Between Heaven & Hell

2

The look of shock could be seen on Nandini's face when Aryan suddenly appeared in front of them, while Dr. Armaan smiled at his friend.

"Pleased to see you too, Aryan. Haven't seen you in a while. I see you have been busy lately." Armaan said to Aryan, talking about the lady with him in the last sentence.

Yes, Aryan wasn't alone. A nicely dressed beautiful lady was accompanying him. She wasn't his wife or fiancee. And being his best friend for ages, Armaan already knew of his playboy nature, so it didn't take him much to guess that she was his new girlfriend.

"Yeah, a bit you can say. I am working on a book right now actually, you know. So, I haven't been able to give proper time to this beautiful lady right here you see, so I brought her for a date." Aryan clarified and then continued "Oh sorry, I haven't introduced you guys. Armaan this is Rita, my girlfriend, she works in the media and Rita, this is my childhood friend Armaan and this is his wife Nandini. Armaan is a doctor by profession, a psychiatrist to be specific and Nandini runs his family business." He explained taking his sweet time introducing them to each other.

"Oh well, hello Rita. Nice to meet you." Armaan said, extending his hand to shake hers as she too extended her hand with a smile, followed by the two ladies greeting each other.

"You guys are here for your anniversary I am guessing." Aryan commented later.

"How did you know? I don't suppose you would remember when you are so bad with dates. You can't even remember my birthday." Armaan said refering to the time Aryan had met Armaan for a coffee on his birthday afternoon but didn't even remember that it was his birthday till the time Armaan told him for himself.

"Just a wild guess, you see." Aryan chuckled, winking at him playfully and Armaan laughed along.

"By the way, would you guys like to join us for dinner?" Armaan asked the two in front of him.

"Stop being so nice always, I may not be able to refuse." Aryan said and then laughed a bit and continued speaking "But it's your marriage anniversary, you too should spend some time together, alone. Coz I am quite sure that you don't give enough time to your wife as you give to your patients." He said, raising his eyebrows at Armaan.

Nandini fisted her palms in rage,

"She really is one patient and kind woman with me. Never complaining even when I give so little time to her. And I am trying to make her upto her too, you know." Armaan defended

"You better. Now we are off. Enjoy your night. And happy marriage anniversary, both of you" Aryan said as he patted his friend's shoulder.

"Thanks dude" Armaan said as both the couples moved to their reserved table.

Armaan told the manager his name and the waiter guided him to their designated table. When they reached, just like a gentleman that he was, Armaan pulled back the chair for his wife and once she was comfortable, he went and sat opposite to her. Nandini then picked up the menu card kept on the table and started looking through it.

"You look beautiful today, you know." He complimented her.

"Does that mean I don't look good everyday, Mr. Husband?" Nandini questioned him back playfully, looking up from the menu card and raising an eyebrow at him.

"Huh! I don't mean that. I- I just…" he began defending himself.

"Ha ha ha. I was joking about it. Stop being so defensive always" she laughed it away

"Yeah." Armaan said as he smiled at the lady in front of him. He was just so in love with her.

"Can I take your order sir?" The manager interrupted as he came to note down their order. Both of them order their preferences after which the manager leaves, leaving them to chat among themselves.

The food was served soon along with some wine as the couple continued chatting among themselves about all the matters, but mostly about how Nandini's business was going on.

This business wasn't actually Nandini's to begin with. It was started by Armaan's father, who wanted his heir to continue it. But both Armaan and his brother, Siddharth weren't the type to do business. Armaan had always been a very bright student in school and dreamt of becoming a doctor, which he succeeded in. While, Siddharth had suddenly developed interest in becoming a police officer when he was in high school and worked hard both on his physical and mental fields for the same. Now this being done, none of them were ready to give up their job to take up the family business. So when the proposal of marriage was sent from Nandini's family to marry her to their elder son, Nandini's father just couldn't refuse, as they were suffering from heavy losses that time.

Of course Nandini had given a tough time to Armaan as she wasn't ready to marry Armaan but Armaan made many plans and plots to get her And that was how they ended up together and Nandini took over the business.

But as the time passed, both of them got too engrossed in their work. Armaan loved his profession and helping his patients for which he had taken up two duties- attending the OPD at the hospital in the morning, and then attending his personal hospital and Clinic where he secretly works in the evening. Sometimes, he would even work on Sundays. On holidays sometimes, he would be involved in camps or awareness programmes, leaving almost no time for his wife.

Nandini had known Aryan since her marriage with Armaan as both of them were very close and Aryan would visit them quite often in the beginning days. Sometimes, he would stop by their luxurious penthouse to meet his friend but not find him, so he would chat with Nandini. Day by day, they grew closer to each other. Now Aryan would specifically visit the penthouse when Armaan wouldn't be home, so he can get some alone time to talk to Nandini. Nandini on the other hand started to enjoy Aryan's company but she was also aware of Aryan's nature.

Aryan, being a writer, had always been good with words. And well looks, he had always had them too. With the deadly combination of the two, it wouldn't take him much to trap any women into his web. His words and fake promises would bring hope to any woman's heart and Nandini

Well after knowing everything about him, she kept herself trapping in his game.

With time they grew closer and Nandini shared her loneliness with him, he started making moves on her. She wanted to resist, she did in fact in the beginning but then the feeling of being valued and feeling good overtook her firmness of being faithful and she went on with the flow. It began with light flirting to light touches which then quickly escalated to kisses and makeouts. And then it didn't take much for them to go beyond it and have s*x.

When they did that for the first time, Nandini felt a lot guilty. She cried and cried and even asked Aryan to not talk to her ever again and forget about whatever happened but then Aryan being Aryan wouldn't stop with it and kept calling her, apologizing to her and telling her that it's fine, they can stop and just be friends again and that her husband would never know and all kinds of flattering things. He would always portray as if he always thought about her first, when in reality all he thought was about himself.

Aryan would come over every other day when he knew Armaan would be in the hospital. He would stay when Armaan went on camps or out of the city for work purposes. Or if not, Nandini would lie to her husband that she has to stay overnight in the office for some important documentation and stay at Aryan's.

It was just a little less than a year now from when it first began.

They had s*x approx three times in a year,

Everything felt good to her in the beginning as everything was going according to her.

She thought Aryan was in love with her.

She even thought of divorcing Armaan and marrying Aryan instead. But when she told Aryan about the thing on her mind, he convinced her not to, or better to say he refused to marry her giving her one or the other reason.

But with time it wasn't hard for her smart women for her to understand that Aryan wasn't really in it for her. He was just in it for his needs, physical needs to be exact. He didn't really love her or something. But it was too late for her to quit now. She too wasn't really in love with him, but the feeling of being loved that he made her feel was what she loved and hate the most at the same time.

So she still decided to stay in the affair, even after knowing that Aryan was just using her. Because maybe she knew that she too was just using him for her needs which her husband had no time to tend to.

After sometime she even came to know of his other affairs but who was she to question when all she wanted was what she was getting. So the thing went on and on while her husband was totally unaware of the infidelity going on behind his back.