~ Love is a four letter word that is the home to four hundred different emotions together ~
Nandini twirled around in her apartment, a song playing on her phone while she danced while beating the coffee in her mug simultaneously. Raima had already left for office, and she still had good two hours before her first meeting today. When the mixture turned raw golden, she put the milk on the stove, and picked up her phone to change the song, but before she could choose one, her phone began to ring.
"Good morning mumma!", Nandini cheerfully greeted her mother, while Shanno Murthy shared her enthusiasm and wished her back.
"How did you wake up so early today haan?", Shanno questioned and Nandini giggled.
"9:30 isn't early mumma", Nandini laughed, turning off the gas and keeping her mug at one side, she put the phone on speaker and began pouring milk into her mug.
"That's not fair Maa, you wake me up at 7", Nandini heard her baby sister Chandni's grumpy voice and giggled again.
"Obviously it's not fair, but even Mumma loving me more than you isn't fair either!", Nandini teased into the phone, and heard her sister whine some more and her mother's loud laughter, "Believe me next time when I say we picked you from the garbage bin outside the society", Nandini continued, and then picked up her phone and the mug, walking toward the balcony in her room.
"Mummaaa", Chandni cried in frustration and Shanno patted her back, trying to scold Nandini.
"What is this Nandu? Why are you making my child cry?", Shanno tried to speak in a stern voice, pacifying Chandni but Nandini only giggled silently, before taking a deep breath and making a serious voice.
"Only she is your child Mumma? I am not? Just because she is close to you and I am far away in another city? I didn't expect this from you, Mumma", Nandini's choked voice put Shanno in a split and she was about to break into a manofying spree when Sumit Murthy, who was uptil hearing the conversation silently, broke into loud laughter.
Hearing her father, Nandini and eventually Chandni also started giggling, while Shanno pouted, blabbering under her breath about how everyone had vowed to make her life impossible.
"By the way Nandini, how is Manik?", Sumit winked at his wife who fought back her smile, while Nandini spit out her coffee hearing that.
"Appaaa!", she spoke into the phone, glad it wasn't a video call, or everyone could see the heat rising up her cheeks and her flustered form.
"What Appa? Since two weeks all you talk about is Manik this, Manik that with Chandni, and now you are shying away?", Shanno stated, laughing and Nandini heard her sister chuckle in the background.
"Mumaa", she gasped, "I was...just talking about him randomly", she stuttered, making plans in her head to bury her 'sweet sister' ten feet underground.
"I stalked him on Instagram", Sumit said, "and we will meet the Malhotras for the wedding anyway. Tell me, do you want us to ask his hand for you?", Sumit dropped the bomb so casually that Nandini couldn't even understand what happened. When she did, the mug fell out of her hands and she was only grateful that she had finished her coffee.
Hearing the prolonged silence, Shanno chided her husband.
"Stop troubling my daughter. Nandu, he is joking", Shanno clarified, and Nandini felt like she could breathe again, because despite the blush Manik's name brought on her face, she knew he still wasn't warm on the idea of love or marriage.
After a bit more chit chat, she kept the phone down, and shook her head at her crazy family. A smile dancing on her lips, she went in to get ready, for her meeting, or she would get late for sure.
A shower later, she was all dressed up, and running a brush through her hairs. As she tucked in her ear ring, her phone pinged again.
"Lunch at 2?"
Manik's message read, and Nandini smiled before answering in affirmative. The last two weeks had been a drastic change in her equation with Manik, and despite all the tease Raima and Mihir put her through for the frequent lunch, dinners and coffees, Nandini knew in her heart it wasn't what they were taking it to be, even if she wanted it to be.
She understood well the reason behind Manik's comfort with her, he had finally found a good friend in her. She understood that because even though she loved her family and her sister to the moon and back, there were certain things she was comfortable discussing only with Raima. And Manik didn't have a best friend. He apparently had before, a band, in his college days, Fab-5, but all four of them were settled in different parts of the country now, and physical distance does matter, even if you deny.
Manik was so occupied taking care of the business, easing things for Mihir, and then taking care of his family, that he had lost touch with himself for a while. And with Nandini, that night in the pub, he had found himself. She was a great listener and a good observant, and what he liked most about her was she didn't judge him. Anyway with Raima being part of their family, Nandini was supposed to be bumped into too, so it only made his heart lighter to find such a good friend in her. When he had found himself comfortable telling her about his fear of love and marriage, he realised he could talk to anything about her- buisness and personal, and she would understand and advice him right.
They also had discovered eventually that they both had similar likings and dislikings. They were both huge bollywood bluff and both hated reading books. They both loved coffee with sugar, and hated tea without cardamom. Their favourite places in the city were common too, and since Nandini spent half of her day in Malhotra empires anyway, they had lunch together most days. Mihir and Raima sometimes joined them and prefered their privacy on some days.
In short, life was good. Nandini only hoped that someday, Manik's fear would vanish or he would at least tell her the roots, and she 'might' have her alleged happily ever after.
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Ishani sat in her room, folding the clothes. They had a full army of servants, but some chores she preferred doing on her own. Pallavi entered her room with a smile that Ishani returned and they both began folding the clothes.
"Bhabhi, did you talk to Manik?", Pallavi asked softly, and Ishani shook her head.
"Wouldn't it be too early? Mihir said they had been spending some time together, but I don't know if that's dating or casual. I don't want to say something and then watch Manik consciously take steps back", Ishani complained, and Pallavi nodded her head. Her sister-in-law was right, Manik was unpredictable that way.
"I was thinking about asking him about that prom girl though. It has been years and he still hadn't told me the reason", Ishani said, after some time and Pallavi only looked up in concern.
"It has happened more than once Bhabhi. You remember that Soha, Manik's college friend apart from fab 5, it looked like they were getting close and she seemed nice, but Manik stopped interacting with her suddenly. And that Vani, his friend during MBA, everytime we thought he might take the relationship forward, he takes five steps back", Pallavi shook her head as the memories resurfaced, and Ishani sighed again.
"That's exactly why I don't want to point it out with Nandini. I really like that girl, and she is fit for being ours too, only if Manik sees her that way", Ishani put forward her thoughts, and Pallavi agreed, but they had no options to know what exactly was going on. They had considered asking Nandini too, but that too might mess up the situation, especially if Manik got a hint, so they had all kept quiet.
"He always says he never understands why we are so nagging about settling him down", Pallavi laughed, and Ishani made a face at that line of thought.
"He is so busy taking care of all of us, and he doesn't let us fret over him. How do I explain him my need to see someone keeping Manik as happy as he keeps all of us?", Ishani threw her hands in air, "He says all this is romantic gibberish", Ishani pouted, and Pallavi laughed out loud at her tone.
Manik did have some really strange notions, but they still had a hope, that one day, he would see what they wanted to show him since forever.
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Manik held Nandini's hand and dragged her through the barren land until they reached the edge of the cliff. It was a good thing there were railings all around, for otherwise Nandini was really scared of heights.
"What are you upto Manik? And its already dusk! Sunset is over!", Nandini exclaimed, completely confused. He had brought her to the highest sunset point in Mumbai, after the sunset.
Manik chuckled, watching her making cutest faces to herself.
"We aren't here to watch the sunset", he added cheekily, and walked over to the car, while Nandini stood with her back to the railing, watching him.
He came back with a bedsheet and draped it on the ground and sat down, patting the space beside him. Nandini quietly followed him, and settled down beside him, keeping her sandals aside. Since the sunset was over, there was relative quiet, and not much people were around for it was almost dark.
"We are here to see the stars", Manik spoke, and lay down. Nandini grinned as she lay down beside him.
"You could have told me we were being Laila and Arjun tonight", Nandini turned her head to him, and he chuckled at her.
"I didn't realise we were", he shrugged, and concentrated on the array of the twinkling bodies over them.
Nobody said anything, the silence was tranquil and the stars looked magnificent. They were all clustered in the clear sky, and Nandini couldn't stop grinning.
"I have never seen something as beautiful as them", she whispered, not wanting to break the moment.
"I hope my birth mother is somewhere there, and that makes it more beautiful to me", Manik whispered back, and it surprised Nandini. She didn't know Manik wasn't a Malhotra.
When he didn't hear her gasp or throw a bunch of questions at him, in surprise or shock, he tilted his head to look at her. She was still gazing the sky in silence.
"You won't ask me anything?", he questioned and Nandini turned to him, her open hair cascading over the sheet and a few locks caressing her face.
"You won't tell me if I ask", she smiled, " and I trust you enough to tell me when you feel like telling me", she smiled wider.
Manik felt the thudding inside his rib cage calm down. Her words were like magic, they calmed him down in ways that he didn't know was possible.
"My mother was pregnant with me before My parents were married. When Papa came to know, he talked to my grandparents and brought her to Malhotra Mansion. She was quite young, naive, and handling a complicated pregnancy, without her parents supporting her. They had thrown her out. Dadu and Dadi decided to get them married after I was born, but she didn't survive my birth. Then ten months later, Papa married Maa, and I sometimes think even my birth mother wouldn't love me as much as Maa does", Manik narrated her the story and Nandini listened to him with apt attention. At the end she took a leap of faith and entwined her hand with his.
"The entire family dotes on you Manik. Mihir Jiju, Mili - they can even kill someone for you", Nandini spoke, her voice comforting and Manik didn't find pity nagging through her words. He turned to her, and tightened his hold on her hand.
"I am really lucky in that department, I am blessed with the best family in the world", Manik had the softest expression when he talked about his family and Nandini loved it about him.
He was the perfect family man, in every sense.
"If someday I decide to leave Malhotra Empires, what do you think will happen?", Manik's sudden question threw Nandini off guard, but she soon got back her composure and laughed.
"Nothing will happen. You will make another company for yourself, Raj uncle will be proud of you. Mihir Jiju will have to work a little harder and more to handle the company by himself, and Ishani aunty will cry her eyes out first because she won't understand your reason and would hug the life out of you later", Nandini explained in detail, her eyes struck at the sky and only after she finished it, she turned to look at Manik.
She was surprised to see his eyes misty, his lower eye lashes were wet. She raised her free hand and gently wiped his eyes, before stroking his cheek softly. Her eyes weren't sympathetic at all, but they held an emotion that moved Manik a bit too much.
He turned and hugged her, his tall frame covering her petite frame as he put his face in the hollow of his neck, their one hand still entwined, they were still lying down. Nandini used her free hand to run her fingers through his hairs, and smiled at the warmth her heart was suddenly filled with. She felt so protective of him, like she wanted to keep him sheltered from every nuisance in life.
And in that moment, she also realised that she didn't have a tiny winy crush on her best friend's brother-in-law anymore. She was in love with him.
Totally, madly, deeply.