MaNan- 5 Years Later...

15• |Resuscitating moments|

"Someone who insults French fries does not deserve to eat em, so no, I ain't giving this back." Manik pressed and watched Nandini's mouth form a perfect 'o'.

"Who died and made you the decider of who's worthy of fries? Come on, give it back to me." Nandini asked, rhetorically, first and then demanded her food back from him. He shook his head in negation. She sighed in frustration but then an idea struck her. She passed him a fake yet sweet smile which confused him for a moment but her next action left him astounded as she reached out and grabbed his pack of fries.

"Well played, Miss Murthy!" Manik commented to which Nandini raised her imaginary collars.

"It's good that we bumped into each other tonight, you know? I have so much to tell you." Manik said after a moment. Nandini made a 'oh' face and wondered if he had found out about Sameer and Jeanette.

"What is it?" Nandini decided to postpone her idea of revealing things to him. She did not want to keep things from him but if that was what he wanted to share as well then, she did not mind waiting for a little more time.

"I retracted my security deposit from the landlord." Manik said and Nandini could see the disappointment in his eyes.

"What? Why?" Nandini quizzed. She could obviously guess the reason but she wanted to hear from him about the entire situation.

"One of our investors backed out before we could sign the contract. She was kind of a big deal and with her funds pulled out, we don't have much to continue with our primary plan. Plus, this lockdown has completely sabotaged all of our plans, entirely. I have already sent out emails to all the people we were supposed to interview saying that we aren't hiring for now and they could check back in a couple of months." Manik described everything that had happened in a nutshell. This explained why did Manik suddenly stop texting her over these two weeks. She was curious about how was he handling it because the Manik she knew from their college days, could barely handle setbacks. It used to take a whole lot of Nandini's energy to calm him down, back then. She, precisely, wanted to know about his coping mechanism that he must have adopted in these five years.

"That sounds like a lot to lose in fifteen days." Nandini said, empathetically.

"It is! It means that we are not launching this start-up for now and God knows when will we get another opportunity to pursue this. Even if we get an opportunity, we will have to repeat this whole process again meaning another six months of work for the same thing." Manik rambled. He had been keeping so much inside him and it felt lighter to be just talking about it with someone else. Nandini was the first person that he was telling all this and he was not sure if he'd talk about this with anyone else either. Sameer and Manik communicated very less when it came to feelings and emotions so talking to him was out of question. He wasn't close with anyone else to even approach them. If he tries to mention any of this to his family, then their first reaction would be to ask him to come back and join the family business, which he had no interest in pursuing. So, probably, Nandini was the only person who'd be hearing about this from him.

"Did you have a back-up plan, you know, in case this did not work out?" Nandini questioned him.

"Honestly, no! But I spoke to Kumar Sir, two nights ago and he said that there might be an opening in one of his friend's company here. They are looking to hire a designer on contract-basis so I'll be working with them till the end of that period and I'll be free after that." Manik was glad to tell this to her because he wanted her opinion on this. He had been struggling to make a decision about this and he was hopeful that maybe a third person's opinion might help him put things into perspective.