Sweet Revenge

Background: Khushi leaves a lipstick mark on Arnav's handkerchief. What if Arnav decides to finally retaliate to her pranks?

Arnav couldn't, for the life of him, understand what had gotten into Khushi. She was always weird but this was a whole another level that even he couldn't put his head around. Her stupid pranks had stopped but she was around him all the time, with her Swami crap. The overly lovey-dovey perfect wife, a concept that he hated in general. He didn't know till when he could put up with this nonsense. He was a diabetic for God's sake, and she had an agenda to kill him with her extra sweetness. He shook his head and tried to concentrate on what his Production Head was saying. He took out his handkerchief to cover his mouth at the sudden bout of coughing he got and scrunched his nose at the familiar jasmine scent that overpowered his mind. Great, now he was imagining Khushi's fragrance. What was wrong with him, dammit? 

'Do you smell something?' He asked hesitantly, scared to see the reactions of his employees on their boss's completely random and crazy questions.

'It's a nice perfume. Your wife must use it.' An employee that he couldn't remember the name of replied. He didn't even want to discover why it gave him a warm and fuzzy feeling whenever someone addressed Khushi as his wife. That road was dangerous. He rolled his eyes and cringed when almost everyone in the room gave each other sly glances. Must be celebrating ASR's doom from the arrogant and cynical man to a romantic husband. He threw his handkerchief in frustration on the table and started speaking when he saw everyone's attention elsewhere, to be specific, on the same handkerchief. 

'What the...' Arnav couldn't help but utter those words. There was a freaking red lipstick mark smack in the middle of his pearl white handkerchief. He looked on horrified as everyone started smiling, looking down and even covering their sniggers behind their coughs. He could feel the blood rushing to his face and before it could get any worse, he ordered everyone to get out.

What the f*ck!? Did she... did she really plant a kiss on his handkerchief? He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He just didn't know what to do with this little prankster. She stole his precious bed, kept that ghoongat on her face not allowing him to see her face properly, threw away all his shirts forcing him to wear that awful red shirt, and kept him hungry till he fainted. He took a deep breath to calm his racing heartbeat when he remembered her warm breath washing over his face when she put Tilak on him and how she took care of him the whole night. It was things like these that made him want her all the more. 

When Arnav got home and saw Khushi laughing with his family, all those sweet feelings vanished and instead he saw a she-devil smirking at him knowing what she had done today. Looking at her shy smile and his family's affectionate gazes on both of them, he shuddered but then a wicked idea popped into his head. Khushi wouldn't know what hit her but it would guarantee him some days of peace at least. 

Returning Khushi's smile with a smirk of his own, he dumped his bag into Hari Prakash's hands and went on to sit close... extremely close to his wife. He held her hand, caressing it with the back of his thumb and feeling the softness of her smooth skin. Her breath hitched and his smile widened. Khushi was already turning red and the teasing eyebrows from the ladies in the family weren't helping much. He ran a tired hand on his face, sighing heavily to showcase his fatigue. 

'Tired, Chote?' Anjali inquired playfully. He was expecting this. 

'Yeah, long day. Couldn't sleep at night too.' He mumbled the last line more to himself, making sure everyone in the vicinity heard it. He looked at Khushi meaningfully and could feel everyone's mouth hanging open at the insinuation. What they didn't know was that truth was far from what they were imagining. They slept separately but between Khushi's implication of what they did in the night at Holi and now this, they were right on track with assuming why they needed to run away. Keeping up his act, he continued, 'But Khushi made it bearable. She even left a lipstick mark on my handkerchief to remind me of her.' 

At that, everyone awed and oohed. 

'That is so sweet Khushi ji. I didn't know you were such a romantic.' Anjali asked wiggling her eyebrows at her favourite sister-in-law. Seeing her ever-so-pessimistic Chote so much in love was truly a blessing and the things these both said or did, literally made everyone blush.  

If Arnav wasn't suffering so much at the hands of his wife in these last few days, he would've taken pity on her. Khushi was stunned into silence. He could hear her heart thudding and he enjoyed every minute of it. He squeezed her hand and passed on a smug smile. 'Oh believe me she is.' 

'No need to be embarrassed bitiya.' Nani took mercy at Khushi seeing how unhumanly red the poor girl had turned. She tried to hide her smile but seeing a glimpse of the love between the couple she had rooted for from the very beginning, made her heart swell with happiness. 

'I tell her the same Nani. I mean I am her husband after all.' He spoke in his husky voice, knowing that it affected Khushi more than anything else. For extra effect, he grazed his fingers on her bare arm feeling the goosebumps erupt on her satin-soft skin. It was a special kind of torture he was putting both of them through. Khushi pleadingly looked at him, overwhelmed at the sensations that she felt. 

'Come upstairs soon. I'll be waiting.' Arnav whispered in her ear nuzzling it with his lips and kissed her cheek soundly. It reminded him of a time when he had kissed her for the first time, her shocked and blushing face still etched in his memory as clear as yesterday. 

Arnav got up before it got out of control and marched towards his room leaving his family cooing and nudging Khushi for the details. He turned around to see Khushi all flustered and breathing heavily at their proximity. He winked at her and felt the shiver that went up her spine. She looked like one hot mess, with her face as red as a beetroot. 

Revenge has never felt sweeter, Arnav smirked.