Married to my best friend

7. Cute!

Hey guys this lazy ass writer of yours is back and I know I made you guys wait a lot but I had exams and then after that I was disappointed with my own plot. I wrote and rewrote this chapter thrice and finally this feels okay to me now. Sorry for the wait and I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you.

And yes I am back with the weekly update now. Sorry and thank you for waiting. 

The next morning

M A N I K

I woke up to the shrill sound of my annoying alarm. I hurriedly reached for my phone and turned it off, afraid that Nandini would wake up from the noise. She was still sleeping peacefully beside me and I didn't want to disturb her peaceful sleep.

But when I cut a glance at her face, I couldn't control myself from inching closer to her and poking her soft cheeks. She looked so innocent and cute. I stared at her sleeping face for quite a while before playfully blowing air in her ears. She just brushed her ear with her finger, frowning softly. I found her action so cute that I ended up pinching her cheeks and her frown got deeper.

"Mmmm." Her eyes slowly fluttered open and our eyes met. "Manik what are you doing?" Nandini said in a groggy tone, rubbing her eyes.

Damn why is she so cute?

"Good morning." I smiled, patting her head lightly and she pouted.

"Is it morning already?"

I nodded. She cut a glance at the wall clock which showed 5:13 am. "I am still sleepy."

"Go back to sleep."

She waggled her head in no and sat upright on bed, simultaneously stretching both her arms.

"I should go prepare breakfast."

"Isn't it too early for that? Every one slept very late last night. I don't think they are up yet. You should sleep for a little longer."

"No it's fine." She got off the bed and made her way to the washroom.

The rest of the morning passed by with her cooking in the kitchen while I kept myself busy with reading the terms of the collaboration project contract papers after helping her with cutting the ingredients.

It was all going okay until that damn Aryaman showed up. I was honestly flabbergasted when Aryaman showed up at my house with Nandini's dad.

"Hey Manik." He greeted with a smile.

"Hi." I greeted back with a forced smile. Why the hell was he even here? "What brings you here?" I asked.

"Ahh he is going to help us with the graphic designing in our collaboration project." Nandini's dad said.

"What?! I mean why?" I was seriously not happy with this piece of information.

"What do you mean why? He excels in the graphic designing field."

"What I mean to say is, is it even okay? I mean involving an outsider in our project." I knew it wasn't that big of a deal but still I didn't want to work with him. So I tried sounding reasonable.

"It's not a big deal. We are just outsourcing the graphic designing work and I am sure we did agree to outsource this function." Uncle took a seat in front of me as he said that and I had nothing to say in my defense. He was right we did agree to that but I really didn't want to work with Aryaman.

Calm down Manik. It's for work. Work is important.

"Yeah we did agree to that." I let out a sigh.

"So let's get started." Aryaman said, making me confused.

"We are starting now?" I clearly took a week off from office for the wedding and I was sure I still had a week leave left.

"Yeah. The earlier we start, the faster I would be able to complete my part of job." As he was saying this Nandini came out of the kitchen with two plates of sweet dish in her hand. Just a glance at her and I could figure out she was annoyed.

She half heartedly greeted her dad and Aryaman, and served them the dish, before hurrying to the dinning room. She was currently busy serving the dishes to the relatives.

"Umm let's not start now. This isn't the right place to discuss this stuffs." I said, indicating to the noisy surrounding. "And I want to help Nandini."

He chuckled. "I knew you would say that. I am not here to work. Me and uncle have somewhere else to go."

"Mmmm then suit yourself."

N A N D I N I

I was busy in the kitchen serving the dishes to the relatives and I was seriously starting to get annoyed. I hated socializing and right now I was in the middle of so many of his relatives, in fact I was the topic of their gossip; not that they were talking bad about me but I hated this.

Calm down Nandini.

I told my mind for the upteempth time as I got out of the kitchen. Right then I felt a strong pair of hands around my wrist. "Manik what is it?" My voice raised slightly in irritation.

"Nandini take a break. I'll handle them." His soft voice made me look at him and I regretted raising my voice at him that very moment.

I let out a sigh, waggling my head in no. "No, I have to face the aunties in this kind of occasions anyway."

"You don't need to. I don't want you to force yourself to do anything."

"Thanks for saying that." I said as I touched his right cheek and I felt a bit good. "But I am okay. You have already helped me in cutting all the ingredients. That's already enough of help."

"Your mood is ruined because of all of this and I know how exhausting this all is." He was genuinely concerned.

"I am fine." I assured with a genuine smile. "It's not like they are going to eat me up." I caressed his cheek with my thumb finger a bit, making him lean more into my touch.

Even after I assured that I was okay, he didn't leave me alone. He stayed in the dinning room in between all those relatives, listening to them blabber about how a married life works and how an ideal husband should be. From his expression I could clearly tell he was bored and he wasn't at all interested in listening to all those blabbers but he didn't leave. He stayed and honestly I was touched by his effort.

I wasn't annoyed anymore. Seeing his changing expression, I couldn't hold back my smile. One moment he was frowning then the next moment his lips curved into a fake smile. He was even pouting and sulking from time to time. How cute!

I was admiring him when his gaze turned to me. Our eyes locked and his lips curved into a smile, not a fake smile but a real one and my heart suddenly started thumping really hard.

"Thank you." I mouthed and he blinked his eyes in acknowledgement.

*****

Okay I know I don't deserve to say this but please do drop your comments and votes. It's one of the things that motivate me the most.

Thank you for sparing your time reading this  chapter.

Love ♥️
Aaku