A/N : Hola Readers! The one week worth of wait is over, and I'm back with another chapter! Are you ready to see how far MaNan has moved in this strange conjugal? Well, who's stopping you? Go on, give it a read! :)

Happy Reading!

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Nandini' POV

I entered my 'home until a day back' with shining eyes and a warm heart; all known faces were looking back at me. My mother was smiling at me from the kitchen counter and Aams was sitting on the couch with her arms outstretched towards me. The other Murthy minion, Aliya however had conveniently forgotten that I even existed in her life, as she had directly rushed towards Manik and was fawning all over him like his crazy fan-girls – I smiled. I reached Aams and hugged her tight, then I reached for mom, they all embraced me with all their love. I felt at peace for a while. I broke from mom's embrace only when I heard Aams scolding Aliya for holding Manik at the door for so long. I immediately took a few steps towards him, to receive him inside the house, after all he had been nothing but gracious in fitting me in his life. I gently reached for the 'gifts' bag from him and took it off his hands, and placed it on our centre table; then I held his hands and brought him to our living area. I felt strange. I realized, ever since the wedding, I had never touched him; this was my first physical contact with my husband of two days! I felt conscious all of a sudden, and the small walk from the door to the living area seemed so prolonged. His palm was big, all-encompassing and warm. His fingers were unusually rough and scarred, I gathered that was from the years of association with the guitar strings, for one wild moment, I thought, such rough fingers would feel so uncomfortable in the right place;, and no sooner I blushed badly at the random turn, my thoughts took – I scolded myself for even garnering such thoughts – his hand however held mine loosely, without effort, like he didn't care.

He sat in between Aams and Aliya on a couch and soon all talks were around him, even though he wasn't participating much, he was amicably responding to all that was directed towards him. Manik seemed to particularly get along with Aams, in fact he was more than amused at hearing Aams' little liquor habit (much to mom's embarrassment and our amusement! Yes, my Aams was a famous classical singer back in the days; in fact unlike mom, her conservative daughter-in-law, she was quite the diva of her time, and whiskey at late night in the terrace with nice music playing in the background was her daily routine!). Manik soon made a request that he would like to join Aams' rave (Yes, Aams calls her nightly liquor routine, as her own 'rave'! We Murthy's are a crazy mix, I know) someday. While mom glared at Aams for creating such an impression before her brand new son-in-law, she didn't say much and just shook her head in disbelief – whereas all Aliya could still do was ogle at Manik!

After a while, I sighed, everyone was busy chatting with Manik and making him comfortable. I felt slightly disappointed that I was left on my own – weren't they going to miss me tomorrow when I would be gone, I wondered. But then I realized, Manik was new here, and he was after all a rockstar, everyone was busy settling him, lest he felt uncomfortable; for me, this was my home anyway, I could make myself comfortable whenever I wanted, I told myself.

After dinner, which suspiciously consisted of what turned out to be all of Manik's favourites dishes, Aams suggested he accompanied her to the terrace, for 'the rave'. Manik suddenly seemed super excited and much to my amazement, readily agreed! It was kind of strange seeing Manik mixing so easily with my folks, I had expected a lot of awkwardness here - considering he hadn't been able to break ice with me, what chance did my folks have? I guess the Malhotra's are as random as the Murthy's in some ways! Mom tried stopping Aams subtly, but much to my and Aliya's amusement, Aams maintained a sombre face and never caught mom's eyes! My Aams is such a drama queen! After Aams and Manik left for the terrace, finally mom and Aliya made some time for me. Finally!

It felt good to be in the comfortable presence of the old and the known, mom, Aliya & I chatted for a while, but it was mostly mom obsessing over the fact that what her son-in-law must be thinking of our family right now, as her irresponsible mother-in-law decided to get Manik drunk! After a while of hearing mom's rant and watching Aliya giggle away at mom's worries, I retired to my room – as usual, the first thing that caught my eyes was the tightly shut window next to my bed. I never had it shut, until very recently. I tried to ignore it, and changed into my night clothes and settled on my bed with my favourite classic of all time – Sense and Sensibility. I was reading and also making a mental note of the few classics that I was planning to take with me back to the Malhotra mansion the next day, but I found my mind wandering back to the tightly shut window – after an hour of controlling my urges, I finally gave in, and slowly walked towards the window and unbolted it - ever so slowly, I tried to push it open, but just then I heard a voice from behind, it was mom.

"Some windows are best kept shut so tightly, that even if you want to, you can't open them. I hope you got my point Nandini?" she told me sharply. I gulped and nodded.

She continued, "It's late, you should get to bed now" I nodded again and walked back to my bed. She looked at me intently for a while, and then her features softened – she walked towards me, and softly placed a peck on my forehead before saying, "Beta Manik is a very nice man, he will keep you very happy" – without another word, she turned and left.

A sigh escaped my lips hearing what she said, but my thoughts were no more at the shut window now, it had drifted to the man who was now apparently attending my Aams' 'rave' as her guest of honour. Ayappa!

***

Manik's POV

I was in awe of Nandini's daadi's persona, 'Aams'; she liked being called Aams, since it sounded cool! Had I not loved my daadi so dearly, I would have swapped her with mine immediately. Unlike a calm and quiet Nandini, she is a rockstar! I learned that she liked to indulge in whiskey every evening & she needed good music in the background to get her 'buzz'! Man, she was so much fun! Unlike most ladies of her age, Aams had no interest in devotional hymns, in fact she not only liked modern classical music, she was open to my kinda rock songs too! In our little terrace revendevez, I learnt, she was quite a gadget addict and perfectly used a smartphone at her age! In fact she was there on all social apps! Can you believe it, Aams had her own Insta page even, which I doubt even her grand-daughter had! But when we really got talking, I realized she was a deeper person than all this, she had many layers. She spoke of her experiences, and tried to judge my stand towards family and fidelity in subtle ways. I thought it was fine, she was only looking out for her grand-daughter, it was only fair!

When I entered Nandini's room after my crazy encounter with Aams, the first thing I noticed was it was so small, unlike our bedroom, this one was small and too cutesy for my choice; done up in shades of pink, with a massive portrait of the two sisters hanging by the wall. The wardrobes were crammed in one corner, with glitter stickers all over it - spoils from their teenage days I suppose. I saw her sitting on the bed, staring at a book, but mentally lost far away. I looked up and saw a big book shelf to the right side of her bed, and beside that, a door. I assumed that to be the washroom door, and quietly walked in to change; all this while, Nandini never noticed me. After a warm shower, when I came out, she seemed to jerk awake of her thoughts, she noticed me, and shifted nervously on her bed. I smiled at her awkwardly as the realization hit both of us at the same time - we didn't have a settee over here, so we had to share the bed for the night! She gulped nervously, and to save ourselves from further awkwardness, I decided to lighten the situation.

"Hey, is smoking allowed in this house?" I asked casually, she jerked her head up and after a slight pause replied, "No-one smokes here really, so I don't know.".

"You know, I would have smoked on the terrace, but somehow didn't feel right before your Aams. And going by her awesomeness, what if she wanted to smoke too? It wouldn't do good to her health at this age nah" I smirked.

She seemed more at ease as she smiled a little. "Well maybe you can smoke here – no one will know" she replied shyly.

I was surprised, right inside the bedroom? But before I could respond, she quickly got up from the bed and ran towards one of those wardrobes with sparkly stickers – she opened it and carefully used keys to unlock the locker inside. I was wondering what she was upto, when she produced an ash-tray from there to my surprise! I chuckled.

"So you secretly smoke too, chashmish?" I asked jovially. She looked scandalized for a moment before her nose scrunched and she replied, "Chashmish?"

"Yes, chashmish. That's what I will call you! So, chalu chashmish, you smoke too? Just your image is of a goody girl eh?" I laughed, relieved that the ice had broken at last.

"Haw! No no" she replied with big round eyes and a childlike innocent face! For a moment I stared at her eyes. I never noticed that she had beautiful eyes. Then my eyes fell on stacks of papers inside the locker, inside the wardrobe from where she produced the ash-tray. The reason my eyes fell on them was because I saw something familiar there! I saw my newspaper cut-outs! This time my smirk was evil! Before she could realize what I was upto, with one swift motion I pulled a handful of those papers out, as she gasped in surprise!

"So you're a fan of mine too, chashmish? I thought you told me during our engagement that you only enjoyed classical music and folk songs? Tch tch lying is a bad thing! jhooti chashmish!" I continued to joke with a serious face now. She actually fell for it and stammered.

"Woh, actually..this is Aliya's wardrobe – these are her cut-outs, even I didn't know she had these. Really! Also I don't smoke, when Aliya had started college, she had started smoking. She would smoke here quietly, until one-day I caught her! The ash-tray is from those days" she replied sheepishly. I laughed, and she looked even more surprised.

Soon, we were sitting on the bed, and as I smoked, she sat next to me – the banter was over, and it was getting icy again – to avoid that, I told her to join me, as I flipped through Aliya's cut out of my articles. They were mostly my interviews, music reviews, photoshoot posters etc. Soon she was comfortable again, as she joined me and we both were flipping through them; all was good until and unless we reached an article with the headline, "Rockstar Manik's Chosen One?" It was a newspaper supplement from Valentine's Day a couple of years back, and below the article there was a picture of me and Soha walking out hand-in-hand from a party. The picture and the memories still scorched me – how I would have been at her's today for pag-phere had she not taken that drastic decision, only to change her mind much later when it was too late!

Suddenly, the entire setting started irritating me, the pink room, the bespectacled so called mis-fit wife next to me and my life. I was lost in my thoughts of a happier past, when I heard a small voice from next to me.

"Were you two really together at some point?" her question was reasonable, after-all Soha and I never owned up to our relationship publicly, it was always speculation. I didn't reply to her query, the past memories and the feeling of helplessness, were making me wary – what I was consciously blocking away ever since we got married was flooding back to my mind.

"It's stuffy in here with all the smoke, let me open that window!" I said, and before she could respond, I got up from the bed to open it. I thought I heard a low gasp, but at that moment I didn't care. I needed an escape, however tiny.

***

Nandini' POV

He opened the window and stood near it, smoking quietly; now things were making sense to me. So he was indeed in love with Soha, but then why did he marry me? Maybe Soha left him? But she seemed very disturbed throughout the wedding, and I had heard her sobbing due to the break-up. That meant she loved him too – if they both loved each other, then why did Manik marry me? How did I become a cog in someone else's relationship?

A part of me wanted to walk up to him and ask him, but the open window scared me; my feet weren't brave enough to take me there the second time this evening. So, I stayed put at my place and asked,

"What had happened, why didn't it work out, Manik?" I asked meekly, breaking his stream of thought.

"Life" he muttered softly. "Life happened, chashmish"

"Clearly, you still love her.." I muttered, surprised at the disappointment that was evident in my voice. He sighed, but didn't reply. Did a tiny part of me want him to deny it?

"And she loves you too, I saw that" I continued, as treacherous tears started swarming the corner of my eyes. He didn't agree nor did he deny. Damn, why was it stinging me? Agreed, Manik was my husband of two days, but to be honest he was still, as good as a stranger to me! I had no right to be disappointed and he could very well have had a past, much like me. Who was I to judge?

"Then why did you agree to marry me, Manik?" I almost whispered, my voice was shaking; I was trying hard to hide my vulnerability before him; it was embarrassing!

"Destiny is inevitable" he replied, more to himself than to me. Then to my surprise, he looked at me with guilty eyes and spoke very gently.

"Nandini, I will remain loyal to this marriage, I promise you; but I am not sure if I can ever love you. It was always her" he finished in a harsh whisper. Then he snubbed the cigarette in the ash-tray and strode towards the bed. He took one side and lay down, and turned his back towards me.

I sat there silently, suddenly, my will to re-establish my life snubbed. When I had accepted this alliance, I had thought, maybe I was accepting it out of mom's insistence since all my broken engagements had started taking a toll on her health, but if I am accepting it, I will do full justice to it. I will give my life a chance – I will keep Manik happy – I will not let my tarred past dampen this relationship. But is there anything to build here, anyway? I slowly got up from the bed and took cautious steps towards the window that was now open. If my present was as messy as my past, then why was I scared of looking at my past, right in the eye?

I stood by the window, and my head automatically turned upwards, towards the first floor window in the opposite building. For a moment I smiled, it felt like olden days, much before all changed. 'He' was still sitting there, by the window, correcting his answer sheets, thankfully he wasn't looking this way, he wasn't expecting me I suppose. Of course he never did, and that was a different story altogether! I stood there looking at Aryaman, the love of my life, my unrequited love, as he relentlessly kept correcting his answer sheets - a fleeting thought ebbed. What would have happened if he liked me back in the first place? We would be married by now, a happily married couple. I would probably be making coffee now; in his kitchen – for him. But the truth was he never liked me, not the way I did – that was reality – what chance do I have before my beautiful sister Aliya anyway? Aryaman liked her, and our families, just like me, thought he liked me, since we were friends, we were close, hell we were even colleagues! So when the families decided to get us married, he rejected me; till this date no one in my family knows why he had said no but I did. Aryaman had confided in me, after all I was his best friend. He hadn't realised until then that I harboured feelings for him, but after he joked about our proposal and made fun of it - he realised it was hurting me. Aryaman was shocked, he had no clue of my feelings and in explanation he had told me he loved Aliya. That was it. Years of friendship bit the dust, since I was in love with him & he was in love with my sister. There was no bitterness between us, but his confession and realisation made us super awkward before each other; over time, the awkwardness gave birth to coldness, pulling two people apart. That's when mom made me shut this window that directly overlooked his study. I had to forget Aryaman, he was the past. Then after a lot of coaxing by mom, I was married to Manik. Again destiny had rolled it's special dice for me - Manik had accepted my hand in marriage, but today, he too rejected me – for another beautiful woman, Soha – is being beautiful so important?

I was lost in my thoughts, and after a while, I decided to lock the window. Just before latching, I stole another glance at his window, much to my surprise, Aryaman looked back at me. His expression was unreadable – meeting his eyes after so long pulled out all my disappointment towards him to the ebb, and tears leaked out – he looked agitated seeing me in tears, but he didn't say anything, he sighed and quietly looked down at his papers – I felt a stab of rejection again, as I sniffed softly.

"Let me help you latch it" I almost jumped in surprise, I had forgotten Manik was in the room. I quickly wiped my tears, as he glanced at Aryaman's window once, and latched the window shut. He then pulled me by my arms and took me to bed.

***

Manik's POV

Sitting in my make-up van, waiting for the shoot, my mind went back to yesterday, the night when we stayed at the Murthy's – I had told Nandini my truth, but what was she hiding? I remember unlatching that window, I remember her gasping, I remember the surprised look, that retarded looking man had given me that night from the opposite window. I had assumed he was surprised to see 'the rockstar' in his neighbourhood. I remember noticing that he kept glancing back. I could have smiled thinking him to be a fan, but I was not in the frame of mind, I was busy focusing on Nandini's stammering voice and inevitable questions and Soha's deeds – until then I found nothing queer – but later when I saw Nandini look out of the window with a similar kind of urgent yet defeated expression, I gathered something was up. When I closed on her to latch the window, I noticed she was in tears, as she looked at the man sitting by the window with a stack of paper. Something in me stirred, something I couldn't quite place – without further ado, I shut the window and got her back to bed. I think she had cried herself to sleep that night. I suppose so did the retard from the other window. Soha was repenting her decision anyway and I was also affected. In a way we all were on the same boat – Soha faced one indecision, and all four of us were suffering that night – and it was just the beginning.

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A/N : So guys, how does this feel? Any thoughts on Nandini & Aryaman? 

How was the small MaNan banter, promise you it's the first of many! Come on, two strangers just got married, and both are heart broken - give them some TIME ;)

My request remains the same - please do vote & share your FB on how you are liking/disliking the story - any and every input counts!

Until next Sat!

Much love,

A