FF: Serendipity [Completed] - Page 10

Chapter 9:

"When is the official engagement party?" Geet asked Nayantara who was buttering a croissant. Nayantara's hand stilled and she looked up to meet the question in Geet's eyes.

"We are planning for next week. You will help me?" She asked Geet with bit of caution. Geet looked surprised at that.

"Of course I will help you Tara, what kind of a question is that?" Geet replied and took a bite of her pasta. Nayantara looked relieved at that.

"I hope Maan comes around though," she said her voice tinged with melancholy. Geet didn't know how to respond to that. "I don't think I can do this without him," she added, bobbing her head. Geet looked at her, incredulously, her hands stilled.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Nayantara asked eying her croissant as if it was the most interesting thing in the entire world.

"Nothing," Geet shrugged and continued to Geet. She didn't know why Nayantara's words bothered her this much. Maan's and Nayantara's friendship wasn't new to her nor was she unaware of how close they were irrespective of the fact they loved each other or not.

"What are you not telling me Geet?" She badgered when Geet ignored her for moments by concentrating only on her meal. There was a slight offshoot of childishness in her otherwise matured personality which came out whenever she felt she wasn't in complete control of a situation or a conversation.

Geet rubbed her forehead. All she wanted was to have a good lunch on a glorious warm afternoon, talk about random stuff and generally have a good time. But the continual talk about Maan had started to turn her spine stiff and her heart shot off a pang of pain.

"It's nothing Tara," she offered her a thin smile and turned back to her food the very next instant. Nayantara frowned. She had known Geet long enough to understand when she was hiding her real words behind her curls.

"I don't want the party to be much of a big deal but Dev has plans to splurge. You think you can talk him out of it? I don't know why he wants to throw such a big party and make an event out of it," Nayantara hummed twirling the straw in a tall lemonade glass.

"Oh come on Tara. After all the times you have rejected him, I least bit surprised. He looks so happy that I am expecting him to break into singing and dancing any moment," Geet replied sardonically, a smile however creeping on her face.

"It's not like I rejected him as you say Geet, I only refused to marry him. I wasn't ready," Nayantara defended and took a long sip of the lemonade.

Geet's smile froze.

"So you knew that one day it would be Dev with who you are going to spend the rest of the lives with?" Geet asked putting down the fork. Nayantara looked conflicted.

"You can say that," she answered softly.

"You rejected Maan's proposal by saying you weren't ready but you were never going to be either. So the first instance you get a proposal from Dev, you accept it without a second thought," Geet rallied back.

"It's not that simple Geet. Maan and I aren't that simple." Nayantara's voice was like steel. She wiped all emotions off her face and met Geet's eye without blinking. Geet just stared at her friend.

"You could have simply told him that you didn't love him." Geet was nonchalant. She shrugged for an added effect as if the subject of discussion didn't personally affect her. The napkin that she clenched under the table to control the anger that surged through her, told a different tale.

"Maan isn't someone with who anyone can be friends with let alone fall in love. One has to work a lot to achieve a degree of closeness with him and spend a lot of energy to maintain it. His odd quirks and his personality don't help either. He is a very important person in my life Geet but I don't think he is the man I can spend rest of my life. I don't want to hurt him by cutting him away from my life just because I married his best friend," Nayantara replied. Geet furrowed her brows.

"I don't understand what you are talking about," she said a moment later.

Nayantara suddenly smiled. Geet's confusion only grew with that smile.

"You love him but you don't want to spend the rest of your life with him because of the relationship you have with him, right?" Geet asked as if she was validating a recipe. Nayantara nodded mutely.

"Isn't your relationship with him changed because of your decision now?" Geet asked flatly. Nayantara looked at her taken aback at the sharpness of her voice.

"I will work it out with him once he has cooled down. He was very angry when I met him Geet and I know that in that state he doesn't like to talk to anyone. So once he has simmered down, I'll talk to him again," Nayantara said and picked up another croissant. Geet, who had resumed eating, swallowed pasta and poured herself a glass of water.

"Oh? I think he is doing quite alright. He was a perfect gentleman when I went over his house for dinner the other night," she said taking a sip of water.

Nayantara looked at her with widened eyes.

"You went to his house?" She asked Geet who was caught up in cutlery selection for next course.

"He invited me for a home cooked meal. I dropped by," she said nonchalantly missing out the look that passed on her friend's face.

Had she paid attention to Nayantara's silence and looked at her, she would have seen her friend clutching the croissant too hard to make it crumble to pieces.

Perhaps then Geet would have realized things between Maan and Nayantara weren't really simple at all.

I hope Barbie has come back for good :)

Did Geet let the dinner slip to purposely provoke Nayantara...or was it an unconscious act? It seemed like quite a selfish act albeit unintentionally...I guess she's sort of become protective of Maan and when she realised Nayantara would never be ready and sort of lead him on, it angered her.

Nayantara seems like the practical kind...I guess it's like heart vs mind thing. Though she seems to harbour something for Maan, her mind knows his nature will make it exceedingly difficult to spend a life time with him.