Another day in office, it went fine. I had asked manik's di in the morning to meet me after my office hours, and I messaged manik to just leave for home as I've to go and visit my colleague as she met an accident and landed up in hospital - Yeah I lied, I had no other option. I picked up my stuff and took a drive to the restaurant where di asked me to reach. I was the first one to reach, I was playing with the small flower pot there when di reached.

"Hello Di, I hope you're fine." I said and hugged her.

"Yeah nandini, I'm fine but mom isn't. You know what manik mean to her." She said as she sat on the chair.

"I know di, even he's hurt. I've tried a lot to speak to him on this topic but he doesn't wanna talk about it." I told her.

"I know nandini, but we need to find some way, I can't see mom like this nor manik." She said.

"I have an idea! Manik's birthday! 24 years back aunty gave birth to this stubborn head, now it's time to give birth to their relation again, a pure and a strong bond which is there but we need to remove the cloud of misunderstandings." I shared my idea with di, on which she smiled - I had some other plans for his birthday but right now the only thing which is important is Manik and his mom's happiness.

"Perfect!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, so I'm gonna throw a party on his birthday at Malhotra mansion!"

"Malhotra mansion?" She frowned.

"Yes, I want this shit to end where it all started." I said in a determined tone.

"But manik ko waha leke aana? Tum kar pao gi?" She asked me in a confused tone.

"Yes, I know how to handle your spoiled brother." I said stressing the word spoiled and smirked.

"You really do." She laughed.

We both had dinner together and after manik's constant messages and calls, I decided to bid bye to di and leave. I went to my place first as it's a difficult job to visit here and take my stuff daily, I packed some clothes and my accessories and left for manik's place. I knocked the door. Mr. Grumpy Malhotra opened the door with zillions of frowns. I knew the reason, me. I smiled he replied with an angry glare.
I moved close to him, thanks to the heels I was wearing, Qutub minar ko touch karna mushkil nae hota. I let a giggle out on my own thoughts. He passed a confused look, basically he was playing look look with me. I snaked my hand around his neck, placed my lips on his, sucked them lightly and moved inside with my luggage, leaving an astonished manik at the back.

"Nandini, kya tha yeh?" He nagged cutely.

"Jo tha wo tha manik." I smirked.

"Acha toh nandini murthy wants to play games?" He asked and took steps to decrease the distance between us. He stood right in front of me waiting for me to answer.

"Why I can't play games?" I said confidently, basically trying to act confident enough but the truth is whenever he comes this close to me, I go weak in my knees.
He pulled me close to him grabbing my waist and said, "What's wrong with you nandini, what are you up to?" His sudden question left me dumbstruck, did I act weird? or blurted something in front of him; these were the questions started to run in my head that moment, but my trance was broken by him when he made me face him with his one hand on my cheek.

"Han.. mujh..e kya hoga? I'm fine, nothing happened. I didn't plan anything, no nothing at all." I spoke in one breath. He looked at me astonished. Agh! What am I doing? I can't let him play with me and bring out the truth!

"Manik, kitne questions karte ho tum? Like seriously. Choro ussay, tell me, did you eat something?" I tried to divert his attention.

"My girlfriend was busy, akele kaise khaa leta, I ordered pizza it's there in the kitchen, you go and change I'll heat it up, go now." He said pushing me inside his room, which is now our room - I blushed a little on my own thoughts, he frowned.

"Manik, you go and sit, I'll just go and change and then I'll heat up the food. Okay?" I suggested but do you think he's a easy nut to crack? "Why would you? You just came back home and I'm pampering my girlfriend, tumko kya hai?" He said making weird face. "Itna pamper nae karna, aadatain bigad jaainge, later you'll regret." I said pulling his cheeks. "Tum adat ho meri, usko bigaadna ab haq hai meri." He said and blushed, aww so cute. I went inside the room and came out changed in shorts and a sleeveless tank top.

"Why is it so dark?" I said to myself when I saw the lights switched off.
"Manik! Where are you?" I said it loud, as I couldn't see anything around. I unlocked my phone to turn on the flash light but before I could turn it on, I felt two arm around my body and the other second I was in someone's arms.

"Ah! Manik! You scared me! Yeh lights kyu off hain and what are you doing?" I said catching my breath. "Shush nandu, kitne questions karti ho?" He said, I felt a pinch of annoyance in his voice so chose to stay quiet. He took some more steps towards the living room of his house with me in his arms, which was beautifully decorated, candles lit in all four corners of the room, on one corner arranger in heart shape and some on the table, I couldn't take my eyes off.

"Manik, yeh sab?" I asked him amused.

"For a part of me, to make her happy." He said pouring all his emotions in some simple words.

"Manik, but yeh sab.. itna karne ki kya zaroorat thi?" I asked him, basically annoying the shit out of him, yeah, I'm the girl who never experienced all this before, I was in relation with dhruv but our dates used to be just royal dinners in some five star restaurants. Geez, typical dhruv vedant's style, this is something new I'm experiencing and being nandini these questions and weird phrases are compulsory.

"Nandini murthy, you can write a book, "101 ideas of spoiling one romantic moment" or wait kahi likh to nae liya?" He attacked on me with sarcasm.

"I'm sorry na." I said making a cute face, to melt his anger basically.

"Yeah you should be, kitni heavy ho tum." He said, I frowned. "Aur nae to kya, kitna khaati ho? You look like a delicate doll but have you ever checked your weight? So heavy." He said, making face that he's about to fart, I glared at him angrily, he laughed and made me sit on the chair.

That table was teamed up with two vine glasses and a pizza in the middle on which slices of tomatoes cut in round, mushroom and slice of capsicum were arranged in a smiling emoticon.

"So cute manik, thank you so much for everything." I said adoring each and everything he did for me but he's typical Manik Malhotra, he doesn't like when people thank him, most importantly his loved ones. I chuckled at his cute behavior. We had dinner and he again picked me up and made me sit on the couch and pulled out a CD of one romantic-comedy movie. I made an annoyed face and said, "No manik! Not this movie please. You've seen this movie already I don't know how many times, I don't even remember the count." He made a cute baby face, which I couldn't ignore and accepting my defeat I asked him to play the movie.
I was least interested in the movie, my mischievous mind had some other plans, as soon as the movie started, I started to tease him - touching him, kissing and playing with his shirt's button soon his all attention was on me, we giggled, blushed and cuddled and drifted in sleep in each other's arms on the couch.

(I hope this chapter was nice enough to compensate the loss, I don't know, I tried not to be cheesy but cute, do tell me how was the chapter, and yeah about manik and his mother's faceoff - it will be in the next chapter, on his birthday. Stay tuned. Tadaaa. ❤)