As Arnav walked towards his room after watering the plants in the garden beside the hall, he stopped in his tracks as he heard a name, that had been on his mind for the good part of the day since afternoon & actually been on his lips half a dozen times, as he had tested how it sounded on his lips. He heard Nani say, "Not only Rohan bituwa, Payal bitiya is so cultured too. She is the epitome of Lucknowi mannerisms. I told Karan's Amma the other day, they are really getting very lucky welcoming Payal as a bahu in their home. & Khushi bitiya! Oh, how I adore her. She-" Manorama cut her in, "Sassuma, that girl is no more the epitome of mannerism than Laxmi! She speaks whatever is on her mind & did you see the skimpy clothes they let her wear? As if her history wasn't enough to ensure that, any decent household won't want her to be their bahu!"
Arnav stood perplexed in his place. What? What was Mami talking about? Khushi's history? Wait, did she have a boyfriend or something? Did she elope with someone? Arnav was shocked at himself as he felt his anger rising at the thought of someone else having that kind of a relationship with Khushi. He shook his head at the implications of his thought. Really Arnav?! Lusting after baby Gupta? Rohan's little sister? That ought to complicate things nicely if they aren't already messy enough for you. Obviously, he knew she hadn't run away with someone in the past. That kind of thing he would have heard of, either right when it happened or now after he had come back. But a boyfriend, he wasn't so sure about. Sighing, he took a step towards the ladies to ask Mami what she meant when she mentioned Khushi's history, & hopefully he could worm in a couple of queries about her relationship status as well. But a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned around to see Anjali standing behind him with a vexed expression on her face. "Chhote, I want to talk to you.. About Khushi ji."
Arnav frowned at her. Was he that obvious? & then he became thoroughly embarrassed as another thought hit him. Was his crotch that obvious?
It was 11.45 pm at night & Khushi got out of her room & tip toed to the landing outside her room & went downstairs, praying that, what she needed would be where it should be. & she gave a small jump of glee as she saw that it was. Khushi hurriedly went, grabbed the cordless of their land line & ran in full speed up to her room. She rarely got the land line free now-a-days, since Payal's alliance got fixed, & Karan & she got green signal from the elders to chat on phone. Khushi softly clicked the door of her room shut once she was inside, & was about to call back La & take off where they had left off before her balance was up, when the receiver in her hand shrieked loudly, almost making her drop it out of her hand in sudden panic. Then she stared at the receiver as if it offended her & checked out the number. She didn't recognize the cell number, & wondering if La was calling her from some unknown number of hers, & she had plenty of them to cope up with her hectic social life, Khushi frowned & answered the call.
"Hello?" she asked in a half-annoyed, half-accused voice. Then it quickly turned creepy for her, when complete silence met her from the other side of the line. & she was about to throw the receiver away from her hand & start screaming like all those heroines in the Hollywood horror franchises, when a low voice stated, "Khushi!" It was just that. Her name used as a statement. & Khushi knew in a breath who was on the other side of the phone. Khushi tried to gulp against the sudden sand paper scratched feeling inside her throat. Then at the thought that, he must be thinking she was behaving like a silly, crazy teenager getting hushed by just the sound of his voice, she hurried in to speech, "Yes! It's Khushi! You got me.. it! You got it right! Um.. How may I help you?" & then Khushi winced at her own words. What was she? The receptionist of Gupta & Gupta? No, hell! It was almost midnight! So no, she was not the receptionist, she was the 'how-may-I-help-you' phone sex provider!
Annoyed at her own foolishness, Khushi hurled at the speaker, "What do you want? It's midnight! Not the time to be calling decent people up from their night sleeps!" she accused in a tone as if he had attempted murder. Arnav's calm voice, too calm given her outburst, came from the other side, "I tried calling Rohan on his cell. It's coming busy." Khushi's brows drew together in a frown at the information. Busy? Now? Who would bhaiya be talking to around midnight? Arnav's voice interrupted her train of thought, "We were supposed to meet up for jogging at 6.30 am. I need to let him know there is a slight change of plans. So I thought I'd call up on the land line." Khushi pursed her lips, already making plans for jogging date with someone else's brother, aren't we? She let out a brief sigh & said in a flippant tone, "Wait. I'll get him."
As she was about to distance the phone from her ear to get out of the room to get Rohan, she heard Arnav's low voice coming in lazily, "I heard you were reluctant about coming to Nani's birthday party?" Khushi's mouth gaped open with wonderment. She can't believe Rohan bhaiya would tell him! & of course, he did. Who else would? As if he just heard what she was thinking, Arnav's irritatingly calm voice floated in, "Rohan was telling Di how, maybe, my antagonism towards you, was making you feel uncomfortable in my presence, so you felt hesitant to come to the party. & then, my Di came & scolded me for the first time since I have been back, telling me how I just have to, have to, be nice to you." The irritation was now just dripping, no, overflowing, from his voice.
Hearing the annoyance in his, Khushi felt her irritation rise too. Anjali ji & bhaiya! Why did they feel the need to relay every single thing to each other? & now if Arnav asked her what exactly was it that made her feel uncomfortable in his presence, what was she supposed to say? Was she to say, not uncomfortable Arnavji, I just felt a little out of breath when you came so close to me & hence I was trying to stay out of your way out of an acute sense of self-preservation? She took a deep breath to steady her voice & tried to rectify a situation which was rapidly going out of hands, "Aaa.. bhaiya.. probably.. Yes!" Khushi almost stopped herself from yelling 'Eureka' out loud, & rushed to educate him, "It's presumption, you know?" & before Khushi could elaborate, she heard an explosive, "What the-? Presum-? What?" Arnav sounded incredulous, not really sure where she was going with this.
Khushi flopped down on the bed with a happy disposition. Now this was her zone. Uttering nonsensical crap out of her outrageous, capable-of-building-whole-cities-in-the-air, brain & confusing the person listening to it thoroughly & completely. She started to initiate a very long lecture, "Presumption, you know? A presumption is a particular fact that can be made without the aid of proof in some situations, based on prior experiences. & that's what my dearest brother must have done. He must have drawn on our history of being mildly hostile to each other & very thoughtfully warned your sister about your sole contribution in starting it! That's actually-" This time the anger in Arnav voice was clearly discernible as it boomed down the line, "What the-? Mildly hostile?! My sole contribution in starting it?!!" Khushi almost shoved her blanket down her throat in an attempt to muffle the sounds of her giggles, & quickly recovered to say, "Yes, mildly. It's a state of lukewarm-"
This time Arnav gave up all his attempts at control & just lost it. "What the-? Stop giving me vocabulary lessons! Damn it! You're UNBELIEVABLE!" & Khushi gave up too. She gave up trying to hide the laughter in her voice, "But don't you see, Arnavji, you do need an emergency vocabulary lesson! Why, you can't even finish your trademark expletive, due to your lack of vocabulary! Seriously, Arnavji, did no one ever tell you what came after 'What the-'?" & Khushi knew, if they were face to face right now, she would actually point at him & laugh her head off. But she abruptly sobered up as opposed to increased expletives, a complete silence hit her. She immediately regretted her last sentence. Did she take it too far? Shit!
& then Khushi heard it. The low growl in the silkily sinful voice as it drawled, "Well, it seems I was mistaken. Whom I thought of as Rohan's baby sister is not a baby anymore! At all! & she wants to give me an oral vocabulary lesson on how to say fornication as a slang. I have to admit it, Khushi, I am very pleasantly surprised." Khushi's mouth fell open so wide that, she feared if her jaw dropped an inch more, it would get stuck that way forever. & before she could unfreeze herself enough to cut the damning call,, she heard him continue, "Although I must say, when it comes to teaching, I am a fan of demos rather than lectures. & I bet, I would be a much better teacher than you are at practically teaching how to fu-" Khushi cut the call & threw the phone at the foot of the bed & crawled under the blanket within a span of two seconds. As her breathing continued to stay labored despite her efforts to calm them down by chanting Devi Maiyya's name, she realized, Arnav Singh Raizada back in India? Not a good news for Khushi Kumari Gupta at all!
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