✰

Dammit! Why wasn't she answering to any of my messages? Is she mad at me?

Thousands of thoughts ran through his mind as he received no reply from Nandini's side. At last after waiting and feeling anxious for too long, he chose to call her.

The phone kept ringing but she didn't pick up. Manik didn't give up and called her again and luckily this time she answered the call.

"Hello? Nandini are you okay? Why aren't you answering back to my messages? Is everything alright?" He asked impatiently without giving her time to speak.

When he heard nothing from the other end, he frowned.

"Nandini?" He called out again and she came out of her trance and cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry." She said rather merely whispered back and the line went silent. Her voice was so soft and sweet that for a moment he forgot why he had called her but then reminded himself to concentrate.

Why was she saying sorry?

"Manik?" It was her turn to call him and he immediately answered with a 'yes' indicating her to keep going.

"I'm really sorry but my brother gave me a surprise visit today and then he came to know about this wrong number fiasco. So I couldn't ─" She trailed off not saying anything further and Manik sighed into the phone.

"He must've been worried. Any brother would if he comes to know about his sister talking to a stranger. So did he ask you to not talk to me." He questioned and Nandini kept quiet.

"Directly, no he didn't but indirectly, yes he indicated that." She said in a low voice and Manik gulped listening her answer.

"What do you want?" His voice was soft like asking a baby to choose between candies when she was confused.

His heart was thudding in his chest as he waited for her reply.

When she didn't speak anything even after five minutes, he chuckled but it was rather a sad one.

"It's okay Nandini. You can block my number after we end this call. It'll be alright." He said trying to convince her but his own voice didn't sound convincing.

Still Nandini spoke nothing as he waited for her to say something. So he finally took a deep breath before he continued,

"So it was really nice talking to you and knowing you Nandini. I'm glad you got my number as the wrong number because it could've been anyone's. I hope somewhere in future we would meet accidentally or not, but I hope I'll be able to recognise you. That's the only thing I wish for." His voice was a mere whisper in the end and he could barely hide his pain.

"Until we meet again Manik." He could hear her voice breaking and his heart clenched.

"Until we meet again." He whispered back and they ended the call on that note.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply keeping the phone aside. He knew she was confused and stuck in between her brother and him and so he made it easy for her.

Although he had suggested her himself to block his number, he feared about the same. Will she do it? Would he never hear her voice again?

He hated to let her go because the feelings that he had started developing for her weren't just temporary but his feelings were none of her business and he had to take care of them.

She liked Ahaan and that part hurt the most because she would never know he liked her just as much.

✰