Falling in Love - A Shivika Romance ✔

20. Beyond Agony

When he descended the stairs, Shivaay found Kalyani sitting on the couch over a phone conversation with one of her cousin sisters. He could have asked Kalyani to help him tie the tie, he thought. He wasn't the shy type but asking Annika to do small things for him seemed odd.

"Not right now," Kalyani said over the phone, "I will invite you and a few others in a month or two only. Then you can meet her and talk as much as you wish to."

Shivaay was curious to ask what she was talking about. He had an intuition that her meant Annika. Seeing the time, he realized how late he was getting and whisked away from the mansion.

***

"Khanna!" He screamed as he was in the driveway and the car was nowhere to be seen yet. He hated impunctuality and the fact that he was running late help shoot up his anger.

"Sir," Khanna came with the car bringing relief to Shivaay's vocal cords. He was a burly man with a mustache and beard. Getting out of the car, he held open the door for Shivaay to enter. Shivaay stared at him in anger and banged the door so hard that Khanna got hurt in the palm.

"Why don't you come later than this from tomorrow?" he said in sarcasm and sat inside.

"Sorry, sir." Khanna apologized in his meek voice and closed the door.

Inside the car, Shivaay grabbed his iPad and began to check all the emails. All of a sudden, Annika's voice rang in his ears.

A while ago she asked him to not get mad about these small things in life. What happened now was exactly why he couldn't abide by those words. He just couldn't. It was beyond his nature. His anger was past his control. Needless to say, that's why he not only chided Khanna for coming late but also banged the door on the latter's palm unnecessarily.

***

Annika's phone rang. For seconds, she let the stupid tone play before she grabbed to check who it was. Rina, her friend, it turned out.

None of her friends knew anything about Harsh's death. Annika had asked them to not call her over the fifteen days of her so-called honeymoon with Shivaay. She heaved a sigh. Knowing them, she knew they were expecting some gossip where her life was as dull as a black and white film from the '20s and '30s.

She declined the call. It was the fiftieth call she declined in the last two days. She was not interested in talking to anyone, not even her friends. Slowly, but surely she felt herself hugging the menacing state called depression. She felt like avoiding everyone: her friends, her in-laws, all of Harsh's friends or associates who called just to check on her. The only person she had something a tad bit closer to talking was with Shivaay. She couldn't avoid him after all; they lived in the same room.

Only God knew how long her depression would last.

***

By noon, Shivaay's mood was a lot better than in the morning. His secretary didn't mess up the presentation, a certain employee didn't say anything stupid, the clients were happy. He felt relieved as soon as the meeting was over.

Sitting in his cabin, cured of all the stress, he could only think of Annika's words in the morning. Until now, he was worried about the meeting which resulted in him fussing over small things. And now that he was done with the meeting, he was all giddy about how it turned out.

The ringing phone caught his attention. Though the user-id spelled some Gayatri bua, he was confused about which of his two thousand three hundred and forty-seven relatives she was. He doesn't even remember if it was he, Rudra, or Kalyani who saved the number on his phone. If it was the middle person, that guy was getting killed tonight. Well, Kalyani was all complaining about this nature of Shivaay's. And like everything else, he was too adamant to change it.