CHAPTER 4

"I am not a kid, Nandani. Do not assume I haven't been through just as much as you have."

Something in Manik's steady gaze made her uncomfortable. He had changed a lot from the Manik she had known.

She remembered him through flashes, impressions over the years. The smart Manik had tried to convince his mom he could not go to school the day he lost his first tooth because he thought he needed surgery to reattach the tooth. The timid one who had been afraid of storms, willing to play Barbie with Mukti and Nandani, while they were in second grade, just to have company when the thunder started. The serious Manik in Junior high school, who would peer at Nandani from under dark hair and dark lashes when their paths crossed as if he could see inside her head.

Then there was the Manik that she remembered in high school, the athlete, the party goer, loved by both guys and gals alike. Well, apparently not as much of the girls as everyone had assumed.

Nandani didn't know which Manik was sitting in front of her, one of those or an entirely different one.

Manik's voice brought her back from her thoughts. "Anyway, if you are smarter, tell me, what did I miss while I was up to my ears immersed in studies?"

His sudden playfulness was unexpected. Despite his mood swings, she found herself enjoying his company.

"You mean because you didn't date?" Nandani asked him.

He nodded.

"Well, on the bright side you missed out on the whining, catfights, and high maintenance that inevitably goes with teenage girls," Nandani replied.

"I like your optimism. What about the downside?" Manik asked her.

Nandani looked at him strangely. She would have normally flushed but given her current state of mind and partial alcohol effect she was footloose and censor-free.

"Well the obvious one is sex," she replied.

Manik quirked an eyebrow.

"I mean, it kind of is something you need two people to do. Or, I guess, more than two also is fine." The words spilled through her filterless brain, and then out of her mouth.

"Nandani Singhania. Are you asking about my sex life?" Manik looked amused as he turned to face her on the bed, legs crossed, his posture mirroring Nandani's.

Their knees were touching. She shouldn't have noticed but did. She could feel the warmth of his body on her bare legs. She wasn't sure how to respond. Especially when he laughed.

The rich noise sounded real contrasted with the dull roar of conversation and music that wafted up the stairs.

She had the random thought that she would do just about anything if he would keep laughing like that.

"Well, since you seem to be prying all my secrets out of me, why stop now, right?" Manik then folded his arms across his chest as if steeling himself for her reaction. "I am not a virgin, but it has been a while. Junior year, Natasha Steven. We dated for two months, but she moved away with her family."

Nandani failed miserably in holding her laughter. That was miles from what she had been expecting.

"Stop," Manik protested. "For the record, she did not move the day after we had sex."

"Hmm. It would explain a lot, though, wouldn't it?" she said.

Teasing him was the most fun she had all night. Probably longer than that.

"It was a family decision." Manik's eyes implored her to understand. But he wasn't taking himself too seriously, and the glint in his gaze suggested, that he was having fun?"

"A family decision to get her away from you and your badass moves?" she asked.

"You are an ego crusher, Nandani." He feigned hurt.

"I am sure you can take it," Nandani replied.

"Uh-huh. Listen. Guys are more delicate than you think. But between you and me, because I never really had a girlfriend, I am a little light on all the... sex-adjacent stuff." Manik then gestured dismissively with one hand. "All those early teen years of truth or dare, making out in the back of the car, groping on the couch?"

Nandani nodded like she knew what he was talking about. Though Aryaman and she had done some of that, she wouldn't have characterized it as a life phase.

"Never happened to me." Manik put his hands on her knees and inclined his head towards her. His dark eyes were earnest and self-mocking. "I will deny it if this ever leaves the room, but my cumulative sexual experience totals about the length of a single episode of the daily serial on television.

Manik's admission shocked her. First, it was because she didn't know how he had managed to escape female attention for that long. Second, she had no idea why he was telling her this. She tried forcing her mind back to the conversation at hand.

"Before you start worrying about me dying alone, two girls have asked me out since I got here," Manik said. "So as of now, I have two dates and zero moves. I have spent so much time with guys and books, I hardly know what to do with girls, who are not, you know my friends or my sisters."

"Or your sister's friends, Manik," Nandani said to him. It seemed funny at the time.

"Exactly." Manik ran a hand through his dark hair, shoved it out of his face. The dimple had returned, next to a self-deprecating smile.

This was where things went hazy. All she knew was that it was a pretty messed-up night. It pissed her off that guys like Aryaman would be making out with evil classmates, at their ex-girlfriend's party. It also pissed her off that guys like Manik, who were basically decent, were left out in the proverbial cold. She thought she needed to do some karmic realignment. But how exactly she was going to fix this? She had no clue about that.

"I am a woman of Science," she began, "and as such, believe an objective test is in order."

Manik raised his brows skeptically. He didn't know where this was going.

Nandani squared her shoulders, her chin jutting out. "Kiss me," she said to Manik.

She was a girl who rolled her clothes for optimal packing and kept her books in alphabetical order. What the hell? Asking for any kind of bodily contact with her best friend's brother, no matter what the circumstances, was completely off-script.

Manik looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"Listen, Nandani," Manik began as he started to rise from the bed, "I appreciate the effort to make up for my recent lackluster social life, but that's a bad idea. For one, you have been drinking."

"And you haven't?" Nandani asked him.

"No."

Her hands grabbed Manik's arms before he could rise and pulled him back down. "I am not drunk."

He shot her a skeptical look.

"I am not," she insisted. "Try me."

"Well, then reply to my questions," he said. "Twelve times eighteen," he asked her.

"Two hundred and sixteen." Her response was a bit slow but was correct.

"The capital of South Africa?" he asked.

"Pretoria," she replied faster this time.

"First Democratic president of the United States?" Manik leaned in and narrowed his eyes, sensing he had her nailed.

"Andrew Jackson, serving from 1829 to 1837." She then smiled sweetly. "Anymore? I could do this all night, Manik."

He looked at her with admiration and something she probably could have identified had she been completely sober.

As he opened his mouth to no doubt cite one of a thousand possible reasons this shouldn't happen, she pre-empted him. "Manik, listen. First, it's a little kiss. We are both grown-ups. No big deal. Secondly, there is no one here." She gestured to the space between them. "We are practically family. In the given circumstances that were admittedly beyond your control, you are in desperate need of an unbiased third-party opinion."

He opened his mouth to talk and she clapped her hand over it. His mouth was warm under her fingers, but she ignored the feeling.

"Third, I have no stake in this so that I can be sincere. If you deceive, I will tell you," Nandani told him. She dropped her hand from his startled face. Manik Malhotra was probably not used to being told to shut up.

Nandani was getting impatient. Life had been playing roulette with her emotions all night, and she was sick of being on the receiving end of whatever was handed down to her. For a change, she wanted to decide something. "Oh come on, Manik, it is one stupid kiss. What are you so afraid of?"

It was not one of her finest debating moments, but something sparked and fired in the depth of his eyes.

"One kiss?" he asked warily.

Nandani nodded.

Manik scanned her face, though she hadn't the least idea what he was looking for. "Fine," he said.