The Accidental Matchmaker

chapter xxi

xxi. Action

As the dinner wrapped up, the Oberois sat in the living room discussing various aspects of the upcoming ball. The ladies were talking about the theme and clothes, the men were discussing the press and media statements. Anika wondered what it was like to function in such a huge family. So many different topics and everyone had something to say about all the topics. It was chaos, but peaceful?

"Anika, what do you thinks?" Pinky asked her, looking at her hopefully.

"Uh..." Anika awkwardly trailed off. She had not been listening.

"Oho," Pinky shook her head. "I know you must be tired. You should go sleep."

Anika smiled. Pinky did remind her of her own mom.

"Where is Shivaay?" Jhanvi asked.

"Jethaniji, he got busy with some meeting. Anika, you can sleep, he won't be free anytime soon."

Anika nodded. She wasn't anyway waiting for Shivaay. Why would she?

"Pinky, show her the room beta. Where will she go?" Dadi prompted. Pinky got up excitedly and Anika followed suit. She was still not used the mansion and it's thousands of rooms and hallways.

Imagine her surprise when Pinky, with a small smirk, led her to a very familiar room. Pinky knocked the door and Anika looked at her in confusion. What was happening?

Her questions were answered when her very fake boyfriend opened the door, eyes on the file in hand.

"No Vidhi, connect the call to the clients again. I can't believe they'd do this."

He only looked up when Pinky snatched the ear piece from his ear. "Mom! What are you-"

"Vidhi, ab na Shivaay ko call mat karna."

"But Mom, my deal."

"Shaktiji will handle it. I told him to."

"Mom, why do you want to add it to his workload. The deal has almost been signed and I only need to alter one clause."

"He will do everything."

"And what do I do?"

"Anika is staying over for the first time. Do what you want."

"WHAT?" both of them looked at her in shock.

"I mean, the two of you can decides if you want to sleep in the same bedroom or not. Anika should know I am a very moderns mother-in-law."

"Mom, no." Shivaay groaned. "Anika loves you already, please don't go out of the way trying to make her feel comfortable."

"Exactly Aunty. I did not even want to disturb Shivaay. He has been working very hard for this deal. And I love you, like Shivaay said. In fact, why don't we have a night-out, just the two of us!"

Pinky seemed thoughtful. "I have to go to the mandir tomorrow. Plus, Om's birthday is coming up, I can't have dark circles under my eyes. We'll do it some other time."

Anika nodded understandingly. "No problem, we'll do that another time. Now let's not disturb him." She caught Pinky by the shoulders and was about to go when Shivaay called them out.

"I am already disturbed. Vidhi won't receive my calls now that Mom has given her such strict orders. Let Mom sleep, I'll show you to the room."

Pinky excitedly clasped her hands together. "That's like my boy."

Anika frowned at him. She just wanted to sleep.

To her shock, Pinky excitedly pushed her into Shivaay's room, albeit gently. As she walked away, probably going to have a much better sleep than she had previously thought, Anika turned around to look at an amused Shivaay.