FF: Serendipity [Completed] - Page 3

Originally posted by: mystique_girl

all the updates till date have been pretty good - interesting being the right word.😊

So Maan was infatuated with NT. He's in a decade long friendship with Dev. Does this mean that Maan and NT were at a time in a relationship and NT fell for Dev when they met - Maan's claustrophobia being one more reason she couldnt carry on the relationship?

Well, I have no idea why he had to be so obvious about it and leave the room altogether - this makes me sense that both NT and Dev know of his feelings towards NT.

Geet was a surprise in the first update - it shows her as a kind human being.

Loving it, pls add me to your PM list. Would love to read more of this.😃

Originally posted by: Maaneet099

reserved...

ur writing style reminds me of someone else's even the use of fonts and the way u set up ur index 😳😆

superb start... i kind of was confused in the beginning when geet came in n maan seemed to have not recognized her (or maybe ignored her for some reason 🤔) but the story is shaping nicely 😊

Originally posted by: RockBarbie

Comic sans looks nicer on screen - I have seen few writers use it to post their FF. Index setting up - its one of my pet peeve when one has to navigate hundreds of pages to find a post...cant blame the site since its a forum and not a FF site! 😊

To clarify your question - Maan and Geet have not met face to face but have heard about each other from their friends'. I guess that didn't get translated well in writing...

Originally posted by: -nirvana-

Marked!

Chapter 4:

There it was again. The incessant knock on his door initially disturbed his slumber but with every passing moment it managed to irritate him as sleep started to leave his system.

"What?" He barked opening the door without caring who was standing on the other side of threshold. He rubbed his eyes removing all traces of sleep and slowly opened his eyes when there was no reply.

"What do you want?" His voice was flat and his stance was unwelcoming.

"May I come in first?" Nayantara asked twiddling with a tissue paper that was probably squeezed, smashed, torn into a million little pieces and she was still having a go at it. 'Like my heart', he thought waspishly. He didn't reply but simply turned around and walked back to the living room without inviting her or shooing her away. 'Let that be her choice,' he thought.

She had stayed up most part of the night thinking about facing Maan and dealing with her decision. When Dev had proposed for the first time, she had blatantly rejected the proposal. But he had relentlessly pursued her and when he asked her casually when they were chatting about random things. She wasn't fully sure what was stopping her from telling about the proposal to Maan. Like with Dev, she had had history with Maan being his only friend during school and a close confidante during college.

It had all started to change when he didn't hide his feelings for her and displayed his affection and attraction for the whole world to see.

"Will you please turn around and look at me?" She bit out when he refused to meet her eyes and turned his back to her. His indifference had always hurt her more than Dev's.

"How does it matter?" He said tonelessly but turned around anyway. She breathed a soft sigh of relief which didn't escape his eyes. "So, what is it?" He asked her again. She felt nervous all over again.

"I wanted to tell you about Dev's proposal Maan but I didn't know how…" She didn't finish the sentence. The thunderous look on his face made her stop talking and wet her dry lips.

"When I asked you to marry me, you said you weren't ready Tara," he lashed out. She jumped a little when his voice hit a pitch she wasn't accustomed to hear it from him. A feral touch graced his features making his anger accentuated in mid-morning sunshine.

"I…wasn't…" She stammered in response. An avalanche set in her heart, its thrashing sound making her momentarily deaf. Her throat choked up when she realized the implication of her actions.

"You weren't what Tara? If you didn't like me, you should've told me," he replied bitterly.

"I wasn't…sure…" The coherence in her words was slowly dissolving with warm sun filling the room and his dissipating calmness.

"You weren't sure when I asked you one month ago?" The disbelief in his voice brought a pain in her throat and tears sprung in her eyes. The debacle of her actions was standing right in front of her and he wasn't showing her any mercy with words. She didn't think she deserved it either. "Frankly as a scientist I am interested to know the primary cause for your sudden change in heart. In one month you have had a massive transformation of your personality along with radical shift in your expectations." He halted and started down at her. She met his stare boldly with tears forming in her eyes. His profile stood as proudly he could afford to be, hazy due to the thin film of tears not offering her a clear picture.

Was her mind hazy for the past month too? She didn't know. No, she didn't want to know.

"You weren't ready to marry me last month and exactly twenty seven days later you are ready to marry Dev." Maan concluded flatly. He knew that in the end only decision remained and not the steps that were taken to arrive at that conclusion.

"I wasn't ready when you asked me Maan," Nayantara said wiping her tears with torn tissue. Maan gazed at her for a moment, turned and disappeared into his room. He reappeared half a minute later with box of tissues and silently handed it to her.

She knew that it was merely an act of social empathy and not distinct reaction to her state. Maan was not completely driven by emotions. At least till he got all the answers he needed. And once that happened, his emotions would be all over the place.

"I understand that now. You weren't ready. But you know what Tara? I wonder if you would ever be ready to marry me. I have known that Dev likes you as much as I do or probably more but I sincerely believed that had you decided to reciprocate his feelings, you would have told me to back off." Maan poured a glass of water and drank. She was struggling to keep herself from breaking down while Maan was explaining their predicament as if he was thinking aloud about a theory he was pursuing at his job. "You never asked me to back off," he finished harshly, his eyes accusatory.

She felt more miserable at his words.

"I tried to tell you Maan…but…I couldn't bring myself, you know? We have known each other for so long and…I didn't want to…break your heart by telling you that…I don't love…"

"Please stop talking," Maan cut her off. She looked up from the ground and saw his beaten form collapsed on sofa. She rushed towards him but his expression made her stop three steps away from him.

"Get out." The words came out as soft whisper heavily tainted with hurt and betrayal.

There was no trace of emotion on his face as he stared out of the window. She knew that he wasn't ignoring her; he wasn't that kind of person. He was merely thinking and rethinking the instances where he had misunderstood her intentions or situations where she might have misled his affections.

The emotions would create a landslide on his mind once he finished the thread of thought process that he was currently on. If she knew him this well, then why did she chicken out in the first place?

She turned around and left his apartment without as much a goodbye.