Parth And Niti (PaNi FF): Professionals At Work

Chapter Sixteen: Paradox

The previous chapter had an open ending. It was from Niti’s point of view, and right now Im not continuing that chapter but I’ll talk about that incident in a more elaborate form when I next write from Niti’s point of view .. For now, this is Parth’s point of view from the holi episode (episode 159) . Hope you like it :))

She flapped her hands continuously like a baby, oblivious to the fact that the water could not drown her, but my ignorance could, my conscience reminded.

The point was that I could not get this out of my head ever since Disha had yelled at her in front of me and there was nothing that I could have done at that point of time . It was my fault, for not standing up for Niti when she needed it , in front of someone I didn’t even love. Niti didn’t even know that I was actually done with Disha.. All she had from me were zero expectations as of now and she continued addressing me as Manik. The word Parth probably didn’t exist in her vocabulary and I was to be blamed.

Initially , I wanted to make things clear with her, but instead of clearing anything , I had worsened it, for both of us. I had worsened the situation . She hadn’t spoken to me about it, about something that I had done right after she had posted the picture, but I could fathom that she felt sick about whatever I said the other day.

So I had stopped talking. I wanted to talk, but I could not speak to her. I did not know how to, most of all I didn’t know why I wanted things to be so clear between us. All through this while, I was only fighting my feelings, my growing attraction towards her, all in vain, and she was ignoring me back. Maybe I deserved her ignorance.  But at the same time, some part of me wanted to curb that attraction, some part of me wanted it to stay. But most of me wanted it to go now because it was just a costar attachment and nothing more than that. I had bigger plans for myself and we had always been such different people so developing attraction and then feelings was only going to complicate the situation for both of us. I didn’t want that. So I ignored it, ignored her , without apologizing for anything at all.

As Manik, I smiled, as she flapped her hands repeatedly splashing water all around and then pulled her towards myself. She didn’t resist, and her face was buried right into my chest , as she hugged me tight.  Her forearm was enveloped around me, and her face buried into my chest. She took deep breaths, as I reciprocated, and put my arm around her small self. I felt warm. The warmth was endearing.

“Relax” I began. She was till sniffling, her small hands wrapped tightly around me .

“You don’t trust me?”

Slowly, she pulled back and looked towards me. For a moment , I saw Niti instead of Nandini, who probably wanted to shout out loud that never , ever would she trust me. But that one moment lasted just enough for the warmth of her entire self to disappear.

“Right…” I said. “You don’t trust me.”

Her pupils constricted slightly. “Agar mein haan keh du, toh will you believe me?” She asked.

Her big black eyes looked straight into mine. I felt something similar to piloerection, despite being covered with water. My breath was somehow running at its own normal pace, despite the hormonal imbalance that was taking place throughout my body.

She had an effect.

"Ek friendly advice du? You shouldn't trust me." I grinned, as two seconds later, I let go off her with a slight jerk . 

Her tiny feet were involuntarily on mine, but the moment I let go off her, the support to stand in a-little-over-knee-deep water was gone. The support was gone, and so she stumbled, amidst flapping her hands again before she actually realised that she didn't need anyone to support her. No matter how imbalanced a situation made her, she had emerged to be the person to carry herself properly after a moment of losing control. 

When she realized that the water couldn't drown her, it was not deep as such, she looked at me . I knew that look. It was pretty sheepish. She was standing just two steps away from me, when i pulled her by her waist , close. She didnt show any resistance to any of my actions, not that she was supposed to, but after a pretty considerable amount of time, that was a moment when I looked into her eyes and I knew, that not even the actress playing Nandini's character felt like showing any resistance.

Slowly, I turned her to the other side and made her flinch backwards, whilst proceeding towards her, taking slow steps. Neither of us played the blink game. As we reached to the edge of the pool, I sensed that her heartbeats were racing.

Adrenaline gushed through my vessels for the 100th time that day, and considerably enough, my heartbeats slowly decided to beat in synchrony with hers. 

 I pulled the plate of colors towards us. She cringed, but I was happy.

"Yeh kya hai?"

"Colors?!" I remarked.

"Manik, you know na.. I hate holi.." She said.

"And..that's why Im loving it!" I retaliated. "Now tell me which color do you want?"

She denied, but I was adamant.

She went on denying as I continued asking her about her favorite color, until...

"Tum nahi bol rahi ho, toh mein hi bol deta hu..my favorite color..red.." I paused, and took a handful of my favorite color.

"Manik please!" she attempted one last time. "Mujhe haath mat lagana." Nandini shut her eyes tightly. Sensing her adamancy, I slowly applied the color to my right cheek first, to my left cheek next. 

I saw her open her eyes steadily. Seeing the color on both my cheeks, she tried moving away, but lost balance, and slipped right into the water for an odd span of five seconds. She frantically flapped both her palms before rescuing herself and then towards me.

Her small hands circled my wrist, and a little vulnerable look took over her. Her cheeks, chubbier , due to the scared expression that she had.

"Tumne hi kaha tha, haath mat lagana." I said.

Zero protests, and a moment later, I felt her arms encircle my waist. I bent towards her . My hormones began creating a havoc. Slowly, I rubbed my right cheek against her left one, then my left one rubbing across her right one..

"Happy holi Nandini." I uttered. I assessed her eyes, then her nose, her cheeks, and then her lips, one by one. She didnt utter another word, her hands still around my waist. She kept mum for the longest time, while we had an eyelock.. The deepest eyelock.. Shooting scenes with her was probably the only one time I could get to be around her and forget that I was supposed to behave logically around the one woman who was driving my hormones crazy, for real. Else, the remaining times, I was the one ignoring her by suppressing the attraction..

My heart didn't want to slow down, and pretty much un-evidently my breath didnt want to do that either. All it took was one look from her and my reflection in her huge black pupils. She probably had the most innocent set of eyes, and the mole around her left eye made it even better, I thought. 

I tried not to look at her lips, and succeeded. I was more into the deep gazing which equivocally stirred a series of chemical reactions inside my brain..And likewise, I could probably say the same for her. Even if she hated me, for whatever reasons, there were moments like these, when I could see the same amount of attachment, the attraction from her side. Not because she was a really good actress, but because she was herself when she played Nandini.. I knew she had something every time I heard her heart racing as fast as a race horse near me.

And me? As deep as this eye lock went, I realized one thing.. That getting rid of my attraction for her wasn't going to be a cakewalk. It could take ages..and still there were chances that it'd never get over, but just grow...

Wrote after what seems like ages and probably not that nicely either. Anyway, I posted it  .  it had been pretty pretty pretty long but i tried making this short and concise. The holi scene for me is one of the most feels giving scene (been long since i used the word) .. and it had to be included in the story.

Nitis pov from the prev chapter will be included in the next chappy which idk when will be updated. Super sorry guys i have been really really busy  :(

Please do vote and comment. Means a lot!!