Sorry all for such a delayed update 🤧🤧
Was busy with work these days and did not have peaceful time and mind to edit this 🤧

Anyway, I did not see much comments in last chapter :(

Only riyaaaravi managed to answer correctly 😁 others, do comment more from now :)

Happy Reading and a happy weekend 😎

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"I am sorry" Om said softly holding his ears and advancing towards Gauri, while she gave him a sharp glare.

Shivaay walked closer to Annika and gave her a winning smile, now that things were almost sorted. Though Annika smiled back at him, all that kept resonating in her mind was those words Gauri had uttered a few moments ago – "you and your baseless assumptions and justifications! He is so judgemental when it comes to me" and she stood there completely frozen. It was as though the words were for her own self and how she had been very judgemental about Shivaay.

"Idiot" Gauri's voice broke her trance "You took so long to tell me this! Had you told me two years ago, we would be happily talking like always now. Two years, Om. Two years! You know how much I missed you?" she scowled.

"I missed you too" Om pouted.

"It's okay Gauri. Now, you guys can talk and sort out things. You know right, better late than never" Shivaay explained with his charming smile.

"Thank you so much Bhaiyaa" she smiled in return.

"You need to thank her. She was the one who rightly doubted that you guys had a fight" he clarified pointing at Annika and both Om and Gauri looked at them thankfully.

Annika simply smiled back and then began walking upstairs towards her room, once again lost in Gauri's words.

"Now, don't fight like high school kids anymore. Speak out whatever you both want to" he convinced them and they readily agreed. He decided to give them some personal space and turned around to notice that Annika had already left.

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"What Gauri said is right! I also did the same thing about Shivaay. I was always very judgemental about him. Neither did I talk to him nor did I listen to him. And, I assumed so many things. Atleast in Gauri's case, they are friends and sooner or later, they would have managed to speak to each other to sort out things, although it indeed took two years for them. But, in my case, Shivaay and I were complete strangers. In spite of me misunderstanding him all the time, he was so patient. He never fought back with me, nor did he argue with me. What if he had also lost his cool like Gauri? Of course, he had all the right to do so! Shivaay was there to help Gauri and Om now. But, no one would have helped both of us if we had fought back then. And, I would have lost him forever. Nooo.. why are you getting such stupid thoughts, Annika? But, it is true right? I cannot even think of losing Shivaay. He is the best thing that happened to me. What is this that is happening to me?" she wondered at the turmoil of emotions in her. She quickly walked towards the bedside to have some water from the jug, while still being completely lost in Shivaay's thoughts.

"Annika.. careful" Shivaay cautioned walking closer to her quickly, as the glass she held in her hand was almost in the verge of overflowing.

"What happened to you?" he smiled looking at the way she blinked innocently.

"Nahi woh.. nothing Shivaay" she replied tucking her hair behind her ear, while gulping the water quickly.

"Hmm.. There is something. Is anything bothering you?" he asked suspiciously lifting up her chin, thereby making her look into his ocean blue eyes.

"Nothing... Huh.. woh... thank you, Shivaay" she said softly and he was surprised.

"Thank you? For what?" he asked with confusion. But, without replying in words, she took him in a sudden tight embrace giving him yet another surprise. After few moments, he slowly reciprocated the hug.

"Thank you Shivaay. for solving Om and Gauri's problem" she said slowly.

"Huh? Is this thank you really for that? Why do I feel it is for something else?" he wondered, but chose not to question her for now.

"It is not just me. Remember, you also helped me. You were the one who identified the problem. I just bridged the gap" he told her and she simply smiled.

"Mmm.. they look too cute together, hai na" she said dreamily.

"Not cuter than us, Annika" he thought to himself, looking straight into her eyes. Her face turned completely scarlet by the way his eyes were stuck on her.

"Shivaay. huh. We will go down? We need to prepare lunch, right" she managed to whisper, slightly composing herself. Little did they both realize that they were still standing quite close to each other.

"Yeah. We shall go" he replied with a little disappointment, which was when he noticed that her cheeks were almost red like tomatoes. She smiled again detaching herself from him and began walking out, while he simply followed her.

"Is she only smiling? But, Why do I feel she is blushing?" he thought and his heart was suddenly very content at the feeling, although he was not too sure about his assumption.

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The four of them, then, set to prepare lunch together and split themselves, in turn helping one another. Om and Gauri were speaking almost normally and Shivaay was happy at the development, though he knew it would take some more time for them to completely be themselves.

Annika, on the other hand, kept stealing glances at Shivaay without his knowledge. Or, atleast that was what she thought. Shivaay did notice her gawking at him twice or thrice, but ignored it assuming that he was overthinking.

After a sumptuous lunch, the four decided to settle down and watch a movie. As Gauri walked towards the couch, Annika was quicker at stopping her.

"Gauri.. huh, why don't you go sit there?? You know, I want to sit with my husband" she said authoritatively, faking an attitude, and pointing towards the other couch where Om was seated while Shivaay's eyes widened in shock at Annika's sudden change and precisely at her statement. Gauri silently nodded her head and got herself seated next to Om.

Annika looked at Shivaay and winked signalling him that she was successful in making Om and Gauri sit together now.

"Is that the only reason, Annika? Or, is it because you genuinely want to sit with your husband" Shivaay wondered smiling. He had been noticing quite a lot of positive changes in her from sometime.

"Bhaiyaa. You remember this movie, na. We were all watching this in Oberoi Mansion and loved the hero's funny one-liners and poetry. But, Om was jealous since we never appreciated his poems like this" Gauri reminded a little while later and Shivaay started laughing recollecting those moments. Om simply stared at both of them as they continued teasing him.

Shivaay, in the process, subconsciously placed his hand around the couch thereby brushing Annika's arms. Annika stiffened herself at it and held both her palms intact so as to not react. She did not know what had gotten into her suddenly, but she felt shivers run down her entire body and her cheeks turned completely pink at his actually unintentional action. This was the first time that her heart was racing so fast that she found great difficulty controlling herself.

"Bhabhi.. the hero is proposing the heroine only. You are so red as though Bhaiyaa is proposing you" Gauri teased looking at Annika's scarlet cheeks, thereby flushing her further.

"Gauri.." Om signalled her to keep quiet.

"Huh. Gauri.. kuch bhi" she smiled, though she was still feeling a little breathless. "Let me.. let me have some water and come" she stuttered, quickly getting up from her seat.

Shivaay, on the other hand, was not sure if she was disturbed by Gauri's words and immediately walked right behind her.

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"Annika." He called her softly.

"Mmm" she replied, her back still facing him.

"Sorry. Huh Gauri is always a little too chirpy. Don't take her seriously" he expressed hesitantly.

"I did not, Shivaay" she said gradually turning towards him, the pink refusing to leave her cheeks.

"Pakka?" he asked her once again.

"Hmmm" she just hummed biting her lips walking out of the kitchen.

"Waise.. I don't think she said anything wrong" she said one last time turning towards him and walked away quickly without waiting for an answer. Shivaay still stood at the same spot, baffled at her words.

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"Gauri.. when is your training starting?" Annika questioned her towards the evening.

"Two days, Bhabhi." She said when Shivaay asked her about the location. It so happened that Om and Gauri were coincidentally going to the same place for training.

"This is not fair. For trainees, they are allowed to travel from home. But, trainers need to stay there itself" Om sulked.

"How is that possible?" Shivaay interrogated.

"Bhaiyaa.. as usual, he would not have read the email properly. They had mentioned an option to choose if we needed accommodation. Om, you have still not changed" she sighed.

"Whatever" he murmured.

Shivaay and Annika smiled at each other at their behaviour.

"Now, they will be together too throughout the day" Shivaay whispered and Annika simply chuckled at it.

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Two days later, Shivaay came to pick up Annika from her office. On their way back home, Annika went on and on telling him about all that had happened at office and that there was an upcoming wedding event for which they had a lot of planning to do and she was completely occupied for the next two days with lot of meetings. Shivaay kept listening to her patiently, while his mind was busy making some other calculations.

"Shivaay, stop stop stop" she almost screamed when he brought the car to a screeching halt.

"What's wrong?" he asked with widened eyes.

"Sshhh.. look there" she said pointing at the other side of the road. There they were - Om and Gauri - chit-chatting and sharing an ice-cream bought from a street vendor.

"Acchaa. They are faster than what I had expected" Shivaay grinned.

"Hmmm.. You think they like each other and will realize it soon?" she asked curiously.

"Let's hope. I believe they should" he replied thoughtfully.

"How would it be? I mean how would it feel.. when they realize? Any signal or something?" she asked him suddenly and he was amused at her question.

"Well. I don't know. But why? You have any idea?" He teased, catching her off-guard.

"Huh.. no no. How would I know? But, Chanda has told me once" she managed to answer quickly.

"What did she say?" he asked eagerly.

"Huh. She said some bulb will glow, bell will ring and all, Shivaay"

"Hahaha. Annika, that is so filmy" he chuckled.

"Hai na. But, I don't know. Even I never felt like that" she blurted and then bit her tongue quickly at the realization.

"Even me" he replied softly, not actually realizing what she had just told him. They stayed there for some more time, looking at each other, lost in their own thoughts.

"I have to tell you what I feel, Annika. That too, very soon. I know you are busy for the next two days. I am busy too. But, before that, I need to find out what exactly is going on in your mind. And, what you feel about me.  Wednesday would be the right day then. I am kind of excited as well as, nervous too" Shivaay thought to himself. This was something that had been running in his mind for the last two days.

Shivaay had been observing that Annika was getting way quite comfortable with him. He noticed that she no longer felt embarrassed when their hands accidentally brushed or whenever he looked at her intently. She voluntarily sat quite close to him, smiled more often at him and most importantly, started blushing a lot recently.
She had also started making frequent phone calls to him at office hours and texted more often. Whenever he said he would not be there to pick her up, at times her face dropped.

After giving all this a lot of thought, he decided that it would be the right thing to express his feelings to her as early as possible. But, before that, he wanted to find out what exactly was going on in her mind and what importance he held in her life at this point of time.

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It was Wednesday morning and Annika woke up with great difficulty, with the kind of cold climate that prevailed these days. As soon as she opened her eyes, she found Shivaay right there, quite close to her and there was just one pillow in between them and the rest were all too scattered. Though this was not new to either of them, it still brought a blush on Annika's face. She was all the more surprised to notice that one of her hands was intertwined with his. She smiled and gently released her fingers from his and he wriggled in his sleep.

She glanced at the clock and it was already close to seven in the morning. She personally was not very occupied today although she had to do a lot of status reviews with her team regarding the upcoming wedding events.

Even after she got freshened and came back, she saw that Shivaay was still fast asleep. She inched closer to him only to notice that he was sleeping like a little baby hugging one of the pillows.

She did not know what had gotten into her, but at the moment, the tension on her face and mind were quite evident and inevitable. There was a rollercoaster of thoughts running inside her head. Her heartbeats raced again,just like they had been racing in the last few days, whenever he was around. After a few moments of thinking and overthinking, she finally made up her mind, bent slowly closer towards him and placed a chaste kiss on his forehead. He smiled slightly, but continued to sleep. Blushing at her own actions, she pressed her eyes momentarily and quickly walked out of the room to avoid embarrassment.

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Shivaay woke up about ten minutes later to realize that Annika was not there next to him. He was a little disappointed, as he was so used to waking up looking at her angelic face. That was when he got reminded of the cutest dream he had ever got – his wife waking him up with a kiss.

"How nice would it be if it happened for real?" he thought running his hand behind his head. His thoughts had begun turning wild quite recently and he had been facing great difficulty controlling them, specially whenever Annika was around.

"Good morning" came her voice startling him.

"You got up early today?" he asked her.

"Well, not really. You are late" she shrugged.

"Oh yeah" he replied glancing at his watch.

"It's ok, Shivaay. You were already staying awake until late yesterday to complete your reports. You don't have to feel so guilty for it" she chuckled.

"Hey wait.. You are already almost ready?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I thought I will go a little early so that I can come back early" she said casually.

"Ohh" he replied. "Good! So, she will come back early today! That would be Perfect" he thought to himself.

"Annika. Just give me some thirty minutes or so. I will also start with you" he said.

"But Shivaay. It's ok, I will.." Before she could complete, he cut her off.

"Come on. So that, I can come back early too" he said casually.

"Really?" she was quite excited and he was taken aback by her reaction. "Ss.. sorry, I just asked" she said quickly and he chuckled at that.

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Shivaay thought of revealing to her about the special dinner he was planning for the two of them. But, he decided against it so as to keep that as a surprise for the time being. As much as he was excited about it, he was also sceptical. He did not speak much in the car, as his mind was occupied with what kind of plan to go with, having one of the best wedding planners as his wife.

"Annika. I am not sure if I will able to pick you up in the evening. Try to come back by yourself" he expressed sadly.

"Ohh.. okay Shivaay, no issues. I will come home by the office cab" she replied casually. He nodded and then left, driving towards his office.

That was when something struck his mind.

"She always prefers simple stuff. And, she loves our terrace. Then, that would be the perfect place! Shivaay, you are smart" he patted himself proudly.

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Annika and her team were involved in back to back discussions. It was another destination wedding at Goa and their clients were from an affluent background. They had just received a message that the wedding was on the 2nd and they were running on a very tight schedule. However, Pratik had proposed to help them by providing extra members from other teams who were not too occupied. This way, they began feeling that they were well within the timelines. This was the best thing Annika liked about Pratik - he was very helpful and accommodative!

Her colleague Soha was supposed to hand over the final list of stage backdrop designs to her, but was not at office yet. She decided to wait for her when her phone flashed with the most familiar name, bringing a wide smile on her face.

"Haa Shivaay" she spoke into the phone happily, as though she had been dying to listen to his voice after a tiresome day. Precisely, around the same time, a mail popped up on her screen and she tried multi-tasking by replying both to the email and to Shivaay over the phone, though she was genuinely least interested in the email.

"Annika. Can you come home early tonight?" he asked.

"I told you I would come right" she replied.

"Hmm.. I thought we will have a special dinner tonight." He spoke almost stammering, on the other end.

"Special? What day is it today?" She asked doubtfully.

"Hmm nothing..just like that?" He managed to reply.

"Accha thik hai. I will come" she assured him. Exactly around the same time, her desk phone buzzed and it was from Soha's desk.

"Shivaay, I am getting another call. Shall I call you in sometime?" she asked him sadly.

"No worries, you carry on. Don't forget to come home by seven" he said disconnecting the phone. As much as he wanted to continue talking to her, he knew she was working on an important project. Things could anyway wait till evening.

But, by the time she disconnected her call with Shivaay, her desk phone stopped ringing too.

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"Soha..tell me" Annika then asked walking towards her desk directly. Soha was pregnant and the team had been very supportive to her so far.

"Annika. I would have come myself. Why did you take the strain to come here? I just came to office" she said with uncertainty, while Annika simply smiled saying that it was okay.

"Annika. I was the one who called you" Soha's manager came there.

"Yes Sheela"

"I think she is feeling too tired, Annika. But, I believe you need to finalise a lot of things by today. Is it possible for you to give her another day? I am sorry on her behalf. We are all busy too. So, we also couldn't help her much" her manager apologized on her behalf, as the work assigned to her was not completed yet.

"No no.. Annika, give me time till tonight. I had to leave early yesterday due to the doctor's appointment. I will stay back and complete everything now" Soha stated confidently. But, Annika could see how tired she was physically. She knew it would not be right on her part to let Soha work overtime in that condition.

"Come on. We are all here to help you. You don't have to strain yourself, alright. We shall all do it together" Annika suggested smiling and Soha was quite astonished at how cool she was.

"Thank you, Annika" she replied gratefully. Annika had compiled all the other things together and this was the only one pending, so she decided to sit down next to Soha and complete it. She walked up to her place and brought her laptop and asked few more of her team members to join them.

They all then sat down and worked together in full swing and tried consolidating all the details. Little did Annika realize that it was already close to half past eight and her mobile was at her desk with almost fifteen missed calls.

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Shivaay was restlessly waiting at home for Annika to arrive. Neither had she messaged him that she would be late, nor did she answer his calls. He was initially very anxious, but eventually became quite irritated at her irresponsible behaviour. He had done a lot of planning for this day, though it was sudden and uninformed. And, only because she had promised to return home earlier, he had put in a lot of efforts on the arrangements.

"Atleast she could have told me that she is not interested" Shivaay sighed impatiently. "Everything went in vain"

Finally when the clock struck ten, he heard someone buzz the calling bell and as expected, Annika finally walked in.

"Hey Shivaay. Uff.. I am really so tired. How much of work was there, you know?" she said sadly.

"You did not even attend my calls?" he asked her, controlling his temper.

"You called me? What for? Sorry Shivaay. I left my phone at my desk and was working from another place. Anyway, I will tell you everything in the morning. I am completely drained out" she said walking towards the stairs.

"Oh and haa.. We all had dinner at office, Shivaay. Pratik provided us free, special dinner for staying back and working late. Pizzas it was, you know. And, haa he proposed to drop me home too! Waise, you had dinner right? Accha it's already so late and I am asking you like a mad. Anyway, good night. We will talk tomorrow" she said with great difficultly, walking upstairs.

Shivaay stood there completely annoyed and disappointed at her attitude. He quickly looked for the food bill, tore it into a zillion pieces in anger and threw them into the dustbin with full rage.

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After a prolonged sleep, Annika woke up in the morning to find Shivaay all set and ready for office, just like she was, on the previous day. When she glanced at the clock, she realised that it had not even struck seven.

"Good morning, Shivaay! You are totally ready already, today??!" she exclaimed.

"I have back to back meetings, Annika! Huh, you manage to travel by your own today! Not sure when I will be back! So, evening also, you manage by yourself!" he said quickly, not looking into her eyes.

She found his behaviour strange, but assumed that he might have got some stressful call from office in the morning itself.

"Okay just give me some ten minutes. I will make some quick breakfast for you!" she suggested.

"No. That's ok. I will be late then! Will have something at office!" he said bluntly.

"But, Shivaay..." Before she could complete, he had already walked down.

"Lock the door and have the key safe with you" he said sharply and left. She silently nodded her head, but stood at the door, completely perplexed at his behaviour.

"Kuch toh ghadbad hai! For sure" she wondered blinking.

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So, any guesses?? What do you think is going on??

I know there were too many scenes this time! But, do you feel they were too rushed or anything?! Do let me know!

Accha, now tell me :

What do you think happened to Shivaay?! Is he really behaving strange? Or is something wrong at office?

Do you think Annika would be able to find the reason?!

What do you think is going to happen next??😎😎

Guess guess.. last time there was hardly anything to guess, I know. But,this time, you can 😉

Hit vote if you liked the chapter ;)

And, Have a happy weekend 😎