|| THE PURPLE HEARTS ||

19. The fall of Wickets

The meeting with the sponsor didn't really go well. The man was too demanding. They left sooner than they had expected.

"Mam, Dadiji had sent a location. She expects you there", Vidhi said looking at Annika who was driving.

Annika sighed. There's no way she could escape this, except for going there.

"Turn on the GPS. I'll drop you home and go and, inform dadi", Annika said taking the next left. Vidhi nodded.

*

"Bye Vidhi, See you in the morning!", She said as the car came to a halt.

"Bye mam! Sure. I'll give a wakeup call.", Vidhi said as she got down.

Annika smiled waving at her and looked at the location.

Aurus, Juhu. It read. She sighed, the restaurant was apparently fifteen kilometres away from her current location. Given the traffic, she expected that it would atleast take an hour for her to reach there.

But, she was excited. The restaurant had amazing food and a very pleasant ambiance, she hoped Shivaay had booked a table overlooking the sea.

Annika reached there in forty-minutes, sooner than she had expected. Parking the car, she headed inside and searched for Shivaay and others.

"Good to have you here mam! How may I help you?", The manager asked smiling.

"Umm... I've come here for Mr. Shivaay Singh Oberoi".

"This way mam", he said leading her to the lounge where they were seated. Annika felt really happy to see everyone there.

The table was on the farthest corner of the lounge, facing the sea. She saw Sahil and Gauri on either side of Shivaay and Saumya was sitting to Om's right and Rudra on left, opposite to Gauri.

"Hey all..", she said softly as she neared them. She nodded at the manager and he left immediately.

"Annika Didi!", Ru ran to her squeezed her in a hug.

"Ru.. I can't breathe", she struggled to get out of his hold.

"Sorry di!", He said smiling sheepishly.

"Annika, it's so good to see you!", Om walked to her and gave her a quick hug.

"Good to see you too O!", She responded with a warm smile.

The rest didn't care to greet her or even make place for her to sit. Annika rolled her eyes. Them and their drama. But, this time she was at fault.

"Hey guys!", She tried again. But, there was no response. She looked at Om and Rudra. They sighed and made her sit between them.

The breeze was mild and soft music was playing in the background and they could hear the waves touching the shore. On any other day, Annika would have found that romantic, but right now she found it like she was watching a thriller, anticipating the climax.

The table went silent as soon as she entered and no one uttered a single word after that. Except for Ru, ofcourse. He went on telling her about the courses he was looking up to pursue. She felt nice to find him talk about Universities and Courses.

She looked at the table, there was nothing except for Couscous salad and Basil risotto.

Oh man! She hated them.

It was not hard for her to guess that they were waiting for the desserts. She was hungry and looked at the table to find something eatable. She could order something, but she didn't want to waste their time and also Saumya and Gauri looked tired. It was almost half past eleven. She didn't want them to sleep late because of her. She found a glass of blueberry drink. She tried to reach that out. It was before Gauri. But, she made no attempt to help Annika.