Love in the Time of Corona | drabble series ✅

14

"How come you don't have a lot of work these days?" Annika asked Shivaay as they lay on the sofa, hugging each other on a warm lazy afternoon.

"I do, but I try to cram them up within fewer hours," Shivaay replied. Annika looked up in confusion.

"Why?"

"So that I can spend more time with you, dumbass," He said, pecking her nose. Annika's insides churned but she tried to protest.

"But Shivaay, it only increases your work load, na,"she said. "We are anyway staying in the same house. You don't need to—"

"I don't need to, but I want to," He replied. "End of discussion."

Annika rolled her eyes. Trust her boyfriend to say such romantic things in such a bossy tone.

Boyfriend.

It still made Annika feel all mushy to call Shivaay her boyfriend. They had been dating for almost 3 weeks now and she was nowhere near being normal about the fact that she was Shivaay's girlfriend. Would she ever be? Probably not. While she was lost in her thoughts, Shivaay began peppering soft kisses on her face. He had an insane obsession with her "cotton candy-like soft skin". His words, not hers.

"Shivaay, maintain social distance!" Annika laughed as Shivaay only leaned closer and nuzzled her cheeks. People were supposed to maintain 6 feet distance in this pandemic and here this man kept clinging on to her 24/7.

Not that Annika was complaining.

Shivaay, of course, paid no heed to her words and proceeded to kiss her. His kisses were always the perfect blend of soft and demanding. He had maintained a boundary till now, only advancing to kisses on the neck with occasional hickeys she would have to cover up before video calling her parents. Living together made it hard to keep their hands off of each other. They could just go to bed anytime and make good use of their endless quarantine days, but so far, they had managed to control. In fact, Annika sometimes thought Shivaay was too gentle with her. Which made sense, because it was so easy for things to escalate in a situation like this where you were in lockdown with your partner. But sometimes, it would be plain frustrating when Annika would want Shivaay's rough hands to move away from her waist, maybe go a tad bit higher or even slightly lower, but they never would. In fact, they had the opportunity to sleep in the same room now, snuggling with each other, but so far Shivaay hadn't been open to the idea, saying he didn't "trust himself".  As endearing as it was, Annika was losing patience. Why did her boyfriend have to be such a gentleman?

Once Shivaay was satisfied with the kisses, he relaxed on the couch beside her. It was almost lunchtime and Shivaay asked Annika what she would like to have. Cooking her favorite dishes was his new favorite hobby.

"Aloo puri?" Annika suggested. She had been craving some for months.

"Aloo puri coming your way in less than an hour," Shivaay mumbled against her lips, before getting up.

Annika watched as Shivaay went to the kitchen to make aloo puri for her while humming Tune kaha by Prateek Kuhad to himself. She had introduced the song to him, and he had fallen in love with it; he would sing it to her whenever she would ask something of him, and honestly, Annika didn't mind how off-tune he was. His hair had grown long over the past couple of months and was falling over his eyes all sexily. Quarantine meant that he couldn't go and get a haircut despite how much it annoyed him, and Annika was thankful for the fact. His beard, too, was a little bushier than usual, and the reason for that was different: he knew Annika liked it that way. Annika's heart was so full as she stared at her boyfriend. Dating Shivaay was everything she had expected it to be, except it was so much more. She couldn't imagine that just a couple of months ago, there had been a time where she had found him to be the most obnoxious guy on planet. Well, she still did, actually, but the difference was that she could now kiss his stupid mouth whenever he said something obnoxious.