"Chalo..hum dono tumhe tumhara naya kamra dekhate hai." Ananya Malhotra, Raj & Nyonika's eldest daughter in law and wife of Arjun Malhotra smiled at Nandini.

After the wedding ceremony, Nandini & Manik had to go through some post wedding traditions after which Manik just disappeared. So of course to distract Nandini, Nyonika ordered her two older daughter-in-laws to take her to her new room.

"Kaisi lagi?" Shruti asked.

(For the picture, imagine the photo below)

"Aapke devar dracula hai kya?" Nandini asked as she took a look around the room. "Ya phir dhoop se allergy hai? Yahan itna andhera andhera sa hai...aur kala...sab kuch kale rang ka hai. Carpet, bistar, dewar...closet, sab kuch!"

Nandini looked around more and then stopped infront of a giagantic photo of Manik on the wall (The one above). "Aur khud ke kamre mein khud ke tasveer kaun lagata hai yeh-"

Thats when Nandini realized that she may have said too much and quickly shut her mouth. Ananya & Shruti stared at eachother and started laughing.

"Arre...sharma kyun rahi ho? Bolo na...jo bolna hai bolo." Ananya laughed. "Actually woh kya hai na, mardon ko toh kisi cheez ki koi idea nahi hai. Arjun aur Dev ke kamre bhi aisa hi tha...hai na Shruti?"

"Haan, aur shaadi ke baad maine aur Bhabhi ne milke sab kuch humare hisab se badal diya...toh tum bhi wahi karo." Shruti added.

"Main?" Nandini asked. "Par yeh toh Manik ka kamra hai."

"Idhar aao...baiton." Ananya sat on the bed beside Nandini. "Mujhe paata hai yeh shaadi shayad vaisi nahi hai jaisa tumne socha tha...par ab tum Mrs Nandini Manik Malhotra ho. Iska matlab yeh hai ki jo Manik ka hai, woh tumhara hai. Tumhara iss ghar pe adhikar utna hai jitna ghar mein sab ka hai...okay?"

"Hmmm...thank you bhabhi!" Nandini smiled and hugged Ananya. 

(Ananya Malhotra)

(Shruti Malhotra)

****************************

After the post wedding traditions, Manik went to his fav hangout place which was a lake nearby. Mostly only his friends knew he liked to come here. Manik sat by the lake drinking a bottle of beer, thinking about all the past memories with Aliya & Dhruv.

"Manik..." Manik turned around and saw his other friends, Mukti & Abhimanyu Thakkar standing there. "Sorry yaar hum tere shaadi pe nahi aa paaye....abhi Cabir ne hume sab kuch bataya."

"I cant believe Aliya aur Dhruv ne tujhe aise dhoka diya." Mukti commented angrily. "Par Cabir ne bola ki teri shaadi uski kisi muh boli behen se hua hai? Nandini."

"Shaadi." Manik chuckled. "Sirf dikhave ki shaadi hai. Sirf Aliya ko dikhane ke liye that she is not my only choice...just to prove her wrong."

"Manik...tu kya bol raha hai. Shaadi ho gaya hai tum dono ka...you should accept-"

"Accept? She is a bar dancer Abhi...agar main desperate nahi hota agar Cabir ne itna zid nahi kiya hota toh I would have never married her. Woh sirf meri naam ki biwi hai lekin Manik Malhotra ki biwi hone ka haq usse kabhi nahi milegi!"

After talking for a few more hours, Manik went back home and of course by this time he was completely drunk. When he entered Malhotra Mansion, everyone was asleep so Manik quietly stumbled to his room. Nandini, still wearing the bridal dress was sleeping on his bed when he entered the room and Manik got angry seeing her. So he took the beer bottle he had in his hand and dumped the remaining beer onto Nandini's face, waking her up.

"Ah!" Nandini glared at Manik. "Tum pagal ho kya?"

"Pagal main nahi tum ho...what do you think your doing? Mera bed hai yeh...mera kamra. How dare you sleep here?"

"Bhabhis ne kaha ki jo tumhara hai woh mera bhi hai. Aur main yaha nahi sohungi toh aur kahan sohungi?" Nandini replied.

"Oh hello...first of all, woh mere bhabhis hai and second unko tumhari sachai nahi maloom. If they knew ki tum kya karti ho toh itna pyar nahi dete....anyways just get off now." Manik said.

"Kahan sohungi main?"

"Couch mein soh jao ya fir zameen pe I dont care, just get off my bed."

"Fine..." Nandini got off with a pillow and a blanket, picked up the jug of water kept on the bedside table and poured the whole thing onto the bed making it soaking wet. "Ab soh jao."

Manik watched in astonishment as she smiled and placed the jug back and then took her pillow and blanket to the black couch and lay down.

"What the hell...yeh kya tha?" Manik asked.

"Tit for Tat." Nandini responded. "Agar tum mujhe bed pe sone nahi doge toh tum bhi bed pe nahi soh sakte."

"Toh main kahan soh?

"Well....since Ive taken the couch....zameen pe soh jao. I dont care....goodnight." Nandini covered herself with the blanket and went to sleep. Manik grumbled to himself and went over to his closet to get another pillow and blanket and then made himself comfy on the floor.

"I cant believe iski vajah se main apne kamre mein zameen pe soh raha hoon. Great....just great!" Manik thought to himself as he fell asleep uncomfortably.

****************************

Manik was sleeping on the floor, tossing and turning as he saw some random blurry images in his head, almost like flashes where nothing was clear enough to understand. There was a girl in a bridal lehenga, men with guns. The bride running with a guy and the men chasing and then....BANG!

"Janvi!" Manik woke up with a gasp, panting and sweating profusely. Once he calmed down, he got confused. "Janvi? Why did I say Janvi? Aur woh ladki aur ladka kaun tha mere sapne mein? So weird...it felt so real."

Shaking his head Manik decided to forget about it and looked towards his couch where he saw Nandini was about to roll off. Quickly Manik got up and caught her before she could fall and moved her back. As he was about to go back, Nandini grabbed onto his hand while sleeping and moved her head onto it like a pillow. Manik started to smile seeing the cute pouting face she made while sleeping.

"Koi sohte vaqt itna cute kaise lag sakta hai?" Manik asked out loud as he rested his head in his free hand, admiring Nandini. Then he realized what he said. "Shit....Manik yeh kya bol raha hai tu?"

Manik tried to take his arm back but Nandini just snuggled in more and wouldnt budge. Slowly Manik lifted her head with his other hand and removed his arm. He then went back to sleep.