Almost Not Love! |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

26. Oldest Trick In The Book

A/N : Holla readers, I am in a bit of a rush today, so updating w/o any chit chat here ;)

Happy Reading!

***

It had been three weeks now, since the time of her haemorrhage, she was doing much better now. Manik had moved back to his own place, she had started working too; she wasn't going to court, but she had re-joined her office. Between Manik, Abhimanyu and Mukti, they took turns to keep a check on her. The doctor sounded positive, her health was indeed improving. Manik was happy to have finally healed her, he was happy to see her smile, laugh and enjoy, he was happy to see her trust him. He had accepted that he wasn't ever going to get her love, but her friendship was no less to him.

However, Manik noticed something odd; it had all spiralled out of control when Aryamann wanted to come back to her life right? But it had been three weeks but he never showed. Manik never asked her, it was an act of self-preservation to be honest; but he was curious, where was Aryamann?

***

It was a week before Nandini's birthday. Mukti and Abhimanyu were planning for a surprise birthday party, although Manik doubted Nandini would like that. He imagined she'd have some plans with Aryamann that day at least, and he didn't know how to stop Abhimanyu or Mukti considering he knew they didn't know much about Nandini and Aryamann. True, they had asked him quite a few times about how he was progressing with her, and he had been lying through his teeth all the while, but this situation was tricky. He knew if Nandini had other plans, Mukti and Abhimanyu would not only be disappointed, but would also come to know about Nandini and Aryamann; in their confusion and mistrust over Aryamann, what if either of them told her about his, i.e. Manik's feelings? No, he couldn't completely lose her, she would lose her trust again, he wasn't letting that happen. So he had decided, unfortunately he had to spill the beans on Abhimanyu and Mukti's surprise to Nandini.

Manik was at her's for dinner when he casually brought the topic up.

"Acha Nandini, what plans do you have for your birthday? In case you have made plans with Aryamann, just keep some excuse handy and tell Mukti that. They are planning on a surprise party for you!" he said and looked at her while munching his food, she froze for a moment.

"They can continue; I have no plans with anyone" she said stiffly before changing the topic. Manik wondered what was going on.

***

It was Nandini's birthday, and as they had planned earlier, Abhimanyu and Mukti had planned for a birthday night out for her; they knew she was still recovering & wasn't as comfortable around a lot of people, so they kept it small. Abhimanyu, Mukti and Manik were to take her clubbing; they would chat over a couple of drinks, cut a cake, maybe dance a little? Bringing back normalcy was important, Mukti had mentioned; somewhere Manik and Abhimanyu agreed.

Nandini was honestly dreading this day for some time now. Firstly, she was so not in the mood to celebrate, she had so many questions and hardly any answers; Aryamann seemed to have gone for good, he didn't get in touch with her ever since she had left him that day at the hotel. She smiled dryly remembering that. Maybe she was expecting one call at least? Didn't he even want to know how she was? She rebuked herself; had he ever cared, the story of their lives would be so different today. Secondly, Manik had mentioned some surprise plan that Mukti and Abhimanyu had for her; she had told herself to go along with it to make everyone around her feel normal. She couldn't take it anymore, how everyone walked on eggshells around her. She needed time, but they didn't need to know it or act accordingly; she needed some normalcy from her friends.

They were at a club Mukti had chosen; earlier that evening much before midnight, Mukti and Abhimanyu had turned up at her doorstep, and coaxed her into getting dressed up and literally pulled her out of home. Nandini was surprised, she had anticipated this for the next day, the actual day of her birthday, but today? They wanted to party tonight to ring in the birthday?