SEAL THE DEAL

chapter 40

A grin blossomed on Abhishek's face and his mood instantly brightened at the pleasant surprise of her presence in his house.

Abhi:-"manu? You're here?" he called out cheerfully with a renewed spring in his step, tossing his car keys into the bowl after which he crossed over to the coatroom so that he could hang up his coat.

A confused pout settled on Abhishek's lips as he walked away from the coatroom and was met with unanticipated silence.
"Manisha?" he called out again when she didn't reply straight away. He hadn't been expecting a lack of response, perhaps she was further inside the house than
he thought and hadn't heard him.

Abhi:-"manisha, I'm home, where -"
He stopped in his tracks when his eyes fell on the food that was neatly laid out on the dining table, "You made lunch too? Woah, what did I even do to deserve you?!" he exclaimed as he was met with the glorious sight of fried rice.
He smiled at the dishe made purely out of love and care by somebody who loved and
cared about him; there were very few things that made him happier than a home-cooked meal, because it was a privilege that he had rarely been blessed with throughout his life. His
finger reached out to trace the outline of the lids covering the dishe and his heart bloomed as he did so.
He beamed in awe as he picked up the pair of spoon laid out for him, lifting one
of the lids so that he could hastily sneak a quick bite. The food looked really good and he hadn't been able to resist, and he didn't regret his choice even a little because it tasted a hundred times better than it looked.

Abhi:-"Are you in the kitchen?"

She was on the kitchen floor, her legs crossed and knees stuck to each other, her arms hugging her frame as she curled into herself so that she was as small as she could possibly be. Her eyes were fixed on abhishek, red and raw and full of heartbreak, and the mangled trails of dried tears marring her cheeks were unmistakeably clear.

Abhi:-"What's wrong? Why have you been crying? Is everything okay?" he asked gently without pausing for a breath in between, cupping her cheeks within his warm palms as his eyes roamed over her worriedly.

Mani:-"Why did you do it?" She questioned softly, opening her eyes so that she could look at him while he justified himself for sticking a dagger into her back.

Abhi:-"He deserved to know, and you deserved to be free from the burden," he said, his jaw growing rigid because he should have been the one to break it to her, he should have had the chance to approach her about this first. Manisha looked at him with so much disappointment in her eyes that it made Abhishek feel like he was the shittiest person to ever walk the planet. She removed his hands from her face
and it felt like a hundred bandaids simultaneously being ripped off his skin.

Mani:-"It wasn't your thing to share with him though, abhishek. It was my past. It was my
relationship. It was my story to tell...not yours,"
She hated how she could feel her eyes filling up again. God, she hated herself for being so weak.

Abhi:-"You were never going to tell vishal anything," he pointed out.
He had gotten to know her quite well within the past three and a half months, and he knew Her well enough to know that she was going to continue sweeping the truth about Ashish under the rug like she had been doing all along because that's the kind of person she is- too sweet, too nice for her own good. She would never want to hurt anyone on purpose...and she definitely didn't want to hurt vishal.

A bitter laugh broke past her lips and a handful of frustrated tears broke past her defenses too, "How do you know that? How can you say that so confidently?" She demanded to know, Her voice growing louder and more emotionally charged with every syllable. Abhishek stiffened, because on one side, it was beyond painful to see the tears rolling down Her face, but on the other side, the accusatory tone of her words didn't feel very good at all.

Abhi:-"You've not told him all this time because you didn't want to come in between his friendship with Ashish. You didn't want the truth to hurt him. Be honest with yourself for a second...were you ever going to bring it up with vishal? Were you ever going to stop lying to him?" he countered her accusatory questions with his own, crossing his arms in front of him
as he stared at her.

Manisha shook her head from side to side, failing to understand why Abhishek was failing to understand you.
Why couldn't he understand that he had overstepped a line he shouldn't have? Why couldn't he understand that he should have at least bothered to inform her before he took such a huge step? Why did he feel the need to forcefully take responsibility for something that was beyond him?

Mani:-"That's not what this is about. You had no right to tell him...that's what this is about. This was something for me to decide. Not you," you fought back, roughly poking his chest with her  finger to emphasise her point."You stole the opportunity from me. I would have told him when I was ready to and when the time was right. Which is definitely not right now!" She shouted, furiously swiping at her cheeks in an effort to get rid of those insufferable tears that refused to stay away.

She couldn't get the sound of vishal's voice during that phonecall out of her head. He had never spoken to her like that. He had never snapped at her like that. He had never sounded so angry at her like that.

Abhishek had been trying his best to keep his voice down, he had been fighting his hardest to hold himself back for both of her sakes, but the switch inside him went off when she raised Her voice first and his mind nearly imploded.

Abhi:-"You were being stupid, manisha! He needed to know that his best friend treated you like utter complete shit. He deserved to know what a shameless bastard Ashish is!" he yelled back.

The tension between the two of them was escalating perilously and both of their emotions were steeply spiralling out of control. She couldn't believe that abhishek was capable of being so irrational.