ANAM CARA || A MaNan Fanfiction

12. Poking The Tigress

|| When you poke the Tigress, be ready for the claws ||

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'How can a person's luck be this rotten!', thought Nandini the moment she felt the very irritatingly familiar voice barge in her ears. She did not even have to turn to see who it was, for it had to be the one and only Malhotra. Manik.

And indeed it was him. Standing at the door with a warm smile on his face, looking handsome as ever in an olive green shirt and navy blue jeans. Accompanying him, was his best friend, who looked a little flushed. The small change this time around was that the grin that he sported was not meant for Nandini, but for someone else.

"How are you Madhubala?", from where Nandini stood, she saw Manik engulf Navya in a tight hug. "You finally got time? I thought I'll have to take an appointment from Maddy", Navya threw a tantrum. "Why will her majesty take the trouble for us peasants?" Navya rolled her eyes at his comment.

"You kept me hanging for a whole month! Is this how you treat your family?", obviously there had to be a reason behind her being known by the name Madhubala and no surprise, it was because of her overacting, off the camera.

Their conversations carried on with them being oblivious to the other human present other than them. "Ahem!", Cabir made his presence known to the duo who looked quite busy in themselves.

"Oh hi Cabir. Sorry, I didn't see you", Navya extended her hand for a handshake, all the while apologizing sincerely to him. It is rare. Extremely rare to see Cabir hesitating. But when it's Navya Naveli on the other end, you'll find this happening quite often. Acting all weird and cramped in front of your crush isn't something new, is it?

Cabir took her hand in his awkwardly, all the while throwing angry glares to his bestie who was on the verge of rolling on the floor with laughter. Manik loved these moments, which brought along a role reversal. These were the instances where Manik got to tease Cabir to the limit and he could not retort.

"What happened Cabir? Why are you red? Is it getting too hot for you?", Manik spoke with extra fake concern. He was met with cold stares coming from him . "Oh, do you need an AC room? Come I'll take you to my vanity", Navya generously offered being the kind soul she is. "Yeah yeah. He desperately needs one", instead of Cabir, Manik replied on his behalf. Just another case of a wretched best friend!

So Cabir was now on his way to Navya's vanity, with Manik trailing behind with a creepy teasing smile.

Things were indeed going Manik's way until he bumped into someone.

"Aryaman?" "Manik?"

The two men, who were now standing in front of each other, expressed their shock. "Are you even a part of this shoot?", asked Aryaman with a glimmer of hope shining bright in his eyes. "No I just came here to meet Navya", even though Manik absolutely hated to douse that hope in his eyes, he had to tell the truth.