SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 35

Manisha's POV

Mani:-"What are we?" She asked after a few seconds of silent thought and deliberation, her voice bordering on hesitation; but she learned quite quickly that she didn't have to hesitate around Abhishek.

It was always so easy to be with him, it was so easy to be herself and say whatever the hell She was thinking in front of him. She didn't feel like she had to be careful with her words and her actions around him because he had never reacted to her or her bluntness or her chattiness negatively and she was pretty confident that he probably never would. Abhishek's eyes had been closed peacefully but he raised an eyebrow and opened his eyes once your question settled into his mind, his lips pouting in confusion.

Abhi:-"What do you mean?"
He wondered where the sudden question had even come from. The two of them had been discussing their favourite films and arguing about whether romantic or action was the better and he hadn't expected the conversation to head in a completely different direction so swiftly.

Both of them were lazily sprawled across the couch in Abhishek's living room, just casually talking and making up for the days they missed each other's company as they waited for the take-out that they ordered to arrive. Manisha initially planned to go out for dinner but they both been way too tired to go through with it in the end. Abhishek had said he'd pick her up in an hour on the phone but he'd actually taken three because his father was away on a business trip for the week and something urgent had come up, which meant that he had to deal with it.

Manisha was sitting upright on the couch with her back pressed against one of the leather cushions, her legs stretched out and her feet perched on the coffee table in front of her. Meanwhile, Abhishek was lying down because he frankly didn't have the energy to sit up straight anymore, he'd been sitting at his desk for way too long today and had (finally) left the office with a dull back ache as a treat to take home. Besides, his head was resting in her lap, also known as his new favourite place in the whole wide world, and he couldn't have felt
more relaxed. She bit her bottom lip, wondering if she gone ahead and waded into another territory prematurely, something she felt like she tended to do much more than she should.

Mani:-"Like if you had to define us, our relationship, how would you do it?" She absent-mindedly played with Abhishek's hair, ruffling it and twirling it and twisting it into all kinds shapes, Her hands working at a slow speed that starkly contrasted with the thoughts whizzing about
in your mind. One thing Abhishek had always admired about her, literally ever since their first meeting three months ago, was her tendency to address anything and everything that was bothering Her head-on.

If there was something on her mind or if there was something she wanted to
clear up with him, then more often than nought she would bring it up herself and talk about it. He considered it an especially remarkable trait because he was the exact opposite; he was the kind to keep everything bottled up and stacked neatly inside him and he'd left things
unaddressed more times than he could think of counting. But that had resulted in Abhishek  having more regrets in life than her. sure about how he'd respond, Abhishek spoke up.

Abhi:-"Do we have to put a label on it?" he asked, staring up at her face.

Mani:-"No, but..." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say. She knew that she liked Abhishek and she knew that he liked her too (thank God) and she  knew that they were both happy with how things were going, but she felt like something was
lacking. She felt like there was still a small wall standing between both of them, like yeah, it was crumbling...but it was still stubbornly standing there. Plus the two of them had never explicitly spoken about her feelings; he'd never verbally confirmed or denied how exactly he felt about her and she needed to hold herself back on more than one occasion because She is afraid of scaring him away.