||Just One Breath Away-AN FF~VM pg 122|| - Page 73

I PMed y'all to see if everyone's still hanging in there lol!

Great to see you're still enthusiastic, and yes I'll update tomm. I still have a lil bit left to write, and I'll finish it tomm and post.

Thanks! 🤗

Thanks a lot sweetie...and do tell me your name 😃

Glad you like the FF! 🤗

Armaan darted a glance at Nikki through the corner of his eye. She seemed engrossed enough in her work, calmly instructing the nurse about the changes in medication for her patient.

Once done with that, she proceeded to the next patient and started measuring his BP and then went through some of his reports.

He continued to watch her, yet seeing through her, immersed in his thoughts.

"Dr. Mallik, do you intend to work or are you suddenly interested in writing poetry, that you're staring into space?" a sharp voice menacingly cut through the air and his head immediately shot up, his eyes meeting the sharp ones of Dr. Abhimanyu Modi.

"Yes Dr. Moody…er, I mean Dr. Modi?" Armaan fumbled, having been rudely shaken from his wayward thoughts.

Abhimanyu raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on Armaan's words. He continued to stare at him coldly till Armaan turned back and attended to his patient, muttering darkly under his breath and shooting occasional glares at Abhi.

Taking a deep breath and shaking his head like he had all the trouble in the world in his head, Abhi turned to see Nikki standing nearby, observing him with a secret smile. She blushed when she realized she had been caught staring, and he left with a smirk, his eyes softening.

*****

"...and I also think that we need to include a bit of Sanjeevani's past records as well in the presentation, to make it more impressive", he finished speaking and pacing too.

Turning to Nikki, he places his balled fists on his hips and glared at her. "Are you even paying attention to what I'm saying?" he fumed.

"Yes...I heard it all", she looked up from the laptop and made eyes at him.

"What're you doing in that computer?" he scowled.

"Going through what we've prepared of the presentation till now", she answered promptly, and he rolled his eyes.

"Who told you to do that?"

"No one. I thought I should see what we've done, and I think it's pretty good", she smiled.

He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well we did work hard", he shrugged.

"And it paid off", she grinned at him. "Now there's just a little bit left. You don't worry Abhi, we'll get the project for sure!"

Smiling softly, he walked over to her and leaned back on the desk, half sitting on it, and his fingers closed on the edge of the desk as they shot satisfied smiles at each other.

"We make a good team, don't we?" she grinned.

"We most certainly do", he winked and they both chortled.

***

Armaan grabbed Riddhima's hand as she walked through a corridor and pulled her through before she could utter a word.

"Armaan", she murmured, blushing as he held her hand and led her through the hospital and to their usual spot, the fire escape.

"Shh", he winked and kept walking.

"Armaan, everyone's watching, leave my hand na", she looked around embarrassedly.

"Basket", he chided lovingly and kept walking. He needed to make up with her.

As he walked quickly through the corridors, his eyes instinctively flashed toward Abhimanyu's cabin as they passed it.

He froze in mid-step at what he saw.

Nikki was happily sitting on Abhi's chair, and Abhimanyu himself was leaning on his desk, facing her, and they were both laughing at something heartily.

He watched as she placed her hand on his and pointed to something in the laptop screen before her, and he moved to see it. Placing his arm around her shoulder, he bent and read something on the screen with her, following her finger as she pointed things out. Slowly, his hand went up and grabbed hers, balled it into his own larger palm and placed it on his lap. She smiled up at him shyly and he darted a fond glance at her before going back to the screen.

Fuming, he glared through the glass window of his boss's office. Riddhima noticed the couple inside and knew she had to do something about it, but something told her that the matter was out of her control now.

"Armaan, come on", she tried to distract him and pulled at his hand, but his grip tightened on her arm and he didn't move an inch, his eyes fixed on Abhimanyu and Nikita.

"Come on Armaan...let's go", she urged him, and he turned towards her suddenly.

The look she saw in his eyes silenced her, and she took a sharp breath.

"You see what they're doing in there?" he asked sharply in an accusing tone. His eyes were burning with anger.

"Armaan, just leave them to themselves, why are you getting so agitated..." she tried to speak but he cut her off.

"He's gone too far this time, Riddhima. Just see! He's going to break her heart and I won't have it!" he said coldly.

"Armaan, you're overreacting", she warned him quietly, but he paid no heed.

"I swear I'm going to talk to Nikki about this..." he started gathering steam but Riddhima pulled him away with all the strength she possessed.

"You're not going to say anything, Armaan." Her voice was carefully controlled, and as he glanced at her face, he couldn't make out what she was feeling when he looked into her eyes.

He did his best to calm himself down, and opened his mouth to put forward his point but before he could do anything more, she dragged him into a comparatively isolated corridor.

"Basket..." he started to speak but she silenced him with a look. He understood that she was angry, and perhaps this wasn't the right time to argue over this.

"Listen Armaan", she sighed. "You need to stop interfering in Nikki's personal life."

When his eyes widened and he incredulously opened his mouth to protest, she squeezed his hand and continued, "I know you care for her. But you need to give her the space she needs. Stop suffocating her."

"I'm not suffocating her!" he retorted hotly, forgetting all about not wanting to argue with her.

"You are, Armaan", she tried to make him understand. "That's why she's been avoiding you for the past few weeks. You have to understand that she doesn't need your opinion about every aspect in her life."

"But she's too naive to understand...you don't get it Riddhima."

"I get it, Armaan. And trust me I know much more about what's going on between Nikki and Dr. Modi than you do", she decided to give him an honest hint that there was indeed something brewing between Nikki and their boss. Armaan needed to know.

"Nothing's going on between them!" he exclaimed. "He's just using her for his own benefit. He'll throw her away to suffer alone when he's done with her. You don't know him Basket..."

"No, Armaan, you refuse to know Dr. Modi", she shook her head exasperatedly. She was starting to lose her cool now. "Tell me one thing, have you ever given him a chance?"

"What chance?" he looked appalled. "He doesn't deserve even the ghost of a chance after what he did."

"You really need to stop being so overprotective of Nikki, Armaan. I understand that she's your best friend and you care for her, but don't take it so far that you take away her happiness." She sighed in resignation and walked away, leaving him gaping behind her.

"But why are we fighting over them?" he shouted at her retreating figure, and when she didn't even turn around, kicked the wall and then hopped on one foot when he hurt his toe.

*****

"Hey Shehnaz", Akash smiled at his friend and sat down beside her in the cafeteria.

"Why so morose?" he bumped his shoulder into hers playfully, and she gave him a smile that didn't reach her eyes and shook her head.

"Nothing."

"Really now?" he furrowed his brows and stared at her.

Biting her lip, she directed her eyes to a table at her right, and his eyes followed hers.

Nikki and Dr. Modi were sitting at a table, sipping what looked like coffee and arguing over something pointless. He watched as Nikki opened and closed her mouth at something Abhimanyu said. The look on her face said she'd lost the battle. She crossed her arms over her chest, huffed at him and looked the other way while he smirked in satisfaction and sipped his coffee, leaning back in his chair.

"Do they ever do anything other than fight?" Akash asked no one in particular.

Shehnaz snorted slightly with laughter at this. "You need to observe them closely to spot that", she winked.

He widened his eyes and quickly turned back to their own table. "I really don't want to go spying on them", he laughed.

His reply was met with silence from her. He turned to see her playing with her food, looking pretty disinterested.

"Aren't you over him yet?" he asked quietly.

Her head jerked up at the question, and her shuttered expression said it all.

He sighed and leant back. "You're in trouble if you have to see those two every day. They're so obvious."

"Only for us", she said quietly. "The others don't even notice...I guess they think they're just friends...but when did you come to know?"

"Paligaon", he replied shortly. "I didn't realise till much later though", he thought for a bit.

When she didn't answer, he continued, "She hugged me by mistake..." he turned to Shehnaz. "And then she ran away like she hated me. I got a feeling there was more to the story."

"And?" she raised an eyebrow, looking at him intently.

"I sort of figured it out after that", he shrugged.

"You like her, don't you?"

It was his turn to be quiet.

After a long pause, he finally spoke. "Even if I do, does it matter much?" he looked into her eyes.

"I guess not", she shrugged.

*****

"You missed lunch", Anjali told Armaan when he entered the locker room.

"Yeah, where were you?" Muskaan asked.

"Yeah Armaan...even Nikki was there today", Atul said happily and the rest of them nodded.

"Of course she was! I wasn't there na, how could she miss today's lunch?" Armaan retorted angrily, and they all stared back at him in shock.

"Armaan...what's wrong?" Anjali asked in concern.

"Yeah, did you fight with Ridzi or what?" Muskaan quipped.

Not answering, he grabbed some files and stormed away.

"What's up with him?" Anjali raised her eyebrows and froze in her place, and the others echoed her thoughts.

*****

"Goodnight", Abhi whispered before placing his lips softly on hers and lingering for a while before breaking the kiss and leaning back into his seat.

"Goodnight", Nikki smiled and got out of the car.

She turned back at the doorway to see him watching her intently through the window. Smiling softly to herself, she went inside and he drove away on seeing her close the door.

RES.....which i may never edit!!!!!