It was nearly 1pm and I was waiting at the reception for Manik. As I pulled out my phone to ring him, a pair of hands covered my eyes.

"Manik?" I questioned. It didn't feel like him but who else would cover my eyes like that.

"Damn! I feel a little hurt!" I heard him say.

"Hardik? Sorry I thought you were Manik..." I said as I recognised the voice. He moved his hands from my eyes and I turned to face him.

"And I thought you were single!" He said with a sigh.

"What?" I asked in shock.

"Mazaak kar raha hoon!" He said with a giggle.

"Not a funny joke! And for the record, I am single!" I replied.

"You are? I thought you and Manik..."

"You and Manik what, Hardik?" Manik said with a smirk as he walked up to us and snaked his arm around my waist in an attempt to claim me as his rightful territory.

"Manik my boy! Don't mind me, I was just teasing Nandini." He replied.

"Woh toh mera kaam hai!" He said with a playful smile.

"What?" Hardik exclaimed.

"Joke! It's a joke! If you can joke then so can I. Right Nandini?" Manik said with a smirk.

"Right Manik!" I said suppressing my laughter.

"Anyways I'll leave you guys to it. I'm so busy you know. It's Valentine's Day and my date is waiting for me." He said.

"Of course she is!" Manik said sarcastically and Hardik left before Manik could tease him more.

"You're such a tease Manik!" I said as I playfully nudged his arm.

"What? He was teasing you so I teased him, simple! Besides, it's just friendly banter bro!" He said casually.

"Bro? Seriously? Don't bro me again!" I said as I pushed his hand away from my waist and turned to face him.

"Acha? So shall I call you behen then, you'll like that?" He said with a smirk.

"Ewh Manik Stop! You're making things so awkward!" I said as I covered my ears.

"So then what else would you like me to call you? Babe? Hunny? Baby? Sweety? Babu?" He said as he bent down to whisper into my ears. These words were no less than swear words for me. I never understood the need to use such endearments when addressing your partner, is their name not good enough?

"Say one more of these cheesy nicknames and I swear Malhotra, I will kick your ass in front of all these people and I will take some random stranger with me on the date. Wait, why some random stranger? I'll take Hardik!" I said quietly as I gritted my teeth.

"Feisty eh? I'm not scared of your threats okay? Besides, Hardik already has a date!" He said confidently.

"You and I both know that he was lying and frankly speaking, he would love to come on a date with me!" I replied with a smirk.

"Fine! You win! Ab chalay?" He asked.

"Hmmm! Chalo!" I said with a smile as I stared to walk ahead.

"Baap re! Aatlu badhu naatak!" I heard him mutter under his breath but it was loud enough for me to hear him. Manik had made an attempt to learn Gujarati for me and it was so cute seeing him speak in my native language sometimes.

"Aadat paarilay!" I said as I turned to face him with a smirk.

"Tu ekdum impossible che!" He said as he walked up to me and forwarded his hand. I giggled and put my hand in his and we walked out together.

As informed by Dhoni, our car was waiting for us. He soon drove us to the beachside where our cruise boat was waiting for us. There were so many boats around decorated in red roses and heart shaped balloons. Normally, these things would've been too cliche for my liking but Manik loved them and so I liked them too.

"Nandini, this is where our date is?" He asked with his mouth wide open.

"Yeah, you don't like it?" I asked with hopeful eyes.

"I love it! Was this your idea?" He said excitedly.

"Am I not capable of planning such a romantic date?" I questioned.

"I don't know, you hate all this cringy stuff. Balloons, teddies, roses, candlelight dinners, you don't like all this." He replied.

"But you do! I planned this date for you so it was obvious that it had to be done just the way you like it. Also, Dhoni helped me plan this!" I said as I adjusted the collar of his jacket.

"What? Mahi bhai? You're joking right?" He said as he pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

"No, he told me about this cruise date! He suggested I should take you here, you'd love it!" I replied.

"I do love it! I'll be sure to thank him later!" He said with a smile.

"Ab chalay boat pai, or you want to spend the entire date here?" I asked as I pointed towards the beautifully decorated boat waiting for us.

"No let's go! I'm so excited!" He said like a little child.

"I'm excited to see you so excited!" I said as I held his hand and we walked onto the boat together.

"Welcome on board. This is a little gift for a beautiful couple from us." The crew member said as he gave a big bouquet of flowers and chocolates to us.

"Actually we're not a cou..." Manik tried to correct him.

"Thank you!" I replied interrupting him. We then walked towards our seat.

"Woah Nandini! You didn't let me correct the man? You let him believe we're a couple?" I said as I pulled out the chair for him to sit.

"Problem hai?" I said as I went and took my own seat.

"No way! I thought you had a problem." He said in shock.

"Manik try not to think so much! Let's just enjoy this date!" I said.

"Date? I thought this was a friendly lunch! Nandini Murthy you are surprising me today!" He said with a smirk as he poured some water in his glass.

"Manik stop teasing me or I'll throw you off this boat!" I said irritatedly.

"Tum paagal ho! You suffer from a spilt personality or what? One minute you're this super cute and romantic girl and the second minute you sound like a psycho killer!" He said as he took a sip of his water.

"Very funny! By the way, you don't want any wine?" I said as I opened the bottle.

"No drinking during game season! Cannot compromise with my health. You should know better doctor!" He replied with a giggle.

"Not even a little bit?" I asked.

"There's seriously something wrong with you! You're asking me to compromise with my health! I don't believe it!" He said in shock.

"Manik I'm not asking you to compromise with your health, it's just a little bit of wine. But I respect your decision, so you don't need to drink it but I need some alcohol in me to gather courage for what I need to say next." I said as I poured some wine into my glass.

"Aisa kya bolnaa hai that you need alcohol!" He said with a smirk.

"Dil ki baat! I want to tell you everything that's going on in my mind or rather heart but I'm scared I won't be able to!" I replied honestly.

"If you want to open up to me, don't take the support of alcohol. I want you in your full senses. I want you to feel comfortable to open up to me." He said as he placed his hand on mine and I took a deep sigh and put the glass down.

"I guess you're right! So here goes nothing! So the night of Ziva's party, we left things unsaid or rather I left things unsaid. You poured your heart out to me Manik and I shut you down. I walked away and I regretted it so much. The two weeks after that were a mess! I wasn't getting proper sleep, I wasn't eating properly, I wasn't paying attention at work, I was feeling irritated, I was feeling everything I thought I would feel if I got into a relationship with a man! I was feeling this way because I was away from you and my stupid mind never understood that. Finally di and jiju knocked some senses into me. The day you left for New Zealand, I had tried to contact you because I wanted to meet you. I wanted to express how I felt." I confessed everything, my hands were shaking but it had to be done. He deserved to know.

"Nandini, I didn't know..." He tried to speak but I stopped him.

"Don't interrupt me now Manik, please! Otherwise I may not be able to say it."

"I'm sorry..." He said.

"Bola naa chup!" I said sternly.

"Okay, okay..." He was definitely taken aback with my sudden change in tone.

"Okay so what I wanted to tell you that day was that the thing we have going on between us, I want to give it a chance." I said quietly.

"And what exactly is that thing?" He asked with a smirk. He's such a tease.

"You know what thing I'm on about!" I said irritatedly.

"No Nandini, I wanna hear it from your mouth!" He stated.

"Fine. So I want to give our relationship a chance. I want to give love a chance. God I can't believe I'm saying this, but Manik Malhotra I really really want to give us a chance. In these past few months, we've grown into such amazing friends. I find myself sharing so much with you which I wouldn't share with anyone. I feel comfortable around you, I feel at ease around you. I want to give a go at this love thing that people are obsessed with. I want to see what the hype is all about. So if you still feel the same way then shall we?" As I was saying these words, my heart suddenly felt lighter and I couldn't seem to stop smiling.

"Say something Manik! Please! If it's a no I understand, we'll carry on being friends but please say something!" I added further as the silence was scaring me.

"I don't know what to say." He said with a shrug.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. I've ruined everything." I said as I got out of my seat and started pacing around the boat.

"Let me finish. I don't know what to say because I had never imagined those words would ever come out of your mouth. Also, who proposes like this? Matlab you told me to shut up halfway through." He said as he held me by my hands and stopped me from pacing.

"Sorry naa, I was in the zone and you were interrupting me. Avay jaldi bol, offer accept che?" I said nervously.

"Offer? Nandini this isn't an offer, this is our life we are talking about. It's not some deal!" He exclaimed.

"I know I'm sorry! I suck at these things. The more I speak, the worse I'm making things but Manik I always want to be in your company, I want to be the girl that means everything to you. I want to sit in the stands and cheer for you in your matches, I want to calm you down when your monster mode comes on, I want to be the one you go on beach dates with. In everything you do, I want to be the one you do it with. In return, I want you to promise to always be by my side too. I want you to promise to calm me down before major surgeries and eat limited street food on my say. I want you to promise to hold my hand when we're surrounded by the media and watch Shakespeare in theatres with me even though you find it so boring, I want you to promise that you'll always love me Manik." I confessed using the same words he used that night after I left from his house, the night of Ziva's birthday party, the night he confessed all his feelings for me unknown to the fact that I heard every single word he said.

"You heard?" He asked in shock. Both our eyes were filled with tears.

"Hmmm." I said as I nodded my head and looked down.

"I didn't realise you were there. I thought you'd left." He said as he lifted my chin making my eyes meet his beautiful brown ones.

"I heard and remembered every single word Manik. I wanted to run to you and hug you right away but my stupid commitment fears stopped me. If only I'd realised that day that this bond between us wasn't meant to be ignored." I said as I rested my head on his chest.

"But if you had realised that day then I wouldn't have witnessed such a unique and cute proposal." He said as he wrapped his arms around me.

"You're adorable Manik!" I mumbled.

"Acha, just adorable or something else too?" He said cheekily.

"Cute!" I stated.

"And?" He asked.

"Handsome!" I added.

"And?" He further asked.

"Sexy!" I said shyly.

"Ohoo sexy and all! Not bad! And?" He continued to tease me.

"And the man who stole my heart!" I said with a smile.

"Awwwh, and?"

"And the man whose head is gonna blow if I don't stop the compliments." I said as I pulled out of the hug.

"Moment ruin karnaa koi tumsay sikhay!" He said as he pulled me in for a hug again.

"Whatever! But look at destiny Manik. You came to New Zealand and I got assigned as your teams personal physiotherapist. What were the chances? I'm so excited though, I thought I wouldn't see you for so many months!" I said excitedly.

"Nandini this is just going to complicate things more." He said with a sigh.

"What do you mean Manik? I thought you'd be excited, we get to spend more time together!" I said as I pulled out of the hug and looked at him.

"I love the idea of spending time with you as Nandini, but not so much with Doctor Nandini Murthy. You working with team India is going to only complicate things. This is why I told you to refuse to do this job and I still think you should quit." He said as he started to pace around the boat.

"Manik, I thought this discussion was over. I'm not going to leave my job halfway like this. What problem do you have with me working with Team India?" I questioned.

"I'm worried okay!" He replied as he turned around.

"Worried? About what?" I questioned.

"About history repeating itself. I can't afford to lose you, I can't!" He said as he cupped my cheeks.

"History repeating itself? I'm so confused Manik. Please make me understand. Please!" I said softly.

"He was the first man to make her heart skip a beat, he was the first one whom she shared her worries with, and he was the first one who made her smile so much she forgot what pain was."

~Me 💕

A/N: Chapter 31 updated! Sorry that it's so late but I hope this cute update was worth the wait. What was your most favourite part of this update?
I hope you're all in good health. Take care. 😊❤️ Lots of love xxx