My phone (Umm..my mother's actually 🥲) was damaged for the last 5 days. So I couldn't update before. Anyways, here is the next part. Next chapter will come after 24th November. And yeah, my tests are starting from 17th November. Wish me a luck.

It was a day of middle November. Definitely, it was chilly outside. The atmosphere was cold and foggy. The sky was overcast with clouds and the mist-ridden foggy morning along with the apricity of the day was charismatic despite the coldness.

Today was special unlike regular days. Today, Sumedh was taking me in a date. When he asked me to go on a date with him, it took me off guard. I was completely startled that this gangleader had this side in him. My answer was immediate yes. I even asked for confirmation if he was being serious about it. When he sighed and told me that he really was having a strong desire to take me on a date, I sqealed in joy and threw my arms around his neck hugging the life out of him. He laughed and captured my lips for a quick and short kiss.

Finally, we were going on our first ever official date. I couldn't hold back the spark of ecstacy and I wanted to express my level of excitement by just jumping and dancing madly. Last night, I spent almost sleeplessly just waiting for this moment to come. And it had lastly knocked forward, my heart was pounding in pure excitement and so much happiness.

After quickly taking shower, I got dressed in turtle neck sweater dress attached with belt along with long sleeves. The dress hugged my body perfectly fitting into my shape clearly letting my slim figure on display. I went along with a pair of high boots that reached just till my knee. I had been always a fan of exploring various kinds of dresses whether it was traditional or western. I used to have strong obsession with royal blue dresses. Gradually, it had changed and I would like to give the whole credit to Sumedh. He was the one who had literally filled my wardrobe with black clothes. Yes, now I liked black dresses more than anything. Honestly speaking, Sumedh had got me bunch of dresses, blouses, shorts, skirts, jeans and many more. At first, he always used to bring me black clothes but now he had changed. He now actually baught me colurful dresses besides black.

I came to an halt infront of the mirror taking in the reflection of me. Now I looked pretty different. Infact, I looked bolder and more confident with my new change of look. I had now cut my long hair that reached near my waist. My long hair was now chopped off, just brushing on my shoulder. There was nothing natural about my hair anymore. My hair colour was brownish black before. Now I had changed it into light brown and had done some blonde dieds on them. Infact, now I looked a lot of foreigner rather than Indian.To be honest, I was absolutely in love with my this elegant and bold look.

My hair was left open and I had put a neutral makeup on my face accompanied by the matte shade lipstick. Grabbing hold of my slam bag ,I came out of the room slamming it shut. I went downstairs humming a song. Sunedh was waiting for me in the living room. When I reached there, my eyes quickly found their ways to reach the tall figure standing just a few steps away from me. He was in his casual outfits instead of some formals which he always wear. Today, he had put on a pair of black slacks along with some fancy shoes, a white polo button shirt tucked into his slacks, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the first button of his shirt undone exposing some of his chest.

"Hi" He greeted as he reached near my side.

"Hi" I mumbled grinning at him. He pulled me for a small kiss when we heard sound of throat clearing. We pulled apart to find Ralph sitting on the couch along with Siddharth and Avneet.

"Good morning, dad" Sumedh walked towards them, his one arm now wrapped around my waist.

"Good morning. May I know where you are going early in the morning?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"Firstly, it's not as early as you are saying. It's already 9:30 a.m. Secondly, I am going to take Mallika on a date. " He said glacing at me.

"Ok, so you finally man up your egoistic self and decided to ask her out. I am glad that you took my suggestion in consideration. " Siddharth quickly butted in the conversation cutting Sumedh before ge could say anything. I frowned at his statement and Sumedh sent a glare in his direction.

"You don't have to be so loud at this. I am quite bad in this places. Besides, I have wished to take her on a date from my heart and so here we are going. I will make the day remarkable for her." He said and placed a kiss on my forhead. I smiled at his gesture.

"That's a great idea, Sumedh. I appreciate the way you are trying to give times to your wife beside your works.Hope you enjoy the day." Ralph said pulling Sumedh for a quick hug and sent a smile in my direction.

"Thank you." I repled and turned to face Avneet who had whatever showed no emotion. I excused from Sumedh and grabbed Avneet's wrist pulling her from there.

"Why do you have a poker face?" I asked. Probably I knew that she was still worried about my relationship with Sumedh and so she was being nonchant about it.

"Look Mallika, I seriously want you to be happy. And I can see happiness radiating from you whenever Sumedh is with you. You become a complete changed woman who is stronger in spirit and bolder in appearance. You remain no more the sweet and innocent girl. And trsut me, I am glad that Sumedh is able to bring out this real side of you. I really appreciate it." She smiled.

"But I am just afraid if something happens to you in this process. I still can't trust Sumedh easily." Her tone lowered as she looked away avioiding my gaze.

"It's ok. Loving Sumedh will bring back a lot of unexpected things and events in my life. I know that I have to face so many dangerous situations and I am mentally preparing myself for that. I know everything. But for now, I want to live the moment. Let me be happy and try to give him a chance. I know that Sumedh won't disappoint you." I thoroughly explained quickly taking a glance of Sumedh who seemed to be in deep conversation with Siddharth and Ralph.

"I just can hope. Enjoy your day." She grinned and patted my shoulder. I sqealed and hugged her.

"Thank you Avneet" I mumbled slowly.

"Come on, no formalities. We are after all best of buddies." Avneet grinned with her twitched eyebrows after pulling away from the hug.

"We are." I nodded and we headed back to where Sumedh and Siddharth were talking and Ralph was now out of our side.

When Sumedh saw me , he stopped whatever he was speaking and turned to walk towards me. He slided his arm around my waist and placed a kiss on my forhead.

"Let's go." I nodded with a wide smile.

"Take care of my best friend. Don't let any harm touch her. If something happens, I swear that I will strangle you to death." Avneet grumbled sending a scowl in Sumedh's direction where Sumedh was unbothered at her threat. He just gave a curt nod and gave a fake smile at her.

"Go Mallika. Enjoy your day. Hope this idiot has planned something good enough. " Siddharth exclaimed with bored look.

"Stop being mood-breaker. Noone wants your opinion." Sumedh grumbled shaking his head and turned to opposite side. He led me outside holding my waist. I was actually surprised to find no guards following us like other times. Sumedh had made sure to keep guards with us whereever we would go. So there was always either Peter or Harry along with some other guards accompaning us everywhere.

He pulled the door open for me to which I gave him a look of bewilderment. He only grinned in response. Then, he came on his side taking the driver seat and buckled his seat belt.

"Sumedh, why are not any guard following us today?" I asked when he started the engine of the car. He glanced at me for a second and then diverted his attention to driving.

"Today, it's a day for us. I have promised you to make you feel special. And I am not going to break the promise. I don't want them to interfere in our private space. Bringing them here would have made you uncomfortable for sure and obviously I won't want my wife to get uncomfortable on her first date. " He exclaimed making me shocked again.

"God! What have you done to that Sumedh?" I exclaimed jokingly. He let out a chuckle and chose no to reply my question.

I decided to go through my kindle instead of sitting here bored. The windows were tinted and black. Due to which, it was impossible to look outside. Time passed quickly and before I knew , we were pulling up infront of a cafe. Like a gentleman, Sumedh again opened the door for me and we stepped outside after parking our car. I scanned the place quickly. The cafe had tinted blue glasses and the sunlight was reflecting through the glasses. It was a five storied building. There was a big statue of fairy in the entrance of the cafe and a small garden was situated just infront of the building.

We took some photos infront of the building in different poses and later stepped inside to take the elevator. Soon we reached at the rooftop of the cafe.

"This cafe is one of the best cafeterias in New York. You are going love it. " Sumedh said as he led me in. My eyebrows raised in surprise when I found none present there except some waiters and stuffs standing in the corner, their calculative gaze fixed on us.

I looked at the man who was dressed in formal back blazer and pants, with confusion when he made his way towards us. He smiled at us and forwarded his hand infront of Sumedh.

"Welcome Mr and Mrs. Spencer in Xperia's Cafeteria." He smiled warmly when Sumedh shook his hand nodding his head.

"So, is everything ready?" Sumedh asked with no expression.

"Yes Sir, everything has been arranged as per your order. We have braught the famous chef of New York specially for your service. Mr. Hunter Stanton is already on his way along with his son." That man replied. I looked back and forth between both of the men as they exchanged a few more words regarding whatever they were speaking.

"Ok, thank you. Now lead me the way." Sumedh replied. The man nodded and he led us whereever he knows. He braught us to the big kitchen. I was totally clueless on what was happening here. Shouldn't it supposed to be a date?

"Sir, everything is kept there. If you need anything, just call us." That man said gesturing to look at the tray of vegetables kept on the kitchen slab. Sumedh just nodded in approval and the man left the kitchen. He turned to face me, his lips tugging into a smirk.

"What?" He asked as he lazily strolled across me.

"What "what" means? Are you out of your mind? I mean, what are we gonna do here? Isn't it supposed to be date? What's happening here? Can you explain?" I asked all the questions together keeping my both hands on my hips.

"Well, we are going to cook." He replied.

"What!" I exclaimed being shocked for the second time probably. He chuckled seeing my expression and came closer pulling me in his chest.

"Angel, I know that you like cooking. Yes, I have actually overheard it when your grandma was talking to Avneet's mother. It was during our marriage. So now, we are going to make a chicken item and a desert." He said.

"So now we will have a competition. A game. A play or whatever you want to call it. Mr. Hunter Stanton is going to taste the foods made by us and will decide the winner. He is a well known chef in New York as well as in US. He will also reward you if you win this competition. So our first date is going to start with cooking competition." When Sumedh was done explaining everything, I was totally amazed and grinning at the same time. This was going to be fun.

"Wow" That was all I could say at that moment. Bro, this man was full of surprises. Who would say that this is the same arrogant mafia?

His smile was replaced with a concern look as he cupped my cheeks.

"Look, I just wanted to do something unique not some usual stuffs like other couples do. I want to make this day remarkable in your life. So I chose the starting in this way. I have negotiated with the manager of this cafe offering them some money and that's why they have made an arrangement only for us. There will be no other people until we complete our cooking. But yeah, if you don't like it , you don't have to be here. We can go somewhere else." He said scratching his back of neck passing a nervous smile. I shrugged my shoulder shaking my head, smile lingered on my face.

"Are you serious? It's the best thing you have done. I can't even imagine a date could be so much fun. I am sure that I am going to enjoy it." I assured him and tiptoed to reach his height crashing my lips against him.

He kissed me back with same passion and I tangled my hands in his hair. After sharing a heated kiss, we pulled away and chuckled at each other.

"So now, it's time to play." I shouted joyfully and we both prepared ourselves wearing the aprons and red striped white hats.

"What should we make?" I asked as my eyes slowly scrutinized the menu card deciding to make something. Sumedh was standing behind me supporting himself by keeping his both hands on the island either side of me. I was almost standing between his legs, my back was pressed against his front.

"Umm...what about Chicken Butter Masala with Naan?" I asked looking at Sumedh over my shoulder.

"Yeah, that's perfect. When it comes about topic of food, nothing can be better than Indian dishes. It will be great." He agreed showing thumbs up.

"Then, let it be." I excitedly replied.

"BTW, if you don't mind, how have you learnt cooking ?" I asked him when he was arranging the bowl of chicken.

"Actually, Ralph is a great cook. He used to do his experiment in different dishes. It was kind of his favourite hobby. So yeah, I have inherited this thing from you or so you can say. He is my trainer." He replied and started adding the necessary items in the bowl for marinating.

"That's great." I complimented while keeping the flour in a bowl.

"Ok,now let's get back to work. You are going to lose unfortunately." I mocked at him smirking at him.

"Time will say. You don't know my cooking skill. Let me tell you one thing. I make the best chicken dishes." He told me showing his knife infront of my face. I rolled my eyes at him and removed the knife from my face and went a bit close to him. I intentionally rubbed my nose with him and huffed in annoyance.

"And I too make the best desert as well as chicken dishes." I gave him a challenging look pulling away from him.

"Time will predict." He arrogantly replied winking at me. I gave him a poker face and carried on adding the baking soda, salt and other items in the mixture.

"Haha, you wish." I sarcastically remarked.

****

So who do you think is going to win the competition?😉

The next part will have the continuation of their date.

I have noticed the downfall of votes in this story. I used to get a lot of likes and comments in this story before and it used to take just 2-4 days in maximum to reach 100+. So it's making me to rethink if the story is going in correct track. So here I am asking if you guys are bored with the recent story plot. If you guys are bored, I will try to bring something new. Let me know your opinion.

Also, it's not possible for me to message someone personally asking for votes or comments. Infact I never do that. That's not my nature. It somehow feels that I am forcing people to read and vote on my story. So I never message someone for votes, comments, reads or follow. I always say anything important in author's note in my story or in the announcement. However, some people still have problem with that. For them, I want to say that you guys are not VIP that I have to inform you anything by personally messaging you. I am sorry but it's not possible.

Do vote and comment.

Last not but the least, check out my new published story "LOVE IN BETRAYAL " .

"Let's break up" She stated.
~~~~~~

It took her just three words to tear his simple world.

In this vast world, two different words exist - "LOVE" and "BETRAYAL". Though, those words have separate meanings as well as different aspects.When one symbolizes felicity, another one denotes annihilation.

But when these two different words with opposite essence are put in one sentence, the definition comes out to have strange exterior which happens to be a cycle of Love-Betrayal.

Those who still haven't checked this story, go and give it a try. It's on my profile. Do share your reviews too.