Chapter 3 : Crossing Paths Again!

"Umm..there is this book called 'Waiting To Be Found' is it available here?" She enquired at the entrance desk of the huge bookstore."Among the last few shelves at the end of the room. " she was told by the woman at the help desk.

She walked up till there and began scanning the shelves. Engrossed in reading the books, she kept moving ahead.

There she banged into someone. She closed her eyes expecting a crash, as she felt a jerk as the man turned. She was sure she would hit the floor with the force that propelled her backwards due to the man's startled turn. But her backside din't bang the hard floor. She opened her eyes slowly only to find her eyes to partially recognize a familiar face. Familiar eyes, those blusih green ones. Familiar jawline, familiar lips, familiar stance.

His arms held her securely by the waist. While his eyes looked at hers. She was hit by his cologne. It was much better than the ones he used before. He looked at her earings dangling from her ears, her straight locks cascading down her shoulder. He loved her curls but the straight locks were in now way bad.She looked much beautiful and fuller than before. Her cheeks were slightly chubby, her eyes highlighted by the eye liner, her lips as always shining with the gloss.

She gulped under his gaze. Only then did he realize he had been checking her out taking his own time. He quickly straightened up and made her stand straight. Her hands din't leave his arms, like his didn't leave her waist.

"You okay?"

"Yes. Thank You." She said politely.

"We meet again!" He impressed.

"Again! After five years!" She said getting back to scanning the books.He scanned the books on the other side. "Are we going to keep meeting like this after every five years?" He asked. The feeling that filled his heart was familiar yet very different.

"I don't know fate plans!" She replied.He chuckled.

"How come Mr NRI is in Mumbai?" She asked.

"Just the way Miss.BollywoodFan is in bookstore." He shrugged. 

"Ahaan...someone's learnt my art of answering." He added.

" Someone hasn't forgotten how to strike a conversation. " She pressed her lips, to hide her smile. Not that it was hidden from him.

When there was silence she looked up, he was engrossed looking at the books.

"You like reading? I dint know!"

"There are many things you don't know Anika, and honestly even I didn't know I like reading!" He ended his sentence in a humorous note. But she did catch his words at the beginning. Perhaps she was over thinking."Nahi hai yahan!" He sighed.

"Hmm..!" They walked over to the next shelf. There was one copy of a book left on one of the racks. Both their hands landed on it simultaneously.

He smiled awkwardly. She gave a light laugh. Both waited for the other to take of the hand from the book. Neither did it.

"Ahh..Anika I..." He thought that would be sufficient to indicate her to take her hand off. But wasn't. "..I placed my hand.."

She smiled. "Ahhh..Shivaay WO Maine pehle..." She said sweetly! He was amazed at that.

"Hahahah...Anika..I..."

"Heheh..Shivaay...Maine..."

"Anika!"

"Shivaay!"

"Maine pehle li!" He pulled the book towards him.

She frowned. "Shivaay. Maine. Pehle.li!" She pulled it towards her."Anika.." He pulled it back.

"Shivaay!" She pulled it back

Both sighed. "alright."

Both left the book.

They stared at each other.

"You take it!" He offered.

"No. You take it!"

"Why are you being sweet? Take it!"

"I always was. You never noted. Take it"

"Okay let's both buy it. Half Half. Since we both know the book isn't available due to limited copies."

"Sounds good!" She said excitedly. She could finally read that book!At the billing both removed their wallets and paid half the amount. The accountant raised a brow bewildered and proceeded the payment.He handed the book to her. "Ladies first/"

She smiled cheekily accepting it.

"Coffee?" They asked together as the aroma from the cafe beside the been bookstore hit their nostrils. Smiling they sat outside.

"So..?" He asked after they had placed their orders.

"Nothing much."

"Married and settled?" He asked in a straight voice."No. Broke up four years back "

"Oh..that's sad. I'm sorry I dint."

" No. I am Happy. " she smiled genuinely.He nodded.

"He wanted something from life and I wanted something else so yeah." She said looking aside. There was a couple who sat blushing and smiling at each other. It din't take her time to conclude they were newly married. He did note her looking at the couple.

"What about you? Still dating Tia?" She asked turning back to look at him.

"Nope. " he said tracing his finger on the spoon placed at the table.

"She was not the kind I would ...see the rest of my life with." He said frankly.

Conversation was easy and peaceful. Both updated each other in bits about their life. He no longer was in London, buy stayed at Mumbai. His firm was flourishing and he was among India's top five businessmen. She was now happily running her own event management company. He was proud to hear that.

* * *Friendship finally grew like flowers in the right season. Maybe that book played the friendship maker.

Conversations and casual meetings flowed in as water down the mountains. The two had began to enjoy each other's company. Maybe because now they were more in need of companionship. Whatever it was. The time they spent with each other was cherished by both.Days flew. Shivaay was trying to set up Anika with one of his friends, an artist to be specific, she had found cute. While Anika was pushing Shivaay to Malini, his partner in the project he was currently working at. Things were anything but merry. They would act like college students at time and set up a situation of the other with their respective crush. They would get into awkward situations at times and then rescue each other at the nth moment.

"Shivaay!" Came a whining Anika.

Shivaay walked in with a frowning face."It's all your fault!" She accused him.

"Its all your fault." He said as he sat on the bench beside her

"Haaw.. You were the one who said, Pasand hai toh try karo, haar maane waaley ki kabhi jeet nahi hoti!" She tried imitating him.

"Aye...Maine..!??? Tum ne kaha thaa...oh look Shivaay she is looking at you, WO humesha tumhe dehkti rehti hai."

"Haww...cheater.. Tumne khud kaha thaa...haan main hoon itna handsome." She reminded him.

"O please. Aur waise tum genuinely Karan mein interested thii!"

"Shivaay. Let's quit this talk. We are in the same water. Kise pata thaa...ki iss poore world mein ...Karan and Malini were interested in no one but each other."

"Point!" He laughed a little.

"Its not funny!"

"I know. But hassi aa rahi hai!" He shrugged.

"Let's not be upset. They are happy. So what. We should not be upset." She wiped her dramebaaz tears.

"I am not. You. are!"

"Shut up Shivaay!"

"Main theek hoon aur happily and proudly single hoon!"

"Acha...dikh raha hai!" He teased.

"Shut up Shivaay!" She hit him.

"Okay let's party. Heartbreak hona thaa ho gaya now let's party!" He said.

"Are you mad?" She asked him bewildered.

"Fine tum ro. Main chala party karne!"

"Aye.. Mujhe Rone wone ka shauk nahi hai!"

"Main bhi party karoongi!" She said like a determined kid swearing to get a good grade. "Lekin disco nahi."

He smiled "Dramebaaz!" He laughed.

"Can I kill you?"

"Acha chalo!"he laughed.

"Chalo!"* * *She tiredly sat on the couch. Her apartment was away so she thought of staying the night at Shivaay's mansion as he suggested.

"Today was so much fun!" She said smiling.

"Yeah!" He sat beside her and laid his head back.

"You aren't as bad a company as I thought!" She looked aside at him.

"You aren't bad as well!" He winked. She laughed.

"If only you weren't Mr. Ego !"

"Oh hello... If you weren't Miss Prejudice!" They both giggled. They realised they had come closer.He drew deep breaths looking at her

She stirred closer to him, looking at him dazed. He stared at her lips. She was breathing heavily, looking at his sapphire eyes which had turned stark blue from green.

He cupped her cheeks. Gently stroking her cheeks with his thumb. She mirrored his actions. No they weren't drugged or drunk. They were attracted crazily to each other. Perhaps had been from the moment they had met each other. Their frustration on, the boundaries they had set for themselves that did not let them meet each other, came out as fights and arguments. Their loneliness was filled by the other.

Their lips met. They kissed like there was no tomorrow. Filling the hollow that their life was filled of. His hands now moved down to her waist. She had moved closer to him.

"Anika !" He whispered as they broke apart to breathe.

"Shivaay !" She spelled his name like she had never before. " are you Sure.?"

She kissed him. He kissed her back. They both needed each other's love. While the stars shined that night, the two met ! Far from her inhibitions and prejudices, far from the land of his ego, they met!

* * *She rubbed her eyes and opened her eyes. She saw as something beside her. It was the couch. They were sleeping on the imported fur carpet of his room! She turned the other side. There he slept shirtless beside her. The night came back to her memory. She nervously shut her eyes. She had never done it before. She had been so vulnerable, lonely and longing for love like last night. His hand was on her waist, in contact with her skin.

He was perhaps used to nights like those. She wasn't. She panicked. What had she done!? She quickly removed his hand cautiously and got dressed properly to leave. She gave him one last look. She could not meet his eyes. Never. What had she done! She chided herself and left.

* * *"Anika!"

He called out to her. She saw him outside her building. She had literally been avoiding him like plague. She had blocked his number. Moved his mails to spam. She had cleverly avoided him when he had reached her workplace. But he had caught her.

She hurriedly moved into her apartment, like she hadn't heard him. Annoyed he ran to catch up with her. Just when she had thought she had escaped, the closing lift doors changed their mind and opened and let him in.

"What's wrong?"

She saw everywhere but at him, a sthe lift's doors shut.

"Anika I m talking to you!"

"I don't want to talk/" she said pressing the button.

Angrily he bought the lift to a halt by pulling down the stop button."Yeh kya badtameezi hai?"

"Main bhi ye pooch Sakta hoon?"

"Shivaay tumhaari problem kya hai? Ho gayi galti. Ab kya?"

"Galti?"

She finally looked up at him.

"You know what Anika, tumhaari problem tum ho. Har cheez tum waise hi dehkti ho jaise tum dekhna chathi ho." He spoke angrily banging the elevator's wall.

"Shivaay !" She shouted angrily. "No one speaks to me that way." Ever since he had entered her life he took it in his will to speak whatever he wanted to her. No. No one did that. She gave no one the rights.

"I don't care Anika." He spoke with his jaw clenched. How could she be so unaffected by the night? It was one of the most beautiful moments of his life and she called it a mistake?

"You know what Shivaay, tumhaari problem kya hai. Aap har cheez apne hisaab se chathe ho. Aaj yeah unattractive hai, kal attractive thii, aaj ye problematic nahi hai, kal ye problematic thii.. Aaj she is good company kal she was not a person I would be with "her words exploded hurriedly.He simply stated at her. He pulled up the switch and the lift started moving down. Thick silence filled the four walls. He walked out without a word. She looked aside staring at the elevator's floor, as the doors shut.She ran to her bed and cried her heart out. She punched the pillow in frustration. Why was he so impossible? Why did she care for him, his words , his opinions? She did. She had, ever since she had met him! The first time he had said she wasn't the one he would flirt with. Yes it had pinched.

He walked down the street to the shore. His pace faster than ususal. Why couldn't she be normal? Why was she so complicated? Couldn't she be sorted? Well if she was all of this, he would have never fallen for her so hard that even ten years after the day he first met her he still wished things had worked out between them beautifully like they did in movies!

* * *

It was New Year's Eve. They hadn't met or spoken after that day. But the memories stayed. There wasn't an hour the each had spent without thinking about the other.

She walked down the lonely beach. The waves kissing the shore, the winds whispering nothings to the sand the stars studded in the night sky and there she was all alone. Tears moistened her eyes. She missed him.Suddenly there was a humming sound and he appeared as though out of no where. Her eyes din't leave him for a minute. She was trying to figure out whether he was real or was she imagining him, something she had developed very recently.

"Bhooth yaan aatma nahi hoon!" He gave her a sidelong stare.She smiled. Her smile pulled at the strings of his heart. "Akele akele kahan jaa rahi ho, mujhe saath le jaao Jahan jaa rahi ho!"She looked at him wondering.

"Sirf gaana gaa raha hoon!" He smirked walking ahead, throwing the small shells he had collected over the way.

She frowned. Impossible guy. This is what she hated about him. This self importance he gave himself. "Can I ..." She walked behind him."No. You cannot kill me unfortunately." He replied animatedly before she could ask, turning to her.

She laughed, at his expressions.He smiled looking at her laugh. She quietened when she saw him gazing at her.

She looked away. He blinked looking at the sand.

"I thought you would as usual get bored without me..so...She wished she could push him into the waters, but she was sure she would be the one to jump to save him. "Nothing like that. " she said looking down at the sand as she walked.

"Maybe you were." She said casually, Walking ahead. He really din't want to argue. He had come with another plan in mind today. If what he had decided was well executed he would have his entire life to fight with her.

"Anika..

" shhh.. " she held his wrist, "Count down!" She said excitedly.

"10" she said excitedly.

"9" he smiled.

"8" her excitement was still growing strong.

"7" he said admiring the growth of the happiness on her face.

"6" she said looking into his blue shininv eyes.

"5" he stared down at her big eyes full of joy.

"4" her excitement knew no bounds. They said whom you spent your new year's beginning would be there till the end. A certain magazine said that.

"3" he said, with each count he found himself going close to her.

"2" she whispered.

"1" he said.

"Happy New Year!" It wasn't just their voices that were heard, but many, a few from the ship and another few from the streets.

She hugged him and he pulled her close."I love you!" She confessed."You beat me to that!" He said, and she laughed.

"Wait wait. " she broke the hug hurriedly and stepped back. She got on her knees and spoke-

"I am the most confused and unsorted person in the whole world perhaps, and have been a pain in your neck ever since I met you. But I was mad...because the first time we met you said, 'I wasn't the one you would flirt with.' The second time we met, you were commenting on my glasses but flirting with that air hostess and hugging that Tia. The third time we met, you were fighting with me for a dammed book! But still in between everything so unromantic I fell for you, I love you Shivaay !" He sat on his knees before her. "First that's the cutest proposal I have ever got!.

"How many did you get?" She asked curiously."Shh..don't interrupt you can be my biwi my entire life. Okay. Let me say."

"I have never met a person as confused and judgemental as you. The first time we met there was something about you, I couldn't fathom. You weren't the one I would flirt with. You were the one I 'd love! The first time we parted ways, I had been a jerk to tell you in such a stupid manner that I felt for you that you misunderstood me. The second time we parted ways, I was mad at you more because you were engaged, I don't know but I didn't like that a bit! And I dint know how to react.The third time we parted ways, I was mad at you because you called it a mistake! And I m still mad at you for that. That was the most beautiful moment of my life. Do you know how heart breaking it was to wake up to find you gone?" He cupped her cheek as his voice choked.She cupped his face. "I m sorry!"

"Don't you ever run away from me." He pulled her head closer to his "I want to wake up every morning to find you in my arms." He spoke in almost tears.

Before he could continue she was kissing him away. His hands wrapped around her, and he deepened the kiss.

She broke apart abruptly.

"What ?" He asked annoyed.

"I forgot something. "

"What?" He asked bewildered.

"Will you marry me?" He laughed falling on the sand.

"Shivaay I will kill you. Who responds that way to a proposal." She sat over him hitting him.

"How will we marry if you kill me, To-Be-Biwi? " he winked.

"Can you answer my question?

"Ahh.. Anika I just called you Biwi, doesn't that answer your question! You are impossible!"

"Shivaay...

" I love you and will love you till we have kids, grand kids and meet our end!" With that he pulled her over him and kissed her, putting all her words to an end.

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Hope you liked it.

~ Anni