Bollywood Fiancé for a Day Read Online Free PDF Page B

meant to be the hobbling injured sparrow.
    â€˜Oh well, I did actually quite like your last film,’ she offered contritely. ‘Awesome title.
Hum Ko Milna Tha Yesterday.
“We should have met yesterday”. Very romantic. And you were rather realistic as Raj,’ she tacked on for good measure.
    â€˜Really!’ He raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘Wow. Tell me more.’
    â€˜You were very convincing as the redeemed bad boy.’ She laid it on more thickly. Well, he had been good. The pepper in the masala mix film. She knew there couldn’t be a girl in the multiplex hall at the end of the film who hadn’t been left with a pounding heart and starry eyes. Including herself, for a change. Not that she would admit it, given his already over-inflated ego. Not even if the temperature of hell fell to sub-zero. And even then, not to him.
    â€˜You think so?’
    How easily he’d fallen for her turnaround. He was probably egoistic enough to swallow any bit of praise for his acting. She wasn’t completely lying. She had liked the movie, though in places you might wish you’d left your brain home. And yes, she might not like the kind of films he usually acted in, but his performance in that one had been good. Everyone said he’d bag a dozen popular best actor awards at least.
    â€˜Of course,’ she said with more confidence.
    â€˜Sure?’
    â€˜Quite.’
    â€˜And obviously on the gullibility scale of one to ten, I rate a ten?’
    About to agree automatically with his mild tone, she stopped short. ‘I didn’t…I just thought…’
    â€˜That maybe muscle has grown into my brain?’ The hazel eyes were keen. OK, his intelligence had somehow escaped being clouded by his conceit. ‘So you think I can’t distinguish between honest and insincere praise.’
    She had found a safe zone to study—her hands—trying to find an appropriate way to mollify him. She risked a look at him. But surprise! He smiled. ‘Don’t worry,
janeman
, I can take criticism of my films. And don’t look so guilty. A beautiful woman can be forgiven anything.’
    He’d taken that well. She cursed herself for being so transparent. She folded her arms and faced him squarely.
    â€˜Well, you aren’t so bad in the lying department yourself. Overrated compliments are lies, after all,’ she added when he looked faintly puzzled. He was certainly prone to flattering her. Maybe his PR training worked that way.
    He chuckled. ‘Is that a not so subtle way of fishing for more?’
    He hadn’t taken her seriously. Maybe that compliment had been a shallow attempt at graciousness. He must think such comments were expected of him. Thank God she wasn’t too full of herself to take him at face value.
    He took out his cell and excused himself to place a call. Relieved to get him off her back, Vishakha slid off her studded heels and wriggled her toes. She had a spine-chilling moment. What was she doing here? She belonged at the side of patients’ examination tables, poking and prodding little tummies, not in this flashy world. Saira would be more suited for these surroundings, with her water-straight hair and always perfect make-up. Zaheer Saxena must certainly not be used to being seen with staid doctors. An image of his latest girlfriend rose in her mind, a reed-thin model clad in gold lamé, who’d been featured hanging on his arm with a pearly-teeth smile on the last page three spread. Enough to give anyone a sizeable inferiority complex. Bulky women might no longer be taboo in Bollywood, but in real life being calorie-laden still stung.
    Not that she was fat. But a top-heavy figure usually hidden in loose clothes gave that impression. In fact she’d been surprised to see how slender she actually looked when she’d slipped on the so-light chiffon gown. Not as slender as that model, but definitely more graceful