Annika had her tongue out, drinking hot coffee was truly not a great idea when it had burnt the tip of her tongue. She cursed herself for being so impatient. It wasn't the first cup of coffee she was having right now, but in the last two hours, she already had three cups of caffeine. Still she couldn't come up with perfect lines to publish the article of Shivaay Singh Oberoi's mystery girlfriend to the newspaper.

Cursing herself under her breath, she pressed on the backspace button or rather, she held it for a longer time. Annika was running out of times, the deadline was tomorrow. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back on the chair, gaining all her strength and attention. She needed to do it, with a determined mind, she opened her eyes. 

But then, her phone pinged. Annika's fingers itched to grab hold of her phone and look into the message. Curiosity got her, with phone in her hand and a smile on her face when she discovered it was Shivaay's message. Yesterday, they haven't talked much or seen each other, much to Annika's dislike. 

The message said 'Tell me when you are done with your work, I will come pick you up' Annika stared at the message and then replied saying, 'No, no, don't come to pick me up. Wouldn't want the people to know now, do we? Tell me the address, I will be there on my own' She kept the phone aside when she clicked on the button send. 

Annika knew he would be busy now and would see her message after some hours. Maybe she understatementing him as she heard the phone vibrate. No, she needed to get done with the article and he was now distracting her. She wanted to reply to him back but she did not, rather, she shoved her phone into the side drawer. 

Annika craned her neck from side to side and stretched her both arms before getting ready to start with her work. 

━━━━━

"What is your opinion on this idea boss?" Lost in his own thoughts, Shivaay did not even bother to listen to what his team mates had to say.  He was stuck in a whirlpool of scenarios where he thought what Annika could be currently doing as she hadn't replied to him yet. 

"Boss?" The voice of his assistant, Aryan's voice said. Shivaay sighed, he had already admitted to himself that he hadn't paid any attention to any of the ideas thrown by his teammates. "The meeting has ended here, you can all leave" Shivaay announced while playing with a pen in his hands, looking utterly uninterested. 

"But you told that we were going to finalize a idea today"

"Tell me whether I am the boss or you are?" Shivaay threw a glare at Aryan and in seconds he shook his head. Afraid that he would be thrown out of the office like hundred other people. Gulping down, he gave Shivaay a small nod before exiting the conference room.

Now that Shivaay had all the time in the world to think about what she hadn't replied to his message, it strikes him then. They hadn't talked to each other the last day because they both were truly busy and maybe Annika wasn't much busy and wanted his attention? Shivaay shook his head, she wasn't a woman who would always want attention now, would she? Groaning, he threw his head back on the seat's head. 

He wanted to desperately call her and hear her voice. Shivaay certainly missed talking to her angelic voice. The things she did to him. Sighing, he picked his ringing phone up. It was of her mother. 

"Shivaay, when are you coming back home? I want to talk to you about something"

"Mom, I will come home late tonight, don't wait for me"

"Shivaay, stop overworking, take care of your health at least" If Pinky Singh Oberoi had known what was the reason for Shivaay coming home late, she would have started with the marriage preparation because her son was certainly smitten. 

"Will talk to you later Mom, bye" Shivaay hung up the call when he had clearly heard his mother half words at the end.  Maybe he needed to work to take his mind off from her thoughts. 

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Annika hadn't realised that it was turning dark outside, the sun was slowly disappearing whilst the moon was faintly visible. She felt her muscles tightening, till the last of her work time she had worked on that single piece of article. But now she was done, finally over with it.

She herself being the mystery girlfriend and writing down about herself now felt so much hilarious to her. Maybe she should have enjoyed all this while it lasted. Her stomach grumbled loudly, she hadn't eaten much since the morning, being under stress because of the article. 

It took her a second to click on the send button on her laptop and she had sent the article to Mrs Rai. Now she was relieved, believing whatever she had written was worthy enough to be on the front page of the newspaper. 

Grabbing hold of her purse, she rummaged through it, looking for her phone but she found no trace of it. That's when her mind clucked, she had kept it in the side drawer. Shit, how was she so engrossed in her work that she forgot that she left Shivaay hanging. 

It was already past her work time and she was sure he was a bit annoyed by now. Her mind couldn't be at ease when she thought about him waiting for her in the restaurant he had had messaged the name of. Cursing herself, she walked out of her office to find that everyone was already gone except for a few employees. 

Soon Annika was walking out of her office towards the road. Today of all the days her car had to go for repair. Groaning in annoyance, she had dialed Shivaay's number to apologise but then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around to find it was Shivaay himself standing in front of her, wearing a black cap with sunglasses in the dark, looking like a complete stalker and reminding her of Joe Goldberg. 

"Are you stupid, why were you working so late? Have you seen the time? What if something happened to you? I couldn't even go in and check whether you were alright or not. Tell me what was I supposed to do if anything happened to you? Why were you ignoring my message, do you not like m- "

"Shivaay. Relax. Please. I am fine, look at me, I am alright" Annika assured by keeping both her hands on his broad shoulder, trying to calm him down. But all he did was glare at her, trying to stay angry. Annika pouted making him sigh, why did she have to be so irresistible? It made him want to grab hold of her waist and kiss the hell out of her.

"Fuck, don't do that ever again. Don't ignore my message deliberately, I was worried sick" Shivaay said with his eyes closed, running his fingers along his length of hair as he took his cap off. Annika nodded her head with a big smile on her face. "Stop smiling, It makes me want to grab hold of your lips and kiss them" Annika's cheeks turned red hearing him. What was up with him? Was he having mood swings like women do?

"Now if you don't stop blushing, I might want to do other stuff with you" Annika tried hard to not give in but when her cheeks started to heat again, she turned around immediately. Shivaay released a laugh looking at her. "I was kidding, come on. But I won't deny the fact that your blush kind of turns me on" His hand wrapped around her wrist, making her look at him. 

"You are so cute" Shivaay muttered, inching closer to her. Annika's eyes followed from up his eyes to down to his lips. Her mind screamed that they were on the road. "Shivaay, not here, what if someone sees us?" Annika took a glance around to see if anyone was looking at their direction. "Now, I can't even romance my girlfriend anywhere I want to" Shivaay said in a low tone. 

If he would have wanted, he would have announced it to the whole world that Annika Mehra was his girlfriend but knowing that his girlfriend wasn't comfortable with that, he supposedly didn't wanted to do anything stupid to hurt her. She was precious to him, so very precious.

"Fine, let's go to the coffee shop" Shivaay positioned his cap and glasses back on, making Annika feel a little weird about his appearance. "It looks like a kidnapper is going on a date with the kidnapped person" She uttered slowly and he looked at her, even though his eyes were hidden, she could imagine him glaring at her. 

"I am sorry Shivaay, we have to be like this, hiding our relationship from the world. Who told you to be so famous?" Shivaay rolled his eyes at the last part of the sentence. "Annika, I wouldn't do anything that would make you uncomfortable, all I want is you and your attention"

"You have that already Shivaay. When are you planning to give me back my heart though?" Annika questioned while staring at him. 

"Not now, never"

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Whoops, I hope this chapter wasn't a filler because I felt it was. And I am running out of coffee names to name my chapters, I don't even know where the story is heading towards at this point, lmao. If time permits do check out my new story 'Drawn to you'.