MG (FF) Back to You# III (#ThrowBack: Pg. 105) 26/03/15 COMPLETED - Page 9

Thank you darling!!1

Miracles huh!

Why do you'll have such implicit trust in Frosty to pluck mirackes?😆

Thank you darling!!

Thank you Madhuri!

Precap and past coming soon😉

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Evaporation of 3000 words haaawww

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Giving ocean this time around now😳

Thank you so much darling!

Read and replied to your comments on the previous thread.

Welcome to my stories😳

Lots of action happening in the coming update!
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Revenue of a setting Sun

The dreamer stepped into dream

Reality burned

Dusk once fallen

Had left them with revenue of a setting sun...

Whenever his head turned in a room full of people and his eyes collided with hers, there would inevitably be a flicker, one that would prove to her that she was the only one. Only one for him. That his eyes would only ever contain her.

That had made her love him.

Her phone vibrated and she ignored. Again it buzzed and this time she did ponder over the inanimate disturbance only to find it from that gallant tyrant who was contained in her thoughts.

Hi.

How are you? Can we meet today?

Geet barred her teeth at his perfect grammar even through a text message! Seriously, the man had a thing for grammar and English rules; he couldn't even stand her sabotaging the language on the popular SMS slang! So she did just that.

Ltz C!!!! wht tym

p.s. Im gud :D :P

"Now we wait for the exasperated Gallant Maan Tyrant to blast"

Geet told her phone in no serious terms. She had received quite a few reprimanding lectures of how English was being sabotaged and how she as a media student should care to write correct language! Oh Khurana!

Today evening?

Geet stared at the phone shocked. Why hadn't he corrected her exasperating slang?

Have clg till 4

She lied and waited.

Actually I have errands too.

7 p.m. Bandstand?

Geet chewed her lip, trying to decipher his mood. Why wasn't he shouting bloody murder? Grammar murder, she corrected herself. He was a straightforward man, yes. But today she could certainly feel a cold vice lurking underneath his words.

Okay

This time she typed with proper grammar rules because somewhere she had started understanding the gravity of this situation. Of their situation.

The Grand Hyatt, Mumbai.

7:15 pm IST

"There's only one man I miss now"

Geet smiled looking at Meera, Vicky, Pinky and her now husband Romeo. Pinky and Romeo, with a little pink daughter of their own! They all had sneaked into her suite while she got ready for the eloquent Sangeet party at the Hyatt. And Geet couldn't control the surge of emotion on seeing her friends line up with so much adoration that her own sense of love seemed wrong.

"Samar"

Vicky commented and Geet's gaze was drawn to the heavily stubbled man who once was as boisterous and street smart as any tapori could be.

"Yes. It would have been complete if Samar and Maan were here"

Romeo blabbered cooing his daughter without knowing the implications that only two other in the room understood.

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Indira Gandhi Domestic Airport, Delhi.

7:15 pm IST

"Maan Singh Khurana"

Maan looked up from the Business journal he was engrossed in and met the pair of his best friend's eyes.

A sudden rush flickered, an adrenaline so high, an emotion so deep at seeing Samar after so many years. And that too at the most unexpected of places.

"Samar"

He pushed up to his feet but controlled himself in time.

Samar grinned and hugged Maan without any holds barred. For once Maan was caught off guard.

"Hey dude!"

"What happened?"

Maan asked when he saw Samar's hand in a sling through the open coat.

"Ahh...Just a little accident"

Samar evaded the question and clapped Maan's back with his other.

"What brings Richie Rich back to India? And that too Delhi"

He looked around the posse VVIP departure lounge of Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi.

"Business. As usual...tell me how's yours going?"

Samar made a chuckling grunt sound.

"You sure aren't up to date with your ex-friends huh! It's been almost three years I left dad's business."

"What?"

"Yes. Don't tell me you didn't know!"

Maan shook his head.

"So what do you do now?"

"Oh I go around the world, paint, sell portraits, make muses. Hold exhibitions"

He winked.

Maan gave a little laugh and sat down with Samar.

"What's happened with us friends yaar? You and Meera, your business, my empire, Geet..."

The last word, Maan uttered with such softness that he didn't even know if he himself heard it.

"Meera and I..."

Samar mumbled and looked up earnestly into his once best friend's eyes.

"Well; we parted on a mutual note."

"Really? I thought..."

Maan trailed not knowing what to say.

"You know me yaar. When I am in, I am hundred and one percent in. But when it wears off, I...I had suddenly become disillusioned, or so she said. I thought I was discovering myself. She was ready to support me with my change in career. She was there but then I couldn't take that insecurity and wavering trust in her eyes. She thought I was going crazy painting and doing art and shit like that leaving my management degree to rot. And come on, we had had enough of each other for a long time"

Samar's lighter tone had taken a more serious approach.

"I haven't shared her with anyone else since, not even dad. You were the perfect person to share it with I guess"

"Why? Do I look like an agony aunt?"

"Precisely. You will listen without even listening. What did I just say?"

"Huh?"

"See? It's okay Maan. It happens"

Samar added with a wink, rejuvenating their lighter mood.

"I'm glad you've coped with that. Not everyone can"

Maan asserted with a sharp pain in his chest at the simile it drew to him.

"So where to?"

"Mumbai first, I have a couple of papers to file there. You know the usual pre-deal signing. I will sign at the airport and then back to New York"

"So I have company until I land in Mumbai!"

Samar drawled as they were called for the boarding. And the two long lost friends made their way towards the aircraft with long lost past and a visibly volatile future.

------------------------------------

Chatrapati Shivaji Airport, Mumbai.

11:30 pm IST

"Ahh"

Samar moaned low in his throat as his damaged shoulder hit the counter accidently.

"Hey man. Take it easy"

Maan rushed to Samar's aid while the floor staff who had bumped into Samar stood apologizing.

"I swear I tried to avoid it Sir. I am so sorry. Please Sir"

He continued pleading.

"That is utterly careless. Don't you see a man is injured?"

Maan fired in his usual arrogant-righteous tone.

"It's alright"

Samar cut in and gave a visibly hot tempered Maan a sheepish look. With a gesture of his other hand he dismissed the ground staff personnel and leaned on his side to breathe.

"Look at your face. You are white with pain"

Samar tried to smirk through the pain.

"It will pass...Uhh just help me till the exit"

"But..."

"I know your private' jet is waiting and you want to fly back as soon as possible"

"Shut the f**k up. Who is coming to receive you? I am sure as hell not leaving you on your own.

With a broken limb"

Maan added with emphasis.

Together they managed to make their way to the exit, Maan carrying Samar's hand bag and supporting him with the other hand. His own luggage waited in the Mercedes that would ferry him to the international airport where his private jet was being fueled on the strip.

"Who has come now?"

Maan asked.

"I am expecting someone"

"Who?"

"They'll come"

Samar appeased his friend

"But why can't you tell me who?"

Maan was losing his patience with Samar now.

"Hey bro?"

Maan turned at the familiar voice of his younger brother.

"Dev?"

"You must be Samar"

Dev added shaking Samar's hand.

"Geet's cousin couldn't make it so I came with the car. The sangeet just wrapped up"

"Oh damn I missed it"

Samar made a grunt.

"Don't worry dude. Given the fog in and around Delhi it's just a miracle that you made it before the wedding"

Dev drawled and both laughed.

All the time they chatted of weather and Mumbai and all the nice things while one man stood stark frozen in the cool November breeze of humid Mumbai.

"How do you know my brother?'

"Oh is he your brother? Maan?"

Samar turned to Maan but the gallant tyrant's world had suddenly turned upside down.

"Yes. Samar, meet my brother Dev."

"Nice to meet you again"

Samar grinned and rubbed his belly.

"I think my stomach's protesting now. Can we grab something to eat before heading home?"

Samar cracked the kink in his neck with a muttered sigh.

"I am damn hungry too man. The Five star food didn't do any business, all the dancing and shouting has taken a toll."

Dev agreed.

"Chal lets go eat at our adda Maan. That's the only descent place open this late"

Said Samar with visible excitement.

"No."

Maan's disturbed monosyllable sounded completely absurd.

"I mean, I have got the jet fuelled. I need to fly off today itself. Besides isn't your limb paining you now?"

"It's your personal jet anyways Maan. And you will have to run to International airport. Let's eat something yaar. For old time's sake man!"

"Phir na jaane kab milenge"

He added with a straight face. And there were some things even the Grey Emperor could not refute.

----------------------------------

"Anna ek aur bana do yaar!"

Samar said between mouthfuls as he hogged like a pig.

Dev looked on amused at the toned physique of the man who ate like a pig but Maan was immune to his friend's eating habits. One day he'd chirp like a sparrow, another he would hog like pigs on hunger strike since decades!

It was way past midnight; traffic thinned to local taxis and a few cars that more often than not ferried wild teenagers out to paint the town red. The midnight's children of Mumbai, party mongers!

Maan turned towards the huge glass and brick building that used to be his college; now reaching tall and stretching wide. Three more wings and annexes had been added and the campus, as Samar had told him in the car now spread to Navi Mumbai or New Bombay as the mercantile of Mumbai had once named it.

"Hey look what's up!"

They heard a strangely familiar voice.

Maan turned to two sedans turning down the dosa stall curb and Vicky shout out from the open window of the driver's side in one of the cars. His shock didn't stop there as he looked on at the two cars park and then Meera and Romeo descend in all their Sangeet fineries. The other car, with a doctor's cross pulled up slightly ahead of Vicky's.

Geet got down from the passenger's seat and Maan's heart stopped.

The enthralling charmer she was, shimmering in her peach and cream lehenga with the bridal finery and an aura of newness about her. Maan's eyes didn't leave her for a second as she closed the car gate and turned. Just as Geet's eyes strolled up and met his she could not differentiate reality from fantasy. Was it her dream? Had she dreamt so much of him that he had come to become a reality? A handsome six foot reality in white shirt and grey trousers with chocolate brown intimidating eyes and the sexy mouth open in a sigh? Or had she been a dreamer who had gone into her dream? Surely none of those sorceries had happened because reality struck hard and heavy when her shoulder was caught by the man who had descended out of the driver's seat.

"Your dupatta madam"

Yash pulled out the stuck dupatta of her lehenga from the car gate she had just closed. He pushed his hand around her waist and for a moment, just for a moment her insides flinched.

Unknown to her, the brown eyed man's eyes also flinched.

Had this been the scene eight years ago when he held a certain sense of possession over his Geet, Maan would have torn the man to pieces and sold them to the devil. But. There was always a but' in every love story, as it was now. And no Geet that belonged to him.

"Oh god Maan! Dude it's great you're here, what a pleasant surprise"

Vicky embraced his older friend.

Maan did reciprocate but his gaze was all the while trained on the one lady who after that first heart stalling eye lock had chosen to ignore him.

Samar was the most excited of all as he hugged Geet to his side with the good hand and kissed her hair affectionately.

"Hey little thing there! I am here to get you wedded to the man of your dreams"

Samar murmured so close to her ears. Her eyes shot up as she looked up at him perplexed.

"What? We will finally get rid of you Handa"

He tapped her forehead playfully with a chuckle and Geet joined too, telling herself she had misheard him earlier. The tangle of relationships knotted so that unknown to Samar, Meera stood a little perplexed if not more. The sudden exposure had open all those memories spent here, spent with him.

"Coffee babes"

Dev put a warm cup in her cold hands and Meera was thankful for the lingering kiss he gave her.

The new entrants drank warm filter coffee at Anna's stall, relaxing their dancing nerves after burning the floor at the sangeet. As Meera was heard quoting later on, cold November in Mumbai was as rare as Geet's Sangeet would be. Once in a life time.

Geet blushed at the morbidity of the idea and instinctively eyed Maan who had shamelessly roved her over and over but none the less kept his distance. If she had once claimed to understand every inch of his actions, if she had claimed to read his eyes and understand those nuances of his body language even from a photograph on a newspaper then Geet could have read the enormity of his anguish and rage that moment. But even though she could read him like an open book, she chose to concentrate on the new page of her life that was Yash.

Yash and his doctor friend along with Romeo and others continued to make jest and joke of married life, their talks swinging from the coming D-Days' preparation to Yash's impending workshop and trip to Scotland. Although Yash tried to include Geet she chose to smile and nod her head, holding the warmness of her coffee cup in the cold.

Maan had taken a quiet corner to brood while Samar eyed him and Geet and their exchanges.

"Spit it out you idiot! It's not even twenty four hours to her marriage"

"What"

Maan stared at Samar as if he had grown two horns and a tail and was wagging it in front.

"I said get down on your knees and tell your girl or go take sanyaas"

"What the..."

Maan prevented the urge to swear because that was not him. At least not the professional Maan Singh Khurana' him.

"Fine. Suit yourself"

Samar shrugged and walked towards the group chatting with boisterous craziness.

"Hi you must be Maan"

Maan cursed under his breath this time for whoever the person was, wasn't his friend from eight years ago' and he damned well would have punched out his anger on him. When Maan turned though, his urge to punch a hole through the man grew hundred folds because there stood the immaculate doctor who would marry and hold his Geet tomorrow.

"I am Yash. Samar just told me about you. We are glad you came to the wedding"

Maan looked at him before straining his eyes over the five foot tenish inch tall Yash Malhotra bas***d' to Samar son-of-a-...' who smoothly avoided any eye contact behind.

"Maan. Maan Singh Khurana"

He replied firmly, to maintain the civilized streak.

"Were you with Geet in Media studies? I've hardly heard her talk about her college friends though, so sorry for asking"

"If she didn't talk of her college then maybe she hadn't deemed it that important"

Maan shrugged to lessen the sting of that statement.

Yash's perplexity would have pestered him to ask more and converse with the enigmatic Maan Singh Khurana who could cut a question in one clean shove and burgeon the listener's curiosity for more. But his phone chose that moment to ring and Yash excused himself.

"Geet I need to go. It's an emergency"

Yash said over his shoulder as his fellow doctor and friend followed him to the car. Geet nodded in his direction as he turned and smiled before waving hastily to her friends and vanishing with the car into the long open roads.

Maan followed Geet's gaze into the distance of steely grey roads that were now devoid of traffic and glimmered under orange street lights. The heavy breeze that chose to blow over them rustled dry leaves from the ground and they lost their gazes to the past. That clear evening among all hazy memories which had defined them for all these years.

"Didn't any of this matter to you?"

Her words were thrummed by the steady crash of waves. She wasn't accusing, the question just couldn't remain within. Or it would have stifled her forever. But that didn't mean she needed an answer.

Maan kept staring ahead at the darkness which the revenue of a setting sun had left behind. Dusk trailed behind the cold December day as heavy winds blew landwards from the sea.

"Geet"

He said without turning and gulped.

She could clearly see him swallowing back the expression he would have otherwise abandoned. Yet again he had steeled himself. And that was the moment she understood she had to let go. That was the breeze which told her that he was but a fistful of storm that had swirled her world for a period and was on the verge of extinguishing in its wake now. That was the moment she accepted the selflessness that came with her realization of love...That was the look of his, a brown eyed strong man who had evolved with her down their way; who had to now take his own way.

"Geet I'm..."

"Shhh"

She hugged him.

He was taken aback for a moment, stumbled behind to support the backs of his knees on the black stone and then he wrapped his arms around her petite frame like she was the ultimate destination of the parched man he was. Sadly, he knew that the journey of thirst had only begun...

She tightened her arms around his neck in an attempt to close their connection and he buried his face in her hair to inhale his senses with her for one last time.

Was it he that whimpered? Maan wouldn't recollect that precise moment when he shuddered and unknown to Geet, as he thought; bled a single tear from the corner of his eye. Years later when he would remind himself of that moment all he would know of it was the single tear. A tear. One he'd never shed in light of any human around since he turned a man; one he'd kept bunched up inside since the tragedy that had crushed him. Now he bled. Not for anyone else but her.

"You don't need to explain Maan. I understand"

He could feel her nod as the shirt slightly wetted on his shoulder where her head lay.

"You have a world to go back to"

She tried to smile but her lips puckered at the last moment and kissed his shirt ever so lightly.

"I have a world to go back to Geet. I have my ambitions to go back to. And I wish..."

"Don't. Don't wish please. It takes away everything"

"Mish..."

"Hear me out for once please. Let me just tell you that I..."

"No"

PRECAP:

"Then I shall come back Geet. I shall come back to you."

When?'

Her eyes seemed to betray the unsaid question.

One moonlit night, when stars will wink the brightest and sea will muster a calm storm, I will come back to you...'

Unknowingly his eyes recited a poetry piece he never remembered reading. Maybe in one of her books somewhere...

Maan clipped in an almost cold voice going around the car they had come down from the airport in. Opening the passenger door he waited until she relented under his immaculately personalized glare and settled inside. He bent down, adjusting her flared lehenga and carefully tucking the material inside. The sharp intake of breath was inaudible and yet she instinctively gripped his shoulder for support.

So there goes their fate. Diverging at one end, converging at the other.

Now I'd like to share something that happened on the previous thread;

One lovely new reader commented why did this story have such less likes? And as my reprised sense of humour goes;

I said because there are a handful good things left in the world for a few blessed ones😆

LOL!

Sometimes I wonder how I get more than triple the views than the likes. Maybe the ones who tip toe silently dont like the story enough to press a Like! LOL

As always maintained, I remain self motivated and write for self satisfaction. And when you guys come up with all the love and affection it gives meaning to that self motivation!

Actually now I am kinda intrigued as to how you'll happened to discover my stories...did you'll stumble upon it or were they shared by friends or what? Please do share your stories of how you'll found me here...and I shall share mine!

That doesnt mean you'll forget the LIKES and COMMENTS!

😆

Until next update

<3

Frosted Starlit