A Thousand Encounters

Chapter-63

Manik was seated in living room trying to grasp what had just happened. Nandini had locked herself in her room. Manik looked at the wall clock and sighed. It was half an hour since they had had their first argument since the time they had reconciled.

"This is not how I had imagined our Sunday to be, either," Manik murmured shrugging his shoulders. His eyes gazed the wooden floor beneath while mind tried to contemplate over whatever happened. The way those men spoke to her as if she was some defaulter, his jaw tightened again remembering those words. She had been taking all this nonsense alone and he didn't even know. He cursed under his breath to calm himself down and then practiced deep breaths.

He shouldn't have yelled at her, she might have wanted to tell him about it today. He didn't even give her a chance and shouted at her.

"Shit, it's all my fault," He murmured as he thought about how he might have lashed out her for nothing. She didn't know that he was having issues with her unwillingness to share.

"What the... ," He groaned in perturbation as he combed his hair with his long fingers.

Any day, he could have asked a little less aggressively, He agreed. He was sure if he kept losing his cool, she was never going to open up. Walking to the kitchen, he picked up eggs from the tray. He needed to serve the hellion well to make up for lost one hour of theirs. He knew what their Sundays meant to her and he knew better how precious they were to him. Sundays were the tonic to his heart which kept him going for entire week.

He broke the eggs into the bowl and started to cut the veggies for the Omelet.

"Why me?" He asked himself when toasts got burned in process to clean the messed up kitchen counter.

He picked up the tray and walked towards the room. He knocked gently but heard nothing breaking. He sighed and tried again. This time, he could hear a thing or two breaking. This was her way of answering. Daadu had tales to tell how difficult this hellion could be when angry.

"Open the door, Nandini," He pleaded softly and heard another thing striking the door.

"Wow," He mumbled in amusement and cleared his throat.

"One hour and 20 minutes," He uttered looking at his wrist watch and this time nothing broke inside that room. He could hear her bed creaking and a smile adorned his face.

He waited her to open the door, his excitement had no bound to see her red face when she opened the door but then he couldn't predict her so precisely. He heard her unlatch the door and then may be retreating back to her bed. His frown didn't go unnoticed to her when he entered the room. 

She was sitting on her bed folding her legs and was busy glaring the gorgeous morning view of mountains. Her red nose told it all how she had cried while room also screeched its lungs out to tell how upheaval she had turned it. Manik shook his head and put the tray between them as he sat across her.

He offered her omelette sandwich and she bit her lower lip. She wanted to taste that delicious sandwich but then he didn't even say a simple sorry. She didn't accept the yummy looking omelet and he put it down.

"You know na," He started to say in that utterly defeated tone of his as if a calamity had hit him. And Nandini didn't know how not to burst into laughter. She was angry at so many things and he was one of them but still his antics were enough to make her forget how life had been a bitch to her.

"I didn't mean to shout at you, it's just....," He said and took a dramatic pause, "I want you to share things with me, Nandini."

Finally, Nandini looked at him and his face instantly lighted up. He licked his lips and slid the food tray aside so that he could sit a bit nearer to her.