Married to my best friend

5. How it all began

The night of prologue

N A N D I N I

I was starting to get really bored waiting for Aryaman to hang up his call. Right then I saw Manik enter the hall from the garden.

I was about to raise my hand to signal him but I stopped my hand mid air when I saw him follow my cousin Barsa to the living room.

Why was he with her?

Did she actually succeed in piquing Manik's interest?

Barsa had a crush on Manik since a year back and she really wanted me to set her up with him but I knew she wasn't his type and I didn't want to waste my time. So I had just turned a blind eye to her request.

"Sorry the phone call lasted longer than I had expected." Aryaman apologized, stuffing his phone in his pocket. "I didn't mean to make you wait."

"Eh, it's okay."

"I really don't like making others wait. The phone call was just really urgent."

"I understand." I half smiled. "So let me get straight to the point. Could you please tell my dad that you don't want to marry me?"

"Huh? You want me to do that?!"

I nodded. "My dad won't listen to me but if you deny it from your side then he wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Am I that despicable?" Aryaman asked.

"No it's not that. I think you are okay."

"Then may be you could give me a chance, you know." He paused. "And even after that if you think I am not the right one, then I'll just go and tell your dad that I don't want to marry you."

"No, it's not about giving you a chance. It's-" I hesitated. I just wanted to break free from my dad's puppet strings and marrying him would just mean being under my dad's watch for a long long time.

"Eh. So is it because of Manik?" He asked breaking my chain of thoughts.

"Huh?"

"You like him, don't you?" Another person who misunderstood us but well that was a great excuse for me to escape.

"Yeah. It just turned out that way." I wasn't lying. I did like him but just as a friend.

"Your dad really seem to like him. Then why not just reveal your relationship with him?"

"No, you got it wrong." I denied almost immediately. "We aren't dating. We are just best friends. I-It's just my one sided feeling." Damn what was I even babbling?

"One sided. Are you sure?" He gave me an incredulous look.

"Yeah, I think." I reluctantly agreed.

"It didn't look like that though. Like I was just looking at you and he got jealous. And you say it's one sided?"

"Well that-" I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"You haven't confessed to him, have you?" He pried.

"I haven't. I do love Manik but I really can not muster up my courage to confess to him. What if it's really one sided?" I said whatever that crossed my mind. I had no idea what I was saying or where this conversation was leading to.

"No, it's not one sided." I heard my mum's overenthusiastic voice from behind me. "Manik just said to us that he wanted to marry you and that you are his perfect half." She came in front of me with a huge grin on her face.