Wednesday

Manik's paternal aunt and her husband arrived in the morning. Madhyam singhania was their only son. Maan was the single male child of his family and so is manik. In the same way nandini is the only girl child of murthy clan. This is the reason why , she is everyone's favourite child, even for her brothers. Now both the homes felt like there was a marriage as slowly ,slowly guests started filling up. Manik , as promised , went to meet nandini in her office. He entered her cabin unannounced, in order to surprise her, instead he was the one who got surprised and a little embarrassed too as alok and abhi were present there too, discussing something. Manik quickly blurted a "sorry" and in haste said " I would wait outside" as he was about to leave, alok stopped him and smilingly said "relax beta, u have come to meet her, so talk to her, we can discuss this later, right abhi?" abhi seconded him and they both left, giving the couple privacy. Manik locked the cabin door and turned to look at nandini with a sheepish look saying " I always end up in such awkward situations, god knows how!!" nandini chuckled and said "its ok manik, hota hai, relax" manik encircled his arms around her waist and "hmmm, so how r u doing today ma'm? All good?" nandini encircled her arms around his neck "well ...now everything is perfect"

Manik: (serious) nandini u r losing weight , are you not having your meals properly??

Nandini: its good na, I m losing weight, I will look more presentable during the wedding

Manik: nandini, this is not funny, u look beautiful anyway, ok, so you don't need to lose weight.

Nandini: just beautiful?? This is the reason why I m losing weight,( she is not dieting or anything like that, its because of the marriage preparations that she is not having her meals properly, but in order to distract him she is saying all this)

Manik: (smiling now) sweetheart I don't need to tell you ,,that you are sexy , hot, ravishing...and you know ...I will tell you a secret...even by a look of yours, I get turned on!!

Nandini was shy now, she looked down, and of course he was telling the truth because she had herself felt "that" whenever their bodies touched. He lifted her face by holding her chin. She looked into his eyes. He was looking intensely at her .

Manik: nandini, u don't have any idea, what you do to me, not just physically , but emotionally as well, I m not good with words, so you will have to understand my unsaid emotions and thoughts too. Will you do that??

Nandini: I have started doing this long before manik, and I will continue doing it in future too.

Manik was very close to her face and was speaking softly but passionately. Now he was eyeing her lips and nandini happily gave in. He looked at her eyes again and she closed her eyes giving her approval. He placed his lips on hers, she parted her lips and he took her lower, full lips and started sucking it. She did the same with his upper lips. In between the sucking he bit her lip and nibbled it. She moaned in both pain and pleasure. He sucked the blood off her lips. Nandini started losing her balance, he sensed it, so he tightened his hold on her waist and without breaking the kiss, pushed her to the nearest wall. He left her lips for a fraction of a second to tilt his head for better access and she sucked in a lung full of air quickly for another breathless kiss. Now manik held her face in his palms and started sucking her lips again. She gripped his shirt near his waist tightly. She again ran out of breath and manik sensing that it has turned out to be long kiss left her lips and joined their foreheads without opening his eyes and they both took quick breaths calming their nerves. Nandini opened her eyes and saw manik was trying to control his raging hormones by clenching his jaws and taking sharp breaths. She moved her palms onto his cheeks and cupped it. Manik opened his eyes and his eyes were a little red because of the passionate kiss. She smiled, he smiled back. She then asked him for handkerchief, he gave her and she slowly cleaned the lipstick marks off his mouth. He was just admiring her, when she was done, he asked her to put on lipstick as bite marks were visible on her lips, and she obeyed . just then there was a knock on the door. Nandini after adjusting her dress opened the door, the driver had brought her lunch from home. She closed the door after taking the box and manik fed her carefully forcing her to overeat. After a lot of nagging , she finally gave in and ate till her stomach was more than full. Manik was happy like a kid when he was able to make her listen to him.
In this way another day ENDED.

THURSDAY

New day , new set of guests. Malhotra's welcomed neyonika's brother and his family, whereas murthys welcomed their family friend. (knowing the names of all the guests is not important as they are minor characters. Moreover, more names more confusion) the day went by uneventfully. Manik and nandini met as usual and their special romance and lots of talk and discussions. In the evening, nandini went for checking the fitting of her wedding outfits to neeta narula's opulent boutique. At night, chachi had arranged full body spa for her. Nandini felt so relaxed that she fell asleep instantly WITHOUT informing manik.
Manik first messaged her but when she did not reply for a long time, he rang her up. The phone rang full but nandini didn't pick up as it was in silent mode and she was fast asleep. He tried again. No reply. Again. No reply. Manik ran 6 times in the course of 2 hours taking breaks in between hoping she will revert back once she sees the missed calls. But all his hopes sank when he saw that it was 2 a.m. and he realised that she slept without informing him.

But the tragedy was that Mr. Manik Malhotra is not able to sleep without talking to his fianc. He passed the whole night twisting and turning in his bed, checking his phone every now and then. Finally it was early morning and manik got up. He needed to take out his frustration on something , so he decided to hit the gym early today. He got up. CHECKED HIS PHONE. Went to freshen up. Came out. CHECKED HIS PHONE AGAIN. Seeing no sign of nandini, he threw his phone on the bed and headed towards gym. Meanwhile his phone got switch off because of the impact. Manik was angry but being the sensible one , he first decided to hear her p.o.v . so to hear her calmly, he needs to vent his anger, so he started by hitting the punching bag.

Meanwhile nandini got up a little late than usual. But she felt fresh and rejuvenated. Out of habit, the first thing she did after opening her eyes was to check her phone. She saw 1 message and 8 missed calls from manik. She sat up on the bed with a jerk and looked at the details with wide open eyes. All the calls at different points of time in the night. Last call was at 2 a.m. realisation hit her that she slept without informing manik and the last missed call timing clearly shows that he was up almost whole of the night just to talk to her. A sense of guilt flooded her turning her big big eyes moist. But she controlled herself and rang him up hoping that he might not be angry. But to her dismay, his phone was switched off. She tried a few more times hoping that it might be a network error, but her heart sank when she felt that manik is angry and he has deliberately switched off his phone to avoid talking to her. Nandini started pacing in her room with the phone in her hand. After sometime , sheetal entered nandini's room to talk about something that had to be done today but before she could start speaking nandini stopped her and said in an impatient tone "amma plzz not now, I m very tensed, give me some time and don't worry I m ok and don't tell anyone about this as I don't want any kind of disturbance right now" sheetal has always been an understanding mother and she understood nandini's mood instantly " nandu beta, I don't know what the problem is , but I have always taught you to be patient and calm in whatever situation . so first calm yourself and relax I m going" nandini gave a little smile , sheetal caressed her cheek lovingly and planted a soft kiss on nandini's forehead and left the room. Nandini's mind started doing over duty and searched for every possible way to get in touch with manik. The best idea was to call mukti but she is a late bird , it would be too early for her, so nandini decided to wait for a while. She once again tried manik, but the automated voice said the same thing , so nandini went to freshen up.

Manik came back from gym to his room all sweaty from the anger filled workout session, picked up his phone to to check for nandini's call "WHAT THE HELL!!! " manik yelled in frustration "why is my phone off!! God damn it , nandini must have called!!" he ran one set of his fingers in his hair while the other held his phone, impatiently waiting for his phone to switch on. Just then he heard a knock on the door. He quickly opened it and was surprised to find mukti standing there with her eyes half opened and her hand extended in front of manik with her phone on it. It appeared to manik that she is sleep walking and sleep talking.
Mukti: bhai...ur phone...is off ...nandini wants to talk to u...here take my phone...she is on call..."

With this mukti put the phone in his hand, turned and walked away . manik was amused by her half asleep act and smiled " she is still a baby!!". He got inside his room and put mukti's phone on his ear and said

Manik: hello( cold tone)

Nandini was waiting impatiently, nervously, guessing if manik was angry. His tone confirmed her suspicion.

Nandini: (panicky mode on)

hello...manik...I m sorry, I m really sorry, I know its totally my fault. Actually I had a full body spa and I don't know when I fell asleep and did not inform u. But believe me this is the first and last time. NANDINI PROMISE.

A broad smile lit up manik's face hearing her voice. He realised that there is nothing to be angry as sleeping can't be a mistake. Moreover her sweet talks always manage to throw his anger in gutter. And the nandini promise was icing on the cake!! He so wanted to hug her tight and say that he is not angry, he can never be angry!! But he controlled himself and thought of acting a little, to know to what extent she can go to restore his mood.

Manik: nandini!! What will I do of your sorry??? You know I couldn't sleep the whole night. Such a bad habit I have developed of sleeping while talking to u!!
Nandini was till now in manofyiing mode but she heard him terming it as a "bad habit", she got angry.

Nandini: manik you mean to say that talking to me is a bad habit??

Manik: (plan working) nandini first you do a mistake and now you are talking rudely to me? WOW!!!

Nandini: (realising) ok ok I am sorry...I said sorry na!! Plzz maan jao (baby tone)

Manik: sorry is not enough nandini (rudely, of course fake)

Nandini: (after thinking) manik I am willing to do anything to make it up to you.

Manik:(triumphant smile adores his face) are you sure nandini??

Nandini: (confident) yes!

Manik: (mischievous tone) you will not back out?

Nandini was slightly sceptical now realising the mischief in his tone. But now since she had given her word, she should not back out.

Nandini: manik I will not back out, tell me

Manik: you will spend Monday night with me.

Nandini's senses were suddenly on alert mode now.

Nandini: what do you mean by spend the night with you? (nervous)

Manik: (chuckling) nandini relax, I am just asking you to be with me on Monday night, I have some work with you and it won't be difficult as on Monday both our family and guests will be assembled together at our resort in panvel, since from Tuesday , rituals of our marriage will begin. So are you up for it?

Nandini: yeah...ok. so tell me are u still angry with me?

Manik: no, I am not angry as long as you stick by your words.

Nandini: so you will come to meet me today na?? (baby tone)

Manik: (laughing) of course I will be coming baby!! Now go get back to your daily routine, I have also to get ready.

Nandini: that I will do but I wanted to suggest something to you...

Manik: ok..go ahead

Nandini: you have not slept last night, so take a day off and sleep for a while. Please (baby tone)

Manik felt happy seeing her care and concern for him, but he had some important meetings today so he assured her that he is fine and it is important to go to office. She did not force him and then they hung up.

ONE MORE DAY ENDED.
4DAYS TO GO...
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Credits to the writer- Manini Mehra