Chaotic Tangles!

8|| The First Confrontation

"But then again, maybe bad things keep happening because that's the only way you would remember how good things look like.
- Judi Picoult"

When you work in a hospital for more than 16 hours a day, six days a week, and the alternate Sundays too, there isn't a lot of friends you have that aren't doctors. The only social life you have is with the same people you go to work too, the shopping plans are also with them, and so are the drink plans. Safe to assume, they become your family.

Nandini smiled to herself, while she stared at Meera who was making faces gulping down the shots placed in front of her. Dev was recording Meera's video, laughing at her horrible set of expressions. They were all very different from each other, their ideologies and perspectives for life intersected at cross sections, but they also knew how to respect each other's boundaries and opinions. Nandini knew she could not have asked for better colleagues than them.

" Look at her, lost in her own world yet again!", Dev nudged Nandini who immediately giggled, and shook her head, not wanting the attention. As much as she was enjoying their banter, her eyes were also focused on the other side of the bar, the part she was stealing glances at again and again, the part where Dr. Manik and Dr. Simran were having drinks.

She saw Manik holding a glass of Single Malt, double Scotch, and rotate it in his hands to melt the ice. His face would lit up in occasional smiles, as he listened to Dr. Simran's animated talks with rapt attention. In all the three weeks she had been here, it was twice, including today's that she was seeing him here, and she had to acknowledge that this was the closest she had seen him being normal.

No frowns on his forehead, no gloomy trances and not the usual uptight demeanour. He talked minmum, she noticed, but he did pay attention to everything he was being told and gave him advices of opinions, whatever.

She thought about the day last week when she had overheard Dr. Simran wanting him to go for a drink, and because this was the closest bar to their hospital, she had guessed this would be it, and for some reason she didn't understand, she named it her anxiety to solve the mystery around him, she had dragged Dev and Meera here too.

That was last weekend, and today was another weekend, and in between the trio had not only developed a fascination for this place, but also realised how most doctors from their hospital stood by here occasionally, more on weekends though. It also made it easy for Nandini to notice Manik minutely here, because he wasn't aware of her presence or that she was low key stalking him.

And then there was the fact that she had openly flirted with him, a moment she regretted and was glad about together, and he hadn't given her any reaction for that, rather both the OPDs this week had gone in some serious work discussions, only. He hadn't looked at her other than necessary, hadn't talked to her one word more than about the patients and that oddly had somehow unsettled her.

She noticed he didn't call her 'Ms. Mirror' again, and that he avoided her, intentionally and unintentionally, that he wasn't as comfortable around her as he was around other students, who were technically junior to her.

The thought process confused Nandini as much as it agitated her. She couldn't grasp a hold on her own emotions, and that was a first for her. Dr. Nandini Murthy was otherwise a really calm and composed woman, who knew to keep her own emotions in check, and see things for exactly what they were, with a full realistic approach.

It was something she had never felt before, this confusion. She had always been clear about her perspectives, about her opinions and about what she felt about a certain situation. When she joined, she was sure she would stay away from Him in any case, that he wasn't good news, surely not the idol she thought him to be now.