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"Don't bother, Nandini! You know how bad, I've been feeling, in this past month for letting down Sam. Did it ever occur to you that you could ease that part for me? If you were worried about your best friend's confidentiality then, I could have pretended to not know in front of Sam till he told it to me himself. At least, I could have been guilt-free while working where I'm working now." Manik pressed. He did not bother to sugar-coat his voice or cover his displeasure from her. Nandini sighed as she did not like the look of dismay on his face that she had partially caused for him.
Manik shut the takeout container with a scowl and dropped it onto his lap, unable to continue with eating his dinner after that interaction. Nandini looked at his actions and passed him a disapproving look. Regardless of whatever was happening, she hated it when anyone disrespected food and so his actions irked her.
"Manik, please try and understand. This wasn't my thing to tell you and yet I blurted it out to you. Believe me, I have lost count of how many times I fought with Jeanette and Sameer to get him to tell you about this. In fact, things at home, between Jeanette and me, are still tense because of this. I..." Nandini did not know how else to make him understand of the lengths that she had gone to, in order to get Sameer to admit this to him.
"Let me stop you there... You don't have to tell me all this because I know that you'd have done all that. But, the thing that is bothering me is how you kept this to yourself, even after knowing everything that was happening between Sam and me. You were the only person who knew about how miserable I had been feeling because I thought that I had let my friend down. You could have eased this up for me if you wanted to but you chose to do the opposite." Manik stated clearly as he made eye contact with her after turning sideways. He was hurt and he wanted her to know about the part that she had played in this.
Lately, Manik was coming to terms with his new found feelings for this very girl, for the second time in his life irrespective of how she had crushed his heart when it had happened earlier. He was having a hard time in gathering himself without these complications in the picture, as it is. After this came to his surveillance, he decided, instinctively, that he will not keep his feelings about unnecessary things to himself and rather he'd be transparent with everything. Only, in this manner, he'd be able to keep himself together.
"I'm sorry!" Nandini mumbled that to him when she could not think of anything else to say to him in response to his argument.
"Forget about it.... Are they serious or is it just a fling?" Manik questioned her after dismissing her apology. This question mattered more than anything else because it would determine the fate of all of their equations in the future.
"I thought it was a fling because I know Jeanette but apparently, Sameer took Jen to a dinner with his parents over the weekend that we were away for Mukti and Abhi's wedding. Doesn't seem like a fling to me, anymore." Nandini revealed that to Manik putting him into a process of contemplation.
Manik did not have any strong opinion about Nandini's best friend but still a part of him felt like Jeanette could sometimes take Nandini for granted and because of that he had developed a miniscule disliking for the woman. Now that his friend was dating Jeanette and getting serious about it, there was a chance that they will have to learn to tolerate each other's presence, frequently.
"I still don't understand why Sameer is hiding this from you, especially after introducing Jen to his family." Nandini remarked, grabbing Manik's attention on the matter at hand, again.
"I might know the reason behind it...." Manik trailed off because he was not sure if he wanted to tell her about what he knew.
"What is it?" Nandini asked him.
"Uh.... He sort of had a slight crush on you after we had that dinner with our friends. I confronted him when I noticed how weird he got, every time that I mentioned meeting you and he admitted. This conversation happened between us a week before that day I came to your place. If he'd have come and told me that he hooked up with the best friend of a girl he had a crush on, then he must have suspected that I'd judge him or maybe even tell about this to you. That would have been mighty awkward." Manik disclosed and thus dropping a bolt out of the blue on Nandini.
"Tell me you are kidding, Manik." Nandini muttered in disbelief to him. Manik smiled at her while pressing his lips together that formed a thin line before he resumed eating.
"I'm not joking. He liked you and he even asked me if he could ask you out." Manik confirmed it again.
"And what did you say to that?" Nandini asked, curiously.
"I told him that you are just getting out of a serious relationship and if that does not bother him then he should give you a call." Manik's response aggravated Nandini but she repressed her reaction to it.
"Great!" Nandini muttered, sarcastically.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you that. It is going to make things uncomfortable for you with Jeanette." Manik apologized and found himself calming down from the rage that he was previously feeling.
"Yeah, scold me for hiding things from you while you were keeping that huge-ass information to yourself and now, you are sorry for telling me about it. Unbelievable!" Nandini's mocked. Manik let out a chuckle since he knew that Nandini wasn't really mad at him for not telling her this thing as she understood that this was a different circumstance.
"Are you going to confront Sameer about this?" Nandini asked Manik after both of them remained silent to finish their respective meals.
"Yes! Maybe tomorrow or the next time, I meet him. Cannot let that asshole get away with how crappy he made me feel!" Manik said, firmly.
"Now, that's what I'm talking about... Good! It's about time, you know? He's been having fun in making my own apartment a hell for me." Nandini exasperated and took the empty container from Manik's hand and put it inside a bag that she intended to throw away at the trashcan of her building.
"Wow! He was the one in your apartment that day, when we returned from Pune? I cannot believe that douchebag ditched helping me out when I was injured just because he was getting lai... Oh, okay... I see the problem in my statement." Manik abruptly halted his rambling as he realized that he didn't find Sameer's action wrong. Sameer was that kind of a person and Manik knew it so he should not be feeling bad for Sameer being himself.
"I can see why guys barely get into fights, you know? If it were me and Jeanette in this situation, she would have ripped my skull apart for ditching her." Nandini remarked with sarcasm dripping from her tone. Her intention behind the statement was not to give him the idea that his way of dealing with the situation was appropriate in any sense. She believed that friends are supposed to be there for each other in times of need and if one failed to do so without a proper reason then, he/she must pay for it.
"That's my equation with the guy, Nandini. I know him and I know just how much to expect from him so why go beyond that? It will just disappoint me." Manik reasoned with her. She couldn't come up with a logical counterpoint to that but she did not agree with it either.
"If you're that wise and mature then tell me, how much do you expect from me?" Nandini chose to ask him that. This would be interesting to know.
"Do I really need to answer that? Don't you already know the answer to it? I have such high expectations from you that I don't even consider the possibility of you saying 'no' when I need you to help me or just listen to me. You just HAVE to be there." Manik flicked the tip of her nose while saying that which made her scrunch up for a playful moment.
"The last time that I checked, I wasn't even a part of your life until three months ago for five years. How is it possible that now, suddenly, you need me around so much?" Nandini scrutinized her gaze at him as she popped that question for him.
"I, honestly, do not have an explanation for that. It's simply how I feel right now." Manik pressed, wondering for himself about what could be the reason behind his comfort level with Nandini. It was true that they were best friends back in the day but one would only expect to face awkwardness due to the note on with they left the things after Manik shifted to a different city. But, life was full of surprises and it managed to astonish Manik and Nandini with how easily they built a new level of easement in their friendship, right from scratch.
"And feelings keep changing, right?" with that question, Nandini began to resent herself, internally as the conversation had taken an intense turn in a direction that she wanted to stay away from, at least for now.
"Well, I want this one to last longer and I might be willing to do anything to make sure that it happens." Manik replied, earnestly without batting an eyelash as their eyes connected.
"We... We should head back home. We have work to get to, tomorrow, don't we?" Nandini suggested, nervously and then turned her car on with an intention to drive away from both-the parking lot and the raw energy that had formulated between the two of them.
"Yes, we probably should! I might need my hard-disk back, the one that you borrowed, weeks ago. I have to present a bunch of designs at the office tomorrow and I lost my only pen-drive." Manik played along Nandini's effort to diverge from the topic as he did not wish for this night to turn anymore serious that it already had. He would rather let things simmer down instead of dealing with everything all at once in the heat. Besides that, Manik did need his hard-disk back for a work thing that Nandini had borrowed from him, weeks ago, as her laptop needed resetting and she had to take a backup.
"Oh... I don't have it on me, right now. Do you wanna come along now and get it or should I drop it over, first thing in the morning?" Nandini questioned him about what would be more convenient to him.
"I have work with it, tonight so, I think we should get it now." Manik said to which Nandini just nodded in response.
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"Nandini! What the hell?" Jeanette yelled from the living room. Nandini rushed out to check the commotion while holding Manik's hard-drive which she had fetched from the drawer of her desk.
Although, the scene in front of Nandini did not need any further explanation of the reason behind Jeanette's outburst. Manik and Sameer were standing face-to-face with visible tension between the duo while Jeanette called out Nandini in exasperation.
Manik and Nandini entered Nandini's apartment using her keys, unaware of who were present behind Jeanette's closed door. Nandini asked him to wait for her while she could get him the hard-drive from her room, only for Jeanette and Sameer to walk into the living room, carelessly, oblivious to the existence of the company in the house.
The minute Manik and Sameer came face-to-face, the tension between the duo was felt around them. Jeanette, instantly, called out for her negligent best friend who had brought in the one person that her boyfriend aka Sameer had been upset with.
"How could you be so careless, Nandini?" Jeanette's shrill cry invaded Manik's trance as well. Manik developed an instant disliking for the woman as she represented all the levels of hypocrisy with her demeanor.
"Why don't we give them some space?" Nandini grit her teeth while suggesting that to a seemingly piqued Jeanette.
Jeanette, then, glanced back at the two men before following Nandini's trail to her bedroom. She might live for drama and gossip but she'd prefer to sit out of the ones where she might have been on the accused person's troupe.
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"You did that, deliberately, didn't you?" Jeanette interrogated Nandini as soon as she shut the door behind her.
"Jen, hear yourself, sister! Why would I spend weeks together, fighting you over this if I could have just done that? I clearly, chose to do what you expected from me instead of telling Manik about this, which, by the way, I should have done." Nandini exclaimed with a look of disbelief on her face. It was baffling to see Jeanette blame her like that. Nandini had blurted everything out to Manik in the heat of a moment but she did not intend for this to happen. She could not do that to Jeanette. So, it was preposterous to learn that Jeanette felt like Nandini could betray her.
"Exactly! You've been fighting with me over this ever since I told you about Sam and me. When you couldn't get us to do what you wanted, you just decided to go behind my back and just blurt everything to Manik." Jeanette did not hold herself back from saying everything that came to her mind in that moment of anger.
"Wow..... You know what, yeah, I told him everything because I wanted to sabotage your intentions behind keeping your rendezvous- a secret. Please, believe that!" Nandini was in no mood to have a pointless argument with her roommate/best friend which is why she decided to close it there.
"Why are you being so mean to me?" Jeanette asked Nandini.
"I don't know, Jen. Lately, all that you expect from me is to say what you wanna hear. Honestly, I think it'd be easier if you'd just tell me what do you actually want me to do." Nandini said with a defeated look as she sat down on her bed with her feet up.
"How did I ever make you feel that way? It's just this one thing that I asked you to do what could benefit my relationship... the one relationship that might be my last shot at love and everything else." Jeanette started her statement as if she wanted to charge on Nandini but it quickly changed as the fear settled in her eyes. Nandini knew that her best friend had a tough time in the department of love and family so, it was easy for Nandini to see how terror-stricken Jeanette was over losing Sameer.
"A feeble thing like telling his best friend about a woman he is in love with, would not affect your relationship with the man, Jen. There's so many significant things to worry about in a relationship. Why do you think that this could cause problems for you?" Nandini questioned back.
"I don't know.... I tried to understand Sam's point but when I could not do that in spite of my efforts, I just let it go. It felt easier to just support him in this than fight over it." Jeanette reflected on the situation as she responded to her best friend's logical argument. Jeanette sat down on the beanbag in Nandini's room.
"I'm happy for you. It's amazing that you found love but please, don't let that subsume your entire personality. I do understand that, this is all that you crave from life but trust me, the bigger picture is as important as this." Nandini finally found herself saying the one thing that she wanted to tell Jeanette since the time they had begun fighting over this issue, weeks ago.
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"You girls can come out now! Feel free to walk around like it's your own house." Nandini and Jeanette heard Sameer call out for them after knocking on the door.
"I'm gonna kill him, I swear to god!" Nandini mumbled to Jeanette who simply chuckled at this never ending banter.
"You look dull! What did she do to you?" Sameer questioned Jeanette as he took her in a side hug, the minute she stepped out into the living room.
"5 minutes? That's all the anger that you have for him? What the hell, Manik!?" Nandini ignored Sameer's comments and headed straight to where Manik was sitting.
"Don't you try and turn my bestfriend against me." Sameer warned in a playful tone which earned himself a smack from his girlfriend to his bicep.
"You okay?" Manik asked Nandini in a low tone and, subtly, pointing towards Jeanette behind her.
"We'll be fine..." Nandini muttered to him and sat down beside him on the couch. She cringed a little at the PDA in front of her given how Jeanette and Sameer got a little busy among themselves before turning her attention to Manik.
"Why couldn't you fight a little bit more? I have to get used to this scarring vision now." Nandini whined making Manik laugh at her tone.
"Hey, Manik! I'm sorry too for hiding this from you." Jeanette apologised to Manik after she and Sameer settled down on one of the sofa chairs.
"You should not be sorry. You were just doing what that idiot asked you to so, it's really okay." Manik dismissed the apology because he, genuinely, felt that she had no obligation to apologise to him.
"Really? I like you already. Can you please enunciate that to your friend as well? Because she has been an absolute pain in my ass for the last month just coz we weren't telling you about us..." Jeanette sighed dramatically at which the guys laughed while Nandini narrowed her gaze at her in scrutiny.
"Can't blame her for looking out for me, now, can I?" Manik, nonetheless, couldn't help but to, gently, declare that he'd be on Nandini's side if there were sides to be picked. He could laugh at jokes and make fun of her but he'd never disregard her efforts for him even if it was in good fun.
Jeanette smiled in content at how her house looked at the moment because this was something that she had craved, since she was a little girl. A happy house filled with good people and good relationships. She could see herself, happily, get acquainted to this.
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Rate the chapter between 1-10.
Did you expect that Sameer had a crush on Nandini before getting together with Jeanette? What do you think of it now that it's in the open?
Who is more of a priority to you when the choice is between friends and your partner?
Do you think this is a scope for new friendships between all of them?