Shivaay woke up with a grin plastered on his face. His eyes immediately went to his ring which sat proudly on his finger. He took his phone out and immediately sent her a good morning text. Before he could close the application, he got a double blue tick. She had immediately responded to his text which put an extra glow on his already grinning face.

Shivaay-Just woke?

Annika- Been half hour, you?

Shivaay- Been 5 mins, lol.

Annika- I thought you were an early riser :P

Shivaay- Slept late honey :|

Annika- Fair enough! Gtg, have a good day ;)

Shivaay- Bye!

He hummed 'Ek ladki ko dekha toh aisa laga' as he came downstairs. It did not go unheard by Dadi and Pinky who were in the mandir during their routine morning prayer. Shivaay smiled at everyone who were seated on the dining table and sat down, still humming the song. Pinky came behind him and pretended to check if he was alright. Shivaay then understood that breakfast was going to be 'Troll Shivaay' time for the family. He bit his tongue as the snickers continued.

"Well, can't blame Bhaiya nah. Bhabhi was looking very pretty in her pink dress today," Rudra exclaimed to which half of them nodded. Shivaay was very confused, how did they know if she wore a pink dress today or not.

Just then, Prinku, who was on her phone said "She sent another snap! It says, 'Hard day? Hustle harder'. Pink is so Annika bhabhi's color!" Shivaay shook his head, that's debatable.

"Annika bhi na, how nice she says captions right Shakti Ji? You saw her instagram post? She lookings very pretty nah?" Pinky beamed with pride as she showed Shakti the picture. Shivaay understood this was all because of social media, which he did not exactly like. But one good thing about it was, he got to know from his crazy family that Annika was not free today.

The whole of Advanis except for Annika knew what was going on. They would smile secretly at each other, which didn't get unnoticed by Annika. The whole day went quite busy for her, that she just came back and slept. She was a little surprised that Shivaay didn't call her or text her the whole day. She then told herself he must have been busy.

Weird, he hadn't sent her his usual 'Good morning' the next day either. Shaking her head off the thoughts, she went downstairs to see her whole family seated on their enormous dining room. The thing about Advanis is, they weren't like the Oberois. They would have meal together only if it was a festival or someone's birthday. There, the Advanis never really had the time for doing everything together. Even if they lived in the same house, the sense of togetherness always came with the festivities. So seeing every member was indeed surprising. By now, Annika knew something was cooking up. What, she had to find out. She ate her breakfast and threw in a suspicious glance before she left.

"Hello Natasha! Good morning! What's the schedule today?" Annika asked as she drove her Mercedes convertible. It was their routine, she would call up and hear her schedule in the car and they would continue to have small talks, because Mumbai's traffic would go to the point where you get bored sitting in the car.

"You got nothing scheduled today Annika!" Natasha was oddly excited.

If Annika had nothing to do meant that Natasha had a lot to do, why would she be thrilled about a pile of work? Natasha then mumbled something and cut the call. Annika just threw her Bluetooth to the passenger seat! Hadh hai!

"First, Shivaay doesn't text then the family behaves weirdly and now Natasha is hiding something too! What is even wrong with people?" She muttered furiously as she drove. She parked her car in the office to give Natasha a piece of mind. She was surprised to see that Natasha wasn't in her desk. She cursed under her breath and opened the door to her office.

Beautiful...

She stood there in awe as she saw her cabin was full of blue and white lilies. Shivaay then came out... wait, why was he wearing a mask? Annika frowned with concern as she went before him.

"Well, seems like you don't like this!" Shivaay was quite disappointed that she didn't smile brightly like he had expected her to.

"Are you kidding? I love this! But tell me one thing, why are you wearing this?" Annika looked at him, half confused and extremely concerned.

"Well, I am quite allergic to lilies! I did take some medicines, but I still wore the mask, you know just in case!" Shivaay said and Annika was enraged! Why would he bring them if he was allergic! Because you love blue lilies dumb head! Her brain chided, but nothing was more important than Shivaay's health, right?

Shivaay did sense she was going to scream at him. He was indebted to Gauri who came in and greeted the two of them in her sunshine smile. Annika, who was now surprised, forgot she was angry with Shivaay was now questioning Gauri. Shivaay wondered how easily Annika's mood changed, well he wouldn't let go that easily.

"Well Jiju wanted me to bring this discreetly, and I did. Ask him all the questions please! Okay bye you guys! Enjoy!" Gauri rushed off before Annika would start interrogating again. Her sister had the ability to question people in a way that would start feeling that they committed some crime. It was a great loss for the CBI that she chose engineering, Gauri always said.

Shivaay pulled out an off shoulder white top and a pair of jeans and handed them over to Annika. She looked at him questioningly. He just asked her to change and simply left her cabin. She was busy telling herself how people were extremely mean and she hated to be left out as she changed that she didn't noticed something was missing from her wall. She walked out with a scowl adorably sitting on her face, while Natasha and Shivaay were laughing about something. She cleared her throat, making them turn their heads. Both of them looked at her up and down and Natasha said, "You were right, white makes her look beautiful! But I still think she would look flawless in red!" Shivaay nodded, and continued to check her out. Annika felt the temperature of her cheeks rise up and she thanked God she wore a pink blush today.

"Come Annika, let's go!" Shivaay said huskily and held her by her waist. Annika had a million questions to ask but the moment she looked into his eyes, everything vanished away in a poof. The way his orbs were boring into hers made blood rush out of her legs, she swore she would wobble if she took another step. How badly she wanted him to finish what he had started on their engagement night! Certain part of her anatomy moistened when his eyes turned emerald with raw passion. He seemed to want that too. He gained a little composure and waved Natasha goodbye and took Annika out.

"Now, would you at least now tell me where we are going Shivaay? Wait a minute, is this why I don't have any work today? Did you ask Natasha to cancel them?" Annika asked when they reached Shivaay's car, as realization dawned upon her.

"Well, postpone would be the word. I hope you aren't mad at me for doing that!" Shivaay made a puppy eyes as he opened the passenger seat for her.

She got in mumbling "I don't think I can ever be mad at you"

"Okay, tell me!" Annika asked exactly after ten minutes Shivaay started driving.

"Patience woman!" Shivaay gritted his teeth. So much for planning a surprise. Annika folded her hands and turned away from him dramatically. He chuckled and said, "Sweetheart, please! You will know in two hour! Let me drive for now."

Annika sighed and shook her head. "It's not fair! I'm just asking the place, at least tell me whom we are going to meet. I'll at least be prepared!" Shivaay looked at Annika in disbelief,

"Why on earth would we even meet other people on our date? Seriously Annika?" Shivaay exclaimed.

"Are we going on a date? Don't you usually suit up and take the girl to that Italian restaurant for dinner date?" Annika asked, utterly confused. Plus, if they were to go to some place fancy, why were they in casuals?

"How do you know that Annika? And yeah, we aren't going there. Those are for normal dates!" Shivaay winked at her.

"Are we going on an abnormal date?" Annika asked, still confused.

"Special was the word I would use." Shivaay rolled his eyes, this woman was crazy. She went on an unnatural silent mode making Shivaay wonder what was on her mind. He knew, and was also warned by his in-laws that a silent Annika was dangerous. "You still haven't answered my question. How did you know about the Italian restaurant date babe?" Shivaay asked to which Annika frowned at him. He didn't ask anything wrong right?

"Whole India knows about it Shivaay, and please don't call me 'babe'. Sounds like I'm your girlfriend, not the woman you are engaged to!" Annika definitely had butterflies in her stomach, not that she would ever admit it. To be honest, she thought that Shivaay would only treat her as his trophy wife. Don't get her wrong, she knew he would treat her with respect, he would take care of her needs, he would make sure she felt comfortable, all because that was his responsibility. She had to admit there was attraction, but she never really thought he would make an effort to plan a surprise for her. She was itching to ask why would this be special, but chose not to. Around last year, she had given up on her marriage with Shivaay and was waiting for her family to accept it that they can't fulfill their grandfathers' promise. She once even asked her mom to consider marrying Priyanka to Ranveer. She was skeptical until she met Shivaay. She expected him to be arrogant while he was a perfect gentleman. Though they did have a very comfortable rapport now, Annika was unsure how their married life be. She didn't want to bring that up, so she decided to go with the flow and accept things as they came.

"Earth to Annika!" Shivaay said loudly and Annika looked at him dazed. "Were you listening Annika?" He asked pursing his lips. She shook her head and looked at him questioningly. He took a deep breath and said, "Well, I was telling you how I think you should be my girlfriend now, we should have a proper courtship before we move into the next stage!"

"But Shivaay. we can't postpone the wedding!" Annika said worriedly.

"Sweetheart, I was not talking about the wedding. I was talking about OUR relationship!" Shivaay clarified and Annika looked at him surprised. He continued, "The wedding is rushed because of horoscopes or whatever. But the point is, we need to get to know each other properly first right! So, let me be your boyfriend alright?" Annika smiled at how clichéd he sounded and nodded, the silent and thoughtful Annika was long gone as she started her chatters again. Shivaay smiled and continued to listen to her.

Annika shifted in her sleep as she heard Shivaay's voice. She opened her eyes slightly when he told her that they had reached. As curiosity won over her beloved sleep, Annika woke up and looked around. They were surrounded by green grass everywhere, trees stood proudly as birds chirped a merry song. Shivaay had brought her to Karjat and the car was parked in front of a cozy villa which of course belonged to the Oberois. She got down and was greeted by two friendly ladies. Shivaay turned to Annika and asked her to freshen up and get ready in an hour. She nodded and looked inside the bag Shivaay handed over to her before he left. It had a few warm clothes in it, it was the same bag Gauri had given to Annika. Annika smiled as she entered the villa.

Shivaay picked up Annika, on a BICYCLE! She was really surprised, when she looked at Shivaay, he just grinned at her. He rode whistling and when Annika's eyes landed on an open pavilion tent with table inside, she knew what was going on. SHe got down as he parked the cycle. He came and stood before, and gestured the pavilion.

"Gauri told you didn't she? But why Shivaay?" Annika asked, her heart was thumping hard for some unknown reason. He replied,

"For you, milady!"