Filler alert!

"Do you think this dress is too out there?" Annika had put on a group video call to Sushant and Mallika at 8 pm on a Wednesday asking for opinions.

"Why was I called now?" Sushant asked in a grouchy voice, but it was royally ignored.

"He's your husband, so no. But the place is kind of classy. So, I think you should go for a gown," Mallika spoke in one breath. Sushant groaned,

"I am cutting the call. Good night, you rodents."

"Don't dare!" Annika yelled and Sushant could only sigh. He had to sit through the girls going through every piece of clothing. It sometimes sucked being the only guy but he couldn't exactly complain. At one point, he was only staring at the wall while Annika had gone to take more clothes. He never quite understood how girls always complained that they never had anything to wear while he just saw Annika bring a year's worth of clothing. He saw Shivaay walk in,

"Umm... Hi Sushant! This is weird." Shivaay stood awkwardly in front of Annika's tab.

"No. Your wife is weird. Can you please go and choose something for her to wear on your anniversary? Mallika ran off somewhere and Annika is raiding her closet, but I apparently can't cut the call!" Sushant rolled his eyes and Shivaay looked at him sympathetically before his eyes widened.

"Anniversary? That's not until next week."

"You clearly don't understand women. By the way, did you get a gift yet? She made us go from shop to shop before she landed on something she liked... Actually more like, well, I can't tell you."

"I did get her something, but that doesn't exactly fall into the category of a 'gift'. So, I was thinking of getting her something else. Can you help me?" Was Shivaay scared, now? Bet your ass he was. Every day, Annika gave him a new shocker. And the pressure only kept increasing. He had to make sure the date was perfect and initially, he thought he could do it all by himself; but he wasn't so sure anymore. He was very grateful when Sushant agreed immediately. Rudra was leaving for college in a few days and they were going to go shopping for him anyway.

"Mallika, Sushant! Is this dress..." Annika stopped mid-sentence when she saw her husband who straightened up after he saw her.

"That won't be necessary because we are getting you new clothes." Shivaay turned to give Sushant a wink and Sushant took the cue, yelled a goodbye and cut the call. Before Annika could ask any questions, Shivaay dragged her to dinner.

"I didn't know we were supposed to dress up for dinner," Rudra asked as he looked at Annika who scoffed. But then, she had done a lot of embarrassing things in front of the family, so she was sure they were acquainted to all her personalities, albeit she did not intend for this to happen.

"Okay, now that you two are here, I want all your preferences for the party," Jhanvi said excitedly as she took out a notebook. Pinky immediately handed her a pen and the two looked at them eagerly.

"What party? Rudra's going away party?" Shivaay asked as he served Annika some salad, ignoring the glares she was giving him. Well, someone had to make her eat healthy.

"Your anniversary party! Don't tell me you forgot, Shivaay." Pinky looked at him sternly. Her son, indeed, was hopeless.

Shivaay and Annika looked at each other. They hadn't given a thought that their families might want to be a part of the celebrations too. Well, to be fair, anniversaries were for the couple only, but the Oberois celebrated silly things all the time.

"Well... Actually, we had something planned..."

Jhanvi interrupted Shivaay, "We are not going to let you plan it by yourself, Shivaay. It is your big day. It is bad enough that you two couldn't have a grand wedding..."

"Actually, Jhanvi aunty, Shivaay and I thought it would be better if we did the big party next year. I would have graduated and he would be settled by then," Annika said as she eyed Shivaay. When he didn't follow her up, she kicked him a little which startled him into nodding. Shakti had been noticing their countenances ever since the party idea was put up on the table and it was pretty evident that the two weren't thrilled. But of course, saying no to Pinky and Jhanvi was no less than a Herculean task. The ladies seldom agreed on a lot of things, but the times they did, the opponent had zero to slim chances. Pitying his kids, he added,

"Maybe, it should be private..."

"Yes, Shakti Ji. I was about to say that. We'll have everyone from the Oberois and we'll invite Gauri and her parents, probably Sushant and Mallika's family, Shivaay's friends..." Pinky stopped when Shakti squeezed her hand.

"Private does not include 40 people, I hope you know that." He gave her a sarcastic smile and Pinky turned pink.

"Why do people forget that I won't be here?" Rudra complained loudly earning a smack from Tej.

"Everything is not about you. Now, before 10, tell me what you are planning on doing to increase that GPA." Tej's stern voice was enough to silence Rudra.

"But he's right, Tej uncle. Maybe... we can celebrate right when he is there. That way I'll have my favorite Devar with me..." Annika smiled at him, mentally cursing her husband for being as useful as the potpourri jar that was on the dining table. He got a call and he abruptly left without a word. Wasn't he the knight in shining armor? With some persuasion, it was decided that they were having a party on Friday before Rudra left. Shivaay later came and looked quite satisfied which only irritated Annika.

Right after they entered their room, she slammed the door behind and he jolted a little as he turned to look her way. She stood there with her arms crossed and with a deathly expression that Shivaay could only gulp. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" He asked slowly. She came forward slowly and his legs automatically treaded backwards.

"Don't sweetheart me. What the hell was that?" She demanded. When he continued to look at her point blank, she shook her head in exasperation. Nothing could be done of him. "You let me all alone to handle the whole party thing. You should have let the family know that we wanted to..." Her voice trailed off when she saw a smirk slowly forming on his face.

"We wanted to...? What did we want exactly Annika?" Shivaay asked, fighting the smile that threatened to form on his face. But the playfulness that dances around his eyes was enough to make Annika's cheeks go fervent a little.

"We had planned to celebrate..." She whispered and he gave her a nefarious grin. She knew he was teasing her but she was paralyzed inside.

"Yes...And it looked like they were planning to celebrate too, with a party. There was a problem with that?" He cocked her eyebrows, daring her to say that she wanted to be alone with him. But Shivaay, you might have underestimated your wife. She took up a different challenge.

"You're right. I'll go tell Jhanvi aunty we'll have a big party itself. It should at least last all evening, right?" She asked innocently while the devil inside her snickered. Shivaay stuttered to say no when she was almost out the door. He was barely fast enough to pull her back in.

"Okay, you win. I didn't say anything because I knew you had it handled," He said earnestly and Annika nodded at him, satisfied. When she took her night clothes to the bathroom, Shivaay sat on the recliner grinning like a Cheshire cat. There was a warm, fuzzy feeling that was well settled near his abdomen and he liked every bit of it.

*

"You got me three dresses." Annika pouted at Shivaay and he had to roll his eyes,

"You know many women would kill to have a husband like me. And here you are, complaining I got you three beautiful, mind I say exquisite, gowns." Shivaay looked at her with pursed lips and squinted eyes. Annika wanted to call it cute, but she frowned.

"Who are these 'women'? And obviously, you bought these beautiful gowns and I'm confused which one to wear today. I need to then choose between the remaining two to wear on our anniversary. Then, there'll be one left. Which one do I leave behind? You were supposed to make this easier," Annika cried and he looked at her in disbelief.

"I spent three hours picking them out and you're complaining. You know what? I'm taking them back." He scowled at her and she bit back a chuckle at how much he resembled a seven year old at that.

"Accha, sorry. Can you choose?" She made her classic puppy eyes and he sighed. She went on reading his visage when he looked at the dresses.

| V O T E | C O M M E N T |