Chapter 3: Fire and Ice

Shivaay leaned back in his car. A smile playing on his face. The view of the shady area they were in disappeared as he closed his eyes and images of last night flashed.

"Start"

Khanna, on a cue, began.

"Sir, she is very well known in this locality. Everyone has something to say about her. The guys here can go on forever about how gorgeous she is. Some say she is innocent." Shivaay remembered the way she clutched his shirt while sleeping. Almost entirely into his blazer, the little of whatever face was visible, innocent was the only word that could fit!

"Some say she is sensitive." Khanna continued, and so did Shivaay's recollection.

The car couldn't move any further. He was delighted at the thought of carrying her home. As they reached, the lamp post on the side started flickering. She immediately woke up, panicked. Shallow sleeper. But that look. He could swear he wanted to kiss that worry away.

"Sir, she talks a lot. She is known to have an answer to every question, regardless of whether it makes sense. And need be, she also has a story always ready for justification." Shivaay had guessed that this woman was creative by the string of insults she was spewing at him.

As he entered her house, he could smell her Jasmine fragrance envelope him. She went straight inside the kitchen and began searching for something. It was very dim. Just a few lanterns lit.

"Where are the lights?" "Find for yourself, I've heard SSO can find even a needle in a haystack." He smirked on the way she addressed him and admitted that she knew about him. In the process, he hit his knee badly on something. It had a door. Woah! This gets interesting. A small door in the corner of the hall? He opened it and a blinding light flashed. As he adjusted to it, he laughed at himself. He literally giggled at how the night's turn of events had left him all cynical. It was a god damn fridge!

"How can you touch my Jalpa without my permission?" Annika suddenly burst out, looking bewildered.

"What? Jalpa what?"

"Yes, Jalpa. The one you are standing next to, and wasting the time of!"

Shivaay couldn't help but stare blankly in disbelief. "You've named your fridge?"

"You can call you glasses a Rayban but I cannot call my fridge Jalpa? Is that what you're implying?" Shivaay was at a complete loss of words. Is that really an argument she was presenting or was she trying to be sarcastic?

"That's a brand name!" Shivaay gasped. "I don't like my fridge's brand name! I'd rather call my things by the name I decide!" Annika mimicked Shivaay's expression as if it was the most obvious thing to do. "Now could you shut your damn mouth and my Jalpa's door? You're wasting electricity." She glared. The light wasn't enough for him to figure out what her eyes meant.

"Since you have clearly proved yourself wrong and you cannot find the lights, I'll just switch them on for you." Annika slightly stretched her hand while keeping her gaze at Shivaay and click! The lights were on. Shivaay felt astonished at her audacity. First she stated something that should have fluttered his ego, then gave him a task that she could easily do and he couldn't, and then claimed that HE proved HIMSELF wrong?

Shivaay giggled remembering how she just wouldn't stop. 'talks a lot' was an understatement.

"Go on Khanna"

"Sir, she is known to go out of her way to help others. And people say because of where she comes from and how her life has been, she can't see people being wronged. Just like being an employee of Mittal's she helped you before Mittal could leak the chip." Shivaay smiled at the memory. "But surprisingly, she is also very careless and accident-prone. She's landed herself in trouble a lot of times, keeps falling or dropping things, stuff like that..."

Shivaay's smile widened in agreement with Khanna's words. Shivaay stepped into the washroom, in the dark, he couldn't notice the soap smeared on the floor and THUD! He was on the floor, his trouser now wet. He came out swearing "Ridiculous".

He never imagined in his life, he would find someone strikingly CUTE! That memory, the situation, her. Everything was so cute.

She suddenly started laughing at him. Her laughter echoed in the entire house. "How did the popcorn reach your hair?" She giggled. "SSO can seriously do anything. Here, let me". She was finally close to him, again that night. She carefully took out the popcorn from his hair strand. While his hand subconsciously drew towards her waist.

She instantly got all nervous and stepped behind. She lost balance and caught the curtain beside to steady. But the rod came out of the hook and the curtain started falling too. In the hustle, he tried catching her, but he had his luck there. His foot got entangled with the curtain and down they came falling. He was over her. He still had his hand on her waist. He rested his forehead on hers. She was breathing heavily. Her hand was clutching his shoulder. Digging into his skin. He started getting used to these sweet torchers. She ignited him. Yes, she did. It wasn't plain lust. It was a hurricane of emotions. He felt ablaze.

He was so hot now that he could practically feel the heat. She in fact could even, smell something burning! Was this possible? The fire within them setting things ablaze? NO! THE CURTAIN CAUGHT THE CANDLE'S FLAME!!

They got up and without second thoughts she pulled him closer and started unbuttoning his blazer. He realized he did want this to happen, but in much better circumstances. She was taking off his clothes. This girl was making him crazy! She took off the blazer and pat it fiercely over the fire. Two minutes of Annika moving around in swift motions, trying to set out the fire with his blazer tarnishing in the flames, while he simply stood there and watched.

He was confused if he should be hysteric because he made another meaning out of her actions or frenzied because he froze when he should have been trying to save her and the house. Instead, all he could muster out was "Did you just burn my blazer?"

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Annika was busy narrating every detail of last night's events to her best friend and was struggling to leave out the intimate ones. "Chandu, you should have seen how cool I was! I removed his blazer and smacked it on the fire. The fire was out in seconds!"

Chandni couldn't believe Annika's words. "What did you do to a billionaire's blazer???"

"He did mention something like 'wtf my 5L dolly and gabbana', not sure what it was. You know how bad I am with brands and names"

"5L?? You burnt down his 5L worth blazer? Why didn't you just use one of those jute bags lying around in your house?"

Annika's eyes widened in shock. "Oh damn, I didn't realize then that he said 5L in the sense of 5 Lakh rupees. Anyway, why waste my bags when he was the one who caused the fire?"

"You're impossible! What happened next?"

What followed made her smile, blush, and insides tickle.

She looked at him as he spoke something about how precious his blazer was. His chiseled body looked like it was shaped with diamond. His packs, his abs, those cuts. Now she knew what they mean. She gulped at the sight. Suddenly she felt cold. Chilling cold. A chill was practically running through her spine. In revenge, he had poured few ice cubes within her top. She wiggled and removed them. Both of them started laughing. But she didn't miss his intense stare at her partially wet clothes sticking to her body. She didn't miss the flame.

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"Sir, is this much info enough?" Khanna brought him back to the present.

"Khanna, you've done a great job. But tell me something that I don't know! Like... her name"

This was no less than a joke. He meets this woman, misunderstands her, almost makes out with her, drops her home, sets her house on fire, who can easily defeat all his sexual fantasies, he still doesn't know her name!

"Sir, I thought you've been inside long enough for introductions, so I didn't bother to ask. I just used her picture but I think I heard people saying something from A... Anamika? Anna? I'm not sure"

Shivaay smiled again. What a fool he was. Khanna clearly worried about his boss smiling so frequently since last night.

"Sir are you alright?"

"Khanna... Khanna... Do you know what happens when fire and ice collide? Steam. A steamy hot explosion!"