Update 3
Word count: 1602

As my admiring session ended, she looked sideways and checked the time in her watch. I knew she was tensed and wanted to talk to someone. So I offered my phone.
"Hey, if you're comfortable, then speak to your family. Here."

"Why? Should they also get tensed like me? I'll call them morning." She said and I rolled my eyes.
At the same time, Cabir called and I picked it up.

"Aunty! See he finally received the call." He said and I widened my eyes. Maa was in the call. Shit!
"Manu, what the heck! I tried so many times, why didn't you receive my calls?" She immediately shouted and I chuckled.

"Maa Maa..calm down. I was actually kinda busy." I said looking at her and she understood it.
"Yeah aunty. Saale ne naya ladki jo dhoond liya hai." He said and that's it, I felt like punching him through the phone. But it's highly hypothetical.

"What! Girl? Who's She?" And now she started. I knew she was smirking.
"Maa! Don't believe this joker. There's nothing like that." I cribbed and I could see her smiling. Probably, she was admiring our mother-son rants.

"Shut up. Give the phone to her." She said and I was taken aback.
"Maa? How? I mean Why? It'll be so uncomfor-"
"I said give Manik." She said more seriously and I could hear Cabir giggling.

"Fine!" I huffed and passed the phone to her. She was confused.
"Why are you giving me the phone?" She asked. In fact, she shouted.
"Are Maa wants to talk to you. Don't worry. She won't eat you up." I laughed dryly and she took it reluctantly.

"Hello..hi Aunty." She said being all awkward. I asked her to put the phone on speaker. She did so.
"Hello beta, you are?" Mom asked in her ever so sweet voice. Huh! Why couldn't she talk to me like that?!

"I'm Nandini." She replied.
"Uh..how did you land up with the monkey Nandu?" Cabir asked this time and she looked at me.
"Umm..you are?" She asked.
"Cabir. Unfortunately his best friend." He stated in his over dramatic tone.

"Cabir! Stop it. Beta, where are you guys? You must be reaching right?" Maa asked.
"Actually aunty we missed the train so we're in some station that's 8 hours away from Mumbai." She said casually and I facepalmed. This girl is so innocent.

"What! You guys missed the train together?" Maa firstly seemed shocked but then she took the chance to tease us.
"He missed the train? That is why I asked him to come by flight." Baba was nagging.

Oh god! Why did you have to give such daily soap high melodramatic actors as my parents? I so wanted to shout this loud but I settled myself.
Looking at her awkward expressions, I sighed.

"No aunty, I missed the train in this station, he missed it in the previous one." She cleared and Cabir cleared his throat.
"So miss Nandini.. you're alone with him." He said and now it was too much.

"Beta-"
I cut her in mid and took the phone from her hand. Switching off the speaker mode, I held the phone near my ears.
"Maa! Why are you freaking her out! And you cabir! You dont have any other business? Go and sleep." I shouted and he royally ignored it.

"Manik Malhotra. Don't use your tacts against me okay. I was the one who taught you those. Now tell me, any progression?" He asked. I knew he was smirking.
"Maa, I'll come home and inform you every thing. Until then, don't you both dare call me again. Bye!" I stated angrily and cut the call.

I turned back to see her all tensed again.
"Hey relax. Nothing's wrong." I said and she looked at me.
"All this is because of you! Why did you give the phone to me!" She shouted and I sighed.

"Okay now tell me. What should I do to reduce your tension?" I asked.
"Now go away and sit somewhere far. I need some ME time." She said and I mentally slapped myself for asking the question.
"Okay." I said and started moving away.

I saw her trembling due to the cold wind. I knew it would rain in sometime. Sighing, I removed my hoodie and placed it near her.
"Hey, just in case if you need it." I said and sat on the bench that was quite far from her.

I bent down to have a look at her. And she couldn't bare the cold anymore, therefore she wore my hoodie. I smirked seeing it and then proceeded to finish my game.
I was so engrossed in it that I didn't notice that it started thundering.

I could see through the corner of my eyes that she was scared of the sound. She tried to compose herself and then started reading again. After few minutes, another thunder made her flinch. And this time, she immediately took her backpack and came near me pouting.

"What?" I asked looking at her.
"Who said you to sit so far?" She asked.
"You were the one who said to stay away." I retorted.
"So? I said a bit away. Not kilometers or something. Close yet apart." She stated and sat down on the adjacent bench.

I chuckled and got engrossed in the game. I guess she got irritated. She literally snatched the phone away from me and I immediately held her hand but she was quick. She deleted the game and I groaned.

"What the! I almost was going to beat the high score!" I said.
"Got pissed right? This is what I felt when you revealed the climax of my book." She said in anger.
"I'm Kohinoor and my dad should keep me safely in some bank. Isn't it?" She said sarcastically.

"You heard it?" I asked ruffling my hair cutely and she hmmed.
"I was just stating facts you know." I shrugged and sat beside her.
"Not stating the facts you were actually trying to woo me." She rolled her eyes.

"Me? You? I was just-"
"Just what?" She cut me abruptly.
"I was just flirting okay, I didn't tease you." I gave a tight smile.
"What's the difference?" She asked.

"If a girl doesn't like the way you behave, then it's teasing. If she likes, then it's flirting." I said casually.
"You.." she was going to reply but made a bad face and drank the water. And then I remembered she was hungry.

"Hey..you said you're hungry. Wait." I said and started unpacking my backpack.
"Hey it's okay. I'm fine." She said but I was reluctant now. As I didn't find anything in my shitty bag to eat, I went past her to check if something was available to eat.

"Hey..your bag." She said but I didn't reply.
I saw her summing it up and smiled sheepishly to my self.
After few minutes, she came and stood beside me.
"Will you have bread omelette?" I asked and she nodded quickly. I gave a small smile and uncovered a street vendor's cart.

And then, I quickly prepared it and she kept gawking at the food. Finally we came back to the station and I kept stealing glances of her.
As she stuffed the omelette and moaned, there was a big grin that crept on my face.
She complemented my skills and I bowed my head down.

She was still eating it when I abruptly stood up. I was keeping it to myself and was pacing to and fro. Then I mustered up my courage and asked her.
"Nandini, you have a boyfriend?"
She replied a 'NO', still stuffing the bread inside her small mouth.

"That means you're single?" I asked again. Just for confirmation purposes ;)
"Hmm" she replied nodding her head.
"Yess!" I congratulated myself and turned back to her.
"Then I love you." I blurted and she started choking.

She started mumbling something and I offered her water. After gulping it down, she asked.
"How can you say it just like that?"
"I felt it, so I said it off." I shrugged. As a matter of fact, I was always this spontaneous.

"Whatever you feel you'll do it spontaneously?" She asked in a criticising tone.
"Yeah. Obviously." I immediately replied back.
"I'm not that type. I take too much time to open up with anyone." She said.

I didn't reply and she took the lead again.
"Its just been an hour since we met, we don't even know each other. How can you just propose me?" She asked.
"To be honest, I liked you the second I saw you. It just took time to say it out." I said.

"I don't believe in all this train meetings and love at first sight." She said flatly.
"Even I don't. But it's destiny that brought us together. Bombay express changed my mindset. And I will change yours." I said in an ever so confident voice.

"Liking and loving are two different concepts." She stated.
"You like me first, I'll drag you into love by any cost." I said and it thundered again.
"You know, rain is just like you. It takes time. First the clouds should form and then it'll start drizzling." I said and she rolled her eyes.

"And that doesn't mean that it'll always rain when the clouds are covered." She said bluntly and in seconds, it started to drizzle.

She kept staring at the sky amazed and I smirked at her.

This was the beginning of our journey.

To be continued