~ 16 ~
As Nandini gingerly made her way in, her blood curdled at the cold air that lingered around in the living room. The ghastly presence of Nyonika perched on the couch only added to her distress. The way her eyes fumed behind those odd pink and white framed spectacles sent chills down her spine.
Manik gave his friend a gentle nudge to the ribs and gestured her to settle down before moving away to a corner of the living room. He plugged in his cell phone and pretended to browse through his non-existent messages whilst keeping his ears hanging around the ladies.
"H-hi aunty... How are you?" Nandini was nervous as heck and didn't know where to begin.
Nyonika continued to glower away at the distance. She wrung her chin and pressed her lips. "How am I...? Hah... I wish I was fine..."
Manik glanced over at Nyonika irritably. He could see that Nandini was tensed up at her sarcastic reply.
"But how do you expect me to be fine after all this?"
Manik wasn't glancing over his shoulder anymore. He glared at his mother from the distance whilst throwing troubled glances at Nandini.
Nandini twiddled her fingers. She knew what Nyonika was getting at and wanted to defend herself but remained mum as she knew that it was pointless.
Manik jumped in to the rescue. "All what? Mom. We had a deal."
Nyonika ignored her son who was standing so close to her now, his gangly figure towering over her. "Nandini. You claim to be his friend. Best buddy. Then why? Why is that you never took the initiative to set him straight?"
Nandini was confused now. What is she talking about?
Manik was irritated. "We had a deal," he repeated firmly. "That you would only say what you had promised to. So why are you deviating from the topic now?"
She continued to ignore him. "If your parents have a problem with your friendship then it was your responsibility to take control over the situation. You should have advised him. Controlled him. You should have distanced yourself. If you had, then all this wouldn't have happened."
Nandini felt her heart clench inside. It was now clear to her what Nyonika was talking about. The insults showered upon her by her step mother the other day.
"All what wouldn't have happened!!? Mom! Just shut up! Like seriously!" Manik barked angrily at his mother and Nandini ogled at him nervously. She wasn't liking this at all. On the other hand, Manik was worried if Nyonika would go over the edge with her words and hurt Nandini. He didn't want to see her all depressed again.
"See! This is the problem!" Nyonika spat angrily and waved a complaining hand at her son. Nandini glanced over at him with her button-like eyes. "This is the way he talks to me. This is the way he respects me! I raised him! Took care of him! Gave up my everything for him! For a long twenty-four years! And now!!!! This is the way my son treats me! Like trash! He shouts at me! Calls me names! Bullies me! Never listens to me!" Saying this, Nyonika broke down into tears and Nandini so badly wanted to jump up and bolt out of the room.
"Abhey yaar!" Manik growled in agitation. "Stop lying for God's sake! When did I call names? And when on earth did I bully you? How can you sit and spit out such blatant lies!!!?"
"Go ahead and deny it," sobbed Nyonika. "But God will see my tears!"
"Oof!!! Fine! Go ahead and curse me to death!" He slapped his forehead in exasperation, crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway.
Nandini sat there quietly, fidgeting all along, as if she were on pins and needles. She shot at Manik who still looked agitated. Should I stay...? She asked him with a quick roll of her eyes to which he clenched his teeth.
It was so quiet now that all what could be heard was Nyonika's sobs. Manik browsed his eyes around the neighbourhood as he worried that her wails could send wrong signals to his disgusting neighbours who wanted nothing more but to see them in trouble. "Hello. Just stop it. Alright?" Manik sounded bossy as he spoke to his mother. "Enough with the tears and stuff. You want people to think that someone died here or what?"
To that she just bawled more.
Why on earth did I get dragged into this? Nandini couldn't help but play this question over in her head. She felt so out of place. Here, mother and son were all set to screw each other and she had no clue what she was doing in between. Having fun?
"Erm... actually... Aunty... don't worry. Manik won't do it again, right Manik?" Nandini glanced over at him and found an "I'll kill you" expression plastered over his face. Just say yes, she gestured with her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "Right Manik?" she repeated to which he sighed after a brief pause.
"Fine whatever," he replied and turned to Nyonika. "Will try."
"No trying Manik," she interrupted politely. "You have to do it."
Manik scowled at her and she shrugged it off with a little smile.
"Aunty. I guarantee you, from now on, such kind of things won't happen. I promise." Nandini assured his mother who was still resting her heavy head onto a hand and sniffling. "And... I'm very sorry... for what happened the other day... honestly... I never expected something of that sort to happen. But I assure you that it won't happen again."
"Happy?" Manik spat sarcastically. "So can you take your pills now?"
Nyonika refrained from responding. She didn't even move an inch. Manik moved out of there and returned with her medicine box and a glass of water. "Come on, pop it in. And don't forget the ones for your mental problem."
He was joking but it teared her up more. Manik was tired of all this now. "Mom," he sighed and sunk into the couch beside her. "See look. You know that half of these things wouldn't have happened if you weren't such a nutcase. But you know what? Many a times even I was at fault. And I shouldn't have lost it. But I did. And I'm sorry. I'll try not to be an asshole again. Now please take your pills."
Nandini watched them with a warm feeling in her heart. Manik always tried to look like a tough guy in front of his parents but inside he was softer than mashed bananas. She wondered if they knew the other side of Manik. The soft side.
Nyonika finally gave in to Manik's persistence and gulped down the pills. Several moments later, when Nandini stepped out of Malhotra's residence, she felt utterly relieved. She had expected Nyonika to tear her apart but the issue seemed to be something else. But why did she call me to discuss all these things? Was she so fed up of Manik? Like seriously? Why's he being like this with his parents? That's not how he is.
"So..." Manik sighed and followed her out of the gate only to get stunned by a sharp tug to his collar. "Wha---?" he blurted out in surprise but Nandini shut him up.
"So..." she had a wicked smile as she curled up the collar of his shirt in her fists. "What were you telling me the other day?" Nandini pretends to recollect his words. "Ignore whatever they tell you... don't react... don't get angry... don't blah-blah-blah... right? And what are YOU doing? Huh?"
"See listen I can explain," he grinned and tried to pull himself off but she tugged at him sharper.
"Shut up!" she snapped. "First of all follow what you preach. Get it?"
Manik chuckled. "Listen buds, I'll be honest. I was just pulling her leg. Can't figure out why she took it to her head."
"Really?" She asked with a smirk to which Manik nodded with a sheepish grin.
"Anyways..." she let go off Manik's collar. "I'm relieved in a way. I seriously thought that she was going to eat me up."
"She would have if I didn't intervene," he answered smartly.
"Yeah right," she shrugged it off and mounted her scooter. "I'll talk to you in the evening. Got to move."
-----------------
The next two weeks passed by uneventfully. Nandini had recovered to full health and Aryaman was back on his feet, ready to take on the world. He still had the nasty brown lashes here and there but he was in the pink.
The moment Nandini saw him pop in through the office door, her heart skipped a beat. He looked ten times hotter than she last saw him and that was taking a serious toll on her consciousness. She really felt that she would pass out any moment. Not to mention, getting herself to look into his sizzling eyes was too much for her to handle and somewhere, Aryaman figured out that she had the hots for him. Well. Pretty interesting discovery for Aryaman. And he was in the mood for some fun. So he never missed out on the chance to flash that I know it all smile and send shivers down her spine.
Nandini felt really exhilarated when she sat down for a meeting with her colleague Aryaman and her boss Raghav. She was loving it. Getting to spend each and every minute in close quarters of this guy. I seriously did miss him all these days, she thought to herself naughtily. What started off as a power packed meeting turned out to be deflating experience for Nandini.
"Day after tomorrow in Delhi," announced Raghav. "I want you to cover that conference."
"Sure sir," replied Aryaman enthusiastically but Nandini seemed lost which Raghav noticed immediately.
"Any problem Nandini?" he enquired. Of course, if she had a problem, he wanted her to deal with it and move on.
"No sir," she answered. "I'm ready."
______________
By the time Manik came to know about her press meet in Delhi, it was late evening. She had messaged him almost immediately but being a night owl, he got to see it really late. From the tone of her voice, he could make out that she was troubled and so was he.
Separation was one of Nandini's biggest challenges. Irony is that life kept striking at that very weakness. Deal with it, said life with a nasty sneer. So it first decided to keep her away from her beloved brother for a week. She missed her brother so badly during her stay at her grandparents. She was in constant tears for the first four days but then she pulled up her socks and moved on.
Then came her mom. A bigger blow. Afraid of separation? Deal with it! But even after several years, she still hasn't recovered from that shock. And now this... she had never been away from Manik for more than a couple of hours. They almost always found a way at least to get a glimpse of each other. But this press meet would keep her away for days. And this sent distressing pangs throbbing down her chest.
Nandini's anxious face was now flashing up at him from this phone's screen. They were on their Skype video chat as usual.
"What time is your train?" he asked her cheerfully. He wasn't too happy about her staying away and that too with Aryaman. He hardly knew him but something about this guy made him feel restless.
"Morning seven," she answered in a low voice.
"And you'll be back after a week," he enquired.
"Yeah," she replied gloomily.
"Whew! Thank God! So for seven days I can breathe peacefully!"
Nandini was shocked at his reaction that she wanted to scream. But then she figured out that he was probably playing. Even still, she felt hurt. "Don't worry," she replied in a choked voice. "I won't come back."
"Don't give me hopes yaar," he joked. "I'd be so disappointed if it doesn't come true."
"Okay fine. Bye." She was on the verge of crying and prepared to hang up.
"Hello-listen-listen!" Manik burst out laughing. "Idiot! I was just pulling your leg. You dumbo!"
"Hmm..." she mumbled and clenched her teeth to stop the tears from springing into her eyes.
"Listen, you know that I'm going to miss you like crazy. Right?"
"Hmm."
"So give me that Nandini special." He gestured her to smile which she did almost immediately. "And it's good that it's in the morning. I can see you off at the station."
"So you mean to say that if it was during your work or sleep hours, you wouldn't turn up?"
"You want me to pull your leg again?" He teased her to which she smirked. "So I suppose that I can come? I mean... if your... ahem-ahem..." He faked a cough.
"If my what?" she asked sternly.
"Arya--- cough-cough--- mann--- cough... is there... am I welcome?"
He knew that she had the guy had managed to wreak havoc on her hormones and there was nothing more he loved in this world than to tease her.
Nandini blushed to a deep shade of red. "So what if he's there?" she snapped defensively.
"Oh I don't know," he shrugged sarcastically. "Who knows? Maybe I'm not welcome to join you lovebirds... cough-cough---"
"Manik..." she snarled like an angry cat. "I swear. I'll pick up my bike, come over there right now and beat the shit out of you."
Manik burst out laughing. He was almost rolling on the hospital floor.
"I'm not kidding! I'll kill you! I won't give a damn if it's midnight now. You know me right?"
"Of course babes. I love you. And I love to piss you off."
"Idiot!!!"
Though the both of them irritated each other and laughed it off, deep down, they were worried of being away from each other for the first time in their lives. The questions that played in their heads gave them nightmares. Who will I chat with for hours? Whose leg will I pull? With whom will I talk dirty? There was so much they used to do in a day. Manik would wake her up with his call. And Nandini likewise. They would talk and gossip all day. Laugh their heads off. Do crazy things. She would practice her martial arts moves on him. And he would practice his acting skills. There was so much of memories that would get torn away from them. And this one week will throw everything out of place.
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Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
