MaNan~ Tangled Destinies- Hearts to Redeem [COMPLETED]

•5• •Breaking Ices?•

||Breaking Ices?||

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"Stella, Dr. Cullen will report in half an hour. Call me then. I've gotta update him about the Jones' case." Nandini spoke over the phone before hanging up as she reached the living area of the Malhotra residence after freshening up.

She looked up after locking her phone to witness Manik and Cabir sitting... almost lying on the couch talking about something. She scanned the rest of the place but couldn't catch a glimpse of Avidaan. The immediate thought that crossed her was to go and bring Avidaan along but unfortunately she did not know which room was he in.

Pushing away the apprehension, she decided to catch up with her once bestfriends and the ex as well. Fidgeting with the mobile, she appeared in front of the guys in her comfortable night suit. She was in a full length white and blue pajama pants and an off-white casual lace top.

The guys straightened up as she settled herself on a bean-bag beside the couch. Manik had to slap himself mentally atleast thrice to snap out of checking her out. He couldn't deny that she had evolved over these years into a beautiful woman and significantly, the innocence that he had fallen for years ago was still there in her eyes. Unknown to himself he was still admiring her which wasn't right at the moment.

Could anyone blame him for that?

No. She was the love of his life. It wasn't his fault that they were meeting after nine years when she was engaged to his brother. The situation was not the one that he had desired when he meets her. He had to snap out when he heard Cabir talking to Nandini.

"How are you, Nandi?" Cabir was the first one to strike the conversation. 'Nandi' was the nickname that Cabir had given her and only be would call her by that name.

"I'm good, Cabir. Getting married. Couldn't be any better." she replied to him, chuckling at the last part of her reply to herself. Cabir caught the little sarcasm in her voice enough to ask about it immediately. But before he could, Nandini snapped out of the mood and averted her attention to Manik.

"Manik, you haven't spoken to me anything other than the pleasantry since we've met at the airport. Is the awkwardness about our history?" in the haste of avoiding Cabir's question, Nandini hit the wrong chord. She immediately did regret it but Manik decided to make it easy on her.

"Maybe. I think we just had to do the ice-breaking part which you have done, I guess." he tried to sound casual but just his words did neither his tone nor his body language topped off his words. Cabir suppressed a snigger at his always cool-friend turning all nervous by just meeting one of his exes but the bottom line remained that he knew this was the weirdest situation his friend could be in.

"So, we're good now?" she asked him and he nodded in positive almost on the double, completely contradicting the thoughts that kept running in his mind.

"That's a relief." she exclaimed and the trio smiled.

"What about the rest of the group? Are you guys still in touch?" Nandini had so much to ask them about what all happened after she was gone. She had vanished abruptly from everyone's lives the night all the final rites of her parents was done without bidding adieu or leaving behind any kind of message for them. The group kept wondering about her disappearance until their principal informed the school about her leaving a week later.

"Yeah. Dhruv, Alya and Mukti still hangout with us and the rest are also in touch. It was just you who wasn't traceable." Cabir responded to the question. The three sighed remembering those times. It was the worst times of their lives. Manik and Nandini had just broken up due to the innumerable increase in fights and hence the whole group was unstable, right then Nandini's parents passed away in the dreadful accident and in what looked like fraction of seconds, Nandini was gone far away from all of them.

"I'd love to meet them. Can I do that?" she asked them with hopeful eyes. Manik smiled at that because it was her old habit to make that face. It could manage to melt everyone in the group and probably it were those eyes that Manik fell for at the first place.

"Ofcourse, you can do that. You haven't changed a bit, have you? It feels like I'm sixteen again." Cabir laughed saying that and Nandini bit her lower lip sheepishly. It was her old habit and it felt like she was back in time. She was sitting and chatting with the people who were the most important to her once.

But, the fact was that just the faces were same and all the other things had changed. She was back to Mumbai for her wedding which was in four months, the Manik she used to date wasn't the same and neither were their equations. Manik and Cabir, both were practically her in-laws and she was getting married to their brother.

Sigh.

"Having fun, guys?" they heard Avidaan question them from back. He reached them and then slouched on the other bean bag beside the one which Nandini was seated on. Nandini smiled at him which he reciprocated.

"You talked to Stella?" Avidaan asked Nandini before anything else to ensure they don't miss out on their responsibilities.

"Yeah, I did. Dr. Cullen should be reporting in the next 20 minutes after that I'll talk to him. Other than that I've finished updating her about the other cases that I was incharge of." she was a real professional whenever it was about the hospital. She was dedicated to her profession and hence she made an amazing doctor.

Manik and Cabir weren't surprised to learn that Nandini was a doctor. After all she always talked about becoming one since the time she was in school. They were happy and proud to know that even after a major setback she did not fail to pursue her dreams.

"We should be calling you Dr. Nandini, then." Manik remarked to which Nandini laughed while Avidaan shrugged.

"No, you don't have to. That's something I listen to almost everytime, I'd rather appreciate if you just called me Nandini." she replied to him and both felt the awkwardness thinning away into the air.

"Tell us about your story. I mean we know but just the prologue what is the actual story." Cabir asked Nandini and Avidaan. They both looked at each other and then sighed. Manik was more interested to know how did Nandini ended up with his brother and now marrying him as well.

"Not interesting at all. We met each other at the medical school and became friends. We never realised but we came a very long way." Avidaan began telling about their tale.

Nandini was fearing about Avidaan disclosing that she hadn't been in a relationship over these nine years. What Manik will think about it? It'd probably create an impression on him that she was hung up on him and maybe that will lead to complications. At this point she did not wish to have any of them.

Ofcourse.

She wasn't aware that this was just the beginning. A lot more had to happen that she wasn't informed about yet.

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