paras married to each other was nowhere near this concept.

As I stepped out of the conference room. I spotted Akshay, I couldn't stop myself from walking towards him.

"Hey ..." I said nervously.

"Hi ... How are you?" He asked with concern in his eyes.

"Well, I don't know. I guess we both had to face the same fate..." I told him.

"Yeah, I heard about your marriage." He said. He obviously did, it was SO unnecessarily grand.

"You know, I miss you. I know you do too but you don't need to admit it. We should go on with our lives. I hope we can stay friends." I said.

"Yeah sure... Anyways ... I'm your vendor now." He said.

Just then, Paras approached us.

"Akshay meet Paras, my husband and Paras meet Akshay ... My ... Old friend." I said trying to introduce them to each other once again but ended up being awkward.

"Oh, so you guys already know each other." Paras said while shaking his hand with Akshay's.

"Yeah. I'm really looking forward to working with you guys." Akshay said.

"We too." Paras said placing his hand possessively on my shoulder. Akshay smiled, I guess he thought that I had finally managed to move on. And what had suddenly gotten into this Guddu ?

"Please excuse us Mr. Dixit, we have to go somewhere." Paras said and I looked at him curiously.

"Yeah sure, and call me Akshay please." Akshay smiled and said.

I and Paras then went to the lobby.

"How can a company have two CEOs???" Paras asked me as I reached the lobby.

"I don't know..." I said. But I thought it was possible. I tried to recall those Business studies lectures from my college.

"Look, we have to decide what we'd do if they tell us that there will only be one CEO." He said.

"Bullshit, we wouldn't agree on that part. We have agreed to enough demands of theirs. Not anymore." I said getting frustrated by the thought of that one CEO topic.

"Damn, if we don't listen to them, they'll disown us!!" He said holding his head with his hands.

"Trust me, they won't. We both are equally good canditates for the CEO positions." I said proudly.

I suddenly remembered that top level management topic from business studies. "And ! A company can have multiple CEOs. The concept isn't widespread but it is followed by several international companies." I added.

"Children, here you are!" My dad said as he approached us with my father in law.

"Children, our companies have merged but it doesn't mean that only one of you can become the CEO. We'll follow the multi CEO system and you'll have to take decisions together, now that you both are marries, it'll be quite easy. " My father in law assured us and I finally took a breath of relief. I looked at Paras who looked relieved too. But trust me, it wasn't going to be easy provided that both of us have dominating personalities.

"We are hosting a party this weekend to celebrate the union of our companies and the new contract with Dixit textiles and supplies." My dad said and we both nodded. Then both of them left.

Then we turned to face each other.

"Thank God!" He said.

"Your tie..." I said looking at his tie.

"What?" He asked looking at it.

"It's messed up again..."I said. I tied it so properly with my own hands this morning and he messed it up again.

"Oh, I can't see it..." He said while struggling to adjust his tie.

I couldn't stop myself from adjusting his tie yet again. I started adjusting his tie and could feel his gaze on me.

"Done!" I said with a smile, because I adored perfection.

As I was moving away from him, my watch somehow stuck in the button of his shirt. I went a bit closer to him struggling to untangle my watch from his shirt. It was a really weird watch I have to say, the belt was quite flexible and it had croatia knots.

What a filmy situation it was. The only difference being that in our story the protagonists didn't have any feelings for each other.

The level of proximity between us was insane at that moment. As I struggled to untangle my watch, I felt someone's hands on mine. They were his. He untangled my watch in a go and we stepped away from each other.

There was a really awkward silence between us.

"I should get going now!" I said breaking the silence.

"Yeah ... Sure ..." He said maybe because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

Yeah, I was running away from him. But how long would I run away? In the end of the day we had to live in the same house.