Anya's POV

We reached Mehra's Villa after three hours and retired to my room after bidding Mr & Mrs Mehra good night. We got ready for bed after freshening up. Urmi was talking to Ved, Sid and Tanu after me and Rina spoke with them for few minutes. Rina was working on something on her laptop while I was just sitting and watching them. It had been years since we had a sleep over. Times changed so fast and drastically that at times I felt if we would ever get time to spend it together. However today proved that no matter hoe much time changes and how much ever distance was there among us, we would always be there for each other.

They were there for me and with me all through my hard times. Even now when I was struggling with what was happening to me they were sent by my parents to me to help me and show me that I would never be alone. It was true Vikrant and others would always be there for me, but somethings I could never share with them no matter how close they were to my heart. I never knew why but neither of us felt any guilt of sharing our concerns and worries with each other. We never felt that it was a burden to help each other. That trust and confidence in each other was what bound us together and helped us in dealing with our demons since long time.

I heard a ringtone denoting the arrival of a message. I opened it and held my hand phone with a thundering heart. I was excited and scared about what awaited me in that message.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]m

Dear Ray's Yaaya,

Sorry to disturb you at this hour. Hope we are not interrupting some important work of yours.

It would be very much appreciated by us if you could take pains to tell us the timings of this appointment of yours with Ray, so that I, Ray's uncle could make myself free at that time to accommodate your meeting in my schedule.

Also do let us know the address of this meeting place so I could drop him there if it would be alright with you. 

Eagerly awaiting your  response,

Ray and his Uncle.

PS: Hope you didn't forget his uncle's name. Let me remind you just in case. I go by names like Kai, Mr. Executive but my personal favorite is Hijacker. However, I am in love with this new name  Ray's uncle also.

I was really astounded by the message. It appeared detached and formal in the beginning but as I continued reading it, I realized that he was making fun of me. That imp!!??!!!. I didn't want to acknowledge or dwell on the reasons behind my disappointment and despair at the intonation of the message. I expected that he would thank me for his cake and then we would communicate with each other just like how we did before, but this scamp who calls himself Ray's Uncle loved jerking my emotions all over the place.  All those oscillating emotions transformed into anger when I felt that he could so easily send such messages to me like a stranger, even if it wasn't the actual meaning behind those words.  Did this mean that all what happened between us meant nothing to him?? Else he would have never sent such a message now. How could he be so callous and uncaring to even think of sending such message when he knew what this kind of behavior did to me last night? 

He was really a sadist who loved to see me worried. Did he send this message with any other intention behind it? Or was he really of the mind to have no kind of relation with me if I could even call it a relationship. But why would he say such words last night?? I couldn't help but fluster remembering his words. Mr. Shameless. He would spout whatever comes to his mind without any filter. Not even Ray, the presence of that kid deterred him. Gutter minded Rogue Ray has got as an uncle. 

All these aside, I have decided that I was no longer going to sit quiet and let him bully me as he pleased. He always got an upper hand over me because of that stupid ability of his to hypnotize and captivate my senses and thoughts whenever I would be in his presence. My heart was thundering in my ears with unknown excitement and joy of not being disregarded by him.  I was sheepish to admit to myself that I was happy and anxious to receive a message from him after the way we departed the last night. No matter how he made me feel, I felt that it was time he knew that he was dealing with Ananya Reddy. If he wanted to play with me then I would also show him that this Ananya was not someone whom he could so easily make fool of. I smirked to myself and stated typing the reply.

From: [email protected]m

To: [email protected]

My Dearest and Lovely Ray,

You can inform that Cheese loving Chaahcu of yours that  you would be meeting me at the Flower Dale, flower boutique near the valley of serendipity by 1:30 pm tomorrow. Also don't forget to thank your uncle in advance as he is allocating some of his precious time from that slaving schedule of his to such a mundane task of dropping you at our meeting place.

I apologize for not sending you the complete address of the flower boutique Mr. Rude. I am not aware of the complete address and I am sure with your intelligence and skills, finding the place would be a cake walk to you. 

Oh!! By the way Ray that is so sweet of you for sharing the cakes with your family. I am very happy to know that they liked the cakes. As for your Aachi, I will make something healthy for her the next week. I am also very excited to meet your sister and we three can definitely play together. Only the three of us. No one else.

Missing you,

Your Yaaya

P.S. Ray, I am  very glad you did not take after your sweet Chaachu. Oh!! You can tell him that I am not at all eager to meet him and he is not welcome for eating my cakes.

I sent the message with a smug satisfaction and put my hand phone aside. As soon as I lifted my head, I saw two pairs of inquisitive eyes probing me for answers. I ignored their curious glances and smiled at them.

"Tomorrow, you are going to meet very special persons. They would be very excited after seeing you." I told them thinking about their meeting with Ray.

" Are you going to introduce with the father of you future Children Anya? That too so early in the relationship?" Urmi jumped her gun, which was unexpected for me.

"Oh my my!! How far have you both gone that you are planning to introduce us to our Jijaji!! Please tell me you are not making me a god mother so fast!! I am too young for that Anya!!

Oh no no no!! If Vikranth Bhaiyya knows that his darling sister is not longer just his little sister but someone else's sweetheart he would skin that person alive. Poor Kai doesn't know what is waiting for him. Pch Pch Pch. " Rina beat me and spouted this non-sense before I could clarify that they were meeting Ray but not Kai.

"You guys are meeting Ray. Not Kai. And you both might not be tired but I am dead tired and going to rest. Good night." I covered myself with my duvet and slept in the middle of the makeshift bed on the floor. I heard nothing for few seconds and then their sighs before they joined me. 

They must have sensed my discomfort to talk about Kai and didn't speak for few seconds. Then I broached some random topic as I couldn't stop myself from talking to my best friends. We talked about everything and nothing while occasionally bursting into fits of laughter most of the night and slept in the early hours of the morning. We slept through the day and had a scrumptious brunch before starting for Priya's flower boutique.

We reached there in the car Rina has rented.  I walked inside the boutique and went towards the end of the boutique which actually led towards the valley, with Rina and Urmi following me. I found Priya and her mother sitting at one table under a flower alcove. I went to greet them.

" Hi Aunty!! How are you doing? Hey Priya!!"

" Hi Ananya!! I am doing fine. Thank you beta. So you brought guests with you I see." Priya's mother talked to me while her warmth enveloped me.

"Yes Aunty. These are my two good friends, Rina and Urmi apart from your daughter here."i told her with a smile.

"Rina! Urmi! This is Priya's mother. And the drama queen standing beside her glaring daggers at me is Priya. 

Aunty! Priya! This is Rina. This is Urmi. Sorry for dropping by without informing you before hand. They will be leaving tonight, so I thought it would be better to meet here.This way we four would get to some spend time together." As soon as I spoke, Priya looked at me with wide eyes as if she doesn't believe my words, while a smirk was threatening to appear on her lips, which meant trouble for me. I found Rina and Urmi trying to contain their laughter at my explanation.

Fortunately at that time, some employee called Aunt and she left us wishing us a good time. 

" Can you believe her?? I never knew you were such a sly vixen Anya!!! I mean if I didn't know the purpose of your visit now, I would have been fooled very easily  by your words. And you called me a drama queen!!! You are the mother of all drama queens darling." She turned towards Rina and Urmi after teasing me.

"Hi guys!! It is nice to meet the two best friends of Anya. It is a very pleasant surprise to be frank. So are you guys aware of the actual reason why she brought you both here today?" She asked them while looking at me chidingly.

"Hi Priya, We heard a lot about you. Feeling great to meet you in person. " Urmi answered her first leaving Rina to finish her answers which definitely would not bide well for me.

"So this means you are aware of the story about our Princess here and her Prince charming. Awesome. It seems her Prince is coming here today. Last night she informed us that she was going to introduce us to some special people. She ...." I put a break to Rina's flow. 

" Yes, one of that special people is Priya, who is standing right in front of you listening to your non-sense. And the other person is Ray, whom you already met on call." I said indignantly repenting about my decision to introduce these three to each other. Now they were ganging against me and God know what they would do if they know that Kai would be coming to drop Ray here.

 I was praying God, requesting him to at least consider my humble wish to not bring Kai here. I hoped that Kai would take offense of my words and he would make some driver drop Ray here. Even though that pricked my heart, I was worried of the disaster awaiting me if he were to come here accompanying Ray. And if he came here, he would definitely get back at me for my cheeky response to his last night's message. Priya broke my pity party with her ridiculous words. 

"You came her for your darling Kai and his cupid nephew Ray. We all know that, since your friends visited you, they are here right now, else you would have come here with Ray and his uncle, I mean your biker boy.

Did you guys know!! She hasn't returned his key yet and he is not asking her for it. This friend of ours is deluded and thinks that he might have forgotten to ask her as he might have been busy with his work. She is so considerate about him. Any other guy tries to approach her, she will react as if she saw some creep, but with the biker dude, she just transports to another world. You should see them together. The atmosphere would be filled with thick tension effusing form them. Now I am seriously doubtful about her motives of coming here."

"It is nothing of such sorts alright. As I said, Priya is a drama queen and she is just over exaggerating everything. And I promised Ray that I would bring him here today. Since you both came yesterday surprising me, I thought why not bring you here and introduce to Ray and Priya!! Other than that, I have no other ulterior motives other than showing Valley of Serendipity to Ray...." I was interrupted by the noise of an approaching zooming sound. We all turned towards the side from where it was nearing us and I was stunned to see the source of the noise.

Hi All,

Hope you guys are doing well. Happy Navratri to everyone.

Here is the new chapter , Hope you guys enjoy reading it. Don't forget to vote and comment.

Jijaji means brother-in-law (sister's husband)

Next Chapter is going to be Kai's POV and you have something interesting waiting for you there.

Take care guys. Will update soon.