It wasn't unwilled, but it was unplanned.
She didn't expect a nuptial knot at 19.
He didn't expect a spouse by his side at 23.
Undoubtedly, a circumstantial relationship, with both not knowing anything about the other.
Will love find its way while h...
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The Age of Enlightenment in the European history is a major philosophical movement, which is often dubbed into as the age of thinkers. One such thinker, in fact the Father of Liberalism, is John Locke. His major ideology says that one's mind is a tabula rasa or a blank slate. Based on the experiences it garners in life, ideas and rules are formed. If we abide by this ideology, we'd know that Shivaay and Annika had different reactions to a situation. Shivaay understood that too.
He wasn't completely unaware of his wife's changing demeanor. It was heartening and refreshing, yes. But he was aware that fear drove Annika to thorns from roses. He was prepared to handle her retracing her way back to her shell. He was singularly careful about not displaying all the affection he had for her because driving her back to the arms of her demons was the last thing he wanted to do.
But he had to admit, he was enjoying all the attention she gave.
She had a certain way of caring for him and it made his heart toss up and down his entire system. It was always subtle like a drop of nectar present in the flower but the sweetness it spread knew no bounds. It was either through espresso, which she'd learnt to make quite well to his surprise, or adjusting the thermostat to his liking. He knew she always had one eye out for him. Every time he went out for a meeting, he'd come back to a tidy cabin. How did he know it was her? Simple, it happened only in the mornings. Once, he'd left her a sticky note telling it was not necessary. She wrote back saying he liked it that way hence she would keep doing it. And in the car, whenever his favorite song played, she'd increase the volume. It felt good, but he was scared. He wanted it to be as is. Hence, every time he felt this surge of adoration for his wife, he would control himself. And that was one such situation in their room.
Annika was having her giant headphones on and was mindlessly singing as she was clearing out some old papers that were lying around on the table. Shivaay didn't know what prompted her to do it because the last time he'd asked, she gave him a glare and told him not to mess up her mess.
"OH MY GOD!"
"What happened? Did you hurt yourself?" Shivaay rushed to her and held her shoulders. His eyes fell on what she was holding in her hands. It was their wedding invitation. Since it was a small affair, they'd only had five of them printed as per Dadi's instructions and Annika was holding one them.
"It's going to be a year this month. Can you believe it? Doesn't feel like it." Annika animatedly had her mouth agape and Shivaay took out the invitation out of her hands and opened it.
"Probably because I was away most of the times... You know what this means? It is also going to be a year since I saw you start eating and it hasn't really stopped." Shivaay chuckled and took away the plate of samosas she had kept on the table. "Two is enough, okay? I'll get you a carrot or something if you are hungry."
"That would be the perfect commemoration of us meeting for the first time. A gift of carrot!" Annika rolled her eyes and tried to take back her samosas. Shivaay held the plate up and watched her jump up to reach it. Man, she was cute...
