• Eternal Night •

5

"Don't mind my hair. I didn't get the time to wash it..." Annika said as she set her purse aside.

Watching her oily, three-day-old unwashed hair, Shivaay chuckled. "When have I ever?"

"Thanks!" she smiled and looked around. Shivaay had chosen a different restaurant this time around and not their regular one.

"So, what do you want?" asked Shivaay as he opened the menu.

"Anything..." Annika replied. If she was being completely honest, she had no appetite. She was worried about Shivaay's health and the last thing she wanted to do was to have food. But then, she also didn't want to direct the conversation that way. So she asked, "How was your day?"

Shivaay kept his eyes on the menu. "Usual. And yours?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. Usual."

Shivaay clenched his jaw. He did want to tell her that his day wasn't really usual but realized that they were on a date. She was probably looking forward to having a good time. With that thought in his mind, he ordered for both of them. Silence enveloped them.

Annika kept looking at other couples and tables where the conversation just seemed to flow like water. And then there they were with nothing to talk about at all. She sighed.

"Do you sometimes think that you would have got a better husband if you had waited more?" asked Shivaay while taking a sip from his sparkling wine.

The question caught Annika off guard. She had thought about it a zillion times. Shivaay was the ideal husband. But she sometimes felt that they had no real chemistry at all.

"Why would you ask that?" she quipped instead.

"Nothing..." Shivaay moved his hand. "Just asking. You do look bored when you are with me."

Annika almost said yes to that. But just smiled. "No. Nothing like that. You are nice."

It made Shivaay chuckle. Only wryly. "Okay."

Nice for him meant nothing. It had no meaning at all. Nice was the lobster pasta lying in front of him. Nice was the perfume that he bought. Nice were the paintings that Om sometimes made at midnight. Nice wasn't the greatest thing to hear in a relationship.

Trying not to lose it in front of her, Shivaay changed the topic. "Where did you sit in the classroom?"

"Huh?" Annika looked up again. "What?"

"Where did you sit in the classroom?" Shivaay repeated. "Like I was a front bencher. All my life."

Annika grinned sheepishly. She could tell that Shivaay was a nerd. She wasn't. "Last bench. Always. The kind that threw paper planes in the class and ate tiffins."

"Really?" Shivaay laughed. There. That was the difference in their personalities. They were as different as chalk and cheese. "You married the wrong brother then."

Annika went quiet at that statement. She had thought about it. A lot. How had he picked it like that? Shivaay noticed that her smile had fallen at his words. He reached out and held her hand. "Sorry. I didn't mean that."

She bravely gave him a small smile. Then she slowly removed her hand from his grip and picked up her fork. "That's alright. One can't change destiny anyway."

Shivaay nodded. It was true. No one could change their destiny. And who knew it better than him?

***********************

"Mom?" Shivaay knocked on the door. "Are you awake?"

Pinky looked up from the tube of night cream she was looking at. Her face lightened up like a Diwali night. "Arre, you came from your date? Come in my darling!"