The Dating Charade ✔️

Chapter-2

"You know, Billu, I'm not happy with your decision. What's the need to drag Annika in all this drama? That poor girl has already done so much for us."

Dadi was reprimanding Shivaay for putting up the façade of dating Annika. Although she desperately wanted Annika and Shivaay to fall in love, making Annika face more problems because of them didn't seem right to her.

"I know, Dadi. She had done a lot for us. And trust me, I'll make sure Annika doesn't face any problems. But it just had to be her, you know? I mean, have you seen that girl's acting skills? She's such a drama queen! I think she's the only one who can pull this off," Shivaay said while smiling fondly, which didn't go unnoticed by Dadi.

"Hmm, that's true. But I'm telling you, if Annika faces any trouble, you'll face my wrath!" Dadi warned him, albeit with a smile. Shivaay nodded, and took her hands in his.

"I promise I won't trouble your darling Annika, okay?"

Saying that, he left Dadi's room, leaving the older woman pray to the Gods above that something good come out of this drama, and these two actually fall in love.

Shivaay made his way downstairs, and as he reached the last step, he came face to face with an ethereal sight.

Annika.

Dressed in a white, sleeveless anarkali.

Instantly, his mind drifted to the... interesting dream he had had last night, of her dressed in white, and he tried diverting his thoughts to stop a certain part of his anatomy waking up again.

"Billuji, are you okay?" Annika asked, seeing his fidgety movements.

"Y-yeah. Absolutely fine." Shivaay stuttered, giving a wide, fake smile. It was difficult for him to stay focused with her looking so beautiful, but he would just have to get used to it. Especially since they'd be spending a lot of time together from now on.

A few moments passed in awkward silence, before Jhanvi walked into the hall.

"Areh Annika, you're here? I was waiting for you. Actually, I wanted to prep you up a bit, for acting as Shivaay's girlfriend."

Annika furrowed her brows.

"Is that really necessary?"

"It is." It was Shivaay who replied, and quite decidedly too, making Annika scowl. "You'll be getting a lot of media attention from now on, so I think you should learn a few things from badi ma. Nothing major, just stuff like how to present yourself in social events, handle the press, etc."

Annika thought for a bit. She understood what responsibility being Shivaay Singh Oberoi's girlfriend brought along with it. Given that she wasn't the rich, high society type girls men like him usually associated with, she would indeed have to learn a lot of new things to make the act all the more authentic. So deciding to just relent, she nodded.

"Great then, we can do this in my room," Jhanvi said, giving Annika a warm smile. Annika nodded again, and followed Jhanvi towards her room upstairs. It was when they heard footsteps behind them that the two women looked back.

"Shivaay, where do you think you're going?" Jhanvi asked authoritatively, an eyebrow raised.

"Um, to your room?" Shivaay replied as if it was obvious.

"And why, may I ask?"

"....to help you prep Annika?"

Jhanvi rolled her eyes.

"I don't need your help, Shivaay. Now if you would leave us two alone..." Jhanvi started leading Annika away, who tried hard to suppress a smile seeing Billuji being overpowered. Shivaay, on the other hand, tried searching for excuses to stay around Annika, but failed miserably. He resigned to sulking in the living room downstairs by himself, before Om joined.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing much, Badi Ma is prepping Annika for the drama."

"I'm been meaning to talk to you about the drama, Shivaay." Om said, while looking at him intently.

"What, are you too gonna lecture me about how I shouldn't be doing this and all?" Shivaay rolled his eyes.

"No, actually. What I wanted to talk about is how you're going the convince the media that you're actually with Annika. I mean, practically the whole country knows how obsessed you are about naam, khoon and khandaan. Why will they suddenly buy the fact that you're in love with your wedding planner?"

The last line did something to Shivaay's heart, but he ignored it.

"See, that's the thing. If I tell them that I'm dating Annika, it'll be even more humiliating for the Kapoors, since it would mean that I had been about to leave Tia, a high society girl, for a low-class girl like Annika."

Om was about to retaliate saying how class was defined by one's personality and not their lineage, but stopped as he noticed Annika emerging from upstairs. She had heard the last part of their conversation, and from her face, Om could easily guess that she was hurt. Om felt like smacking his brother to bring some sense into him.

"Annika, hey. We were just, um, talking about the plan."

It was then that Shivaay noticed her too, and one look at her told him that he had again acted like the insufferable brute she thought of him as.

"Oh hey, um, are you done with Badi Ma?" He asked her with a sincere voice, trying once again to apologize without saying the words.

Annika only nodded, and made her way towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Shivaay asked with furrowed brows.

"Out." Annika replied in a cold voice that was so unlike herself, it made Om cringe. He realized that the two would once again have to deal with their matters on their own, and left the hall.

"Out where? You should stay here longer so that we can clarify everything. There's a business event coming up this weekend, and you'll have to accompany me. That's where I'll introduce you to the world as my girlfriend. So let's seat and discuss it thoroughly, so that eve-"

"I have a life outside this stupid drama of yours, Billuji." Annika interrupted him, getting impatient with the whole thing already. It was bad enough that she was doing it, and on top of that he was still labelling her as a 'low-class girl', despite everything that she had done for him.

"I have to go look for work, since my wedding planning job here is definitely over." She continued, trying to regain a bit of her composure.

In a second, Shivaay had approached her in long strides.

"What do you mean look for work? Why do you have to work? You're my girlfriend! I mean," he continued, realizing the slip of tongue when Annika gave him a look of confusion, "my pretend girlfriend. You shouldn't be working."

Annika took a deep breath to keep from strangling the man in front of her.

"And is being your 'pretend girlfriend' going to feed me and my brother?" She asked haughtily, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it can if you want to. I can pay you."

As soon as the words left his lips, Shivaay realized what a grave mistake he had done by saying that. In all honesty, he had only said that because his obsessive self did not want Annika to be working anywhere else but for him, but he didn't get the chance to explain himself.

Because Annika, having lost enough of her dignity to this man, just threw him a look of disgust, and left the Oberoi Mansion.

Precap: Shivaay apologizes

To anyone who's reading this- sorry for taking so long. Busy with school stuff, and also this other Shivika story on another website.

Please vote and comment if you like this, so I know people are reading :)

Also, updates will be quite short, because I really don't get time to write longer ones. Will try to be more frequent though.