Falling in Love - A Shivika Romance ✔

39. A Glimpse Of Her Billu Ji

After a bit of sweetmeat, Annika drank water from Shivaay's hands. Shivaay tried to walk away as soon as the rituals were done. Annika stood there, pressing her lips, unable to voice out her wish of making him drink from her hands.

"Shivaay," she caught up with him. He turned and asked her the reason.

"I have some water left here," she gestured the pot in her hand, "There are a lot of things in the kitchen as of now. You might have difficulty finding water on your own," he shook his head because she was making no sense, "so why don't you drink from here?"

"I am not a toddler to not get water by myself when there are things in the kitchen," he reasoned, "I will get myself."

"Shivaay, listen," she put forth the pot in his direction. His eyes stuck at a B written on her face up palm.

"Okay, I will drink from here," he grabbed her hand in the pretense of taking the water pot when in reality he wanted to see the name on her hand. Annika was surprised by how much time he took to drink water. Meanwhile, he tried hard to move her hand to supination without letting her know.

"Shivaay," escaped her lips when she felt Shivaay's fingers all over her palm.

"This henna," he said, "Design is good."

She was confused. Shivaay was the last person on earth to pay a compliment. She looked at her henna. "I agree. The artists did a good job."

"Of course. I remember on our wedding you applied the same henna," he said. He knew he was being awkward.

"I applied henna, but it was likely of a different brand. And the designs or the designers were not the same," she recalled.

Shivaay took a second peek at her palm. Now he was sure it said B and not S.

"And if I am not wrong, husband's name is written on mehendi, right?" he scratched his head.

"Usually," she replied. Usually. He made a fist.

"Shivaay," she held him. He finally looked at her after shifting his eyes from her hand.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes," he lied, "I will go eat something and then have my medicines."

"Shall I join you?" she asked, "You don't look alright."

"Maybe because I starved all day. Nothing I cannot handle alone. I will go and change first, then have food and medicines," he said.

"Let's do one thing. Go and change. I will bring food for you," she offered.

She started to leave when he pulled her back.

"Wait, you had nothing except the sweet and water as well. If you are bringing food for me, bring for yourself too. We shall have dinner together," Shivaay suggested.

"Okay," she replied before leaving.

***

Annika was heating food when Kalyani entered the kitchen to check on the kheer on the stove.

"What are you doing, Annika? Did you have dinner?" Kalyani asked.

"I was just heating food for myself and Shivaay," Annika replied.

Kalyani began stirring the kheer on the stove when Annika served food on two plates kept in front of her.

"I have a suggestion," Kalyani began, "Wait for some time. The whole family can have dinner together."