Being the heiress of one of the richest businesses in India was not something Annika Vardhan Kabeer felt proud of. Having lost her mother at childbirth, she is raised single-handedly by her father, who means the world to her. Her outlook of life is...
"I am free for another ten minutes or so. Then I have to go back to cooking," she replied.
Shivaay nodded and walked beside her.
"Let me take those ten minutes to show you around the mansion," he offered.
It was like he made it a promise to himself to not make her uncomfortable in her new home. She nodded and followed him. He showed her around. Fifteen minutes passed by while she had no sense of time. All she could focus on was how he made gestures through his hands every time he spoke, or how his facial muscles tensed when he said something that he deemed important or even how his face remained stoic most of the time.
She so wished he would laugh at times.
Shivaay brought her near the garden. Annika smiled seeing the blooming flowers on a plant. She loved observing these little things in life.
"Shivaay, are you seeing the flower." she pointed out, grabbing Shivaay's attention.
"Flowers bloom gradually just like any new relationship. It's just that relationships take time to form, and flowers don't." she continued.
Shivaay furrowed his eyebrows at her, "What do you mean?"
She looked at him and smiled.
"You will get to know soon," she replied.
Shivaay remained confused where she was lost in her deep thoughts. She did say he would know it soon. But how soon would that be, she herself had no idea.
His phone rang. The sound grabbed her attention. She looked at the time. It was well past fifteen minutes.
"My Masala" she gasped and rushed to the kitchen.
Seeing her disheveled state of mind, Shivaay decided to follow her.
***
He followed her all the way up to the kitchen. She opened the lid of the pan to find it was all burnt.
Fresh hot tears escaped her eyes. She was quick to wipe them, though, since she would not want Shivaay to see them. It struck her that all her cooking was a waste. Of course, she was not an expert cook or even a good one. But the sorrow of seeing the food burnt affected her equally.
"What happened?" she heard his curious voice.
She turned to face him. In a low voice, she said, "The paneer butter masala is burnt."
Shivaay was shocked. He looked at the time. There was still time for her to make it again, but would she be able to do it so fast? If she cannot, she would be embarrassed on her first day itself.
"Move aside," he said, "I will cook."
Shivaay's sturdy figure caused her to move aside when he was nearer. He took out some tomatoes and onions from the refrigerator and began to cut them.
Annika looked on while he kept doing it like a pro. Her eyes grew wider as he continued to make it. He didn't even watch a video. Does that mean he knows how to cook? Wow, but it was her who was supposed to cook, not him.
She looked on where within the end of an hour, the paneer butter masala was ready to eat.
"Done!" he sighed.
She looked on. She wanted to thank him. He took off the apron he was wearing and put it aside. She walked in front of him.
"Your dish is ready. Take it and set it on the dining table," he said and left.
She frowned. He didn't even allow her to say thanks.
***
Shivaay walked back to his study room. He didn't do this for Annika. He rather did this for the title she had, that was Mrs. Shivaay Singh Oberoi. Disrespect of that title would be his disrespect as well.
Annika's heart warmed up with the feeling that he did all this for her. 'Does that mean he was ready to fulfill their relationship?' she thought. Or maybe she was thinking too fast. Later, she stopped the train of thought. It was too early to say anything.
***
As soon as the clock struck one, the whole family came to the dining table and took their seats. Shivaay was sitting at the head of the table. The seat to his left was left empty for Annika.
He waited eagerly for her to come with the dish he cooked.
So she came. She placed the bowl right in front of him and sat on the empty spot. Shivaay looked at Annika. He could tell that she wanted to say something but refrained from doing so in front of the family.
Shifting his eyes from Annika, he cleared his throat.
"Let's start," he offered.
Rudra and Priyanka each took a bit of the masala. Om followed suit.
"Dadi, please have some" Annika requested.
Shivaay noticed the clear distaste on Kalyani's face when Annika addressed her as Dadi, but nevertheless served herself some of the paneer.
"Wow, bhabhi, it tastes good," Rudra complimented.
"It tastes awesome," Priyanka added.
"I must say you are a good cook," Om said.
Annika smiled. Kalyani took out some cash from her bag that she carried along, and placed it on Annika's hand.
"This is your shagun" she said.
Annika happily took it. She went near Shivaay to serve him some of the paneer butter masala.
He was shocked when he heard the words she spoke, "Thank you, Billu ji."
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a/n:
I have no idea how my description of cooking Paneer Butter Masala was, so I linked the video in the header.
Though there were no comments like this, if you expected Shivaay to eat burnt paneer butter masala like he did in the show, I am sorry, his character has not evolved to that level even. But he was successful to save her respect. :(
Precap: Shivaay stunned after seeing Annika in a saree
