Picture-perfect Portrai

Akira tried hard to find an internship at multiple places, but she had no luck. But she still kept trying. She would scout Linkedin and all Job portals every single day. With every passing day, she was losing hope but she had to stay strong for her brother. But she had no idea that her guardian angel Vikram had different plans for her.

In the afternoon, Vikram's mother called her up and asked her to come for dinner along with Mike. Vikram's mother doted on Akira and given a chance she would marry Vikram and Akira off in a blink of an eye. She was aware of her whole situation and wanted to comfort her as much as possible.

Akira called up Mike and said, "Come home early. Aunty has invited us for dinner ok?".

Mike thought for a moment and then said - "I can't Aki. I have some project prep work to finish up. Please say sorry on my behalf," and he disconnected. Akira half-heartedly decided to get ready. She knew that once she reaches there, she would have to face question coming from all directions from her Aunty.

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She started rummaging through her closet as she wanted to wear something nice for dinner to her Aunty's place. She finally chose a summery frill skirt and a sleeveless peach tank top, She did her hair and decided to put a bit of lip tint for a change. She wanted to look all good and happy in front of her Aunty else she knew that she will worry a lot.

While she was dabbing the tint with her finger on her lips she got a call from Vikram - "Hello princess! Are you ready to be picked up?"

"Are you coming to pick me up?", asked an amused Akira.

"I am outside your place. But take your own time," Vikram said and kept the call.

Akira then rushed to pick her wallet and threw it in her bag along with her phone. She rushed to her shoe rack and halted. Vikram's words rhymed in her head again - "I would hate it if you would change even one percent because of him". She paused for a while and then took out her white canvas shoe and wore it.

After coming out of the house she saw Vikram leaning on his car on the other side of the road. The moment he saw her, his heart skipped a beat. Her floral skirt kept swaying slightly in the wind and with every step that she took it felt like she was dancing in the clouds. Her slender waist and her smooth skin made him want her even more. Her red lips looked like she had devoured on hundreds of strawberries. She looked like a picture-perfect portrait.

She crossed the road and came close to him and said, "Hi".

"Mmmm, get in the car," muttered Vikram under his breath and loosened his tie. He was unable to think straight and was losing all his focus. His fort of coldness and calm demeanor was turning into shambles. Even in the slightly cold breeze, his ears were burning and palms were sweating.

"No hug for me today?", asked Akira like a child and started grazing the pavement with her shoes. She wanted Vikram to notice that she wore shoes again but it looked like he was too bummed with something. Since there was no reply she grumpily took her seat in the car.

"Can you put your seat belt on?", Vikram asked.

Akira didn't reply anything and silently put her seatbelt on. She wasn't able to understand why he was so angry with her. She knew that probably he was stressed out because of work but her heart couldn't take this version of Vikram.

Once she had put on the seat belt, Vikram started his car and sped through. In no way, he could make her understand the thoughts in his head and the feelings in his heart. How could he explain it to her that he didn't want to hug her because he felt like tracing every inch of her. He didn't say anything about her shoes because deep down he was so happy that he kept her words. He wanted to kiss her and tell her how much it meant to him. He couldn't tell her how in thousand different ways he wanted to tell her that he loved her.magic