Manik's jaw is clenched and he glares at Arjun. I better step in before they start fighting. By the looks of it, Manik will knock Arjun down so easily.

I walk near Manik. His eyes soften as he sees me. He holds his hand out for me to hold and without hesitation I take it.

Ria and her little minions gasp loudly seeing me and Manik hold hands. I roll my eyes mentally at them. Yeah, he's with me bitxhes.

My back is facing Arjun, Ria, and her friends. My attention is on Manik's face. We stare at each other. He is trying to calm down. I can see him taking a deep breath before he turns and we walk away from the drama.

"Cupcake. Why are you going with him?" We hadn't even taken two steps away from them when Arjun calls out for me.

"Fvck it." I hear Manik whisper before he leaves my hand and goes to Arjun. Oh no. Arjun you should have kept your mouth shut for once in your life.

"Manik. Please don't. Let's just go." I cry out. I really don't want them to fight. I'm scared Manik will get hurt and also there are so many people around, anybody could take a video and post it on social media. It will cause an unnecessary scene that can be avoided so easily if only Arjun could keep his fvcking mouth shut.

I see John stepping in between trying to stop Manik from hitting Arjun but with one glare of Manik's, he immediately moves away.

Manik holds Arjun by his t-shirt. Arjun is scared. It's visible all over his face.

"If I hear you call her cupcake one more time, I won't hold myself back from destroying your face. Stay the fvck away from her. Don't make me repeat myself." Manik's voice holds so much anger that I almost don't recognize it.

I move towards him and hold his arm before he hits him. He looks at me briefly before glaring at Arjun's face one last time. His hold on his t-shirt loosens and he pushes him before letting him go. Arjun stumbles before regaining his balance. He fixes his t-shirt and glares at Manik.

"Who the fvck are you to tell me to stay away from her? You stay away from her. We may not be together right now but I love her and I know she loves me too. She is just a little angry right now but I'll win her over again." What the fvck is he saying?

I close my eyes trying to control my anger. I hear Manik taking a deep breath again before glaring at Arjun harder than last time.

"Manik can we please go? I don't want to be here any longer." I don't bother to say anything to Arjun because I don't care about what he says or does anymore.

I see Arjun glaring at me from the corner of my eye before sighing. He probably realized I'm not going to talk to him and there is no point in trying anymore. He goes from where we're standing. Arjun stands a little far but still where we can see him and he can see us.

I want to go away from here. I need to tell Manik about Arjun. I don't want him to misunderstand me. What if he thinks I'm seeing Arjun right now while I'm out with him on dates too?

"Oh, Nandini are you okay darling?" Ria's voice interrupts Manik who had just taken my hand in his and he was about to tell me something.

I turn to look at her. She is staring at Manik who is staring at me. Manik didn't even spare a glance at her since the time he got here.

"Ria I'm fine. I'll see you later. I need to go." I turn to Manik and give him a small smile before whispering let's go.

"But Nandini the reunion hasn't even started yet. You should really stay here and meet everyone. It's not like every day when we all gather together." She interrupts us again. I know what she wants. She wants me to stay so that she can talk to Manik because she thinks she has a chance with him. Who am I kidding? She probably does have a chance with him. What if Manik likes her and doesn't want me anymore? Ria is so much more beautiful than me.

My face falls as I think more about this.

"Nandini. Are you okay? If you want, you can stay. I can pick you up later. John or Vikas can stay with you to make sure nobody troubles you. If you want, I can stay as well." His eyes are trying to figure out what is going on with me.

"There is no point in staying. I think I've had enough of this reunion. Let's just go."

We walk towards Manik's car. I don't even bother saying goodbye to Ria and her friends. I'm pretty sure she was busy staring at Manik to even hear my goodbyes.

Once inside the car, my phone rings. It's Navya.

"Nandini how is it going? Are you okay there?"

"Navya honestly it was a mess. I left before it even started. I won't get into details right now but I'm just saying one name and you'll figure what went wrong. Arjun."

"Oh no, sis. I thought Arjun wasn't coming. I confirmed it before telling you to go to the reunion. Fvcking jerk must have changed his mind last minute."

"Yeah well, it was interesting. I'll talk to you later when I go home."

"Alright. Are you okay though? Are you alone?"

"I..I'll be fine. And I'm with Manik right now. He came to save me lol. Quite literally."

"Oh, Nandini I'm glad he's with you. Call me later okay? Bye."

I turn to look at Manik who is staring at something out of the window. My gaze goes down to our entwined fingers. He hasn't said a word to me since we left school. Is he regretting coming here? Maybe he didn't like the fact that I had a boyfriend. I can't believe I didn't mention anything about that but then again we never really talked about relationships.

I hope he's not like those typical Indian men who want their wife to not have had set her eyes on men let alone have a relationship with the opposite sex.

He doesn't look like those men and from our talks, I can hope that he is not.

We reach outside a house. The nameplate of the house says Malhotra. Oh, no are we meeting his parents? Are my parents here too? Does he want to say no to our marriage?

My worries have no end. I look at him and find him staring at my face.

"What's wrong?" His free hand caresses my cheek.

"Why are we here Manik?"

"We need to talk. I wanted a more private space. I'm sorry, if you want, we can go somewhere else."

Oh? So my parents are not here? He isn't saying no? But he said he wants to talk so he'll say no, won't he?

He turns to John, ready to instruct him to take us to another place.

"Manik. It's fine. I thought something else. We can stay at your house."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to be uncomfortable. If you want to go somewhere else, please just tell me."

"No, it's fine."

Manik nods at John who is looking at him through the mirror.

John puts in the code and the big strong doors open letting the car go inside.

The first thing I notice is the size of the house. It's huge. Probably double my house. It is screaming money from afar. Malhotras probably spent a couple of million dollars on it.

John opens my door and I whisper a thank you to him. Manik comes on my side and holds his hand out for me. Taking my hand he guides me in.

I was too busy staring at Manik's face trying to figure out what is happening inside his mind to look at the house.

Manik stops at the dining table which is full of food. Food that I love. He has once more taken my taste into consideration. It reminds me of my grandmother's words. The little things, Nandini, those are the ones that make the difference. Those are the ones that show you who cares and who doesn't. Notice those.

He leaves my hand to pull out the chair for me to sit. He sits right in front of me.

"I thought you would be hungry considering you didn't stay at that awful reunion for long."

Awful is not the word I would use to describe that reunion. Disaster would be more appropriate of a word.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this mess. I didn't know Arjun would be there. I honestly had forgotten about him completely."

"I'm glad I was there Nandini and what makes me happier is the fact that you actually called me the moment you felt like it wasn't going well."

"I need to tell you about Arjun."

I inhale a deep breath ready to start the chapter of Arjun that I had closed a long time ago.

"Arjun and I, we were in school together but back then we weren't even friends. We just knew each other and we were polite with one another. We lost touch after school since me and Navya went to a different high school. We met again before I started university at a party of a common friend. Back in school I had a small crush on him and when we met and he flirted with me, it just came back and I couldn't resist him. He was so nice to me and treated like I should be treated. I feel like he had portrayed an image in front of me that he kept until the very end. I didn't know that behind my back he was doing things with other girls. I would have never suspected anything because that's how good he was at his facade. Navya called me one day and said that she saw Arjun going in a hotel with a girl and she briefly saw them kissing. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and honestly, for a moment I doubted Navya." I close my eyes as guilt takes over me. I can't believe I trusted Arjun more than my own best friend who has been there for me for so many years, who cares for me more than anyone. I'm so sorry Navya.

I see Manik move from his seat. I look at him as he walks around the table and sits next to me. He holds my hand while his other hand caresses my cheek.

"Don't feel guilty. He made you trust him blindly. Sometimes we end up trusting the wrong people and it is okay. We are all humans. We make mistakes and we learn from them. It's not easy to judge a person Nandini. Don't blame yourself." His voice is so low and comforting.

"When I said that there is no way that would have been Arjun, Navya didn't say anything. She just told me to come to take a look and maybe she didn't see correctly. I feel more guilty about it because she realized I didn't trust her enough to believe what she told me about Arjun. It took us a very long time after Arjun left our lives to get back to normal."

"He didn't deserve you. He got someone way out of his league, someone way too good for him and he didn't know how to handle that." He stares me in the eyes as his hand is holding mine.

I shake my head denying what he said.

"I think it was my fault. When I went to see him in his room in that hotel, he said that he had needs that I wasn't satisfying and someone had to do it so he had to seek outside. We never umm had...sex. I wasn't ready for that and honestly, we had just been together for 6 months. No matter how great of a guy he was in front of my face, I couldn't just give myself to him so easily."

Manik cups my face in his hands and makes me look at him.

"Look at me Nandini. No matter what he shouldn't have cheated on you. You didn't deserve that and neither was that your fault. Never ever think that again. The right guy will wait for you to be ready. The right guy will show you how much you mean to him. And the right guy will never cheat on you. And I hope that right guy is me."