"And there you go! Miss gorgeous Nandini Murthy."

I looked up in the mirror staring at my reflection. With a single black line drawn over my eyelid, cheeks a little rosier and puffed with the help of compact powder and blush powder, my face did look a little glowy. The pink lip gloss highlighted my lips that I so wished Papa wouldn't murder my best friend for the art work she did on my face.

"I look..." I breathed out nervously, before looking at Navya, my best friend. "Beautiful? Gorgeous? Stunning? Anything but that frown on your forehead will do good for me, you know!" She replied, while heaving a distress filled sigh.

"Different would be fine?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes at me. "In what way? Different that I look so out of the world that I don't recognize myself or different that I feel like it's someone else staring back at me when I look in the mirror?"

"The latter one probably." I cringed while staring at my lips. "What happens if I just rub that thing off?" I stared at her expecting a positive response. "A murder!" She replied, shrugging and I just let out a groan.

"I look like a makeup freak, yaar! What should I do to look natural?" I let out another groan and she pulled me up from the chair. "Act normal? That's going to do the job. That's not even M for makeup yet and you're acting weird. Now, when you meet the guy, just be yourself and forget that you're wearing something on your face."

"Too hard when even the neighbors next door would be able to notice my red lips." I babbled and she pushed at my shoulders to move me out of the room. "Pink lips. Now, come on. Get this a** out of the room."

"But they're not here yet." I argued and I heard the sound of a car's engine which meant a car was nearing to my house. "Looks like, they are."

I let out a sigh.

Let's do this, Nandini.

But let's just get these stuffs off your face first.

***

"Namaste!"

I joined my palms in the traditional way, and smiled at the couple in front of me, before taking a seat, along with my friends and parents.

"What was your name again, bete?" I heard the man and I looked at him, as I was busy looking around. This place seems to be familiar to me. I wonder why!

"Manik!"

I kept the conversation short, before looking at Cabir, who was sitting on my right, staring at the laddoos in front of him.

Damn this guy!

Stomping at his left foot, I smiled at the lady in front of me. Why are they all smiles? I'm only here to see their daughter. Not like we're already getting married next week!

"Gadhe! Stop staring at the food!" I mumbled under my breath, while looking down and then towards my right, to fake a smile at his face which is now cringed out of pain from the assault I did with his foot.

"You idiot! I just died from that stomp! What the hell do you do to your feet in the gym? Hold a dozen of bricks with them?" He winced and gasped before faking a smile at my parents and then at the couple in front of us. "Shut up! Here I'm getting anxiety issues because of this meetup and you want to create your own love story with the food kept on the table!"

He glared at me before looking at my father. "Manik wants to meet the girl, Uncle. Otherwise he's going to stomp my foot again and I wouldn't be able to use that to walk till my bride's home, when it's time for me to get married."

I stared at him aghast. I was pretty sure my ears were emitting smoke by now.

"Ghar chal tu!" I gritted my teeth while glaring at him, before I heard people laughing out. Oh God, please stop that damned second hand embarrassment!!

"I'll get Nandini." The lady sitting in front of me, who introduced herself to be the mother of the girl, stood up and I stared at my parents who were giving me smiles that was filled with mischief. I rolled my eyes at them, before looking at Mukti, Dhruv and Alia, who were all having their eyebrows raised at me in amusement.

"I'm going to get you for this. I swear, dude!" I mumbled, while glaring at Cabir again, who only shrugged in response. "Yeah, I've been hearing that for the past twenty years of my life. Go ahead and tell me another joke!"

I swear to God, I'm going to murder him one day. He should thank his God that I'm fond of his mom and I don't want her to cry over this guy when he dies.

What if I just paralyze him?!

"Yahi Nandini!"

Oh damn! This weird feeling when I hear her name!

"Take a deep breath and look at the damn girl in front of you. Sharmaana tho ladkiyon ka kaam hai Bhai!" I glared at Cabir for his pretty awesome comment, before looking ahead, at the girl.

And I suddenly had a series of flashbacks going on in my head.

"Oh hello! It's Nandini Murthy! Not some random HEY YOU GIRL! You get that?"

"So I'm not dying to sit beside you. Manik Makhotra doesn't like girls."

"Why? Has any girl thought of you as gay but you're straight? Oh wait, are you gay? I'm sorry if that was a bad joke? I really thought you were straight because you were staring at that girl's chest!"

"What the f***?!!!"

"I just don't like guys like you! Ughhh! Can you move that damned a** out of my way?!"

"You on periods, Murthy?"

Oh sh*t!!!

"Manik Malhotra?"

I stared at her shocked face, before realizing that I must be looking the same with the similar expression as hers, just with different facial features and an addition of mustache and beard.

"Well! Well! Well!" I heard Mukti muttering under her breath and I let out a sigh.

"Hi, Nandini!"

***

"Ahem! It's too hot outside, yeah!"

I heard him again. It was another sentence that he's been saying but I was still in the state of shock. Why him?

Why the same old enemy Malhotra back from college days?!

"Okay! You need to speak up. I can't be the only one breaking the ice." I let out a sigh, before looking up at him. "We shouldn't be sitting here, and you know that, Malhotra."

He simply stared at me before nodding his head in response.

"Yeah, because this isn't my father's company."

I frowned at his statement before realization dawned upon me. He was talking about our last meeting. Final day of college life.

I smiled reminiscing those moments.

"Neither you are!" I said, and we both stared at each other before smiling.

"What are you doing now?" I asked him, and he raised his eyebrows. "You don't know? I mean, we're meeting just because of one reason now."

I rolled my eyes before shrugging.

"I didn't ask for the guy's career details. I know my parents would only be getting a guy who has a good salary." I replied genuinely. If at all a girl's parents are looking for a good groom for their daughter, a well paid job would be on their list of qualities for the guy.

"I own a startup with Cabir now. You do remember Cabir, yeah? So it's an advertising company and it's running pretty well. ManBir's ADs, it's called." I remember hearing that name from one of my bosses. "I do remember my boss talking about having a meeting with one of the owners for an ad shooting for our brand." He sat there surprised hearing me and I nodded in response.

"WOW! I didn't know we were famous around Nandini Murthy's area as well." I rolled my eyes hearing him. "So what about Fab5?" I questioned not bothering to respond to his witty comment. "We do sing occasionally, of course the Fab5 is still alive." I smiled hearing him. He's not a bad talker. That's a new realization.

"How about you?" I smiled immediately on hearing his question as it reminded me of my promotion. "HR department of Kapoor's Enterprises. After getting our bachelors, I went to US for getting a Masters degree in HR. I—kind of got promoted to Senior HR last week."

"Wh-hat? Hey, that's great news!" He looked genuinely happy to hear that and I felt overjoyed for some reason. "Yeah, thanks! It's kind of overwhelming and weird when I talk about my work now, as it's been only a week since the promotion. So don't mind the brag in my voice." I replied cheekily and he let out a chuckle.

"I remember going through a similar situation when our startup got into its first successful project. It was like I could cry buckets but that doesn't suit my personality, so I just talk to every other client about the first success and try to get the next project. You know, the lack of confidence I had wasn't even present after that. I bragged and bragged till the energy died in me."

I laughed hearing him and I didn't realize that we were talking nonstop as if we weren't behind each others' throats a few years ago.

"So...what about this meeting?"

I shrugged at that question. It's not like we could tolerate each other just because we had a pretty nice conversation now.

Marriage is all about sharing a life together.

"Do you...want me to make up some excuse?" I looked up at him surprised with the fact that he's willing to do some kind of help for me. "What ever happened to the mighty arrogant Manik Malhotra? Let me guess, you're his twin brother?"

He stared at me blankly, before heaving a sigh.

"And I thought Cabir was the drama queen." I chuckled hearing him. "I never got even a whiff of nice from you before, hence why the reaction."

He stared at me for a while, a little more than I expected him to. Why was he staring?

"Have I troubled you so much in the past?" His question came out so sudden that I was thunderstruck for a moment. "You know, I just took everything as fun in the past. It was college days, yaar. Zindagi mein koi bhi phase khatam hoja lekin college days bina maze kare nahi chalna chahiye. It was a motto of life for me. So I never gave a thought about what I did during my college days, or whoever I had a fight with. It was just...fun to be a cool dude!"

By the time he was finished, I was sure that I might have been staring at him open mouthed.

"You're..." I began before coughing out the discomfort. "Different. I'm not used to the mature Manik Malhotra who can also act humane."

He had his gaze narrowed at me and I let out a chuckle.

"You weren't that bad. It's just I preferred to have a normal college life, without any fights or any other distraction. Because I loved my studies. But now that I think about it, it was eventful. Thanks to you for the innumerable fights we had." I smiled at him genuinely and he had a soft smile on his face. For some reason, I'm liking that smile.

Oh dear God!!

***

"So I can be arrogant and mighty all over again. I just got appraisal from Nandini Murthy! Man!" I pumped my fist in the air and she rolled her eyes before letting out a soft laugh. And for some reason, I feel peaceful staring at that smile.

Whatever reason is that I'm liking this version of Nandini Murthy wasn't there in the past.

Or was it? Nah!

"I can just say that we didn't get along in the past and tend to fight a lot. My parents can understand. You don't need to make up excuses for me."

So she still doesn't like me? Now why does that hurt?

"Uh, yeah!" I replied faking a smile. She returned the smile, but there was something off about it.

"So, shall we?"

And we got up to walk out, to the main living area of the house.

"It's this way out—" And before I knew I slipped and guess what? I grabbed Nandini's hands before I fell.

"Ouch! Manik!" She shrieked but when I looked up at her, who was lying on top of me, I knew I was gone.

Staring in her wide almond shaped eyes, my hands resting on her hip, I knew we were never going to be the enemies Manik Malhotra and Nandini Murthy that Space Academy talked about.

"Nandini?" I breathed out, and I felt the skin of her hand which was resting on my chest. "I want to give a chance to this relationship."

And those eyes were widened a little more. I smiled and nodded.

"I feel different with you now. Yes, I would love to fight and argue with you like we've always been but I also want to be the Nice Manik Malhotra for you. I mean, you don't have anymore exams now that my fight could distract you from your studies. Yeah?"

"Manik?" She stared at me with her eyes full of questions but with a tinge of mirth in them. "You can think about it. Don't say a No in haste."

"But Manik I—" she began and I rolled her to the left so that her back rested on the floor and she could breathe some air that I hope I didn't contaminate with my breath.

"Think about it." I smiled at her, and sat up to leave. "Mr. Speedometer Malhotra!" I looked back at her surprised when she held onto my hand, stopping me from standing up on my feet. "I don't need to think about it." I bit onto my lips in disappointment. "Because I feel the same."

I looked up at her confused. She stood up and forwarded her hand to me.

"Do you mind dating before marriage? Just to make sure we don't end up among the divorced couples."

I grinned up at her, before holding onto her hand and stood in front of her.

"I don't mind. Do you mind getting married in Kolkata? Actually that was my Daadi's final wish before she passed away."

She smiled so bright at me that I knew if Daadi were here, she would have told me to pick her up and get married.

"I would love to, Manik Malhotra."

"I'm glad, Miss Murthy."

~~~The End~~~

First story down! How was it? This book is too filmy. There's nothing new in this story, but I just wanted to start with something that's filmy because that would match with the idea of this book.

Let me know in the comments if you have any new ideas.

With love,
Affu .