"5 saal pehlay ki baat hai. I was 21 and I was young and naive. I was doing well in my career. I was one of the best young openers. Not many people got the chance to open with top class players like Dhawan and Rohit but I did. I was playing under Dhoni's captaincy, how lucky was I! Everything was perfect for me Nandini. Everything! It was the 2015 World Cup semi-final, we were beaten by Australia. Our chance to retain the World Cup title was shattered. We were all distressed. As a 21 year old, you don't take losses well. I wanted to get drunk and forget the misery. It was the first World Cup I had participated in and I felt frustrated that we lost after getting so far. I remember sulking in the corner of the hotel restaurant with the company of my loneliness and the untouched beer glass. That's when she walked up to me and my life changed from that point onwards. Naina, the girl who made me forget my sadness." Manik started to narrate his story as I listened intently.

"Naina?" I mumbled. Who was she?

"Hmmm, she was the most prettiest girl I had laid my eyes on or so I thought. Now that I've met you Nandini, I don't think that was quite true. Anyway, Naina was doing her internship with our team. She was training to be a sports physiotherapist and was assisting our head physiotherapists during the World Cup season. I had seen her around during the matches and practice but I had never paid much attention to her until that day. She just came to me that day, sat down and we just talked. She talked about her studies, her future aspirations, her family, her hobbies and I spoke to her about my family, my hobbies etc. Nothing crazy happened that night Nandini. It was just two people talking over drinks and forgetting our worries. I felt so relaxed with her, I felt free, I felt like a regular care free 21 year old! There was no pressure of carrying the dream of billions on my shoulder, there was no pressure of hitting big runs, there was no pressure of winning. After that night, we started to meet more often. After her internship, she even got a place as the assistant physiotherapist of team India. I remember the day she had officially become a member of team India, I asked her to be my girlfriend. We were so happy together. She brought out the best in me. She was my lucky charm. She meant everything to me." Manik said as he stared out into the distance. Normally his words made me feel calm, but today I felt a pang of jealousy after listening to his words.

"If everything was so perfect then what happened? Where did it all go wrong?" I questioned. If Naina was so perfect for him then why did they fall apart?

"Good question! Frankly speaking, I don't have the exact answer. There were many things which went wrong. Firstly, the media got involved. They figured out we were dating as they saw us spending so much time with each other. We never actually told the media that we were official but anyone could've guessed. The media knowing didn't bother us at first, but then things started to get crazy. The media would follow Naina everywhere, she had no personal space. They were trying to dish out gossip on Manik Malhotra's girlfriend because they clearly had nothing else to do. She started getting irritated and anyone would. This start causing fights between us. Then one day, I was spotted at a restaurant with Pankhuri Sharma, Hardik's sister-in-law. Her and Krunal were in the early days of dating at that time. No one knew anything about them. I had met them both for a casual dinner. In the middle of dinner, Krunal had received an urgent call and he had to leave. I offered to drop Pankhuri off. She was a good friend of mine. After dinner, we both headed out together. I dropped her off in my car. The media captured our pictures and you can guess what the headline was the next day. 'Manik Malhotra spotted with a mystery girl! Is she the new girlfriend? Have Manik and Naina broken up?' This created more drama between me and Naina. I couldn't tell her Pankhuri was Krunal's girlfriend, it was their secret and they should decide when to reveal it to the world. I explained to Naina Pankhuri was just a friend. She believed me but she was upset I went out to dinner alone with another girl and wasn't careful enough to not be spotted by the media." Manik explained. No wonder why he tries to protect me from the media.

"Then what happened?" I asked as I placed my hand on his encouraging him to speak further.

"Our misunderstandings started to increase. We kept arguing over the tiniest things. The media kept spreading rumours about me and Pankhuri. It was all getting too much. Amidst all this, our Australia tour happened. The tension between us was impacting my game. I wasn't able to concentrate properly and so Naina and I decided to take a break from each other for sometime. We originally decided that we would take a break while the Australia series was going on and then we would give our relationship another chance. It was just meant to be a short break Nandini, it was supposed to give us sometime to clear our heads but that temporary break turned into a permanent one. By the end of the Australia series, Naina had already moved on and that too with one of my good friends. He's a member of the Australian cricket team. He had seen her at one of the matches and she caught his eye. He asked her for dinner and she agreed. They started spending more and more time together. Three weeks! It took her three weeks to forget about everything we had and move on with another man." He said as he paced around the boat in frustration.

"So she cheated on you?" I said quietly but it was loud enough for him to hear.

"Can you really call it cheating though Nandini? We had both agreed to take a break so technically we weren't dating each other at the time. I could've fooled around with someone else had I wanted but I didn't. I really liked her and I couldn't think about anyone else but her. Clearly, my love wasn't enough for her. She informed me about this after the last match of the series. We had won the series and I received man of the tournament. I was super excited about it and I obviously wanted to share my joy with her. I was also going to ask her to be my girlfriend once again, but before I could do that she informed me that she had moved on. I was pissed, upset, angry, heartbroken. Despite winning that day, I felt like the biggest loser." He said with a sarcastic giggle as he frustratedly threw his hands in the air.

"So much happened Manik and you still have faith in love. You still believe that true love exists, you still believe in happily ever afters. I thought everything was all rosy in your life. How do you do it Manik? Aren't you afraid you'll have your heartbroken again?" I said as I took a sip of my wine. This was all too much to take in.

"See Nandini, if I don't perform well in one match, that doesn't mean I won't perform well in all the other matches too. Sometimes luck isn't on our side and so we fail to perform well. Every player has bad days. Even a world class player like Dhoni has his off days. So Nandini I applied the same theory to love. Just because it did not work out with one person doesn't mean it'll never work out. My relationship with Naina didn't have a positive ending but there are so many other positive relationships around me which make me believe that true love does exist. Besides, me and Naina shared some beautiful memories together. Our journey was only meant to last a short amount of time but whatever moments we spent together were memorable." He explained with a smile. How is he such a positive person?

"That's one way to look at it. Do you miss Naina?" I asked hesitantly. I wanted him to say no, of course but I prepared myself to hear a yes too.

"Miss? I don't know. But I sure do feel slightly jealous when I see her with Chris, her partner." He said with a sigh.

"So you still love her?" I asked.

"No! No Nandini! I guess I feel a little jealous to see them together because it reminds me of the time we shared together, but I'm happy for her. We both weren't right for each other. Mum would tell me that something better was planned for me and all this while I kept looking for that thing and when you came into my life Nandini, I realised what exactly was planned for me. You Nandini, if I hadn't broken up with Naina then I wouldn't have been able to meet a wonderful girl like you." His words made me feel relieved. I'm so glad he has left Naina in the past.

"That's a really positive way of looking at things. I saw my parents' messed up relationship and I assumed every relation would be like that. Your perspective is so different to mine. You didn't let one bad experience ruin all your experiences." I said with a smile as I caressed his hair.

"But what matters is that you're starting to break those walls you've built around you, you're starting to let people in, you're starting to let love in and that's what matters." He said as he held my hands and caressed them with his thumb.

"But what's the use? You're pushing me away!" I said sadly.

"Nandini I'm not pushing you away, I just want to keep you safe. I want to keep this relation safe. I'm happy that you want to give our relation a chance but I'm scared us working together will mess things up." He addressed his fears.

"Manik you were the one who said that one bad experience shouldn't ruin all future experiences. So why are you going against your own beliefs?" I asked.

"Because I can't take any risks with you. You agreed to this relation after so long and now I don't want anything to go wrong. I want everything to go right with us. I don't want to take any risks." He said anxiously.

"Manik, if you think I'm going to just quit this job abruptly then you don't know me at all. My career is very important to me Manik. I'm not going to just leave because a man asked me to. I may sound like an extreme feminist but Manik I have put in way too much time and effort to be where I am today. My career gave me my own identity. It took me years of hard work to earn the title of Dr Nandini Murthy and I will not compromise with my career. This job was there for me when no one else was. This job gave me a name, a purpose and I won't let anyone mess with that. If us working together is a problem then I can also ask you to quit. I can ask you to opt out of the series but I won't do that because I know how important Cricket is to you. So Manik Malhotra you need to understand that Nandini Murthy will not compromise with her job and ambitions for anyone. I want to be in a relationship which doesn't make me choose between the person I love and my career. I like to keep my personal and professional life apart. So I assure you that my job as the teams physiotherapist will not impact our relationship. After knowing this, If you want to be with me that's great, we'll carry on with our date and celebrate the beginning of something new. If you don't want to give this a go with me still working with team India, then this date ends here and so does whatever we had. The decision is yours." I explained my point of view in the nicest way possible. After I was done, I released my hands from his, picked up my glass of wine and walked to the other side of the boat.

I will be heartbroken and shattered if he refuses but I needed to say this. I want to be in a relationship which lets me pursue my passion and my dreams. A relationship which accepts me for who I am. A relationship in which I have the freedom to make my own decisions. Manik is amazing, he respects me, he respects my job, he is perfect in so many ways but I cannot compromise with my job because his insecurities are troubling him. Rather than asking me to compromise, he needs to learn to overcome those insecurities just like I did. If he succeeds to do that, then our relationship will surely run smoothly.

"Of course she loved him endlessly, but she also loved her career that she worked day and night for. Asking her to make a choice was insulting her love." 

~Me 💕

A/N: Chapter 32 updated! Finally Manik's insecurities are revealed. Hope you all enjoyed reading. Thank you for all your love and support. It means so much to me. ☺️❤️ Lots of love xxx