A/N:

My lovely readers,

I am delighted to announce that our book has reached 8k+ views. I know it's just a small achievement but these are milestones that push ameture authors like me for regular updates and actually believing that the plot is liked by an audience as amazing as you guys.

Thanks a lot!

Love ya and here's the next chapter.

❤️❤️❤️

The morning of the anniversary found the tired and sore couple pulling the bed sheets towards themselves as they really wanted to lay around with utmost laziness!

"Raj ji please, I am pregnant, you can't just pull away the blankets from me. I am cold.", I mumbled.

"I am so tired and sleep deprived Pavi, I deserve it more-"

"You are unbelievable!", I said, irritably, as I sat up.

To my surprise, I saw my husband just in his pajama pants and a plate full of breakfast.

I quickly sat up, reached out to my husband's long t-shirt and slipped it on and looked extremely surprised; annoyed too, but that expression was surpassed by this unexpected surprise.

"Well, happy anniversary baby!", He chirped.

"You!", I stared at him. But that kinda didn't last long. I melted at his sweet gesture. I can be mad for his prank later, but this was amazing!

"You cooked?", I asked him.

"You know, we barely got any sleep last night?"

I blushed. It's been a year and still this man makes me feel, so in love.

"Uh-huh?", I replied coyly.

"Well, you snuggled up onto me and just started snoring!"

"I don't snore Mr. Rajeev Shukla!", I told sternly with assurance.

"Ah well, that's a debate for another day!", he laughingly said.

"Anyways, I remembered that we'd left all the food containers as they were in the hall and we also didn't clean up the living room.

I figured, before everyone came home, the house should be like how it was and so, I tried to do so.

The dawn of our anniversary brought me all the memories of our wedding and the first thing I saw you eat at our wedding was fried rice with raita.

So, here it is!"

Aww, this man makes my heart melt and just look at him, playing the shirtless card.

I still sat on the bed, wearing his long t-shirt and raised my arms.
He smilingly came over to me and pulled me for the biggest hug and gently reached my lips for a perfect in-sync kiss.

"Happy Anniversary to you too", I mumbled between the kiss.

We enjoyed our breakfast in bed and realised that our family would be back at anytime. Raj ji had cleaned most of the house and I helped him with the remaining work. We've never really been ourselves around this place and we realised how much we enjoyed it, being casual and carefree.

He joined me for a nice warm shower and we went back to our old conventional dressing style. The house was back to its normalcy.

We offered our prayers to the Lords and Raj ji placed vermilion between my brows. It was an emotional moment to the both of us but also a very happy one too.

After popping in my pills, Raj ji and me sat in the living room, pretty close to eachother, as our arms stayed intertwined.

"I have something to tell you.", he said.

"Yes, sure baby, all okay?"

"Well, Pavi you have been my life-partner, my best friend, my wife, my soulmate and my better half. Every experience as a man, I have had it only with you and you make me better with your love and selfless care.

You also deeply inspire me. Your strength, your knowledge, your intuition, your bravery and the way you see only good in people is something that makes my soul so proud of who you really are.

You made me think of what I want to be in life and while I kept thinking of this for the past few days, I realised I love the way I do business.

Entrepreneurship is something that keeps me going. I also understood that learning doesn't stop, after seeing you studying those heavy books day in and day out.

And I really want to dream big and achieve big, go beyond the role of a a small town shopkeeper. It's been almost 5 years since I finished my basic degree. It would be hard for me to go back to college and classes. But I thought, this is the best time to do so, along with you.

While you pursue medicine, I'd like to enroll for an MBA course. I know I'd land up with a really good and high paying job. Until then, we'll have this shop and with the baby coming, we should be around most of the time and make the most out of our time around, is by engaging ourselves into academics.

The scholarship schemes are great but I too have to prepare for entrance exams. I want our child to have parents who are dreamers, who took risks and who were together in love to achieve it all.

I know for a family as conservative as ours, we are putting forth a lot of demands. But just imagine, isn't flying from the nest always for the best?

We've already saved a good amount of money. We'd definitely be around to do our responsibilities, just that with a little extra effort, we can raise our standards of living."

He gently reached to my tummy and moved away my saree to expose the small baby bump. He placed his palm carefully on it and looked deeply into my eyes.

"For our family-"

I could earnestly feel that it was his heart talking it all. I love this man and that means I love his dreams too. He had thought so much about how our lives should be and how he wants to make it all better.

"I am with you Raj ji, be it in goodness or otherwise. I am so proud of you, you know? You will make an amazing entrepreneur, you know?

And how do I know that?

It's because you are an amazing lover and an amazing husband and an amazing father.

I love you, and I really feel so humbled that you are giving me the credit for your inspiration. But honestly, no Raj ji-"

He pressed his index finger on my lip to silence me.

" We are eachother's everything, let's agree to that, shall we?"

I nodded and smiled.

Here's to aspirations that make us fly from the nest!

❤️❤️❤️