Finally the wait is over.. And here I am with the update.

How are you all doing?
Hope everyone is fit 'n' fine.

Before you scroll ahead, I wanna ♥️THANK YOU♥️ so much for your constant love & support, and patient wait.
Aur kaan pakadke 'Sorry'. Kuch zyada hi wait karwaya maine na.

Now I won't make you wait any longer...
Here comes the most awaited chapter!

Happy reading!

*****

.
Manik's POV

Though staring at my desktop screen, I am drowned in my own thoughts. 

Nandini..
She's been behaving strangely since a few days. Khoi khoi si rahti hai hamesha. Absent-minded! 
Pahle ki tarah khulke baat nahin karti; Hamesha kuch soch mein doobi rehti hai.  

Even the breakfast she's cooking for me has changed.  It's not like ki mujhe continental pasand nahi aa raha hai.
But I'm kind of.. missing her Desi food; the one she specifically makes for me taking care of my diet. 

Aur aaj to usne mujhe office ke liye see-off bhi nahi kiya. See-off chodo, she didn't even say a proper bye looking at me. 

Is it really her studies pressure getting on her? 
Ya phir kuch hua hai? 

Knock.. Knock..

I jerked my head to the door and mumbled a 'come in', only to find Chirag already walking in. 

Chirag, the head of the programming department, is one of the two roommates I'd during my graduation. And somewhere they are the reasons I'm so into gaming that now I'm running a gaming company along with them. 

"Boss, Spring Blossom has accepted our invitation. The meeting is fixed today evening at 5pm, Skyline Restaurant." He informed me while taking the seat before me. We've been trying to contact the Spring Blossom Company for a while now.
Good that this is settling down. 

"And here is the sum of my team's ideas on the characters of Swoon. But I still don't get why other departments are giving ideas when it's the Art Editing Dept.'s job." He pushed forward the file towards me. Swoon is the upcoming game we're making. "It won't be more creative than theirs anyways." 

"You clearly know why I told you guys for this. The ideas V & his team are supplying is not what I want." I replied putting his file along with a bundle others which will all be sent to the Art's Dept. "And they might crack something unique and interesting by going through your not-so-creative ideas." 

He pulled his hands up in surrender knowing I am right. We're facing quite a lot of problems since we started making our 2nd game. The 1st one was a hit and we really didn't face so much difficulties as now. Reasons could be 'cuz we'd only developed the game that time and all other management & stuff were taken care of by CGC Lmt, the No.1 gaming & technology company since ages. 

 But now we are not only developing our own new game, but it's marketing and launch will be by our company, Malhotra technology Ldt. And our main challenge will be them, CGC. 

"Alright. I'm going out for lunch now. You wanna join or you still have to finish up your apple." He voiced standing up the chairs and looking at the untouched red apple at my side table. 

At first I'd intended not to eat it as I'm somewhat irked at Nandini.
But one part of me wanna obey her.. always! *Sighs*

"You go ahead. I'll eat an hour later." 

"Manik, were you serious when you said you've a wife?" 

I looked up to find his eyes narrowed quizzically at me. He and Anirudh, the other roommate of mine, had noticed the change in me; me not drinking a lot of coffee, nor smoking at office even if I'm mad with something and me having an apple daily before lunch.

When they questioned me, I told them that I'm following my wife's order. But they laughed their butt off and walked away holding their stomach. 
Seriously!

"Should I print it on my forehead- 'I have a wife'?" I quizzed back. 

"And why is it so hard to believe? Many girls die to even be in the same place as me, after all" I shrugged casually leaning back at my chair. 

"They do. But you don't give them a shit! After your ex, we've never seen you around any girl. Tum toh ladkiyo se ase bhagte ho ki kabhi kabhi mujhe lagta hai ki tum gay ho." 
The moment he pushed the gay word, I glared hard at him. 

I can't believe this!
What's with everyone thinking me as a gay, manh? 

"I mean, I know tum gay nahi ho. Warna phele mera izzat dau pe hota." He reasoned, crossing his hands above his chest, making me roll my eyes at his nautanki. 

"Achaa.. On a serious note, I still don't believe that you have a wife." He said, straightening up his blazer. "Hey, why don't you bring her to Soha's Birthday party this weekend? Hum sab unse milenge. Kal company ko party invitation aaya tha. Soha must have invited you personally though, knowing her." 

"Han, she told me. But I'm not really planning on going to the party. Aur meri biwi se tumhe right time pe milwaunga, abhi nahi." 

"Whyyy?" He cried. "Achaa, at least uska naam toh bata. Hum khud hi pata karlenge uske baare mein."

"Chirag! Aren't you getting late for your lunch?" I said ignoring his question and pointing towards the door. 

He huffed and walked away not before mumbling, "Liar!"

I shook my head at this. Though I should not be saying anyone about me and Nandini. But Chirag and Anirudh are my best friends and I know they'll keep the secret till I want. Yet, I didn't know that they're not gonna believe this until they see her with their own eyes, which is not possible at the moment. 

——————————

.

Nandini's POV

"Ma'am, switch it on now." I voiced after fixing the thermal fuse of the table fan. At first I thought, I need to lubricate the shaft bearings, but the problem turns out to be with the fuse. 

When switched on, the wind blew so strong that hairs came all over my face. 

"Oh, It's fixed!" Mid-aged warden aunty cried behind me and walked over to me. I stood up from the floor and placed the tester and tools in the toolset. 

"Thank you, Nandini dear. I've called the electrician for the nth time but he was not giving it any importance. Thank god that you came by." She sounded genuinely happy and adjusted the fan facing her. 

"It's my pleasure helping you, Ma'am. Aur aage kuch kharab ho jaaye to aap mujhe bula lena. Mujhe thoda bahut ye sab theek karna aata hai." I replied with a smile and saw Rhea & Natasha walking down the stairs. 

"Toh main chalti hun, Ma'am." I voiced to which she nodded smiling before turning to her work, and I walked out of her office room only to be joined by my friends. 

"Mil gaya charger?" I asked as we three walked out of the girls hostel. 

After our last class, we had decided to walk to the library together where we'll be meeting our assigned seniors and will discuss what to do ahead. But Natasha's phone got discharged and we've to walk by the hostel first. 

"Yeah! Warden kya boli?" She asked. 

"Kuch nahin. Her table fan was not working toh maine help kardi." I replied while taking a left turn for the library. 

"What are you looking at?" I asked Rhea who's looking at something on her phone and smiling hard. 

"How did I never notice Senior Farhan to be this hot?" She mumbled, still not looking up from her phone. 

"Of course, you didn't. You have your eyes set only on Senior Sohan na!" Natasha teased laughingly, causing Rhea to make a bad face. I too can't hold my chuckle. 

"But seriously yaar, you guys got studious, at least, responsible partners. Whereas me-" I sighed to myself. 

Why am I so unlucky?!

"Oh yah!" Rhea shouted loudly and put her phone back turning all her attention at me. "So, how does it feel to get partnered with the college's bad boy, the one & only, Senior Raghav?" 

I only groaned loudly expressing my distress. I would have been fine to get a stupid senior who doesn't know anything, or one who's too lazy, or one who'll just make me do the whole thesis while take the credit.
But Senior Raghav is a big fat NO! 

Whole University knows not to mess with him and try to not get involved in anything in and around him.
And here, I'm full to stuck.
 Argh.. I wanna kill Pandey Sir for this!

But I, fortunately, can't! 

Just hope this goes as smoothly as anything. Please Ayyappa.. please!! 

As we are about to move up the stairs to the main library, a loud manly voice boomed amidst the silence gaining everyone's attention, 

"Nandini Murthy"

Just Great! 

I turn back only to find Senior Raghav leaning on the Royal Enfield along with his friends around the corner. He finger-gestured me to 'come' when my eyes met his. 

I told my friends to go in first and they hesitantly nodded before walking ahead.

I took a deep breath in and started walking towards the Seniors. It's not like he can harm me in any way. I'm not a weakling. 

The worst he could do is unnecessary back & forth and messing around in the name of doing thesis. But I know how to handle this when it'll cross its limit.
Aur zaroorat padi toh Manik meri help ke liye toh honge hi. 

"Meet Nandini Murthy, my main thesis partner." He said to his friends as soon as I approached them. All I could say is a quick 'hello' to them all, while standing there awkwardly.

"We know her, 1st year computer science goddess." One of them voiced to which others nodded agreeing. 

Of course they know me.
I'm famous after all. But this isn't what I wanted myself for. 

It's all Rhea's fault.
 She and Natasha entered my name and one of my hair-open, beachside pics in the 'Beauty with brain' contest of our university and that's how I became our department's winner.
I just lost by a few votes to the University's goddess though. 

"Okay, Nandini, we're going to the Seaview Cafe to discuss our thesis. Be free by 5:30pm. I'll drive us there." He informed, or rather I should say ordered. 

"Wait. Aren't we discussing it in the library?" I asked.
'What's the need to go to the cafe when we can just discuss it over here, in the campus?' I wanna add, but decided against it. 

"Going to the library is not my style." He replied nonchalantly and turned to sit on his bike. "Alright, I've got some work now, I'll pick you up from here in 30 minutes." 

"No, thank you." I muttered quickly before he could drive away. "I'll go on my own. I've to meet someone on the way. I'll be there at the cafe by 5:30." I lied. I don't have to meet anyone. But I prefer going by my own, or else pata chala kal mera aur Senior Raghav ka love affairs ke rumours trend kar raha hai. I totally don't want that. Na-baba-na!

He looked at me for a minute with his striking black eyes before igniting the engine and driving away along with his bantar friends. 

_____________________

.

Manik's POV

"Thank you, Mr. Vardhan. Anirudh will be accompanying you regarding the NCP prototype. We're glad to have your team helping with us in our game." I shaked hands with the head of Spring Blossom Company as the deal was sealed. 

"Thank you" Anirudh and Chirag too are accompanying me as they are the management and programming department heads, respectively. 

We walked out of the restaurant and Anirudh walked with them to see them off while Chirag walked to the parking lot to get our car.

I let out a deep sigh upon knowing a progress happened in my upcoming game, my dream. Actually our dream!

The sky is orange with the sun setting down. It must be around 6:15 in the evening now.
Nandini must be home. 

On the thought of Nandini, I took out my phone and unlocked it. 

A new message from Nandini.

I quickly opened the whatsapp and read,
'I'll be late home. Around 7. Have to discuss the thesis.' 
Messaged at 4:56pm. 

So, I'll be home before her today. I sighed. 

I don't know what's wrong with her. I feel like she's not herself. She does everything, even talks with me normally, but.. there's something missing.. something wrong and strange with her. 

I need to sit and talk with her about it. 

I thought with a determined mind to talk about it today and clearly know what's cooking in her mind. 
Hmm...

My phone rang in my hand, only to find its Chirag. He wants me to walk down a few blocks as there's a traffic jam around here.
It's off -work time now so rush will be there. 

I dragged my feet forward while my mind roamed around Nandini; figuring out all the possible reasons to justify her strange behaviour nowadays..

All of a sudden, abruptly my legs froze and eyes stuck at the certain someone sitting inside the cafe with a ice cream cup before her and a handsome boy in his early twenties with black jet hairs, black eyes, and sharp face-cut wearing deep blue T & jeans, sitting along with her. 

I felt a pang travel my heart at the sight and my mind turning blank with all I could see in the whole busy street- is just them. 

My fingers curled into a painful fist when the boy suddenly lifted his hands to wipe the icecream from the corner of her lips. 

Is he the reason why?

.

*********

Now, now.. ek misunderstanding clear  hua nahi tha ki dusra aagaya hai.
It's gonna be interesting now.
What do you think?

Buckle up your seat belts 'cuz the story is gonna catch leap soon.

Drop your votes and comments.

Love ya!😘
Till then.