Shivaay entered his room and started to pace back and forth. Most likely, this girl was going to embarrass herself on the first day of their marriage. What could he do if she was the one to suicide? Why does he even care what she does or does not?
No, he cared. She was his wife. And he cared if Mrs. Shivaay Singh Oberoi embarrassed herself due to her inability to cook.
A click on the door gained his attention. He turned to find her entering the room.
"I hope I didn't disrupt whatever you were doing," she spoke, "I just came here to grab my phone."
"Huh?" he stammered, being out of words.
Annika chuckled, "Don't mind me saying, but you look cute when you are confused."
Shivaay straightened up. He went closer to her and spoke, "Do you know how to cook?"
Cat caught her tongue. In reality, she didn't know how to cook. Yet, she couldn't offend her in-laws on the first day itself.
"I-actually-Shivaay-"
"You can say anything without hesitation," he assured her.
She sighed, "I don't. I don't know how to cook. Sorry."
"It's fine. There is nothing to be sorry about. It's not absolutely necessary for all ladies to know how to cook. I don't care anyway," he said.
She frowned once again. She was hell confused about the man, who was apparently her husband. At times, he talks like he cares, others, he doesn't care at all. Even now, when he said he is fine with her not knowing how to cook, she was happy. But when he said he doesn't care if she knew how to cook or not, it pricked.
Shivaay turned his attention from her to his work. He opened the cupboard and took out a file. He was about to leave when she interrupted him,
"Please don't leave," she asked.
He turned to her, "Excuse me?"
Annika strode her way to him.
"This is our first day after marriage. We don't know each other well, but I don't know your family at all. I would appreciate if you stay at home today." she sighed after her short speech. It took a lot of courage. Where was the confident Annika when it came to him. The sight of him made her act like she never pictured herself doing.
He nodded. After all, that's what he wanted. For her to be comfortable in this house. If him staying at home for a day would do so, he would do so happily.
"Thank you," she smiled.
"I will be in my study, go straight, third door to the left. If you need anything, just knock in there," he informed.
Annika took a deep breath. She was expected in the kitchen for her pehli rasoi. And here she spent a good amount of time inside the room with her husband. She could see he was trying to make her feel comfortable. But in the end, her heart was to decide how comfortable she could be here.
The short interaction that took place between Shivaay and Annika was overheard by Kalyani since the door was open. She knew her grandson enough to learn that he didn't love Annika. Nor would he care for her comfort if she was from a middle-class family. All this could have been with Mallika, the girl of her choice, unless he decided to marry a girl merely for his business.
***
Soon, Annika joined Kalyani in the kitchen.
"Did you decide what you want to make?" Kalyani asked.
Annika thought of an answer. What would she make? What was an easy recipe?
Kalyani passed her some tomatoes and onions along with a knife.
"Let me help you. Why don't you cook Paneer butter masala?"
Annika was scared. The thought of cooking was scary enough, to add to it paneer butter masala was hard to make in her opinion.
"Dadi, I will cook. But I want you to rest. You go rest in your room and I will cook here" she didn't care if she sounded weird or awkward. All she wanted was for Kalyani to leave, so she could come up with something on her own.
Kalyani left. She had no desire to help Annika. All she could do at the moment was for her to compare Annika with Mallika. Needless to say, if it was Mallika who had no idea of how to cook, she would do so on Mallika's behalf.
Annika sighed in relief once Kalyani left. She started to slice the tomatoes. Halfway through, she realized that she was murdering them rather than slicing them.
She kept the knife aside and paced inside the kitchen. What could she do now? If her cooking was not good enough everyone would point it out, possibly taunt her. Amidst all this, she didn't know if Shivaay would side with her in front of his family. They were still formal around each other. God knows when they will break the ice, let alone if he ever sides with her in front of his own family.
Rudra entered the kitchen. Annika stopped pacing around. He saw her timid countenance.
"What's up, Bhabhi?" he asked.
Annika hesitated for a second but later decided to share it with Rudra. In this family, he was the only person she found was easy to approach.
"I have to cook Paneer Butter Masala. But-"
"But?" he asked.
"First promise, you won't say anything to anyone, especially Shivaay or Dadi," she asked.
Rudra smiled, "It's hard to hide something from Bhaiya, but I promise."
Annika gave him a grateful smile. Shivaay knew it anyways, it was Kalyani who worried her.
"I have no idea of how to cook the dish," she disclosed.
"That only?" he asked, "you can easily look up the recipe on the internet."
This clicked her. She was too nervous to think of it. She thanked Rudra and started to look up for the recipe.
"Anytime," Rudra assured her and left.
She began to prepare for the dish. First, she cut the onions and tomatoes as shown in the video. Aside, she heated the oil in a pan at medium heat. Adding the onion, garlic, and ginger, she sauteed the mixture until the onions were translucent. Later, she added diced tomatoes and cashews to the mix. Then, she added water to the mix.
She covered the pan with a lid. Now, she was to wait until fifteen more minutes to proceed.
Looking at the time, she decided she wanted to see Shivaay. Poor her, Mr. Shivaay Singh Oberoi left his wife to herself on the first day itself.
***
She followed the directions he provided her earlier and reached his study. She knocked on the door.
"Come in," his voice came.
Oh, even his voice was sexy. She covered her mouth. She shouldn't be saying that, pardon her, she shouldn't be thinking that even.
She entered the study room. His eyes shifted from the laptop screen and fixed on her. The little frown on her face caught his attention.
She was exerting herself too much on the first day itself.
He got up from his chair.
"Weren't you cooking?" he asked.
"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."
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