"You know, Anika is just not like us. She belongs to a different world. Our class of people--"
Shivay's words reached her even before she had entered the room. Rudra saw her before the other two and interrupted his brother who whipped around mid-speech to look at her, his expression unreadable. His words ringing in her ears, Anika stepped inside. As she had made her way through the rough Mumbai traffic, her rage directed at Shivay had calmed down somewhat. But now, once again, her hands shook as she tried to reign in the mad anger that coursed through her veins. Oh, how she hated that man! She was sick of him and his talk of class and wealth! Of course, that was all he thought of! He could buy the world. Put a price to everything. Why should she be surprised that he had put a price to her as well?
Anika barely noticed Omkara and Rudra sidle out of the room. All the way to the Mansion, she had thought of the many things she had to tell him. But now, standing before him and having just heard the so very familiar talk on his class and her lack of it, she felt choked and could barely speak.
"Anika?" said Shivay as he slowly peeled himself off the window ledge and stepped towards her. There was a hesitancy in him, as if he was wondering if she really was there before him. Anika didn't see any of that. She looked at him through the red haze that filled her and reached out a hand to lift the first thing that met her grasping fingers.
All his confusion about whether Anika was really standing before him was put to rest as a glass vase hurtled towards him and missing him by an inch, crashed against the wall behind.
"What the f**k!"
Shivay stared at the shattered glass littering his bedroom floor before turning to the furious woman before him.
"Shivay. Singh. Oberoi." Anika's voice trembled with each word as she moved forward. "You think you're God?"
"What-" Shivay began but she had come closer. He looked down at her eyes full of the fire and couldn't help his gaze from travelling further down to her pursed lips, her heaving chest. His words dried up in his mouth.
"Stop playing with my life." Anika raised her hand and jabbed at his chest as she spoke. This got Shivay's attention.
He tried to think back to what he had done to earn such wrath from her. Was it because he had stolen that tender from her? Or sold her house? Or meddled in her legal battle? He suddenly felt the full weight of his past actions. She had every right to be angry at him. He had been a monster. Of course, she would choose Nishanth over him. Who fell in love with the person who had done everything possible to steal the ground beneath her very feet? If only she knew the truth about Nishanth though. But she would never need to know that. He had made certain that the guy would do everything possible to keep Anika happy. The property deeds, the stocks in her name--he had made it clear enough that to cross Anika would be to cross the Oberois and the consequence of that would be fatal. No, she would be happy even if it killed him inside. She needn't know the harsh realities of this world any further.
"Anika, the house--" he began, deciding that he should start with an apology for his decision to sell her brother's home.
"I don't want the house!"
Shivay looked at her in confusion. It was her house. As in, it was her brother's house. Why would she not want it?
"I don't want the house! Or the stocks! Or whatever other thing you want to throw my way!" Her angry words slowly enlightened him. She was here because of the property deed and bonds he had signed out in her name.
"I am not from your class. I know that. But , Mr. Shivay Singh Oberoi, don't think me to be so low that you can waltz in any time you want and fix my life for me."
Shivay's eyes widened at her words. He stared in fascinated silence as the woman went on.
"Taking away everything from me one moment, showering gifts and charity the next! Don't you dare play God with my life! If you want to make me somehow more worthy of your precious employee, I can tell you one thing loud and clear! That idiot is so far beneath me in every which way that if you gave him every last thing you owned, even then I wouldn't touch him with a pole!"
As she ranted on, Shivay felt heat flood through him. Who was this woman? And why had it taken him so long to find her!
He realised that he needed to salvage the situation before she ended up cracking another vase on his head.
Placing his hands in his pocket, Shivay put on the look he always used during negotiations--one that gave away nothing.
"Who says this was charity?"
His words, spoken with such calm assurance, interrupted her flow of anger.
"This was simply a small payment for all the things you have done for us."
Even as said those words, he cursed himself. Old habits were so hard to break out of. He knew what he needed to say but the words had failed him once more. Anika's face hardened. It was as if she visibly withdrew within herself. She was trying so hard to appear calm, composed, but those crimson spots on her cheeks gave her away. He tried to take back those words, explain to her what he had actually meant to say. He needed her to believe in him, to not give up on him. Not payment, reward...no.. not that either! Words jostled in his head, and he fumbled.
"Give me back my life, and I'll consider us even."
Her voice was cold. It cut him unlike any of her past insolence had. Was this why he had run from this for so long? Did it really leave you this weak, this vulnerable!? And all at once he was flooded with a rage directed at her. If only she had never come into his life! He would never have known such despair, such irrational pain. He would have remained invincible, the Great Wall of Shivay Singh Oberoi, that his brothers had grown up with. His rage made him selfish.
"Stop being stubborn! I have made out the deeds. It's yours now!"
His eyes flashed. Anika looked away, head turned towards the window. When she spoke, her words were directed at the scene outside rather than at him.
"I am sick of you and your help. You pity me?! I don't want your pity! I know even if I have to worry about my bills every month, I am a richer person than you, Mr. Shivay Singh Oberoi. I am not someone who measures every single moment in my life through the profit it will bring me, the value it will add to my family's reputation. Every single relationship in my life is not measured in rupees. When I meet someone, I can enjoy getting to know him or her, because my mind is not busy labelling them, putting them into boxes, deciding whether they deserve to be treated like a human being or not. I know these words mean nothing to you, and I pity you for that!"
Anika turned to leave. She could not retain this mask of composure much longer. She had to get away from him. But he caught her.
Shivay held her wrist as she whipped around.
"I'm offering everything and more than what anyone might want," he gritted out.
Anika looked into his eyes and said, "You're forgetting that I never wanted anything from you."
"Liar!" Shivay whispered. With her face so close to his, her breath whispering across his cheek, he knew what he wanted. He could have her stand here and curse him for eternity, but he could not have her walk out that door.
Her eyes darted towards his lips. He smiled. Anika looked at him, surprise written across her face.
"You are lying if you say you never wanted anything from me, Miss Anika."
She opened her lips to protest. He never gave her a chance. Swooping down, he placed a kiss on her nose, a light one,but it silenced her.
"Tormenting me with your attitude from the first moment we met! You wanted me to accept that you were in every way far superior to me."
Anika stared at him. Shivay Singh Oberoi was speaking but the words made no sense. And he was apparently not done. Yet.
"You hated that I tried to flaunt my power before you and so you set out to undermine me at every turn. If I wore a mask to hide what I felt for you, you did the same."
Anika forgot that Shivay still held her by her wrist, that he had pulled her closer and closer to himself till she stood flush against his chest. She listened and Shivay spoke.
"You keep telling me that I have a huge ego. That I am arrogant, that my nose is always turned up. But Anika, you have an ego as great as mine if not greater. If I raise a mountain, you create an earthquake. If I try to show that I can control the world, you set out to prove the sham of it all. I think I should probably change your name to Miss Arrogance."
Anika snorted at that even as a ghost of a smile danced across her face.
"You want my utter obedience, Miss Anika and that, some may say, is impossible from someone like your Billuji."
She looked at him through narrowed eyes. Shivay couldn't stop the laugh rumbling through him as he added, "But will you give it a try at least? Will you teach me how to go about that?"
"That is the most unromantic thing I have ever heard in my life!" Anika finally broke in.
"Well, this is what you get when you marry a businessman instead of a poet. " Shivay retorted as he relaxed the arms around her, letting her settle in against him.
"Woah! Who said anything about marrying?!"
"Well, it seems a waste not to what with all the arrangements already made!"
"Oh lord! Someone save me from this Calculator Singh Oberoi!"
"But Anika, think of it like this! You put in so much effort!"
"We barely even know each other and you want us to get married!" Anika fought against the arms holding her close to this impossible man.
"We know enough!"
As the soft words turned to a full-on shouting match, outside, in the corridor, Om and Rudra's grins turned to flabbergasted looks that they directed at each other.
"O, didn't I just hear Bhaiya sort of propose to Anikadidi?!" Rudra whispered.
"And now they are back to fighting." Om's voice was flat.
"Should we do something?" Rudra said, his unwillingness quite evident.
"Yes. Let's go eat. I'm hungry."
"You don't look it, O, but you are quite intelligent at times."
"Shut up, Rudra!"
Cricket
Kumkum Bhagya
