It had been a few years since Annika had felt this way. Last time she had her cheeks heated up was when she was sixteen, but that was the memory she chose to forget. Now, there was something about Shivaay and the way he looked at her. His eyes seemed like a spotlight when they fell on her. She had no clue if getting married based on this feeling was right or rational. But Annika has done a lot of things that didn't align with reason, she could do this also.

She parked the car in their garage and went towards her home, whistling. When she rang the doorbell, one of their house-helps opened the door.

"Everyone is waiting for you in the roof deck," Chitra said with a huge grin. Annika gave her a smile and nodded. She knew what talk they were going to have with her, and she was ready to give her an answer.

"Papa..." She said as she got up the stairs.

"See, Annika came. Kiddo, we were waiting for you. Shivaay told his family whatever you decide is his answer." Harsh finished in one breath and heaved a sigh with a smile.

"And that is why we need to talk to you. He is a nice boy, Annika. But don't feel obliged to say yes, okay? Think it through, baby. You were not prepared for a rishta now. This was all very sudden for you," Amala said as she patted Annika's head.

"Haan Titli, think it well. You're only going to be 24. People get married in their 40s' these days," Amarnath said, and Annika looked at the three of them with her jaw slightly ajar.

"Papa Ji, 40 is late. Don't you want to see Annika's children?" Amala asked, and Amarnath nodded thoughtfully. The three then resumed talking about other things after they sat down, while Annika stood rooted to the ground while her mind raced through her ever-changing thoughts. She wasn't sure about the yes she was about to say as much as she was a few minutes ago.

Annika rushed to the first floor, and instead of going to her room, she banged the door opposite to hers.

No answer.

"GAURI KUMARI TRIVEDI," Annika yelled and banged the door again.

"Wait."

Annika heard her sister's voice. The door opened, and Gauri looked irritated.

"One-minute baby, I'll call you back," Gauri muttered and cut the call as Annika entered Gauri's room. Annika sat on Gauri's bed with her hands covering her face.

"What is wrong with our parents, Chutki? What will I do now? I thought long and hard, and now again, I'm where I started. This is going to be the death of me," Annika lamented dramatically, making Gauri roll her eyes.

"What happened now, Di?" Gauri wanted to be patient, and she tried really hard. But Annika made it harder for her. The previous night, Annika had woken Gauri up at 3 AM to go on a long speech about marriage. Was Annika against marrying Shivaay or was fine with it remained inconclusive, because: a) Annika made no sense half the time, and b) Gauri was too sleepy to think.

"I was going to say yes-"

"Di, that's amazing..."

"But now I'm confused." Annika's shoulders slumped, and her lips curved downward. Gauri knew that expression very well. She immediately texted her boyfriend to not wait for her call and prepared herself to listen to her sister.

♡♡♡

When Shivaay got home, he had expected to come to a celebration. If not anyone else, his mom would at least be feeding everyone sweets. But his house was awfully quiet. He could hear the television down the hall. His mom and Dadi were probably watching their serial. There was no sight of his family. That definitely had him confused.

"Shivaay, you came? I'll ask someone to heat up your dinner." Pinky gave him a smile when she saw him entering the lounge area. She got up to go to the kitchen while Shivaay looked at her baffled. Pinky raised her eyebrows at him, and Shivaay composed himself.

"Where is everyone?" He probed and saw Pinky sigh.

"You come home this late and expect the whole family to wait for you, Shivaay? Everyone has gone back to their room. Your dad has even slept." Pinky looked at him disappointed.

"Ah, this episode got over. Now I'll also go to sleep. Good night Pinky. Good night Billu." Dadi got up and gave Shivaay a warm smile before leaving. No sign of congratulations. Did I misunderstand what Annika had said? But she seemed shy, Shivaay thought to himself. He went to the dining table and took out his plate to serve himself food.

"Shivaay?" Pinky shook him, and he came out of his reverie. "Where are you lost, and what are you doing?" She pointed at the cup in Shivaay's hand and Shivaay's eyes widened. He had put the rice in a katori and had filled his plate with bharta.

"I'm on a diet, mom," He said lamely, and Pinky looked at him questioningly. "I won't be eating a lot of rice; too many carbs."

"Have a roti, okay?" Pinky said uncertainly. He must be having a lot of pressure at work, she thought to herself. Shivaay had always been a workaholic. And often, he overworked to give his father and his uncle some free time. Pinky had tried to get him to take a break and chill a lot of times, but everything went in vain. Her last hope was the girl who'd marry Shivaay, and now she was hoping it would be Annika. Pinky wanted to know what made Shivaay like Annika, but when she looked at her son, he was lost in thoughts. Shaking her head, she left to her room.

♡♡♡

"Di, you like him. Get married. If you don't like him later, then divorce him. Problem solved." Gauri shrugged, and Annika looked at her flabbergasted.

"Divorce? No way. This is not your relationship, and Shivaay won't be my boyfriend. I can't break up and patch up whenever I want. We will be married. Dadi used to tell, right? Bound for sever lives types." Annika explained rapidly, and Gauri rolled her eyes.

"I have a better idea. Don't get married. Sanyas le lena."

"Chutkiiiii," Annika protested.

"Di, listen to your gut. You wanted to say yes, say yes. Don't let anyone change it now, okay?"

"But Chutki..."

"Ab kya?" Gauri asked, now completely frustrated. But her irritation dissipated when she saw Annika's crestfallen face. "Di, what is it?" Gauri asked softly.

"We are so different. Do you think it will work? He is not like me, living two lives; one as Annika and one as Annika Trivedi. He is unabashedly Shivaay Singh Oberoi. He owns that world; the same world I feel like I don't belong in. But..."

"But you like him, right?"

Annika meekly nodded, and Gauri put her arms around her.

"And baby, he likes you too."

Annika and Gauri looked up. Amala was standing by the door, with a small smile on her face. She walked in and sat beside her daughters.

"Let me tell you two a story that you two haven't heard. Your dad and I..."

"But Mumma," Annika interrupted. "We already know that."

"You know that we fell in love when Elvis Presley was playing in the background. We got married as planned, yes? But the story starts after marriage, baby. This one is not always rosy. That is why in fables and fairytales, they end it with the couple living happily ever after. Your papa loved me, yes. But there was a time when he was too busy to even talk to me. Both of us weren't happy. We went to marriage counselling at one point too. We worked it out together. Your dad and I are very different too. But we never failed to meet each other half-way. We do things for each other. It is about compromises and efforts on both sides. Your idea of romance lasts only until you have kids."

"That is not true, Mumma. Once you fall in love..." Gauri started, and Amala placed her hand on Gauri's shoulder.

"Relationships have their stages, Chutki. You haven't been to the place I am talking about yet," Amala said with a smile and turned to Annika. "Baby, I am sure Shivaay likes both Annika and Annika Trivedi."

"How would you know? He knows me because of the 'Trivedi' in my name." Annika frowned, and Amala chuckled.

"If he'd only seen the 'Trivedi' in your name, he would have said yes long back. Don't you say yourself that you won't know certain things without doing it? This is like that." Amala squeezed Annika's hands.

"But this is too much risk, even for me."

"Isn't life one too? Certainty is something we never get, right?"

Annika fell into deep thoughts. She had reasons she could give to say no, but she just couldn't say no to this and him. His face flashed before her eyes. She saw his eyes first, and that did something to her. For a minute, her stomach went in, and her breath hitched. Each time they met came to her like a wind in June and played over like a motion film. This wasn't how she had planned regarding marriage, but when has life gone as per the plan?

"Mumma..." Annika called out to Amala, who was just about to leave the room. "Tell them it's a yes."

♡♡♡

Shivaay couldn't sleep despite being exhausted after a busy day. It was way past his bedtime, and he just had one thought surrounding one person at that moment. He didn't ever think this would bother him this much. He handled appreciation and rejection with a very balanced mental state. He was always able to look at the next best thing if he felt something was off. But now, he was not able to get his mind off the dubiety. What was actually on Annika's mind?

He took out his found and opened WhatsApp. Annika was online, and he typed out a message only to hit backspace immediately. How was he supposed to ask something like this? He decided against saying anything and clicked on to view the statuses updated. To his surprise, Annika had uploaded something at that very moment, which seemed like a video. When he clicked it open, he saw Annika on her piano whilst singing a song. He saw an opportunity.

Hello Annika! This is beautiful. Which song is this?

The voice inside his brain mocked him for pretending not to know one of his favourite songs, but he did what the situation demanded, hence it was alright.

Heyyy! 😃

This is clocks by Coldplay.😊

Tis nice song

U should check it out

If u want to😌

Shivaay was glad she didn't use Diz or Dis instead of 'this'. Her usage of 'u' did bother him and he was quite astounded how someone who read a lot of literature like her could do that. But he let it slide. Rudra might be right about Shivaay needing to text a lot, because instead of trying to talk to the girl, he was looking at the way she was using her words. Realizing that he had taken a little time more than needed, he typed hurriedly.

I will listen to it at the earliest! I like 'The Scientist' and 'fix you' by the band. They are wonderful songs.

Im quite surprised that u hvnt listened to Clocks yet.

One of their best songs. 💯❤️

He bit his tongue and hoped she didn't catch his lie. He did tell her he rarely listened to music because of his busy schedule, which was true. He only played something in the background while working if he was alone, which in itself was a rarity.

Don't u sleep early?

Well, how could he tell her he was awake because she had put him in dubiety?

It is one of those nights where sleep has eluded me. It shall take quite some time for me to fall asleep.

I'd love to keep u company 🙁, but I'm going live in a few.

Huh? Instagram?

Yea😁

With a friend

We gonna jam🎶

U aren't on Insta, na. Too bad 😕

It's alright. Have fun. I'll see if I can get Rudra to give me his password again.

Again?

Shivaay hit his head with his pillow. He was always careful not to slip out anything, but maybe today wasn't his day.

Ok, gtg

Hope you sleep soon

Ttyl

Night Shivaay

Good night, Annika. Take care.

Shivaay got out of his bed immediately. He wondered why Annika was going live at 1 AM in the morning instead of sleeping but didn't give it much thought because he had a brother to wake up. But to his dismay, Rudra had locked his room from inside. His next resort was Omkara, who was surprisingly awake and was sculpting. He entered Om's room without knocking.

"Shivaay, how come you aren't sleeping?" Omkara asked, but he was ignored by his brother, who immediately went for his phone.

"What's your password?" Shivaay asked hurriedly. Omkara put his fingerprint on his phone, confused. He raised his eyebrows questioningly when Shivaay opened up the social media he usually bitched about.

"Care to explain?" Om was ignored, again. He peeped in and saw Shivaay click up Annika's page. Om was definitely amused to see his brother's unsettled expression.

"How would you know if someone went live?" Shivaay probed, and Om gave him a teasing smile. Shivaay glared at him, "I'll figure it out myself."

"Click on the story. Looks like Annika hasn't gone live yet. Is that why you're awake?" Om's smile had now turned into a smirk. He needed to record this and show it to his family. Too bad, Shivaay had his phone.

"Oh. It's 1 AM. I'm just... curious," Shivaay said lamely. Om nodded with a serious expression, as he tried really hard not to burst out laughing.

"There she goes..."

"Thank you for having me, Fabien." Annika gave a huge smile.

"Annika is from Mumbai, and she is my second guest for today. Firstly, merci beaucoup ma chérie. It is midnight in India right now,'' Fabien said excitedly.

"Merci de me recevoir, chéri."

"Annika speaks French?" Omkara probed to which Shivaay immediately replied,

"Her Aunt lives in Paris. She's a famous designer there. Annika visits her often."

"Not bad, not bad. Maybe Ridhima was right about not to worry about you, Shivaay." Om chuckled, and Shivaay turned away, rolling his eyes. Shivaay clicked on Fabien's and discovered that he was quite a popular cello player from Paris. Back at the Live, they were playing a few popular melodies and some he had never heard. While playing her piano, Annika sang. Shivaay laid down on Om's bed while listening to her.

Omkara continued with his sculpting while listening to the music that was being played. Annika had finished her set, and Fabien had invited someone else. Om had assumed Shivaay would close it after listening to Annika but, when he heard clarinet, he turned to only see Shivaay fast asleep. Smiling to himself, Om took his phone from Shivaay's hand and covered him with the comforter.

♡♡♡

It was a little past eight when Annika stretched her arms out, half asleep. She sat on her bed and yawned. She was almost done with her internship and didn't really need to go to the office. Vikram Rana had insisted on letting Annika stay for a couple more weeks only because he didn't want to let her go. Annika took out her phone, and her heart hoped that he had dropped a text. She tried not to feel disappointed when she saw that he hadn't. Before she closed her phone to get out her bed, her phone pinged. Not the Oberoi she had hoped for, but Rudra had texted.

Didi, u said YESSSSSSSSSSSS??? This is fuckin osm🤸🤸🕺🕺

Bhaiya doesn't know yet🤭 He left early for a meeting.

Your Dad just called.

AAAAHHHHH I'm so excitedddd❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Annika giggled at his continuous texts. He gave her no time to reply, and she was sure that she would be squeezed in a hug if he was with her right now. Her ribs still ached from Gauri's hug. Wait a minute...

Shivaay doesn't know?

Nope. We are planning to play a prank on him now🤣

He could have asked yesterday when he texted 🤔

BHAIYA TEXTED? 😱😱🤯

OM JUST TOLD ME BHAIYA WAS UP LAST NIGHT LISTENING TO YOU ON IG. 🤯

Did I wake up into an alternate universe where my brother isn't a robot?🤯

Annika laughed a little as her cheeks heated up. Shivaay did actually listen to her, and it made her skin tingle for some reason. She had no idea why she was feeling this way.

Shivaay isn't that bad, Ru🤭.

You're already taking his side, huh? BHABHI😉

And with that text, something that everyone had deemed was impossible to happen in a long time, happened. Annika Trivedi got to know that she could blush.

This is a huge update 😱
I know I've not updated over a month, with the exams and prep, been busy. When I'm free, I just want to lie down 🙁 I'll try to be more frequent.

I would loveee to hear about your thoughts on the update. And thank you for the votes and comments so far. Been very nice to read them ❤️