The backup Bride

EPISODE 41

4/12/2020 , Wednesday, At Shiva's firm.

Aparna's P. O. V :

            It has been two days since I went home. I decided to shift into comfortable clothes and haven't even bothered to take a bath. And it has been exactly 40 hours since I slept.

We added a couch for Karthik to work with his laptop and brought in enough snacks for the week.

Hari and Shwetha were on a three hour break. Shiva went out with Karthik to get some snacks.

" Sis, can we go home and be back by tomorrow morning? " Vishanth, the bold intern asked me and his friend stood behind him silently.

" Fine, be here by 8 in the morning! Sharp! " I said and rubbed my eyes.

The interns disappeared in a minute and I was all alone in the office. The time was close to midnight.

I looked at the schedule and we were still lagging behind by half a day work. I turned up the volume of the speakers and rested my head on my table.

I was too tired to go on. My neck was hurting as I was sitting straight for two days.

I sat back straight and rubbed my neck to get some relief. I started reworking on the schedule to keep up the tempo.

Suddenly, all the lights went off. I cursed under my breadth and clumsily searched for my phone in the trash around my desk.

I took my phone in hand and started walking outside to find the electric board.

I heard footsteps walking in. I stood in my place too scared to move.

Then a small candle light showed me the smiling face of Shiva. His eyes were lit up and it felt like a deja vu to look at his face in the subtle light. More candles came into view and that's when I saw the cake in his hand.

" Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!" Shiva sang in opear style and more voices joined him. Hari and Shwetha walked behind him with lots of balloons on their hands.

The lights came back and the trio happily placed the cake on the conference table and kept singing.

Karthik was standing behind recording everything.

" Stop singing yaar! I will cut the cake only when you stop!" I said laughing unable to bear their opera accent.

Shwetha handed me the knife. I blew out the candles and the office was echoing with the cheering sound.

I cut the cake into small pieces and handed out the first piece to Shwetha who was standing close to me. She took a small piece and fed me.

I gave out the pieces to Hari and karthik. I took the fourth piece and handed it to Shiva. He got the piece smiling and he smashed that piece on my face quickly.

Soon I was hit with more cake pieces and I started throwing away the pieces at whoever was close to me.

We started running around the table and I was being attacked from all sides.

Out of blue, Shiva jumped before and rubbed a huge chunk of cake on my face. He didn't stop until my hair was nasty with the cream.

Shwetha was rolling and laughing, while Hari was hiding behind her.

No more cake was left on the table and that's when I decided to retreat.

" Are you done? " I asked Shiva with a wide smile.

He was laughing more looking at me.

" Great! I will be back! " I said and started walking towards the washroom. The giggles increased as I robotically walked outside.