Dil tadap k kehta hai

5

[Annika - A, Shivaay - S, Gauri - G]

Annika bathed and joined Shivaay for breakfast. They watched the news together

Annika brought her laptop out to the living room and sat down to start working. She joined her team on a call, making plans with their boss. Because of the virus, all crowded events were out of the picture for the near future. The company will have to find ways to stay afloat until normalcy returned.

Shivaay too sat there going through reports and numbers like usual and talking to his employees. Time and again Annika would get startled when Shivaay screamed at one of his employees over the call.

Shivaay was now pacing, talking on his air pods. One of his employees had made a major blunder that was going to cost them an important deal. His anger had reached a new peak. He picked up a glass from the table and smashed it on the ground

Annika got scared and covered her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. She saw the glass pieces scatter around, and her heart raced. She hadn't seen this side of Shivaay yet, his entire face was red with anger.

Shivaay realized he wasn't alone, he saw absolute terror on Annika's face. He backed off, giving her space and time to recover, walking out to the balcony.

Annika regained her composure, got up, and cleaned the glass off the floor. She was dumping the glass pieces in the trash when Shivaay came back.

S(in his mind): What have I done! Om was right, he knew something like this could happen. She must be feeling threatened by me. How do I convince her that I'm not dangerous, that I would never harm her?

S: Annika... I...

She turned to look at him and splashed a glass of water on his face.

A: Gussa utra ya or pani chahiye {{Are you calm now or do you need more water?}}

Shivaay nodded a 'No' and wiped his face.

S: I'm sorry for scaring you back there. I lost my temper, I didn't mean to do that. Listen, you are absolutely safe here, I'm not a violent person. I lose my temper sometimes and it comes out on stuff around me and mostly on my phone. But I can't break that right now so...

Something about his eyes was different. Annika could feel those blue-green-gray eyes begging her to believe him, to trust him

A: You'll pay Mr. Ali for that glass

Relief washed over and a small smile crept up on his face.

A: What are you smiling about?

S: Nothing, I'll pay him.

A: Now get aside, I have work to do

She resumed her work and so did Shivaay. Not even an hour had passed when she heard Shivaay screaming at someone on the phone again.

S(on call): this is the height of incompetence. Your stupidity has cost us 50 crores.

Suddenly a smiley appeared in front of his eyes. Annika pressed the smiley into his palm.

It was one of those stress-relieving sponge balls with a smiley printed on it. Shivaay squeezed the ball in his palm to calm himself.

Minutes later, he disconnected the call

S: thanks for this (he raised the ball)

A: you should try yoga or meditation. I was afraid you were going to pop a vein screaming at that person. I know 50 crores is a huge amount but if you have a heart attack at this young age, because of all this stress, I'm pretty sure your company will lose way more than that.