MaNan : Love is Just a Word

9. Outflow

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The candle smoke is still wafting in the air when Mukti says, "I handed in my notice yesterday."

Nandini pauses from where she's cutting a slice of cake into micro-bite-sized pieces. The metal cutlery scrapes against the plate and she grimaces.

Abhimanyu lifts his head from his sprawl on the living room floor, Aarav alternating from crawling all over him to standing on his chest with the aid of Abhimanyu's hands. He lifts onto his elbows, Aarav caught between his knees, the birthday hat on his head nestled at his temple.

Nandini doesn't say anything, but she doesn't have to. Her face says it all.

Mukti eats a forkful of cake. She takes her time chewing, carefully wiping frosting from the corner of her lip after she swallows with a penguin-patterned napkin. "I have the standard two weeks, but it's a done deal. I go to Bangalore next week for five days and then I come back and I'm done."

Nandini clears her throat. She glances at Abhimanyu's face. Looks back at her sister. "What.. what will you do now?"

Mukti smiles in her direction. It's thankful but it doesn't reach her eyes. She takes another bite of cake. "I'm going back to producing full-time. Independently. I've been thinking about it for a long while and it feels like the right time."

Nandini grins, feels like her heart might burst. "Mukti! That's- wow. I'm so happy for you. I didn't know you'd been thinking about it seriously again."

"Yeah, well," Mukti says, and she doesn't look at Abhimanyu, but it's there, the pause where she would. "It seemed like conversation non grata ."

Nandini frowns. "Wha-"

Abhimanyu scoffs and shakes his head. He sits up slowly, Aarav cradled to his chest. Aarav slumps in his hold. Abhimanyu kisses the side of his head, and sets him up on the rug with his newest toy, a plastic blue and pink dog that sings the alphabet.

Bypassing the dining room table, he heads for the hallway. "Gonna get his other present," he says at Nandini's concerned face, but a few moments later the bedroom door shuts, lock clicking into place.

Aarav makes the puppy sing. He claps along excitedly, filling the silence with chaos and joy. Mukti eats more cake.

Nandini stares at her sister, "Mukti-"

"Don't take it personally, Nandiniie," Mukti says, her fork dragging against the plate. It scratches eerily, uncaring that it's the nice ceramic. "Abhimanyu's just a little high-strung because of a deadline", she shrugs.

Nandini knows Mukti is lying, "That's not what it is-" There's a tug at her pants and Nandini looks down to find that Aarav has crawled towards her, hands wrapped around the fabric of her jeans.

The younger sighs. She bends forward to pick him up. Aarav whines, struggles out of her hold but doesn't let her pants go. Nandini frowns again. "What? What is it?"

Aarav whines some more, yanks.

"What's wrong? Do you want me to get on the floor too-" With a last strong tug, maybe too strong considering he just turned eleven months today, Aarav pulls himself up, and stands on shaky feet with his hands planted firmly on Nandini's knees.

Mukti chuckles and brushes Aarav's hair off his forehead with a gentle hand. "Whoa. Check the kid out."

"Yep. He's getting very good at standing. Almost as good as he is at ba 's, huh?" Nandini asks, smile wide, pride bleeding from her voice.