(A/N: I'm dead ass back after a century so hiiiii I hope you're all doing okay <3
Just wanted to add that when a dialogue is said by Nush it refers to Anushka Sharma and Anu is Anuskha Dhar from the book hehe)

Jessica's POV

"Okayyyy so what shall we do first?", Nush asks us as we were waiting for the guys to come at the Namua Island. We decided that the guys will come here in one boat and we all could come in another one. Just for a change, since all of us had been going in bunches as couples during our trip.

"I honestly have no clue." Kash says, her eyebrows furrowing in though  "Although there might be a few things, I am confused because I am indecisive as hell."

"The only thing I want to do right now is sleep." Smriti groans and then from the sudden change of the expression on her face I realised that she regretted saying that.

"Arre come on Smriti, we're on a vacation now. We're only going to roam around the place and have fun" Prithi objected "Take as much rest as you want after we're done with this trip.

"She's right, because you know it's hard for all us to get this much of time with the guys, They're always at some or the other place because of matches" Ritika tells her "And it's the same for you with Shubman too, so just make sure you have the best time with here."

Well, if they only knew what happened between Shubman and her.

"When will the guys be here" Anu ponders after taking a glance at her watch "it's so late aur uppar se the kids are with them."

"I won't be surprised if Shrey is holding a magic show with the card trick in the boat." I tell as I mentally face palm myself.

"Honestly though, it's a pretty good magic trick." Smriti comments "I don't think he'd be doing it in a boat though, considering it'll be wobbling a lot.

"Yeah but then he's been showing that trick literally to everyone in every single place for the past two to three years so I don't really blame Jess for feeling embarrassed" Kash tells as she rubs her forehead.

"We'll wait for a few minutes, if they don't reach by then I'll call and ask." Natasa sighs and we all sit down on the benches at the side as we were a bit tired due to the sunny and warm weather, although it was the end of December.

"Okay so I just checked this website and it said ki there's sight seeing via boating and then we could even swim here. What shall we do first?" Anu asks after spending a few minutes scrolling through her phone.

"We'll go for sight seeing first maybe, swimming after that will help us relax a bit." Nush suggests and we agree with her.

"Where's Shubman?" Smriti asks with her eyebrows furrowed.

"He said he has to go because he has some work, he'll be here in some time though." Ishan tells her.

"Oh" she mumbles, clearly looking a bit upset about him not being here as of now.

No matter what she said, there was always a huge part of her that loved and needed him around.

"Mumma can we play in the sand for a bit?" Sammy asks Ritika as he tugs onto the hem of her dress and rest of the kids also look eagerly at their parents.

"But beta we have to do todha sa sightseeing na? Maybe you can go swimming later?" Ritika suggests and Sammy pouts a bit in disappointment.

"I think it's better if we let them play a bit, waise bhi Shubman hasn't come yet na. We'll start sight seeing after he comes." Ashwin tells and the kids have a huge, happy grin on their faces.

"Thank you uncleee" Sammy tells excitedly as she runs around with the other kids and they began to play with the sand.

"Aisa kya kaam hai Shubman ko?" Smriti asks with her eyebrow raised "I mean, all of you have informed BCCI ki we're on a vacation right?"

"He has some advertising work." Abhay tells and Ishan tells "He has to talk about some IPL stuff." at the same time. Anu, Kash, Shrey and I look at each other in panic as this might blow up what Shubman was actually doing now.

"He has a meeting with his team related to advertisements for the brands that sponsor the  Ahmedabad team, IPL season starts in a few months na isliye." Anu tells and we all sigh in relief. 

"Shreyas uncleee, could you show us some magic tricks?" Aadhya (Ashwin's daughter) asks him eagerly.

"Hmm, which one do you want to see?" Shreyas asks.

"Cards waala." Vamika grins excitedly as she stops building her sand castle mid way.

"You guys aren't bored of it at all, he has showed the trick to you guys?" Ashwin asks them.

"No, it's really fun because uncle is an amazing magician." Akhira (Ashwin's daughter) tells which brings a huge grin on Shreyas' face.

"Sorry kids, I don't have the cards with me now." Shreyas tells them with disappointment.

"Can you show it to us after we go back to the hotel?" Sammy asks him.

"Of course." he tells and the kids get back to playing with the sand and water.

"The kids must really love you considering that they still cheer whenever you show the card trick and ask for it later too. Even though it's for the trillionth time you've done it infront of them." I grin at Shreyas as I rest on head his shoulder and he wraps his arm around my waist.

"I mean, everybody loves me so I'm not really surprised." he shrugs cockily and I roll my eyes.

"Honestly speaking though, I'm so glad that they enjoy it. It gives me some sort of a happiness whenever I'm around them, kids are just so adorable." he tells with a huge smile.

My head gets lost in thought for a while and then I get into a bit of a dilemma to ask Shreyas about it. Would it be too soon?

"Jess- babe." Shreyas calls me, snapping the string of thoughts in my mind.

"Huh?" I ask him absent mindedly.

"What happened?" he asks me in confusion "And don't say it's nothing, you looked like you were very deep in thought."

"Can I ask you something?" I ask him warily.

"Of course, go on." he tells me.

"Do you want to have kids?" I ask him nervously.

"With you? Like us? Do you want that too?" he asks me, eyes filled with concern.

"I mean yeah of course I do." I justify "We both love kids, we're obviously in a good place financially and our relationship is very stable too so I don't see why we shouldn't have one."

"Definitely but then it's mainly dependent on you Jess, like you'll be the one who'll have to face a lot of change physically because of it so are you a hundred percent sure?" he asks me.

"Yes, one hundred percent." I tell him and he still looks confused "I promise babe, I'm sure. Let's try na."

"Yes ma'am, we'll start trying soon." he tells as he places a kiss on my forehead and a smile forms on my face.

"Guys PDA todha minimal rakho please, chote bacche hai yahan pe." Abhay tells and Shreyas rolls his eyes at him.

"Hey bhagwan, ye aa gaya finally!" Virat exclaims and we look at the same direction as him to realise that Shubman was finally here.

"Shubman where were you for so long?" Jasprit asks him, worried.

"I just had some work, sorry if made it too late bhai." Shubman apologies as he goes and stands next to Smriti, who looked pleased that he was finally here although she wouldn't admit it.

"No don't worry it's all okay, chale abhi?" Rohit asks, refering to the sightseeing plan we had.

"Yeah sure let's get going." Ishan agrees and we all leave to shores to have a look at the beauty of the island.

Author's note:

Hiiiii I'm back after so long, was initially busy with my exams and then ended up testing positive for COVID so I wasn't really in the head space to come up with anything for my works.

But I've tested negative so I'm back here, I hope y'all liked the chapter :)

The book just crossed 5K reads! Thank you so much for your support ❤️

I realised I haven't written any couple-ish stuff in this one. I wanted to write about the bond that the ICT member's significant other's (wives/girlfriends). I hope it came out well hehe.

I created an Instagram and Twitter account linked to this Wattpad account so that I could give updates more easily from there. Do give me a follow there so that we can interact more :) The username of both the accounts are haloxsaisha.

Until next time,
Lots of love,
~Saisha <3

Published on: 28 January 2022.