'Your green tea' Anika said forwarding the cup to Shivaay , who was sitting engrossed in his phone on the swing at night time , on half terrace .

He had long shifted their nightly chit chat from pool to half terrace as it just had one swing instead of two chairs, which meant Anika had to sit near him . Of course she tried to keep a few inches of gap in between them, but that was not a problem as Shivaay  always shamelessly covered that gap as soon as she sat. If she was uncomfortable with this proximity earlier, she now looked forward to it, discreetly of course. 

Their bodies snuggled against each other in a comforting way, his arms draped over her shoulders while they talked about their day, their future, upcoming wedding and the kids, was now her most favorite part of the day.  SHIVAAY  smiled a lot these days Khushi had noticed, and the strong possibility that she might be the reason for these smiles made her heart sing in joy.

ANIKA : 'Ji, your green tea' 

 Anika said again, and Shivaay again knowingly ignored her, waiting for her next move.

In the last week ANIKA  had become 'Ani' for Shivaay ,  the endearment 'sweetheart' was a commonplace in every conversation they had by her romantic fiance. But she was having a hard time coming out of her 'SSO' zone, much to Shivaay's amusement and dislike. 

He had asked her to address him as anything buts sso , and drop the formalities between them . Instead she had dropped Shivaay and was trying to make do with "JI ", and sometimes without even that .

'JI, your breakfast'

'JI, when will you be back?' and so on.

So, today SHIVAAY had decided to not to respond unless she calls him by his name. He wanted to see how long can she escape addressing him by his name or any other lovely name .

Anika sighed and gave up. Who can win against him? She knew it was a matter of time that she'll have to call him by his name. Her shyness has to go, else who knows what new way he might come up with to fluster her for this. 

She had already been coaxed into giving him good bye kisses before leaving for office every morning and welcome back home kisses every evening, for saying 'sorry' after kissing him that night. 'To make her comfortable with him' was his reason, for he had no comfort issues whatsoever with kissing her from the word go and it REALLY showed.

When he started it was supposed to be peck on the cheeks, but then the peck moved to the lips and then they started lingering on each other's lips for a considerably long time, every time.  now more often then not, these long sensuous pecks changed into full blown passionate kisses, doing absolutely no good to her newly awakened feminine senses. Precaution is definitely better than cure for her fragile heart, when it comes to this persistent fiance of hers .

 ANIKA : 'sh ... shivaay . Your green tea' 

she forwarded the cup once again.

And this time not only he looked up, but gave her a smile so swoon worthy that she wanted to faint that very moment .

SHIVAAY : 'What did you say sweetheart? Come again?'

 she heard him say, with a huge grin plastered on his face .

Instead of appreciating her effort, he is being cheeky about it?... ARGHHH. 'Baagad billa ' she muttered under her breath and proceeded to thrust the cup in his hands and flop beside him, not caring about zero inch of gap between them .

...........................................

Contrary to societal norms, Shivaay and Anika  were beyond themselves with happiness when they became parents two weeks before their wedding . Adya officially addressed Anika as Maa, sending the new mother into fits of giggles and tears of joy. Shivaay did not feel left out for long, as with Anika gentle nudging, a few days later Adya grasped that this father figure of her life is to be called Paa . That time Shivaay could accurately relate to Anika's emotions, though he did not express his joy in the same manner .

ANIKA : 'Shivaay , are you okay with kids calling me Maa?' 

Anika had asked him later that night, when she was Maa and Shivaay was still not Paa .

SHIVAAY : 'Yes. Why do you ask?' 

 he had looked at her .

ANIKA : 'No. I was thinking that should we teach them to call us Bua-Mama, and tell them that Bhai-Bhabhi were their Maa and Paa?' 

 she had asked .

SHIVAAY : 'Of course we will tell them someday that Priyanka & Ranveer are their biological parents. That they are taking Randhawa lineage forward . But for this lifetime we are their mother and father. It's us who they will interact with as their parents. It's us who they will look up to and for us they'll be our eldest kids. So it is only right that they call us maa and paa . Even Priyanka and Ranveer would want this as it will help strengthen our bond with them' 

 he had replied .

ANIKA : 'Hmmm. I was only thinking that they will feel left out when their friends will have a mother and father and they will not, if they call us bua(father's sister) and mama(mother's brother) . But you have thought way more deeply about it and I could not agree more' 

 she had said, his respect increasing in her eyes some more .

SHIVAAY : 'I always think deeply when it comes to you and the kids ANI '

 he had sincerely replied .

....................................

On the other hand, Adit seemed to be in the mood of following social norms and bestow them their rightful designations sometime after their wedding only. Poor baby could not for the life of him understand the frenzy grown ups went into every time his sister made some particular sounds.

 And it absolutely baffled his little mind that when he received innumerable sloppy kisses along with her, and requests to make same sounds every time she did that. He had no idea and he was not inclined to dwell upon it as long as he did not loose the grown-ups attention. So he always encouraged the kisses by giving his bua his best toothy grin.

SHIVAAY  did not interfere in her jewellery shopping at all this time owing to his past experiences, letting her select her own mangalsutra and wedding sets, letting her buy as heavy or as light jewelry as she pleased. 

As long as she wears them with a smile he is happy he had said, Anika fondly thought back. Her bridal trousseau, however, was a different story altogether. He had only one suggestion, which he quite stringently enforced, that color RED should be in abundance. As a result she was now a BEWILDERED owner of six red sarees, four red suits of different style, five red night dresses, three red party dresses, plenty of red foot wears and countless matching red accessories. Thankfully she had found her voice somewhere during the shopping, to tactfully protest against her over indulgent fiance's red obsession, and had managed to sneak in a few other colors into her collection as well.

SHIVAAY : 'You look splendid in red Ani'

 was his consistent argument .

ANIKA : 'Don't I look good in any other color? Like ANY other color?' 

 was her consistent doubt .

Shivaaywas quite content with his fiance's shopping and his contribution to it. He had never been to shopping with his sister or dadi, or any other woman for that matter. Anika was the first female he ever accompanied on a shopping spree,  he was damn sure that he did a swell job. 

They bought everything that looked good on ANIKA . 'Could have bought some more red dresses, but that would have imbalanced her wardrobe's color equation, so its okay' he thought. He totally understands the importance of other colors as well, specially in her wedding trousseau . 

 he can buy her more things in his favorite color later on, for she looks splendid in it, he smiled to himself. That she looks absolutely sexy and mouthwatering in the color of passion was something that can wait to be told to her till after their wedding, right ? 

he chuckled .

......................................

Color confusion aside, ANIKA could not help but blush at and LOVE his enthusiasm for her shopping. He was trying to make their civil wedding as much traditional for her as possible. He had even hired a wedding consultants to guide them through the most important event of their lives, and those people made sure that she has her bridal mehndi done a day before the wedding day by expert mehendi artists. 

The house was going to get decorated for the small civil wedding as per event planners suggestion, to give the feel of the D-day, and so will be 'their' room. What Anika did not know was that these event planners were trying to get a hang of her taste by interacting with her right now, as per SSO's instructions. They were the ones planning the upcoming surprise wedding reception thrown by SSO in two months time and HE wanted to make sure that new Mrs. OBEROI loves it .

Being the observant man that Shivaay is , he couldn't help but notice that ANIKA kind of LOVED anything and everything that crossed paths with her. Living or non-living what-so-ever, that was inconsequential. And she always expressed this particular sentiment of hers at the drop of a hat, except in HIS case.

She LOVES GOL GAPPA.

She LOVES Salman Khan.

She LOVES her cutie pies , which were Adit and Adya not him, just to be clear.

She LOVES rains.

In short, it seemed impossible for her to appreciate anything without LOVING it. Then what stopped her from saying this magical word to him, he wondered. The physical and emotional comfort level between them was quite evident to anyone who was paying attention these days.

 She was visibly beaming with marriage approaching, and did not leave any chance to spend time with him. Then why did he not get to hear her say 'I love you' and the rest of the whole freaking world does? Human heart is one greedy thing. It never stops desiring for more. Now that he was sure that Anika's feelings towards him were more then mere liking or concern, his heart wanted a declaration of love from her. He realized his feelings first, he proposed marriage to her first, and it was him who kissed her first. Should she not come and profess her love first now?

Shivaay knew he was hiding behind a non- excuse for not taking the initiative himself, but the reality was that he was incapable of vocalizing his feelings. It was his personal hell, not from today, but since ever. 

He had realized very early on in his life that telling people that you love them won't make then stay with you, instead they take it as your weakness. But if they love you they'll definitely stay, and that was the reason he tried to make Anika fall in love with him rather then telling her that he loves her.  the fact that he was passionately proactive towards vulnerability or rejection sealed his lips further. He could express his feelings to people without any restraint when they were negative, and that was the reason behind his infamous temper. But tender feeling had never ever found their way out of his heart to his lips. They just stayed stuck there, waiting to be recognized.

 he was counting on Anika to listen to what his heart wants to say. She had without help found a way to his heart, now she'll have to figure out what it was offering her. He can only wait, for her to come and claim his heart and his feelings as hers, forever.  wait he will, for she is worth it, for they are worth it.

He turned his head to his side on the swing and smiled. The subject of his thoughts was asleep snuggled against him, her head in the crook of his neck and his arms around her securing her to himself, like every other night. This beautiful girl will be his wife in five more days, and he cannot wait to start his new life with her.

He gathered her sleeping form in his arms and proceeded towards her room to lovingly tuck her in the bed, his favorite part of the day nowadays..............

..........................

here is another part guys hope you all liked it , hope you liked shivaay's dilemma I hope I got it right .....are you all able to connect my characters ?????? do you like this shivaay & Anika do share your thoughts with me !!!!!!

DO COMMENT & LIKE

DO FOLLOW ME TO GET UPDATES ON MY PARTS .......

HAPPY READING GUYS !!!!!!!!!!