The response has dropped massively but I'm grateful for all the ones who have stuck back even after me being MIA for so long. Thanks for not losing faith in the book and me as a writer🤌💕
Dedicated to MaheKumar dhatri22 manan_ky2 archasa adorable_angel14 krishnagindodia mightypanda300 googleybear7
Special mention to the ones for leaving a bunch of beautiful inline comments in the chapter Vihaana1ahir darkangel142111 dreamcatcher_H Mananpanihumesha aishhhhh1
Hugs🤗 and kisses😘 to the ones who voted as well.
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"How are you getting to Pune?" Nandini asked Manik over the phone call through her airpods. Her hands were busy in packing her stuff for her trip to Pune where Mukti and Abhimanyu were tying the knot in a very small ceremony with just family and a few friends.
Abhimanyu and Mukti had to push their wedding date for another two weeks but they were having the ceremony. The state government had lifted some of the restrictions and so they were permitted to have 50 people at their wedding. Hence, they had booked a small resort in Pune for their wedding since that is where most of their family lived. As about friends, they had invited their entire gang from college and that was it.
"I still don't know if I should be going, Nandini. With this new job and the lockdown restrictions, I don't know." Manik said to her from the other end making her roll eyes at him for starting this repetitive argument again.
"Manik, I am done trying to convince you into this. You have already missed Cabir and Navya's wedding. You decide now, if you want to deliberately miss another one of our friends' wedding. I am leaving for Pune in my car by 7pm tonight. I offered Randhir, a ride and he's coming with me. If you decide to come and need a ride then come to my building by 6:45." Nandini instructed. Although, she had no idea that she had struck a nerve by mentioning that Randhir and she are going to be driving together to Pune, by themselves. Manik almost instantly knew that he was not going to miss this trip at any cost. A part of him felt bad for doing this but he couldn't help himself either.
"Manik, you there?" Nandini broke Manik's trance when he didn't speak for another minute.
"I'll see you in the evening." Manik said to her making Nandini grin widely. She did not know what made him change his mind, in an instant, but she was glad about it.
"See you!" Nandini said before hanging up. She then closed the zipper of her suitcase after she finished packing everything that she might need.
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"Hey! What are you doing?" Jeanette asked Nandini after entering their apartment using her keys. Nandini was in the kitchen, doing something, so Jeanette asked her that.
"I am stocking up some food for you in the refrigerator." Nandini answered with a smile. Jeanette walked faster to the kitchen and gave Nandini a tight hug from the back.
"You are the best!" Jeanette exclaimed to which Nandini simply shrugged. Nandini pat Jeanette's hand that was circling her neck and resumed wrapping the cellophane sheet on the containers.
"Did you talk to Sameer about telling Manik? It's been too long now." Nandini asked Jeanette. Jeanette retracted away from Nandini, giving her a clear idea that Sameer still wasn't planning on informing Manik that he was seeing Jeanette for almost six weeks now. Nandini never wanted to keep it a secret but given the lockdown and everything, Manik and she did not hang out that much and it never came up in a conversation between them.
"I asked him but he says that this isn't the right time." Jeanette sighed, helplessly. She hated being in the spot and here it was her boyfriend and best friend at opposite sides. Once, when Sameer came to have dinner with them here, Nandini and he almost got into a fight about this. Jeanette wanted these two to get along but it kept getting harder as time passed.
"Jen, I want to be supportive of your relationship but your boyfriend isn't making it easy. Manik might not be my best friend anymore but he is important to me and I hate hiding this from him. Sameer is making Manik feel guilty about taking that job but he wouldn't tell him that he's dating you. If I lose my patience then I might blurt it out to Manik." Nandini ranted in a go with a disappointed look on her face.
"I can only say so much to Sam. If he is choosing to keep it a secret then what can I do, Nandini?" Jeanette questioned. Nandini did find it unfair that she was holding Jeanette responsible for something that she wasn't doing in the first place. Jeanette did not care about Manik because she barely knew the guy so why does she have to force herself into this situation?
"You are probably right. I'll do what I have to... Sorry, if I came off as a persuasive imposer." Nandini apologized, earnestly.
"What do you mean by you'll do what you have to do? Are you by any chance thinking of breaking it to Manik? If you are then I beg of you to not do that. It wouldn't be fair to Sam. To be honest, this isn't your thing to be talking about, in the first place." Jeanette said all that in one go, leaving Nandini in shock. This wasn't how Jeanette usually talked to Nandini. And especially when Nandini was just apologizing, Jeanette did not have to sound so selfish. Nandini understood that she was feeling protective over her relationship with Sam and she did not want anyone to jeopardize it but that does not mean that she was allowed to assume that Nandini would cause trouble for them.
"If it isn't my place to be talking about this then why bother telling me about it?" Nandini simply asked that.
"You are my best friend, aren't you?" Jeanette asked a question in reply of Nandini's question in a sarcastic tone.
"I am and I remember that. I just don't think that you know the meaning of it anymore." Nandini said and Jeanette just blinked in a daze. How did such a small thing lead to them questioning their friendship of three years.
"I do not want to fight with you. We don't do that." Jeanette said implying that Nandini and she never fought with each other. They had an effortless friendship and they barely argued but ever since Manik and Sameer had entered the picture, they were having more disagreements than ever.
"We should probably stop talking about guys, I think." Nandini said while still in thoughts about what she wanted to say and by 'guys' she obviously meant Manik and Sameer.
"I think we all need to be under the same roof and simply hang out with each other." Jeanette suggested, contradicting Nandini's words. Nandini wanted to keep things separated and uncomplicated while Jeanette wanted to go all in. They were these kinds of people in general- Nandini had seen too much in her life to take risks, carelessly so she always kept her practical self, awake in everything that she did while Jeanette, who also has faced many things, chose to go all in, no matter the situation or its risks.
"That can happen only if your precious 'Sam' tells Manik about you." Nandini remarked while pressing on the 'Sam' part. Jeanette could say that Nandini had taken a natural disliking towards Sameer without even actually spending time with him.
"Forget all that! Manik would be here soon so I should get ready." Nandini spoke after placing all the containers into the refrigerator. When Nandini mentioned about going away for this wedding, Jeanette was a little disappointed that she was not invited to this thing. Nandini's family considered Jeanette a part of their family so she was expecting an invite but then this wasn't technically a Murthys' affair so Jeanette shrugged the feeling away.
In another fifteen minutes, Nandini was all ready to leave for her trip which Jeanette could never understand how did Nandini manage to do things so quickly and efficiently. She personally could never do it this way. Jeanette needed at least 2 hours to get ready for a trip, excluding the process of packing.
"When will you come back?" Jeanette questioned Nandini as she hugged her near the door.
"I don't have a leave for more than five days so I have to come back soon." Nandini replied with a twitch. She clearly wanted to spend more time with her friends and family but Jeanette was glad about this short leave. This way Nandini will come back to their place sooner and even if that thought sounded so selfish, Jeanette felt no shame in admitting it.
"Drive safe and text me once you reach there. Also, don't have too much fun without me." Jeanette said as Nandini tore away from their hug. Nandini chuckled at her best friend's jealous remark but did not say anything in response.
"I will! Bye!" Nandini bid her bye and walked away from their house into the elevator of their building.
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"You look cute!" Manik couldn't resist from giving her that compliment as soon as she pulled up in front of the gate of his building and got down to help him with putting his luggage in the trunk of her car.
"Thanks!" Nandini's ears turned slightly pink at that compliment, especially, because she wasn't expecting it coming from him. He used to compliment her all the time before but it wasn't the same after these five years had passed. He complimented her only playfully whenever he flirted to tease her. But this was a flirtation-free and simple yet honest comment out of admiration hence, she didn't know how to take it.
"Learn to take compliments, Murthy!" Manik remarked with a laugh and moved ahead to settle himself on the passenger seat of her car not before placing his duffle bag in the trunk that she opened for him.
Nandini bit her lips and took a moment before occupying the driver's seat to take them to their next stop which was Randhir's abode.
"Do me a favour and do not mention my stayover at your place to Randhir or even about how much we are hanging out with each other." Nandini requested Manik.
"I would not but then why ask me so specifically?" Manik knew the answer to his own question but he chose to ask it anyway.
"He has always been insecure of our closeness. I want this trip to be a fun one. No drama! So, I do not want to take any chances." Nandini answered, honestly which Manik couldn't refuse or oppose.
"Done!" Manik confirmed it verbally, much to Nandini's relief.
"Thanks!" Nandini thanked him with a smile as she pulled the brake at a traffic signal.
"Did you and Randhir ever consider moving in together?" Manik asked her out of curiosity.
"He asked me once, two years ago but it was his desperate attempt to make sure that we do not break-up again. For me, that isn't a good enough reason to decide to live with a person. If it did not come from a place of love or friendship then I cannot do it so I said no." Nandini responded while thinking about that time when it actually happened. It had led to a series of arguments between her and Randhir after which she got tired and broke up with him again.
"Wow!" Manik mumbled. Nandini resumed driving as the signal turned to green.
"Yeah! Since you asked me that, I'm guessing that you and Alya were living together in Bangalore?" Nandini did not want to ask him that but she did anyway. For some odd reason, Nandini felt extremely weirded out to talk to Manik about his relationship with Alya. It did not feel this hard, five years ago then why did it feel like this, now- she wondered.
"Surprisingly, no! I mean that was the plan when we moved there but our workplaces were in two extreme corners of the city so we had to live in different apartments. Eventually we fell into that pattern and it felt comfortable so we never tried to change it." Manik proved Nandini's assumptions to be wrong by saying that.
"Do you miss her?" Manik was taken aback by that question because she was the first and only person to ask him that. Meanwhile, Nandini chided herself for not even trying to change the subject which came naturally to her.
"Sometimes I do but only because she was the only constant in my life for more than ten years." Manik admitted missing Alya for two reasons- one was that he did miss her sometimes and the other reason was that he wanted to see Nandini's reaction to his statement.
Nandini couldn't hide the disappointment on her face in spite of trying so hard to do that. The fact that she wasn't able to become that constant in his life, made her feel like she was being crushed under a thousand rocks. How did they manage to push each other so far away that they stopped being friends? They have met each other after five years and they were going to stick around this time but still something felt very off about their setting as if something was missing. No matter how hard they tried, they weren't able to go back to being the same kind of friends that they used to be, years ago. Almost three months had passed since they bumped into each other at ROB that night and yet somehow it felt like they were standing right where they had started.
Nandini cleared her throat and said "We're here and there he is!" They had stopped in front of a huge gate that Manik guessed to be a gate to Randhir's building.
"Oh... Hi, Manik! Hi, Nandini!" Randhir wasn't expecting to see Manik when the window rolled down hence the awkward reaction. Nandini passed him a weird smile and waved at him. Manik gestured him to get in the backseat which Randhir hated, thoroughly. Things between Nandini and him had ended for good but it wasn't easy to accept, so naturally Randhir was looking forward to this drive to Pune with just Nandini in a hope that they could reconnect but with Manik in the picture, that wasn't going to happen. Little did Randhir know that it wouldn't have happened even if Manik had not tagged along.
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Rate the chapter between 1-10.
Is it necessary for Manik to know about Sameer and Jeannette?
Do you think there's something still left between Randhir and Nandini?
What do you think will happen on this trip?