Will she be mine??? - Part 2

Vivan woke up before everyone else in the house. It had been ages since he had woken up before the sun rise. He walked to the table calendar and picked up his marker and scratched on August 14th exactly a week after Nidhi had got an offer from his office. 

"Finally it's the 7th day and the end of my week long wait", he told himself.

He picked up his phone and dialed Rohan's number. "Rohan, mere bhai, Nidhi is gonna join my office today...." He stood on top of his bed behaving like a small kid and screamed. "I am not too far from winning my bet Rohan", he smiled sarcastically.
Rohan pleaded him to let him sleep and Vivan hung up.

Nidhi was excited to start her first day at her new office. She wore her new mustard colored salwar and light pink chudidhar and decked herself with minimum accessories as she had to be formal. Raj uncle blessed her before she could leave and offered to drop her to office. 

"No uncle. I will take care. Please don’t worry." She replied.
"I will drop you safely Nidhi, we will go by car", her uncle insisted. Nidhi who was smiling all along became dull. Her aunt who was serving breakfast said, "Nidhi beta you travel the way that is comfortable for you"
Nidhi turned to her uncle, "Uncle I will travel by bus." She tried to hide the gloomy look on her face with a slight smile.
Her uncle nodded in agreement.

"She still hasn't forgotten it" Raj uncle was talking to his wife after Nidhi left for work.

Vivan watched Nidhi enter the office gate while parking his bike. She looked splendid. He kept questioning God, “Kyun? Why did you make her so pretty? I keep losing myself a million times each moment I see her J” Nidhi walked past him without noticing him.

 Vivan wasn’t surprised by this fact as he had got used to her ignorance. He knew that either she hadn’t noticed him or she had behaved as though she didn’t notice him.

“Oh my gosh!!” Nidhi exclaimed to herself. “That Mr. Flirt works here L.” Nidhi had noticed him while entering into office. “Of all the offices in the world Why God? Why did you give me a job here” Nidhi was arguing with God much to her agony. But God had different plans for her. Was Vivan a part of his plan? Well, only time could tell J

A week passed and Nidhi was placed in the same project as Vivan. (Well this was what Vivan wanted J Same project!! Same team!! More time to get close to Nidhi !! )

While he had tried a dozen times to talk to her, she had tried equal number of times to avoid him L.They sat in diagonally opposite cubicles. This gave Vivan and extra advantage to watch her. Rohan at the other end kept reminding Vivan of his bet. Another month had passed away and Vivan's attempts were futile. He had started to loose hope when something hysterical happened.

 It was the 16th of September, a friday and with not much work on the floor Nidhi went down to have tea at the cafeteria. She looked around to search for company but no one was around. She picked up her glass of tea and went and sat with her group of friends. In a hurry she failed to realize that Vivan was also present at the same table. (“Oops!!” She reacted by spitting drops of tea which she had just sipped :P)

“Hey Nidhi, glad to see you at the café! Kya hua? Done with your work?” her colleague enquired.

Before Nidhi could answer, Vivan started a conversation, “Arre yaar. Nidhi is a fresher, she has to be impressive at the beginning itself. Hai na Nidhi??”, he looked at Nidhi questioning her and continued, “ Every fresher is like Nidhi in the beginning, a very hard worker and gradually the fresher becomes like me, a smart worker J :P !!!” He chuckled and gave a hi-five to his friend who agreed to him.

Nidhi who had already developed pre-conceived notions about him, now had decided that he was a complete jerk L.

“Only time will tell if I continue to be me or turn into you, Mr……”, She tried gazing at his ID card for his name, “Mr. Vivan”

Picking up her tea cup, she excused herself and walked out of the café leaving Vivan embarrassed. (I think it was time Vivan should increase the duration of his bet. Nothing was actually working out for him. He tried to strike a conversation with Nidhi, but she totally misunderstood him L Poor Vivan)

Vivan spoilt his first conversation with her. He realized that his carefree attitude was something that Nidhi hated. For the first time, he wanted to be responsible and prove to her that he was worth talking atleast.

“Sushant, Wait up. ”  Nidhi ran from the first floor when she saw the HR walk by.

“Sushant, I needed some details about the policies for claiming my medical bills”, She enquired. 

“Hi Nidhi, good to see you on the floor. I shall mail you the details today”, He replied.

“Thank you Sushant. Thanks for finding me suitable for the job too J”, She waved and turned to leave when Sushant stopped her.

“Nidhi, you don’t have to thank me. I found you capable so I chose you. But yes if you do want to thank someone, it’s got to be the person who recommended you. I hope you thanked him!!”,

“Recommended me #$@??? I never asked anyone for recommendation Sushant. Who recommended me?”, she asked him in amazement.

“Vivan….. Your team mate… Didn’t he tell you?? You know him right?”, Sushant was confused now.

“Oh Vivan!!!”, Nidhi pushed a few strands of her hair backward nervously and replied, “Yes, I think he is just trying to be modest J”

"Why did Vivan help me?"She kept asking herself and failed to realize that he was walking exactly in the opposite direction. Both of them didn't notice each other and Nidhi was lost in her thoughts and Vivan was fiddling with his mobile. There came a point when they were going to hit on each other when Vivan noticed her and stopped.

"Nidhi, What's wrong?? Look ahead and walk....", he spoke stunned to see her standing so close to him. 

They were standing so close that he could almost feel her breath.

"Oh..." Her voice trailed and she wiped the sweat on her face. "I am sorry Vivan. I didn't notice you coming" She spoke and left from there. 

That evening Vivan was happy that finally Nidhi had responded to him. He was happily driving through Bandra bandstand. He parked his car and went for a stroll along the waters. Bandra bandstand was filled with uneaven stones and during high tides the water would hit hard on the stones.Vivan loved to stand at the edge of the stones and watch the waves come and fall over him. There were many couples sitting around him that evening J.

A wild thought suddenly passed his mind and he dreamt of sitting on one of the stones with Nidhi beside him. He wished to see her smile in the moonlight J. Lost in his dreams he had almost closed his eyes. He opened them closely to find Nidhi standing in front of him.

“Enjoying the scenery??” She smiled at him.

“Nidhi….. Is that you or am I dreaming?” He asked her with his eyes open wide.

                                                                                          

She waved her hand in front of his eyes to make him realize that she was actually present there.

“Vivan I wanted to thank you.” She sat in one of the stoned near the waters and patted on the stone next to her indicating that she wanted him to sit there. He sat next to her maintaining distance as he was scared to fill the gap.

 “Thank me? Why Nidhi? I thought you hated me and you never liked to talk to me”, He enquired adjusting his shirt.

“I hated you Vivan. That’s true…… And I still don’t really like you.” She tried to make movements with her hands and speak. Vivan kept looking at her eyes as she spoke.

When their eyes met Nidhi tried to look away. She started feeling a little uncomfortable and suddenly got up.

 “Nidhi……??” Vivan looked up with inquisitiveness in his eyes

“Look Vivan. I came to Mumbai 3 months back and it was really difficult looking out for a job. But you recommended me without even knowing who I was. I just wanted to thank you for it. It was very kind of you to do that for me.” She finished the conversation abruptly and picked up her bag.

“Bye Vivan”, she left the place before letting him speak anything.

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Present Day:

It had become 9 in the night and Nidhi was nowhere to be seen. Vivan had got up from his bench and tried shifting 5 benches. She was still not to be seen anywhere. His thoughts went back to that evening at Bandra bandstand. “Why did you get up, Nidhi, the minute our eyes met?” He thought. There were a million times this thought had crossed him. But he could never find the answer to it,....... only Nidhi could tell..... L.

“Nidhi….. “ He called her name in a whisper. “Nidhi What were you trying to hide that evening? Why did I become so mad about you when I knew that I was only playing a game on you?” His thoughts went back to the past.

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Vivan ran behind Nidhi as she got up to leave. “Nidhi, why don’t you come with me? I shall drop you home”

“No thanks Vivan. We are not so close enough that I can travel with you in the bike”, He spoke hurriedly and started to move.

“No Nidhi!! I have a car today. I can drop you in it” Hearing the word CAR!! Nidhi’s facial expression changed.

“Car!!! No Vivan. I am convenient with buses. Thanks for your thoughtfulness”, She continued to walk towards the bus stand.

Nidhi waited for half an hour and there was no bus around. She started biting her finger nails in nervousness wondering when she would reach home. A few minutes later a car came and stood in front of her. The window slowly opened and Vivan called her,

“Nidhi. I know you don’t wish to travel with me but it’s quiet late”, Nidhi was still not convinced.

He walked out of the car and came close to her, “Nidhi see… let me put it this way, Why don’t you take this as a way to repay my kindness?”

 “What gesture Vivan?” Nidhi was frustrated.

“I gave you a recommendation and solved your problem. So now I am asking you for a ride with me. You can repay me this way right.” Vivan smiled thinking he had hit on the goal.

“Alright Vivan. I am in”, She gave up and went and sat in the car. He started driving and noticed that Nidhi had closed her eyes tightly.

She held her dupatta tightly as though she was in some roller coaster............ it worried Vivan. “Nidhi, I noticed that you get nervous when you have to travel in the car. Even the other day at office, all of us went in the car to the theatre but you travelled by bus. And even now you have closed your eyes”, She suddenly opened her eyes and started looking around.

“Vivan, I don’t wish to answer every question of yours. I am sorry if I am rude but can we just go home soon”, She looked outside the window trying to avoid a conversation.

Vivan didn’t speak another word after that but yes he kept thinking to himself, “I recommended Nidhi because I wanted to impress her and win the bet, but she.... she took it is such a right way.... You are good Nidhi!! J” (For a change Vivan started thinking straightJ)

A few days passed and Vivan began to get friendly with Nidhi. On one hand Nidhi started changing her perspective towards Vivan while on the other Rohan got worried that Vivan would win his bet. For Vivan, it had all started as a game. But his feelings gradually changed. He started to enjoy spending time with Nidhi. Almost every Friday they met at Bandra bandstand. Sometimes it was just the two of them or sometimes it with a group of friends.

Raj Uncle and aunty were amazed to find a change in Nidhi’s behavior. She started spending time with others. They remembered the day Nidhi’s parents had called them up and told them about the incident that changed Nidhi’s life. It had been a long struggle for her. The girl who was gloomy, the day she had landed in Mumbai was totally different today.

The reason was Vivan!! J He, would make Nidhi smile, crack stupid and insane jokes. But everytime he looked at her eyes, he could find a quietness in it, a sadness lingered in them. He wished to see her smile through her eyes. He wished to see her laugh her heart out. He had dreamt to see her that way. Many a times he tried to break the wall around them but Nidhi wouldn’t open up.

He thought he would never ever find out the reason behind it her nervousness, her sadness, her quietness until one day he heard Rohan’s mother’s conversation with Nidhi’s aunty…

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Present Day: “I wish I had only known it before Nidhi” , He kept apologizing to her in his loneliness. But she was not before him.

 “I wish I knew the reason for your sadness Nidhi, I would never had got the cheap idea to play a game with you”, He spoke to himself and folded his fingers tightly. He was angry on his attitude, on his behavior, on the way he had made a cheap plan to win her.

“Come back Nidhi, Please come once before me? I swear I will make everything fine”, He prayed to see her before…

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What was the conversation about? Would Nidhi give Vivan a chance to prove his guilt????

To be continued.....