#6 in Lifestory out of ~10K stories (June, 2021)
When THE Nandini Murthy met Manik F*CKBOI Malhotra, during her undergrad days in New York, it was the Holiday season! Christmas trees, New Year celebration, chick-flicks on Netflix, everything promote...
A/N : Dear readers, I've gone through all your lovely comments on my Author's Note & I realize not one of you wanted me to crash end the story. Point taken, I will end it the way I want now, in maybe another 8-10 chapters! I really hope you like it :)
About this chapter, well, this is the last chapter with Manik's POV in this story, so read it well :)
Happy Reading!
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Santa Monica Pier, California circa 2018
(Pacific Park, 380 Santa Monica Pier, CA)
Manik Malhotra
The last ten days with Nandini have easily been the best days of my life to be honest. I have never in my life connected to anyone as organically other than Roo of course. I realised our relationship needed visible efforts on my part, my open show of love & affection. I realised Nandini was thriving in the assurance, she needed me to spell out to her that I loved her & I was there with her, no matter what. In the last couple of weeks, I have taken her out for impromptu dates, coffees, musicals, drives, beach dinners, movies, and anything that could possibly bring a smile to my girl's face. Nandini smiled brighter now, laughed more easily & was both emotionally and physically more comfortable with me. I never make her realise that I'm noticing the small changes, but I do feel thrilled when I see her slowly shed her inhibitions and easily peck me on the nose, cheeks, lips, forehead while talking. She doesn't think twice before curling up on my lap when we're on the couch watching television or cuddling close to me when we sleep. I was happy. However, I had noticed she made no moves to make love to me yet. I was guarded on that matter and had decided to not push it, till she is open to it, but every time we'd get physically intimate, she'd stop right before things got too heated up. Not that it didn't bother me, but I was learning to take things slow; with Nandini, I intended to make no mistakes.
Going with the flow, once over dinner she had mentioned how she loved going to the carnival with her Amma, Appa & Abhi back in her hometown when she was little; I had seen the twinkle in her eyes at the mention of it and the memory as she narrated some funny incident from her childhood for me. I had decided to make us a memory with the carnival too, just so she could relive a little piece of her happy childhood when her parents were alive. Nandini hardly ever spoke about her deceased parents, and I thought if she mentioned it once, it was worth commemorating. With this thought I had planned a getaway for us at the carnival at Santa Monica Pier one evening. I really hoped with this, I could connect Nandini a little closer to her parents' memories.
Nandini looked like a dream clad in a mustard short jumpsuit, as she walked into Pacific Park hand in hand with me, excitement clearly visible in her eyes.
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"Manik, what ride are we going to start with?" she asked gleefully and I frowned for a second trying to decide, before I said, "Let's start with the Ferris wheel, Roo always gets excited for that one!"
