Anurag was sitting by the bar of a plush nightclub and sipping his Macallan 1926; he was waiting for Mishka to arrive, since he had promised her drinks and dinner to make up for forgetting her birthday the night before. He was sporting a black V neck tee and a pair of beige chinos. He was looking around and enjoying the vibe of the place, the pool side bar, the huge dance floor and the lounge in the open terrace, the club had three levels; suddenly he felt a pair of hands grab his waist from behind, he exclaimed out of reflex, "Prerna?" the hands froze, and Anurah automatically shut his eyes in despair. He slowly turned around and saw a slightly crestfallen faced Mishka.

"You were expecting someone else too?" she asked timidly, Anurag sighed.

"No, no. Not at all. I was just.. never mind, what matters is that you are here, finally! I have been waiting for fifteen minutes now"

"Yes, sorry. I was looking for parking, place is jam packed" she replied back, but she still looked a bit off, Anurag noticed.

"That's okay, you are forgiven – it's your birthday celebration after all! And you are looking absolutely stunning Mish!" Anurag complimented her, it had always worked with her; it did this time too. Mishka smiled, a genuine one now.

"Really baby? Thanks! Come let's get some drinks"

They were a couple of drinks down, Mishka was being her usual self, trying to pull Anurag to the dance floor, fishing for attention and more or less Anurag was obliging. After all he did miss her birthday and that wasn't a 'boyfriend-y" thing to do. After a couple more of shots and a lot of head banging on the dance floor, both Anurag and Mishka were high and was having a great time, Mishka even suggested to jump into the pool and join the party there, but Anurag pulled her back, he knew Mishka's wild side and if he indulged her more, she'd get out of hand; he convinced Mishka that it was a bad idea and managed to pull her towards the lounge where they could sit and have some food; food in the system would sober them up he thought.

They were sitting in the lounge, the terrace was beautifully decorated with lamps and plants, here the noise was much lesser from the levels below them; he relaxed and ordered food, while Mishka excused herself to use the washroom; Anurag was waiting for her, it had been ten minutes now, he was starting to get worried. He tried her phone but she had left the phone on their table. Finally Anurag decided to check himself, as he reached the ladies room, there was no queue outside, so he couldn't ask anyone to check and let him know; he was about to open the door when he heard a familiar voice from behind.

"Bro, that's the ladies room" Anurag turned around to find Anupam standing before him. Anupam looked surprised seeing him.

"Anurag? What are you doing here? That too outside the ladies room?" he asked confused.

"Arre hi Anupam, actually I am here with a friend, she's very high and is inside for quite long, got a bit worried. So I thought I'd check myself"

"Oh okay, hang on don't go inside, I will ask one of the girls to go in and check up on her" replied Anupam to which Anurag nodded.

"Girl(S)?" he asked on second thought.

"Yeah, Nivi and Prerna, we thought of hanging out together tonight" he replied nonchalantly as he began to type a text message on his phone. Great! thought Anurag to himself. So Prerna was here; somehow the idea of Prerna, him and Mishka together wasn't going down well with him. What would Prerna think, would she be upset? Of course she'd be upset – last night he was with her and tonight in this night club with a half drunk woman partying to the tee – also the said half-drunk woman being his 'girlfriend'.

"Anupam, just call Nivi" he mumbled, but before he could respond he heard another voice from behind.

"Hi Anupam, Nivi sent me, she's got shoe bite from all the dancing I think, can you please go help her, I will help out your friend" she said with a laugh, Anurag shut his eyes, that tinkling voice, he remembered that, she must be high herself. He turned towards her, and she smiled in recognition as Anupam quickly excused himself and left from there to be with Nivi.

"Your friend is stuck inside?" she asked surprised.

"Yeah, err it's been some fifteen minutes now" he replied cautiously looking at her with hawk eyes following every expression of hers.

"Strange.." she muttered.

"Why strange? Can't I have a friend other than you, who I can hang out with?" he replied defensively; he mentally kicked himself for being so tactless and helplessly looked at her – Prerna looked amused.

"Huh? Where did that come from? I was just wondering why Anupam texted a 'friend' of his needed our help, he could have just said it's you" she replied.

Anurag realised Anupam was indirectly trying to save him from this exact embarrassment and mentally noted to thank him later, but now?

"I don't know. But, can you please check? Her name is Mishka" he changed the topic quickly. Prerna smiled and entered the ladies room and Anurag kicked the wall in frustration. They came out in another five minutes, Prerna holding Mishka by her arm – she looked fine, just a bit pale.

"Hey Mishka are you alright?" Anurag asked concerned, still trying to maintain a sober distance from her, he was very conscious of Prerna's presence.

"Yes baby, I am fine." she replied as she freed herself from Prerna and latched onto Anurag's arm. There, she had done it – Anurag looked at Prerna frantically, but he was confused; Prerna must have heard her, but her expression was vacant – he couldn't read into her mind; was she purposely hiding her reaction or did she really not hear it?

"Thanks a lot, Prerna" he managed to mutter, to which she looked at him and acknowledged with a smile. If she was hiding her true feelings, then she was doing a truly terrific job thought Anurag.

"Haan? Prerna? Again Prerna?" spoke Mishka amidst all this.

"Yes, my name is Prerna" she responded looking at Mishka

"Oh, thank you Prerna!" she smiled.

"Okay, Mishka you don't seem alright, let me drop you home" Anurag was trying very hard to pull her out of there.

"Home? But baby we haven't had food yet!!" Mishka started complaining. Anurag flinched again.

"Mishka, look at you, you're not in a state to.." he began.

"No Anurag, she is fine now – she has thrown up, the alcohol is out, give her some water she will sober up, then you can continue with your date" Prerna replied with a smile as Anurag looked at her aghast.

"Yes, yes. Prerna is right" prattled Mishka

"Date? Prerna..this is.." he began again, but this time Mishka cut him mid-way.

"Prerna my boyfriend is very shy, he doesn't call it a date, it's apparently dinner and drinks" she giggled unnecessarily; this was turning into Anurag's worst nightmare as he looked at Prerna pleadingly, but she only smiled – first at Mishka and then at Anurag.

"Listen, I will let you two carry on, my friends must be..." again someone spoke in between and cut Prerna's sentence mid-way.

"My God, what's taking you so long Pri??" it was Nivi now, Anurag rolled his eyes in frustration.

"I was just coming Nivi, just got caught up talking with Anurag and his girlfriend Mishka here" she replied to Nivi and turned towards her. Nivi looked taken aback as she kept looking between Anurag and Mishka.

"Hi Mishka, I am Nivi; Anurag's sister" she finally introduced herself.

"Sister? Oh! Hi Nivi, it is so great meeting you – I finally meet someone from your family baby!" she smiled brightly and looked at Anurag.

"Why don't you come join us Nivi? We are actually celebrating my birthday tonight!" Mishka spoke again, as Anurag's head shot up in horror.

"Arre, it's your birthday, happy birthday Mishka!" smiled Nivi, still eyeing Anurag carefully.

"No, No. Actually my birthday was yesterday but your brother forgot! So in order to make up for it, he has promised me a special night today" she winked at Nivi, who now glanced at Prerna, who still had the same polite smiling expression; Mishka continued, "So since we are celebrating and all of you are here, do join us Nivi and Prerna, you too of course".

"Hey belated happy birthday Mishka, and it is so kind of you to invite me, but I think I will leave with Anupam, I have an early morning hearing at the court tomorrow" said Prerna

"Anupam?" Mishka asked looking at Anurag.

"He is my fiancé and Prerna's best friend, we came together" replied Nivi.

"Oh then all three of you are joining us tonight, I am not hearing no for an answer, remember it's my birthday!" Mishka smiled brilliantly, after that, no one could say no.

Anurag felt like his brain was dead as he kept throwing guilty looks at Prerna once they were all at the couch in the lounge together, but she on the contrary looked quite comfortable. In fact the only person who looked visibly disturbed by this arrangement was Anupam; Anurag's respect for this guy was increasing by the minute, thank God for little sanity checks in the world.

"So Mishka, how long are you two going out?" it was Anupam who asked, Anurag didn't hold it against him, he was doing what any concerned best friend would do – he was looking out for Prerna.

"It's been almost a year now" she replied.

"Strange, Nivi never mentioned you"

"Yes, I haven't met his family before today"

"Oh, good that you did now, at least you will be there during our engagement – that way you can meet his dad too!" replied Anupam testily.

"Oh, you guys are getting engaged? How cute! Of course I will be there!" Mishka replied excitedly, and looked at Anurag. He only smiled back half-heartedly.

As the night steadily progressed, Mishka continued to chat with Anupam, Nivi and Prerna giving out nuggets about her happy and successful relationship with Anurag; Nivi spoke about their possible engagement date that was tentatively happening in another two weeks, Prerna spoke about her upcoming trip with Anupam to Goa to celebrate his bachelors before the engagement, in all this no one really noticed Anurag who had shrunk to one corner of the couch listening to all and trying to grasp the ridiculously smooth conversations that were happening in place of an explosion. Who was Prerna Sharma, he wondered.

Anurag sighed in relief when finally this dinner party from Hell came to a close; he wanted to talk to Prerna in private, but as expected Mishka insisted he dropped her home, and Anupam insisted he dropped Prerna home; Nivi got a free pass to choose and she decided to go along with Anupam and Prerna, it did hurt Anurag a little, she was really choosing Prerna over him in this.

***

Prerna was about to go to bed, she was mildly surprised to be honest; so Anurag had a steady partner, who'd think? All through the evening she didn't show it, but somewhere down the line was she expecting Anurag to come clean before her? Well, he had trusted her with the darkest truth about his life – Mohini, then why'd he need to hide something as petty as this? She hadn't asked him to be monogamous, she wasn't going to ask for explanations either, and yes it was his choice whether he wanted to share about other partners or not – those were the rules – but maybe she was a little disappointed, maybe she had assumed she knew everything about him – maybe in all this, Anurag had become a friend to her, and she felt she should have known about Mishka – but she wasn't going to ask him anything; in fact even if he wanted to come clean now, she wasn't going to hear them – she'd play by the rules – but somewhere deep down, she did feel a bit cheated – not for what he had done by not confiding, but because it was Anurag who had done it.

Nivi had asked Prerna clearly while in the car, about how she felt about this, if she knew about Mishka, she had lied on Anurag's behalf and said she did; she lied for Anupam honestly, she didn't want to complicate his and Nivi's relationship because of this. Anupam was strangely quiet about all this, he hadn't asked her anything, but she knew she wouldn't be spared, that's what the Goa trip will cover. Just as Prerna was about to crash her doorbell rang "Anurag" she sighed exasperated, as she got up to get the door.

"What?" she asked while holding the door.

"So you ARE mad at me, thank God."

"Excuse me?"

"No judging by your expression all evening I thought..never mind, Prerna, before you misunderstand me, we need to talk" he said earnestly.

"Anurag, I am really tired right now; I have a hearing early morning"

"But Prerna this is very important"

"Not more important than my case, Anurag" she replied coldly.

"Fine, okay. We will discuss this after your case tomorrow, I will wait, when do you get home tomorrow?" he asked as he tried to enter her apartment; Prerna blocked the door.

"I will be late from work tomorrow. I will call you when I have time, we can talk then"

Anurag sighed, "Prerna please don't stay mad at me, fine we will talk when you have rested and have calmed down, but please let me in, we will not talk about it"

"We will not have sex tonight either Anurag" she replied confidently looking into his eyes, he scrunched his eyebrows in surprise.

"Okay, we won't. I know, of course, not unless we have had the talk; I just want to sleep"

"Anurag, tomorrow is a very critical day for me, I need some space, I need to clear my head and think through a few arguments, please sleep at home tonight" the more she spoke the more a misplaced anger was setting in, and for the life of Prerna she didn't know why.

"Prerna, I don't want to sleep at home tonight, I am really bothered; I swear I won't disturb you, just let me come in" he sounded upset and low, but for some reason it wasn't helping Prerna's temper.

"Then why don't you crash at Mishka's?" she asked with a sweet smile.

"Seriously, you don't want to talk about this, and you want me to spend the night at Mishka's?" he asked clearly angry this time.

"Yes, I want you to spend the night at hers' Anurag. We gate crashed her birthday date, that's the least you can do for your girl" she said with a calm face and a polite smile.

Anurag just looked at her for one long second, his expression was unreadable, then he quietly left; and Prerna shut her door – why on earth was she so rude to him? Was she jealous? Why would she be jealous, even if he loved Mishka, so what? Even she loved Rishabh – no matter what, it was always Rishabh, then? Maybe she was too used to having him around, maybe she should put a check there; else she'd hamper Anurag and Mishka's relationship and spoil their 'thing' too.

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Word Count : 2609

A/N : Well readers, what do you feel? Trouble in Paradise? Well with these two you never know! :)

To give you a little deets, this chapter was fun writing for me, because of the whole 'almost about to be ex' meeting 'current flame' by fluke situation!

I have to tell you this, this setup has been inspired from my own life (back in the days!) and I cannot begin to tell you how awkward and darkly funny it was! Only in my case it was me and two guys (ex boyfriend and the new flame, who is now my husband); both men were trying very hard to play it cool but were literally inches from each others' throat and I was like, where do I run away now :P

Okay, back to the story!

Do let me know what you feel about this story, and I'd love to tell you more! Thank you so much for all the votes and comments - I feel like we are one small AnuPre family amongst ourselves now!

Much love,

A.