Nandini 

Naina gurgled the second her eyes laid on me. 

"There you are... I was looking for you everywhere," 

I paced towards the man that I owed everything to, with a gentle smile that spoke volumes, but stopped in front of the little one that captivated me. I flicked her chubby cheek, to which her jaw dropped in awe. She was turning six months old soon... 

Wow... How time had flown. Are you turning six months, baby? How does it feel? 

What followed was a smile that answered my mental questions. I momentarily lost myself there. 

Both Navya and Cabir didn't expect to see me and were still recovering from my arrival. Neither was Manik. His back was what faced me, despite the grand announcement I had made walking into their conglomerate at the kitchenette. 

"Hey, Cabir! I need a favour." I said, awfully bubbly. Cabir gaped as if I had referred to the wrong person. "Apparently, there's this file that my old man needs. Any idea who might I have to approach?" 

He eyed Manik, who was patting Naina's back. Manik most definitely was not making eye contact. If he could, he probably wouldn't choose to spend a single second in solitude with me. "Uh..." 

Navya pulled her lower lip between her teeth. Manik's indifference was a statement in itself; he wasn't going to budge, even if it was his project. He was most probably looking for a way to get rid of me as soon as possible.  

"I... I can help you with that," She intervened, lifting Naina from Manik's embrace and taking Naina's baby bag from a nearby chair. "I'll be right back," My baby politely complied as well, hurrying away with her godmother. 

"I'll join you," I galloped without flicking a glimpse at Manik. 

***

Sonali

Manik had stopped answering his phone for the last few days. He was so immersed in work, I had heard. When Father had been talking about those files. I offered to get them, as I wasn't doing much in the company anyways, but even otherwise I wouldn't deny an opportunity to see Manik. 

As I passed the corridors, a few smiles were thrown my way. I had become a regular at HyLyte. Nobody saw me as a visitor or outsider anymore, and with the opportunity to go to Berlin with the Graphic Design department, I was higher up in the league of VIPs.

My equation with Manik was somewhat complicated. There was a part of me that wanted to be with him all the time. Every waking moment of my day was better with him around, right from touring the company in the initial days to establishing personal connections with the people in the industry. 

I learned how every person had a story to tell, and every person added some intrinsic value to the company. Growing up rich, with a lot of material happiness, I often overlooked the tiny things that made a person human. Manik helped me explore this side of life, to find goodness in the little things and happiness in things money couldn't buy. 

Another part of me developed as a consequence of being around Manik so much–I expected nothing from him in return–not even his time. It wasn't always that way. Starting off, I thought he was like every other man, wavered by lust and wealth. I was physically attracted to him and exhibited it in crass ways. I embarrassed myself multiple times in the process. Gosh, those days make me cringe. 

I was grateful to the fleeting moments I would see him pass by in the corridors, barely smiling, almost lifeless. It was that way for the last two-ish weeks. A doubt that was buried for months together resurfaced; I brushed it off when I saw Cabir sneaking into a restricted doorway at the end of the hallway. 

That area was not for staff of his tier. 

But Cabir could lead me to Manik. 

I headed towards the glass brushed with a matte coat to opacify it. From the looks of it, I could see two outlines by the edge of the paper stacks. I couldn't decipher much more, but my first thought was that it could be Manik. 

Shoving the door open, I called, "Manik..." but to my surprise or sheer shock, the other man was not Manik. Neither were they two men just hidden against the paper stacks. They were two men in the moment of a lover's kiss, and I had walked in on them. I would've shut the door if I was thinking straight, but neither of them was straight.  

The couple quickly disintegrated, trying to find words to explain themselves.  

In my periphery, the lifts behind me beeped, and I heard footsteps. 

"Generally, this is the floor that we keep important documents in," A woman said, her bangles chiming. Another playful voice, like that referring to a baby, rang in the background. 

"Sonali?" 

I felt a pat on my shoulder and then a gasp. 

***

Nandini

Aryamann was into men. And so was Cabir. There was no easy way to put it, and neither of them was comfortable about coming out with it. The reactions from the two women that afternoon was proof enough that this wasn't a topic that would be received well.   

Navya had uneasily left the hallway through the stairs, and Naina and I hurried behind her. I needed to talk to Sonali as well, but Navya was a bigger priority to handle at that instance.

"Listen, Navya..."

"There is nothing I want to hear. This is disturbing to the core. How... Ugh..." She flapped her arms, gulping. "I was looking forward to the pumpkin pie, not anymore!" She reached the terrace garden of the building. 

Naina wasn't in a very jolly mood either, though she was with her Mommy. Maybe she was partially disappointed with her mother too. Navya finally sat on a concrete step. I gathered a second to breathe. My baby clung to my shirt. "That wasn't how anyone was supposed to know, and I can't believe Sonali did that." 

"Don't blame her! You're nothing less yourself," I realized she must've thought about my equation in their relationship. I wouldn't lie, if I was her, I would judge myself too. 

"You're right. But please don't tell Manik,"

"You left Manik for that unfaithful man, who is into other men..."

"It's..." Not that straight-forward.

"Disgusting."

"Please don't tell Manik,"

Minutes passed by as Navya processed her thoughts, tapping her feet restlessly. I stood in front of her praying for her to say something, anything... a yes or a no... yell at me, tell me off for what I was doing... being the righteous woman she was. 

"You know Nandini, I was rooting for you two... I really was. But I don't know when you changed so much. That you sold your relationship with him and your baby, and for what?"

"Manik's career."

"I don't understand..."

"That night we went out to Little Italy, your family and mine, I saw Aryamann with Richard. They... they were a couple back then." I went on to explain how Aryamann had seen Manik and me together as a family, and was going to put a word to my father about it–have Manik's project seized and him dismissed for overstepping relationship boundaries in the company–if I didn't keep my mouth closed about his sexuality. 

That move would risk Manik his entire career, with Sonali's statements and my father's legal advisor against Manik's, without my help of course with me being one of the accused. As such Manik was so particular about money matters, with our breakup being one of the triggering factors for his sensitivity with the topic, that he wouldn't extend a hand in my direction for help even if he was desperate for it. 

His reputation would be in shards. My daughter would have to grow up counting pennies to buy her favorite snack bar, or be bullied in her school for being raised by a parent who would be an offender. There would be no limits to how much my father and my sister would go to defame him if the truth was revealed.

And above all, I was scared to be dumped by Manik for money. That was why I chose to save him, and selfishly myself and my baby, by exchanging a secret for a secret. A clause binding to keep other's suspicions away, including my father's and sister's... 

"He told me everyone suspected Manik's relationship with me to be something beyond platonic. He said we acted like a crabby couple and asked me to announce an engagement between us to the rest of the company, to keep every snoopy nose off the radar," By then I was beginning to tear up. I hadn't put into words before how much I had been through, and even though my narration was merely external events, the trauma replayed through my narrative.  

Navya was beyond amazed. It was as if a whole world outside of her perception existed that she had paid no heed to. She knew I seemed off that dinner night, but didn't know why. She noticed the distance between Aryamann and I but hadn't questioned it. To say the least, our plan had worked in deceiving her as well that nothing existed between Manik and I. 

As if realizing something unusual, Navya's voice softened, "He manipulated you." Yes, and I fell for it. "How? I... you would be the last person I would think who would... be manipulated..."

"I think when people know your weaknesses and use them against you, sometimes you have no choice." And it occurred to me how Manik's biggest weakness, myself, turned against him to get him to do something I wanted. Maybe it was for his wellbeing, but he was manipulated into it. 

I ripped him off the opportunity to choose for himself. Unnecessarily putting my baby through deep emotional turmoil.  

"So that promotion, his trip to Berlin..." 

"That was a negotiation," I added, feeling proud of the only good thing that came out of that clause.

"I... didn't know any of this." Her eyes fixated on the ground, as she swirled the corner of her dupatta. "You do really love him."

"I thought you, out of all people, wouldn't ever question that."

"Me too." She smiled softly, shifting over for me to sit beside her. "Why can't I tell Manik? This would solve everything between you two,"

"No. If he learns of it, he will reject the offers, and everything I've put on the line will go to waste." All I wanted was that one thing to go right. That was it. 

"If it was just the two of you... but you both have a child together. She is going to pick up on these things. You don't know how much babies learn in their early downloading stages..." And that was true. She was really being churned in the drama between her parents. 

Her fingers were in her warm mouth, sucking rapidly. "I think she's hungry," I said, bundling her in my lap and showered her with wet, tear-smeared kisses. 

"Yeah she is, it's past lunchtime for her." Navya smiled, thinking about how if Manik was here, he would yell his brains out that his daughter was fed twenty minutes late. "If you ask me, I really think you should explain everything to him."

***

Sonali

I was by Nandini's cubicle waiting for her. She said she needed twenty minutes, and would see me at her cubicle. I was five minutes early and had a lot of questions for her. The first of them was why was Aryamann kissing another man (or leaning in for one) if he was with Nandini? Secondly, did she already know about them? Before Manik did or after Manik knows, because if anyone should know first it should have to be Cabir's best friend and not some random woman?

Thirdly, was she being led on, only for this bomb to drop unexpectedly that Aryamann was interested in the opposite gender, or was their relationship polyamorous from the start?

"Hey, I apologise for keeping you waiting," It seemed like she said it for the heck of it, but anyways. She didn't really like me, I didn't know why exactly.

I said nothing until I stepped into her workspace. She smelled of a familiar baby smell, which took me back to the doubts I kept oppressing. 

"Did you know about them?" I was authoritative in my question, which Nandini clearly didn't like.

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes... I know personally, I would not be comfortable with my partner being with someone else, are you?" 

"Look, you don't have to get into my business. I just wanted to tell you... that wasn't the right thing to do. Them coming out should be their own decision, not yours," And there she was again, getting preachy at me when she knew all along and still didn't give two hoots about herself as long as it brought her money.

"You knew..."

"I don't know why it bothers you so much that I knew," She added in a cloud of indifference. No, no way Manik and she had a thing. Manik would never have feelings for a woman of her character. "But I have one request for you. Please don't leak Cabir's secret to Manik. Let it come from his mouth,"

Almost defensively, I asked, "Why do you care about Manik?"

"I don't. I care about Cabir. I know if Cabir's secret goes out to Manik through anyone else, their friendship will be sabotaged and if you want to be in Manik's good books, you should know this–Manik is all about good relationships," 

That was yet another reason why I cared about him so much.

"I won't," I justified, putting Manik's emotions and feelings first, and then exiting the room with a sense of superiority. If anything, I had a better chance at being chosen by Manik over Nandini, no matter how well she bonded with his child.