A half smirk still pervaded her face as she kept thinking about their almost childish wrangle so far...but why a weird pleasure was bubbling inside her like electric sparks? She with slow and casual steps went into the lawn that was attached to the garden...

Bright flowers of different colours ablazed the garden and scent was wafting along by the breeze...Niyati sniffed the scent deep inside her heart and she herself was stupefied feeling that she had started finding delight in every normal happening of the nature...Had she ever gaze at the aquamarine sky with bliss? Had she ever feel the necessity of staring at the blooming flowers? Had she ever desired to spend her time to experience the exuberant colour of the nature? A tint of shyness reflected through her faint smile as she busied herself in patting a sunflower gently..Tattered pieces of their conversation floated

into her mind..."mann aur dimag me jo bhi sawal paida hote hain woh sab kuchh tab hi bataya ja sakta hai jab saamnewala bohut achcha dost ho...' her face twitched as a note of peevishness touched her heart ..'His words revealed that he didn't consider her as his friend...but then...what did he feel for her? A mere acquaintance? an ex colleague?' Niyati though was desirous to be angry with the man but this time astoundingly she felt that anger was denying to be descended upon her...Perhaps the tendency she had to get angry imagining about the injury of her dignity,had frayed considerably in the recent past...But then coming to the main point, why he commented so rudely about their relationship? It could be the truth that they were not best friends but...hadn't their relationship thawed a little since she had the opportunity to know him better in his apartment? Didn't he allow himself in pranking friendly jokes at her when she used to work with him? Didn't he try to assure her grandmother by saying that he had been a good friend of her? Didn't he say himself that what he said to nani about their friendship wasn't a lie? Then...how could he allow himself to say so?'

Her furrowed brows straightened as she was startled getting his voice,:'doctor...' it seemed to be very close to her and a tingling sensation waved through her back...She kept riveting there for making her composed.

:'nashta ready hai doctor...' a tinge of hesitation seeped through his voice spreading a wry smile on her face...She turned back to face him steadily and approched in a teasing tone,:'to aap mere nani ke pas jhooth kaha tha?' Daya though was confounded inside but he too had been habituated a little to face the baffling capriciousness of her nature...With an appearing to be poised smile, he moved ahead slowly along with her and replied back lately,:'jaha tak mujhe yaad hai...jhooth to main kaha nahi...' he paused and then returned back with pinpointed accuracy making her quite bemused,:'magar haa...Agar woh dosti ki baat aap ke liye jhooth hai...to phir haa jhooth to kaha tha...'

Niyati pressed her lips with a cryptic smile and remarked in a taunting voice,:'magar abhi kuchh der pehle too...aap khud kaha ki...main aap ki dost nahi...?'

They both entered into the hallroom and Daya's face further adorned with an amusing smile as he responded with candour,:'dost kabhi dost pe itna gussa nahi karte hain...' he paused moving ahead while Niyati flashed an indulging grin but startled as Daya added further,razzingly,:'aur na hi ye sochte hain...ki...dost ke dimag me kuchh ulta sidhe baat hain...'

Niyati's eyes gleamed reprovingly and a tempting smile slowly brightened her face as she kept following Daya to go to the dining room...

:'baithiye please...' stated Daya with as much humbleness as he could muster...

Niyati's restive eyes darted everywhere noticing the austere style of the room and with an appreciating glance she looked at him..

Daya uttered slowly as he was serving her hot steamy alu parathas,:'aap ko kya...interior designing ka shaukh hai?'

Niyati shot him an astonishing glance asking,:'aap ko kaise pata chala?'

Daya' brows raised with humour and just flashed an inscrutable grin in between serving raita and achar... Niyati though with a childish giggle raised her both hands literally saying,:'chaliye maan leti hun...aap ek achcha detective hain... done?' Daya too with a throaty laugh,countered,:'waisee...mera detective skill dikhane ke liye aap ko ye poochha nahi tha...'

:'pata hai mujhe,'replied Niyati in a confident gesture digging her teeth into steamy paratha while Daya looked at her promptly astoundingly,she kept dipping a piece of paratha into the spicy raita and said,:'flaunt karna...aap ka characteristic nahi hai...' she crammed some more pieces into her mouth and kept saying in a inconceivable pronounciation,:' aap ko to jo ata hai...us ko bhi kabhi...shor machake...kehte nahi hain aap... ' she finished chewing and said,:'ha magar...kyuki aap bohut humble hain...isliye arrogance pasand nahi ata hai aap ko...Ek arrogant creature ko...' she licked her pickleful of fingers and added,:'sabak sikhana ata hai aap ko...'

Daya looked at her with a mixture of surprise and amusement watching her devouring the food like a voracious eating child..

:'yaad hai aap ko...'she further stated with a little laugh,:'kaise aap mujhe sabak sikhane ke liye kaha tha ki...' another piece of paratha entered into her mouth before divulging,:'case aap aur Abhijeet milke solve kiye hain...,us me is Niyati Prdhan ki koi contribution nahi hai'

A big grin came into Daya's face as he nodded a little shyly and before he could say a word,she pre-empted,:'jo bhi kiya tha aapne...achcha hi kiya tha..'her eyes gleamed in repressed delight,:'mujh jaise ek bad dimag ko waise hi shiksha dena jaroori tha...' her smile widened sending Daya at the pinnacle of astonishment..Though he tried to check it back and the smile lingered on his face as he remarked with jest,:'ye baat doctor Pradhan jaise nahi hai...'

A darkened gloom inconceivably spread over her face as she abruptly stopped eating...It seemed to Niyati that she should unravel everything..Wouldn't it be an opportunity to tell him...how his repulsiveness towards her dogmatism helped her to change herself...He still considered herself as a snobbish pompous woman...Wouldn't it be a chance to reveal how he had changed her from a disdainful creature to a ...a...if not anything great but at least a grateful creature and...she wouldn't claim even a crumb of credit for the change...but...she would perhaps be the most happy person to give the whole credit to him...

Tears stabbed at her eyes smartingly,embarrassingly..Her face turned purple in her effort to seize abrupt surging emotion and though she tried but her efforts were not enough to conceal it from Daya's scrupulous avid eyes..His face hardened as guilt blending with perplexity seeped through,:'agar kuchh..'he mumbled,helplessly,:'kuchh galat keh diya to...maafi chahhta hun doctor..'

Niyati hastened in tremulous voice,:'aap ka galati...nahi hai Daya..'daubing her eyes with the scarf she had worn she further looked at her dish though kept pecking at the food..After the stifling silence of about solid three minute,she felt the need to look at him forcing a smile that could reassure the very flummoxed man who perhaps was feeling guilty for her queer behaviour..Daya too flashed a nervous titter perhaps for the atonement and in order to restore back the normalcy he hastened in asking her,:'by the way...Nani ke pas kis ko chhor ke ayi hain aap?'

Niyati too desired desperately to come back into conversation and she grasped the chance immediately with a sneer,:'ye aap ko kaise pata chala?'

Daya replied back with a frank smile,:'ye guess karne ke liye koi extra skill ka jaroorat nahi tha doctor...'his smile turned a little puckish as he continued,:'nani ko akele chhor ke ate aap...to bohut jaldi rehta aap ko...'

:'aur aap ko jaldi chhutkara mil jata is bad dimag ajjeeb si aurat se..'Niyati teased him,though her inner self was craving to listen to his answer...She yearned to know whether he treated her as a troublesome creature or...

A coy smile rippled through Daya's shy face as his eyes roamed over here & there before settling at Niyati's eager face,:'waise...aap ne bataya nahi ki...' he paused making Niyati annoyed,:'kaisa surprise plan hai nani ke liye?'His priceless smile was enough to redeem the surliness that had began to descend upon her,watching the way the man parried her question..

She with a cherishing face revealed,leaning back,:'abhi woh..mujh pe...bohut gussa kar rahe hain...'her eyes turned fervent in imagination,:'aur...gussa ke baad...jab woh ...' she paused and it seemed as if she returned back into the reality with a thud and asked worriedly,:'by the way...aaj shaam aap arahe hain na?'a little shame reflected through her words as she reminded how she hurt the man last time when he had went to her residence..

Daya heaved a sigh and then kept chuckling in a manner as if he had no hurry in answering her back..

Niyati waited with bated breath and impatience impelled her to blurt out,:'kya huya? ayenge na aap?'

Daya answered quite courageously,:'kya sab ko hi aap pehle gussa dilate hain?'

Niyati snorted with irritation and her eyes rolled in reflex as she snapped,:'waise kisi ko gussa dilana koi aap se sikhe...'

Daya couldn't repress but burst into a chortle seeing her sullen face and divulging thereafter,:'waisee...aap ka pura plan jab ...mujh pe dependent hai ...tab kya karu? ana to parega...'laughter still bubbling inside him as he was trying to rile her with feigned smugness..

Niyati squinted her eyes at him with a delicious disdain before smirking with a queen's arrogance..A piece of paratha went into her mouth before her glance fell upon him with a pretentious & deliberate nonchalance,:'zada tebar dikhane ka jaroorat nahi hai...aap nahi asakte hain to ...to...'she fumbled for a little before coming back,:'to main aur nani milke beach pe chale jayenge...'

A pleasant chuckle appeared on Daya's face as he replied comically,:'I mean phir...tebar bas...aap hi dikhayenge..Right?'

Niyati's restive eyes as if crystallized and fixed at the man as her face hardened and her jaws started protruding in anger..She abruptly tugged her vanity bag and leapt to her feet but before she could turn back in haste and in a flame of rage,Daya resorted to submission raising his hands up,:'doctor please...ruk jaiye...'he too sprang up from the chair..The colour of perplexity blending with his skittishness made his face inexplicably magnetic...Niyati's anger started melting staring at his face...

:'bada jaldi gussa ata hai aap ko..'remarked Daya with a flummoxed half smirk..

Niyati closed her eyes forefully and then turned her glance elsewhere still maintaining peevishness..

Daya sighed with a little relief before resurrecting back with a playful chuckle,:' badi khudgarz hain aap?'

Niyati glanced at him sharply promptly making her embellished eyes vivid while Daya now with a scared gesture,revealed,:'I mean...bina batake hi ja rahe hain ki...nashta kaisa tha...'

Niyati stared at him for some seconds cherishing the priceless bafflement over his face and then being awakened,she just smirked to get rid off the embarrassment of gazing at him and looking at him archly with a snooty smile,she asked,:'aap kaaa ...office nahi hai?'

Daya found delight in making her exasperated,:' hmmm woh to tha magar aap se achcha host ban ne ki chakkar me der ho gaya mera..'

A sudden laughter she couldn't resist,:'mujhe pata nahi tha ki...aap...mere sath...competition kar rahe hain...' she assuaged the laughter with much effort ,:'agar pata hota...to...aap ko jeetne me madad kar sakti thi..'

Daya's eyebrows furrowed in a mixture of amusement and curiosity as he inquired,:'woh kaise?'

confidence oozed from her voice as she replied back with a little brashness,:'aap ke khana me zada mirchi dalke...'

Though she had divulged her thought in a flaunting way with her sole yearn to see his confused face but Daya found it immensely comical and with a broad grin he hastened,:'yaad rakhna parega ye baat...aaj shaam ke liye...'

Cold water was as if thrown into Niyati's savoury moments as the thought kept tickling at the back of her mind that he would then perhaps skip visiting her nani..A repentance blended with scare descended upon her as she asked in puckered brow,hiding her apprehension though with a tinge of dogmatic arrogance,:'aap nahi arahe hain shaam ko?'

Daya lingered the grin for some moments until the throbbing impatience of the atmosphere grew,:'aap thora sa intezar kijiye...main office jane ke waqt aap ko chhor ke aaunga...' he turned back and disappeared while Niyati gazed at his way covetously...