'birthday gift' from my end, so ofcourse a special mention to her

suranjana_nandi HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🥳💕 KEEP SPREADING SMILES AND POSITIVITY AS YOU DO ALWAYSS!! 😘 STAY BLESSED 🤗 I'M TRYING TO MAKE YOUR LOCKDOWN BIRTHDAY BETTER BY UPDATING, NOT ONE BUT 2 CHAPTERS TODAYY! HOPE YOU LIKE THEM BOTH💘

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3 years later

Sonakshi was sitting in her cabin, explaining a diet plan to her patient while a man dressed in formals, holding an envelope walked in. He excused himself and asked for a minute or so of Sonakshi's time.

Sonakshi greeted the man, "Hello Mr.Desai, what brings you here? The annual doctor's meet?" Mr.Desai, now the head of the doctors association of Mumbai, nodded and replied, "Yes Dr.Bose. So as you know we are conducting the meets in different cities since...well since Dr.Ashok's demise...so yes this year too it is out of Mumbai, Delhi is the venue this year. Here's the formal invitation, hoping to see you this year." Sonakshi froze for a moment when he mentioned Delhi...she associated it with Manik right away. Yes Manik was still there, he hadn't returned, Sonakshi kind of zoned out and went on to thinking about Manik, and how things had changed after he left...

Mr.Desai emphasised, "Dr. Bose, can I see you this year?" Sonakshi's train of thoughts was broken and she replied, "Mr.Desai, it's actually very kind of you to invite me, even after I have not attended the previous two events...Thank you Mr.Desai, I'll let you know by tomorrow morning." "Sure Dr.Bose. have a nice day." Sonakshi stared down at the envelope in her hand for a while before going back to her patient.

***

Sonakshi was a bit off since she heard about the ceremony in Delhi. She could meet Manik if she went...that was something she yearned for the past 3 years, but somethings had changed...

They had been in touch, but slowly the text messages became less frequent, from both ends. It was different from being physically present with each other to just meeting virtually- different and difficult. Texting may have solved a lot of communication problems, but what it fails to give us is the solace we find in sharing comfortable silences with a person- and for Manik and Sonakshi comfortable silences had become just 'their thing', and over text it was difficult.

The number of messages in a day went from 50 to 5, and the last message they shared was almost a month ago.

However, Manik was still important to her, with or without conversation. Everytime someone hit on her, she always thought how manik would have come up with a better, wittier pick up line. Everytime she looked at the starry sky, she thought of him. Every time she noticed any little habit of him in someone else, her mind immediately went back to him.

Manik was able to find a decent job in Delhi, and having family around proved to be a great support for his mother. He missed Mumbai and everything about his life there- he missed Sonakshi.

Everytime he flirted with a girl and she flirted back, he thought how Sonakshi would give him a sarcastic reply. Everytime there was something special about the night sky, the only person he wanted to share it with was Sonakshi. Everytime someone called him mannerless or rude his mind automatically translated it to Sonakshi's 'Mr.Obhodro'. He missed having flirtatious conversations with her one second, and then downright deep conversations the next.

They were too attached to each other to think of spending a day without talking to each other. But it happened anyway, because that's life!

You make special bonds and you think they will last- without disconnecting. But that's not how it works. Time changes people,it changes their priorities, it changes a lot of things.

But for a fact they knew, if they met, they'd reconnect- maybe just as gradually as they disconnected- but eventually they will. Because the spell that bounds them had dissipated- it hadn't been broken.

And Sonakshi knew that. She wanted to meet him and now she had the perfect chance to. How and why would she let it slip away? She quickly took out her phone to call Mr.Desai.

A week. The countdown began.