MaNan- 5 Years Later...

14• |Preparatory manoeuvres|

"Every single time? Aren't you tired of repeating this monotonous process? Just say it dude!" Nandini demanded in a bored tone.

"I did something stupid!" Jeanette uttered, lowly.

"Tell me something new. Stupid is your genre. What did you do, this time?" Nandini commented making Jeanette scowl but she knew that Nandini had a valid point.

"Remember two weeks ago when I went to that party which you ditched me for that work thing?" Jeanette asked to check. How could Nandini forget that? Jeanette had managed to piss another close friend of hers for which they got into a fight but after that night, in the morning, both of the girls pretended like nothing had happened and ever so smoothly fell into their usual pattern.

"Yep!" Nandini plain reply indicated that she was reminded of how pissed she was at Jeanette for her stunt. Boy, if she was still mad at that then what would she say when she finds out what more happened that night- Jeanette gulped.

"So... I hooked-up with someone at the club!" Jeanette confessed with an embarrassed look but Nandini did not understand what was she embarrassed about. This wasn't new! Whenever Jeanette was in-between relationships, she hooked-up with people and it wasn't something that Nandini did not approve. Nandini understood that Jeanette was a grown-up woman who might have needs and if it were two consenting adults then there was nothing to judge or question.

"Is that a new thing?" Nandini asked.

"No but you might wanna know who did I hook-up with...." Jeanette trailed off.

"This suspense that you're building, sucks, alright!" Nandini exasperated.

"It was your friend Mani...." Jeanette couldn't even finish that sentence because Nandini yelled out in shock "What? Manik and you hooked up?" Nandini's heart was beating at such an increased pace that she felt it could pop out of her body.

"Nooo! Geez, woman! Let me finish!" Jeanette exclaimed as she pulled up in the parking lot of their building. Nandini sighed, inaudibly, in relief for which Jeanette passed her a weird look.

"Say!" Nandini breathed.

"It was your friend Manik's friend- Sameer!" Jeanette revealed the name of the person which left Nandini dumbfounded again. She was glad that it wasn't Manik but this wasn't any better either. Sameer was not a random friend of Manik. He was Manik's business partner and also the only closest friend of his for quite some time, now.

"Seriously? Sameer Virani- Manik's friend-cum-business-partner?" Nandini asked again.

"Yeah, and I know it was stupid. We bumped into each other at the bar and we were too drunk to realize what we were doing and it just happened." Jeanette said and from the look on her face, Nandini could say that she was feigning this guilt. Nandini knew her best friend to be fooled by this act of hers. Nandini just nodded in disappointment and got out of the car. She did not wait for Jeanette and walked into their building by herself.

------

"It looks like she's still mad at me so I haven't talked to her yet." Nandini heard Jeanette saying that to someone over her phone.

Nandini hadn't bothered to say anything to Jeanette after their interaction in the car. She directly crashed on her bed and she was working on her laptop, since 6 am, this morning, in her room itself. When she felt like she was hungry around 11 am, she walked out of her room to witness, Jeanette sitting on one of the dining chairs with her back facing Nandini's bedroom door.