Annika reached her office and went to meet her boss Nikita.

hi Annika beamed a smiling Nikita as she entered the cabin of her boss

Hi Nikita am sorry am late actually woh ghar pe.. Nikita stopped her mid sentence arey yaar Annika some day give a new reason I understand the issues in your house you don't worry am not angry( Nikita and Annika are friends from college. When Nikita decided to open the event company she hired Annika and have her as a 25% partnership in the company as she was the best student and Annika willingly joined cause this was a stepping stone for her to create a name and gradually walk towards her dream of owning a company someday)

Annika am going to London for 3 months so you have to handle everything here. You know we have the big oberoi wedding coming up but unfortunately I can't be here to handle it. Yash has a project abroad and I have to accompany him. (Yash is Nikita husband). Said a blushing Nikita who couldn't contain her happiness and looked lovingly at the photo of her husband on the desk.

don't worry Nikita will handle everything. Ab koi kya Kar sakta agar uska partner wapis honeymoon pe jana chahe Toh... kaaam Toh Hume hi karna padega Annika replied dramatically

Chup Kar drammebaaz your Toh saying as if I used to no work only hitting Annika on the arm... but anyways I will ignore your comments and seriously reply ofcourse you will do your best cause your the best hugging Annika and also cause it's prinku wedding.

yes it's my baby's wedding. ( Prinku , Nikita and Annika were in college together. Annika was 3 years senior to priyanka)

Sternly turning towards Annika, the meeting at oberoi house is at 12 noon so you can meet everybody and discuss everything. Don't sit gossiping here..

Annika making an O face and then smiling ok will do you enjoy ur honey moon both friends bid farewell and annika gets busy in her work.

At around 11.45 am Annika reaches oberoi mansion. She enters oberoi mansion. Priyanka looks at Annika and screams Ani your here finally. Di you came shouted Rudra as well and ran following priyanka.

Shivaay who is sitting next to Priyanka closes his ears and eyes due to her screaming.

Priyanka runs towards Annika and engulfs her. Shivaay opens his eyes feeling his heartbeat racing.. the hair at the back of his neck standing and giving him a very tingling feeling in his fingers and toes he can't understand why he is feeling like that. He looks in front but can't make out the girl whom Priyanka has hugged cause when they hugged each other Priyanka turned Annika due to which her back is now facing Shivaay.

Dadi looked at the two girl and now said, chal hogaye hum tension free ab Toh Annika aagayi. ( in the last 3/4 months Annika has become really close to the oberoi family , she is Rudra didi, priyanka best friend and Om's Confidante. The elders also like her cause she treats them with respect. Dadi secretly wishes for shivaay and Annika to get married but after hearing shivay response this morning she feels really bad.

Shivaay is constantly shifting trying to see the person whom everyone in his family is admiring so much.

Priyanka turns Annika grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the living room as shivaay eyes fall on Annika his breath hitches.. he keeps looking at her. His heart starts beating fast. He doesn't blink his eyes and is constantly staring at Annika. She is an epitome of beauty, though he has seen a lot of beautiful girls before but she is something else .. She is wearing a white body fitting Kurti which is showing all her curves with tight denim leggings which accentuate her hip bones showing the curves and also making her legs look long and slender. She has long brown tresses which reach just above her waist and are curled at the bottom. He face is devoid of any make up except for eyeliner which highlight her beautiful doe shaped brown eyes, she had a bit of rouge on her cheeks making her face pinker and making her look cute and her lip gloss making her lips look plump and soft the only thing shivaay thought was can I just suck the hell out of her lips because they are so tempting. He noticed that she didn't look at him and he chided himself at the thoughts that he was having but at the same time was upset that this girl didn't notice him... him The Shivaay Singh oberoi and that bruised his ego very badly.

Annika directly goes and touches the feet of all the elders and greets and meets all of them.

Wondering why no one is introducing him to this beauty Shivaay clears his throat to gain someone attention but all are so busy in talking to Annika that no one acknowledges shivaay..

In order to now make his presence felt shivaay in a slightly louder tone .. dadi can we continue our talk.

All look towards shivaay wondering what happened as before Annika came shivay wasn't talking to anyone but just sitting fiddling with his phone.

Dadi looked confused at him and then said wait first things first , Shivaay meet Annika priyanka wedding planner .. and best friend and Annika meet shivaay priyanka favourite bhaiya. shivaay thought Annika what a beautiful name for a beautiful girl and he zoned out but again was brought back by dadi word as Annika has extended her hand and said hi ... oh her voice is so sweet but before he could respond she pulled her hand back and then dadi turned to shivay and asked him now tell me what do you want to talk about Billu.

Hearing billu from dadi Annika burst out laughing all were looking at her astonished.. dadi asked her what happened Annika. Annika controlling her laughter said dadi aap inhe billu kehti hai.. jaise ke billi waise sahi bhi hai.. aankhen waise hi hai... hearing Annika all started laughing and shivaay had the most priceless expression he went from shock to embarrassment in nano seconds.

Looking at all laughing at him he said quiet sternly addressing Annika, excuse me miss my family can call me what ever they like but I don't like outsiders getting so involved with my family.

Hearing his comment Annika immediately stopped laughing and so did the others. Priyanka held Annika shoulders saying , bhaiya she is my friend please don't say like that she is like family to me and she is also my wedding planner.

Shivaay who was now fuming replied priyanka if she is your wedding planner she should act like one and not try to be family. There is a difference in being like a family and family.

Dadi scolded shivaay saying, what are your saying puttar, Ann... before she could complete shivaay replied , dadi you said you wanted your choice wedding planner I agreed because it was priyanka happiness but i won't tolerate any unprofessionalism or fooling around ... if she is a wedding planner she should act like one and not be so careless... listening to shivaay Annika's eyes started to glisten with tears.. shivaay looked at Annika and an uneasy feeling crept up looking at her glistening eyes but he shrugged it and walked off. Annika just looked on.. to lighten her mood Rudra cracked a joke and all laughed including Annika.

Annika sat down with everyone discussing details of the wedding. She was constantly explaining everything to everyone . Dadi advises her that she could use on the rooms in Oberoi mansion to start her work n operate from there, since dadi knew that Nikita wasn't here and Annika would single handedly arrange the whole thing.

Reluctantly Annika agreed.

Shivaay entered the room and the smile of Annika face immediately faded and she looked down.

Everyone noticed the change in Annika demeanour. Shivaay came and sat on the couch in front of Annika.

All were still discussing the wedding and shivaay gaze was constantly on Annika. Annika was feeling very uncomfortable under shivaay gaze not that she was feeling creepy but she felt his gaze could burn her up. She didn't know what this feeling was. When she had entered and seen shivaay in those nano seconds before priyanka has turned her around her heart had started beating fast and his eyes which were ever so beautiful and deep that she could just stare at them for hours, though she had looked only a glance at him she wanted to look again and again at him but thought that it wouldn't be appropriate to that she pulled her gaze away ... during her entire meeting session with the family she only looked at him through the corner of eyes there was something about him that pulled her towards him... but then he spoke so rudely to her and she was hurt. She didn't know why cause she was used to people saying things to her but when he said it she just couldn't stop her self and her eyes brimmed with tears.

Post her meeting in the morning she didn't see shivaay the whole day until now but somehow she felt his gaze on her the whole time but she couldn't see him around. Since shivaay didn't have any meetings lined up until Monday morning he was at home today. He didn't want to meet Annika again but he wanted to see her and he did make it a point to see her throughout the time she was at the mansion without her notice.

Since it was getting late Annika announced that she would leave now and would come early tomorrow to finalise everything as there is only a month left for the wedding and all needs to be arranged well for two reasons 1. This was The shivaay singh oberoi sister wedding and 2. This was a huge project for Annika and she wanted everything to be perfect for herself and for prinku.

Though the wedding was decided 3 months back no preparations had started as priyanka didn't want to start any preparations when shivaay wasn't here and hence Annika had to ensure everything started only once he was back.

Annika reached home tired only to meet grumpy Sahil and Gauri both we're leaving for their respective school and college tomorrow and chachi was going to go to her sisters house as she didn't want to stay with Annika. In a way Annika was relieved she didn't have to handle chachi but at the same time she was upset that she would have to be all alone.

That night Annika slept hugging and Gauri as she wouldn't get this in a long time and also in the thoughts of an arrogant man and how she was going to deal with him herein.

One of the longest chapters but since it's Diwali has to give a Diwali gift.... Happy Diwali Everyone !!