"Who?" asked Manik sharply as his head shot up; he had forgotten to breathe in haste.

"You" repeated Aryaman patiently, through gritted teeth.

"Aryaman, if this is some kind of a joke you're pulling out on me, let me tell you this isn't funny. I am damn serious, right now" Manik almost growled.

"It is a joke Manik; the way she has selflessly loved you, it is a joke. You deserved none of that, but you still got it; it is a joke indeed; and you know the biggest joke? That is, without any fault of hers she is being pulled into a loveless marriage, whereas you get to fool around happily with my miserable excuse of a cousin, Soha" Aryaman finished bitterly.

"No" Manik replied softly in disbelief.

"See, that's how easy it is for you to escape; just deny the truth on the face" spat Aryaman. But Manik didn't mind; for the first time ever since he came, when Manik looked at Aryaman, he felt Manik was positively earnest.

"Aryaman, we've been apart for too long now; you don't know a lot of things bro. I love Nandini. I do, I do, I do. Just that, I always thought she loved you; she always stood up for you against me even. I hated you for that, more than anything else. I am sorry" Manik mumbled defeated.

Aryaman looked at him triumphantly for a second; but his face darkened the moment he realized that even though his plan had finally worked it was a bit too late.

"You're late Manik, you have ruined her alright; her roka is tomorrow with a guy named Cabir Dhawan" Aryaman told him softly. Manik looked too disgruntled at being reminded of Nandini's impending roka; he just sat back defeated, and mumbled to himself,

"It's all my doing; how did I not see it in good time. I always loved Nandini, always!"

Aryaman exhaled deeply looking at his friend's sorry state, he hated him for hurting Nandini, but he hated to see this idiot hurt too; whatever it was, Manik was his best friend, and as much as he detested the bugger right now, he knew Manik needed his help; and grudgingly he decided to play Cupid, one more time, this time for the this idiot who was looking sorry, sad, and stragely funny, sitting on his couch and pouting.

"Bro, you've not exactly lost everything, YET. I mean there is a great chance that you will in another one day, but you have twenty-four hours on you; instead of settling on my couch like a potato, buck up now; we've gotta roka to ruin in Delhi" he smiled as Manik looked up at him astonished.

"You're...you're going to help me?" he asked surprised. After how he had behaved with Aryaman in the recent past, the chances of him helping him seemed nil.

"Yes I will, for two reasons; for one, you're the best hope I have of keeping Nandini happy as she can't be happy with any other man; and secondly, you're my best bud" he smiled and opened his arm to hug Manik. A pleasantly surprised Manik hugged Aryaman and realized how big a fool he had been throughout the semester; here Aryaman was trying every way possible to make him realize he loved Nandini and he was out there waiting for an opportunity to pile on him.

"Aryaman, I promise you two things; for starters, I will keep Nandini happy for life and never leave her side and for main-course, I will let you return that punch on my jaw very soon."

With that they two best friends re-united and Manik decided to join Aryaman in Nandini's roka with that Cabir. On their way out of his apartment, Manik casually mentioned, "And oh, your miserable excuse of a cousin and I have broken up few weeks back; I dumped her. I had found out her true colours"

Aryaman laughed, he was surprised that he didn't feel one bit sorry for Soha, and Manik was right, her true colours were horrible indeed. "Did it go smooth?" he enquired curiously.

"Not quite, given that now I am a rockstar in making; but she did scream at the end, that she always knew Dhruv was a better choice" Manik chuckled.

***

Nandini was sitting in her bedroom, Aliyaa was taking out her outfit for the next day; as she constantly chirped about her di's impending perfect and romantic roka; she chatted without realizing as usual that the other person was completely zoned out; she discussed the perfect jewellery, hairstyle and make-up. But Nandini wasn't listening. Everything seemed to have happened in a flash ever since that fateful night with Manik and Aryaman; she had come home in a dishevelled fashion to find her Aams waiting for her; for a moment all her worry was gone and she came to hug her; but in her warm and secure embrace, she lost all self-restraints; she weeped like a baby girl unable to contain herself; first her grandmother thought she had got emotional seeing her, but soon she realized there was something else too; she made Nandini sit and spoke to her soothingly and Nandini couldn't hold all this inside herself for long; she ended up telling everything to her grandmother and soon after, they called Aliyaa over to her place too.

With both her girls sitting in front of her, she cleared all the confusion between them and both girls had hugged till they cried; from the way Aryaman had helped Nandini, her grandmother was sure Aryaman was a nice boy, so she wasn't worried about Aliyaa; what worried her was her Nandini's future. It didn't look too good; this Manik was obviously irresponsible and had hurt her granddaughter a lot already, and her granddaughter seemed to be hopelessly in love with him; no if there was no future, this couldn't go on she had thought; and the only way Nandini could be kept happy was by making her move on; yes, if she got her engaged to someone suitable, then the sense of responsibility towards the man would force her to move on - that was the only way, she had thought satisfied.

Having decided that she was getting her Nandu married, it wasn't difficult after that, she always had a boy in her radar for Nandini, it was her childhood best friend Neetu's grandson Cabir; he was a little older than Nandini, well educated and had recently started working; in fact a few weeks back Neetu was saying that she was looking for a bride for him; now Aams had decided to take their friendship forward.

Since then there was no looking back; Aams had brought her girls back with her to Delhi and soon Cabir and his parents had come to visit them; Cabir liked her from the very start and convincing Nandini wasn't too difficult for Aams either; she knew everything so she convinced her that if there was a way to revive life after everything, it was this way. Nandini accepted reluctantly, Cabir was nice; had she not been in love with Manik, maybe today she would have been sitting here excitedly waiting for her and Cabir's roka, Cabir was cool and funny and most importantly understanding; but would she ever love him, who knew.

***

Sitting in the cafe and sipping cappuccino, Dhruv looked at Soha thoughtfully; as she pledged her love for him and her mistake for taking pity on Manik for the sake of his career and leaving him; Dhruv was sure Soha was lying, but his parents were really disheartened to hear that Aliyaa had left him. When they questioned her, she had told them how he had left her in the first place, the relationship between both the families had soured considerably, now after a few weeks, his parents were again on his back to choose a girl and get settled in life. Soha was a good fit for him, she was pretty and gelled in easily, she was a prize to show-off at parties, she had everything needed for being a perfect trophy wife, only she was sly too; that didn't bother him, when was he planning to not rave around, after his wedding, anyway? He sighed in satisfaction as reached a conclusion in his mind.

"Okay Soha, I am ready to give this another shot; but there is something you've got to do too" he told Soha shrewdly.

"Anything, love" replied Soha with all the earnestness she could muster on her fake face.

"No more dating honey, we've gotta get engaged in a few weeks time, you game?" he smiled at Soha's vacant expression.

***

"Hi!" Mukti said as she opened the door to her apartment for the second time today. It was Abhimanyu. As she let him inside, she had a slight blush on.

"You're here, at his hour? Anything up?" she asked softly.

"Err.. yes. The EPL finals on, wanted company to watch; you er..still follow it?" he asked cautiously and quickly turned to glance at her television screen; sure enough, the EPL was on.

"Of course I still follow, come on in" she smiled happily and led Abhimanyu to her ever familiar den; Abhimanyu sat down comfortably and started watching the match as Mukti sat there curiously watching him; she had forgotten about the match now. Abhimanyu seemed more gripping, she felt this insane attraction towards him; she remembered their passionate embrace in the middle of the football field suddenly, after a very long time; then after their relation had soured, only after playing football recently did their friendship resurrect enough for them to at least look at each other in the eye. Football seemed to be the greatest shipper of their relationship so far she thought smiling, and as she sat there, she realized even today it was football that got Abhimanyu to her doorstep; as she sat there thinking and smiling at Abhimanyu, he happened to glance at her; she was caught off guard and mumbled embarrassed.

"You err, want to call Navya here too? She can join us you know, you will like it" she said not looking into his eyes.

"Navya has gone to attend Nandini's roka in Delhi" he replied awkwardly.

As the meaning of the sentence seemed to hit Mukti in a full blow, she gasped in shock; so that was why she was doing a bunk? Nandini's roka? And she had never told her? As anger flared inside her, she got up abruptly. Abhimanyu stood up too.

"Mukti what happened?"

"Nothing you watch the match, I gotta go inside and pack" she replied through gritted teeth.

"Pack?" he asked surprised.

"I am off to Delhi on the first flight tomorrow; my roomie can't get hitched without informing me; and Aryaman? He hid this too?" she asked surprised.

"Mox, I mean err..Mukti; Aryaman isnt the guy who she is having the roka with" he replied awkwardly. He continued as Mukti's head shot up with even more shock.

"It's somebody else; it's an arranged wedding" he replied.

Mukti stared at him and suddenly realized something was amiss, Nandini wasn't the kind to date one and marry another; she never seemed too emotionally inclined with Aryaman anyway and even while with Aryaman, she had seen her looking at Manik longingly, now she was suddenly getting hitched to someone completely random and she hadn't informed her too? Something was amiss and she would find out.

"Abhimanyu, please book my ticket to Delhi on the first flight tomorrow; I gotta roka to stop before it's too late" she hissed.

"Mukti, that can be risky you know, it's not a family gathering, it's a ceremony preceeding a wedding, no one likes outsider intervention here"he tried to convince her, but she refused to see sense, sensing trouble Abhimanyu decided to join her too; just in case there was trouble he thought.

***

When Aryaman and Manik reached Delhi, the first thing Aryaman did was call up Aliyaa and asked her to meet him at the earliest; he said it was important and she needed to meet him well before their house woke up to arrange for the roka that was due that day.

Aliyaa was surprised, she knew Aryaman was joining them for the roka, but he wasn't due until afternoon. Then what was he doing in Delhi at 5am in the morning? But eventually she agreed. And in the early hours of the morning, when her family was just about stirring in their sleep, she pulled on a hoodie and left the house to see Aryaman; before leaving she left a note next to her di's pillow.

"Di I will be back soon; please cover up before Aams; it's urgent!! xoxo, Aloo"

When Aliyaa met Aryaman, she was startled to see Manik with him, "Aryaman Khurana, what is this man doing here?" she asked sternly. Aryaman and Manik took it as their queue to start rambling and after a lot of complicated explanations, they explained the situation to her; after looking hard at Manik for a few seconds, Aliyaa's face broke into a mischievous smile.

"You idiot, what took you so long? My di has been waiting forever now! Okay don't waste your time on this samosa and come with me, we gotta roka to stop at the earliest!"

As Manik and Aryaman, with a relief on their face followed, they were happy to know they had one more accomplice in this mission. While going to Nandini's Manik couldn't hold on to his excitement, he was going to see Nandini after all most three weeks and not only that he was also going to propose to her; it felt right in all the ways, Soha's didn't feel right he thought; nervous though he still was, he was still feeling better with friends by his side. I am coming Nandu he thought and smiled.

***

A/N: So, peeps! What do you think? Will Manik baba be able to pull of this HEIST without more confusions and complications? This story is very near its closure now! We have two more chapters and one Epilogue. 

So, now I would like to make one request to my silent readers! Thank you for being a part of the journey, but if you liked the story and followed it thus far, I would request you to drop in a vote of appreciation! It would mean the world to me :)

Thank you for the ones voting already and leaving sweet comments! I cannot tell you how much they mean to me :)

Do let me know how this chapter is, did you guys like it? Always up for a chat! <3

WORD COUNT : 2,324