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.
"Hello?" he answered the call.
"Hello, Shivaay! I am your Gayatri bua, remember me?" he rolled his eyes. Of course, he remembered. Not really.
"Yes, of course. How are you?" Oh! How good a liar he was!
"Congratulations on your wedding, beta. I hope you and your wife are doing fine."
He was. His wife wasn't. But he was certainly not sharing it with a relative he didn't know the name of until a minute ago. By the way, didn't she see the news? If yes, she was just a shameless tattler. If no, he knew no other uninformed person.
"I called Kalyani bua this morning. I missed your wedding, so I wanted to visit you and bless both of you personally. I don't know why but when I shared the same with your Dadi, she said no. Any problem?"
By then, he was sure that she was a gossipmonger. For once, he considered hanging up, but then she will get another thing to gossip. God forbid if she complained about the same to Kalyani, he was done for.
"No problem at all," he changed his tone to seem all happy while talking of his wife, "I and Annika are just trying to spend time with ourselves as of now. With relatives you know, we don't get time for each other all that. We would love to meet you after some time."
Gayatri let out a dry chuckle on the other end, "Great to hear that," Shivaay could feel the distress in her voice, "I pray to God that both of you stay happy."
"Thank you."
He hung up without hearing you're welcome. He breathed out in relief.
Another thought crossed him. Today he had to answer one Gayatri. Tomorrow, ten more will show up. He approved of the decision Kalyani made by not letting Gayatri or anyone else meet Annika at the moment. He wondered how long that was going to go. One day or the other, Annika had to come out and interact with society. Exactly how long was he going to cover up for her like that?
She needed to come out. Else, she will sink into her apathy so deep that coming out will be unlikely.
***
A knock on the door brought Annika out of her muse. She turned to see Om with a cellphone in his hand. She knew it was Shivaay. He had been calling her for more than half an hour and she had been ignoring the calls no matter how annoying the repetitive sound of her ringtone was.
"Shivaay called," Om stepped inside the room, "Here you go."
Like instructed by Shivaay, Om pressed the mobile close to Annika's ears. Having no other option, Annika grabbed the phone so Om's hand could get some relief.
"Hello."
"I have been calling you since ages. Where were you?"
Impatience was dripping from Shivaay's voice. Annika groaned inside her head. He was an impossible man. Was it not obvious why she won't want to talk?
"Sorry."
"I will pick you up at six. It's an informal place if you are wondering what to wear. Be ready."
He disconnected the call. Annika couldn't be more surprised, read shocked, by his behavior. Was that an order? she asked herself. He could have said a bye!
***
According to the plan, Shivaay arrived on time to pick Annika. He texted Annika to come in the driveway while he waited for her in the car. As much as Annika wanted to deny, she couldn't because Shivaay hadn't given her the opportunity to speak. Part of the reason was also that she was bored staying inside the room of the mansion for about four days straight and decided a change of air wouldn't be so bad.
Annika was about to open the door to the backseat of the car when she noticed Shivaay on the driving seat. She then opened the front door and sat on the passenger seat. Shivaay passed her a nice smile which she ignored and put on her seatbelt. Shivaay frowned because his smile wasn't returned and accelerated the gear of the car to drive out of the mansion.
***
Much to Shivaay's disappointment, Annika was quiet throughout the ride. She didn't even ask him where they were heading to. All this made him doubt why he was tolling so much after her.
And then, he recalled his earlier conversation with Gayatri bua. He was doing it so he could introduce his rich, smart, and beautiful wife to society and shut mouths of a few chatterboxes.
***
"We are here!" Shivaay held open the car door for her to step out. Finally, Annika noticed her surroundings. It looked like a seaside. The sound of waves reached her ears.
She stepped out. Seaside was one of her favorite places. She loved witnessing the relaxing waves, listening to the music they would create after hitting the shore, and sensing the chilly air come in contact with her skin. She wanted to thank Shivaay for bringing her there.
However, her feet took her closer to the shore and she forgot everything. A sweet smile played on her lips after days. It felt like magic: as if with every wave Poseidon, the Greek god for the sea, was providing her with hope.
In the meanwhile, Shivaay reached the trunk of his car and got a cardboard box filled with cell phones. He abused Khanna in his mind for not getting a classier thing for him to carry the phones. With the big cardboard box in his hand, he felt like some package delivery man.
Through her peripheral vision, she saw Shivaay standing beside her. She looked at Shivaay with little smile blooming in her face. Shivaay felt satisfied. His earlier smile wasn't unreturned for long then.
Annika eventually noticed the box situated beside Shivaay's feet.
"What is this for?" a curious Annika asked pointing at the box.
"Oh, these" Shivaay turned to the box, "these are for you."
He showed her the contents of the box.
"So many phones?" she expressed her wonder.
"Break these!" he instructed.
Annika gave him a look that asked if he was an alien. He, on the other, crossed his arms across his chest and maintained his straight face.
"Why?"
"You are well aware of my cranky nature I assume?" he asked to which she nodded.
"So," he continued, "whenever my anger gets too much to cope up with, I break phones and release it."
Annika was sure that she married an alien after hearing that statement. She knew Shivaay not so much, but however much she knew made her doubt if breaking phones was enough to reduce his anger.
"I am not!"
"Why?" he asked.
"One, this is stupid. And two, it's a waste of money."
"We are rich." he pointed out.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean we waste things. There are still people in this world who can't afford food, let alone these stupid smartphones of yours and here you are wasting your money just because you have lots of it."
Shivaay was grouchy about the fact that she was disagreeing with him and chose to royally ignore the fact that after many days she was talking like a normal human.
"Why should I care if others can afford food, phone, whatever or not? I want you to release your anger. Breaking phones is the smartest solution he got."
Oh, she was so returning home to look up the thesaurus for the meaning of smart.
"How do you do this?" she asked
"It's simple," he threw a phone in the air. Annika followed it through her eyes to eventually see it dead. The reason for its death was murder and its graveyard was one of the rocks.
"Now you shall try it once," he offered.
"Why?"
"To release your anger."
"How do you know that I am angry? Shivaay, we are very different. You may use your anger to express yourself, I don't."
"I beg to disagree," Shivaay said, "every person has a bit of anger. You do too. You just don't express."
"I don't understand," she said.
"Look, there are seven infamous stages of grief," he explained, "Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Testing and Acceptance. You are past the first two stages. However, because you are unable to express your anger, you are skipping the Anger and Bargaining stages and sinking into Depression straight. Don't do that. If you skip that, it's psychologically proven that you will have a hard time getting over depression and passing the last two stages of Testing and Acceptance."
Annika let his words sink in.
"This morning you asked me to let nature run its course. Now I am asking you to do the same. Let your anger come out. No one will judge you, no one will question you, I promise."
Annika stared at him for a while before taking the phone from his hand and banging it on the ground. She took a second one and threw it in the water. A third one blew its last breath seconds after.
As soon as she killed the fifth phone in a row, she wrapped her arms around Shivaay. He could feel her tears soaking in his shirt. Then he did something that was beyond himself. He returned the hug.
A kiss was placed on her hair. He did it because he wanted to. In fact, reflecting over the hug they shared made him wonder if he did all this for showing-off his trophy wife or simply for her goodwill?
Precap: "Sorry but Mr. Oberoi said he doesn't want to meet anyone without an appointment," the receptionist said without knowing that Annika was Shivaay's wife.
"Tell your Mr. Oberoi that if I want, I can buy his whole company," Annika replied with confidence in her voice but anxiety in her heart.