Chapter 9

Arnav took a flute of Dom Perignon from a passing waiter & looked around him with scrutinizing eyes. He had just come into the party which was going on now for almost an hour. Suddenly he felt a presence beside him & turned to see the smiling face of Akaash with a flute of champagne in his hand too. Arnav jerked his head towards the growing-by-the-minute crowd & drawled disjointedly, "Quite a turn-out. Seems like people of South Delhi have nothing better to do on their week-ends other than just waiting for someone to throw a party." Akaash let out a short laugh & corrected his brother, "No bhai. They have better to do. They throw themed & detailed parties on the week-ends themselves!" he said cheerfully. At his merry tone Arnav turned a curious eye on him, "& you seem to know quite a lot about those parties too." then he turned his head towards the party scene again & shrugged his shoulders, "Figures. That's the only reason why any brother of mine could be as creative as to come up with a party theme named 'Fun & flirty'!"

 

At his derogatory tone, Akaash laughed openly & then said between spurts of laughter, "That, Bhai, was actually NK bhai's suggestion. But I don't see what's wrong with that. Look at the costumes the girls have turned up in!" Then Akaash said in a considerably serious & suddenly wooden voice, "As it is, why are you complaining? You were right, you know? Looking for love is just a waste of time. These are just meaningless. So 'Fun & Flirty' is the way to go." As Akaash finished forcefully, Arnav looked at his face searchingly, which looked determinedly set as his glinting eyes seemed to be looking at something beyond Arnav's left shoulder. As Arnav turned around to see what captured his otherwise dispassionate brother's now passionate glare, he was shocked to see Payal, dressed in an above-knee-length red tulle shift dress & looking so extremely carefree as Arnav had never seen her look.

 

Arnav wheeled in a shocked state to stare at his younger brother, but Akaash had by now moved over to the bar & was ordering a Manhattan for himself. Arnav sighed & looked from Akaash to Payal in turn several times. There was definitely something from Akaash's side, but was it reciprocated? Did Payal know? & if she didn't, why didn't Akaash tell her sooner? Then as his eyes fell on Karan he shook his head, No, now that Akaash had let the opportunity slip, there was no point in encouraging him in direction. Especially, when the two families were soon gonna be relatives through Rohan & Di. & nothing that could jeopardize Di's happiness could be given even a second thought. Then his thought process took another turn, it might be that Akaash got to know about his changed feelings for Payal after her engagement & thus had decided to keep quite. & this thought suddenly made him feel uncomfortable as he remembered his own changed feelings towards the youngest member of the same Gupta family & how he hadn't made any attempts to stop his hands, even for Di's sake, just this morning.

 

& as his thoughts turned to little princess Gupta, as was the trend these days, soon all he could think about was 'where she was, what she was doing'. He hadn't even seen her since that episode in the morning after which she had run away from there. Was she still too disturbed by what he did & said this morning? Is that why she hadn't shown up yet? Just then he saw her, leaning against a small table, with a soft drink in her hand, wearing a red satin, sequined border short dress, with spaghetti-straps & a ruched skirt, with her hair curled & swept away from her face & held together in a loose curly ponytail over her back. Her eyes were smoky, & other than that, everything from her lipstick to her shoes was of nude shade. & she looked so brilliant that Arnav immediately, without even giving it a single thought started walking towards her.

 

 

& as Arnav almost reached her, out of the blue he saw NK come in front of her & engulf her in a bear hug. Arnav stopped dead in his tracks as a silent 'What the-?' left his lips. He watched as Khushi's arms too went around NK & after more than a couple of seconds, they parted enough to look at each other & Arnav heard Khushi say in a loud shriek, "NK! How could you? You are coming after so long? Didn't you miss all of us even a little?" & for better impact, she gave a cracking slap on NK's shoulder while they were both still encircled in each other's arms. NK brushed his knuckles to her jaw in a mock punch & said in his heavily accented Hindi, "Of course, I missed you.  All of you. & most of all I missed your Jalebis!" As their mingled laughters permeated through the air surrounding them, Arnav turned angrily on his spot & went over to the bar to join his younger brother.

 

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Two & a half hours later

 

As Arnav downed his third Martini of the evening, still sitting at the bar, he heard a familiar voice say, "Bar tender! Could I get a Pomme Noir here? Thanks." Arnav knocked his empty glass on the bar top twice to indicate to the bar tender to hit him again, & then he turned towards her & scanned her from head to toe leisurely. Up close, she looked even more gorgeous. Her skin was now flushed from all the continuous dancing she had done in the last one & a half an hour, & it made her whole body glow even more. On the other hand, he had sat on his stool, watched her broodingly as much as he could & refused the numerous times Lavanya had come to first ask, then plead, & then drag him into the dance floor. & all beacuse of this little girl, who could spoil his mood just by doing a couple dance numbers. Arnav pursed his lips & said mockingly, "Oh! You're Apple juice and cola? So, NK finally let you come & get a drink for yourself?"

 

Khushi rounded with a start, & as she saw him perched there on the stool at one end of the bar, her eyes widened a little with surprise, "Arnav ji! You're here? When La said you were sitting somewhere brooding, I didn't think you were actually brooding over the bar!" & then as she realized what she had just said, she hastened into speech in an attempt to salvage things a bit, "No! She didn't say brooding. I said brooding. I didn't mean brooding. I just meant getting drunk. Not that you are getting drun..." Khushi flounced her hands in the air in attempt to silence herself. Why did she have to babble like an idiot in front the only man she wanted to see her as smart & intelligent. Just then she felt a shot glass of Tequila hit her fingers over the bar, as a derisively mocking voice followed the glass, "Drink that. You seem to need it. Besides, it's free."

 

Khushi felt her jaw start to drop as mild indignation started to rise within her, but as she remembered the way she had behaved with his sister in the morning, she conceded his anger might be a result of that. So Khushi said patiently, "Um, no, thanks. Free or not-free, I don't drink." She abruptly tried to back up a little as Arnav suddenly, with the slightest movement possible, leaned towards her, but she felt her feet shuffled on the ground. & just when she was convinced, she was going to fall flat on her ass, in full view of the who's who of Delhi elite circle, she felt a something strong going around her waist & then in a jerk, she was brought up against Arnav's sitting form & he parted his legs to accommodate her standing self between them.

 

Khushi didn't know when she had clutched his bicep with her left hand to steady herself or when she had put out her right hand over his chest to put some distance between them, so that now she could feel his strong heartbeats beneath her palm. She started breathing rapidly to calm her irratic heartbeats down, which were behaving peculiarly because she had just had a scare of falling, or so she told herself. Then she summoned all the courage that she possessed & looked up at his eyes. & the angry glint that she saw in them instantly took her breath way & she gasped involuntarily. She saw Arnav's eye-lids droop & his gaze focus on her now parted lips & she saw his lips moving barely as he bit out, "So, your sense of adventure ranges just from parading yourself half-naked around the town to flirting & dancing in the arms of willing boys. But drinks are not included in them, am I right?"

 

Khushi felt like her head was gonna explode with the sudden fury that clouded her head & made all the blood rush to her eyes. She put both of her hands between their bodies to put as much distance between them as she could & hissed, "If I wasn't sure your Di & my Bhaiya were somewhere nearby as a potential witness to this dirty thing you have started here, I swear I would have downed that shot glass over your head! What's it to you what I wear & with whom I flirt & dance? What?! Is no one willing to dance & flirt with you? Is that what you think? Is that your problem? Well, look around, & I am sure you'd find plenty here, who'd be willing to distract you so much, that you won't even notice if I danced with 10 boys simultaneously!" Shouting that she tried to free herself from the crook of his arm, but to her shocked surprise, like a spring, she found herself pulled even closer to his body than she was before.

 

Arnav's left hand rose & he trailed a finger along her jaw, his face shuttered as he said matter-of-factly, "Don't underestimate yourself. It'd be hard for any woman to distract someone from your dramas. & as for there being plenty here who'd be willing to take up the task of distracting me? Well.. I am afraid, Khushi, not everyone finds me as irresistible as you obviously do." Khushi was so shocked to hear his claim that she found him irresistible, that she stopped her squirmings to get out of his arms & asked incredulously, "Why me? There La is, who sulked with NK & me throughout the evening, because you blew her off the entire time God knows why, & now you wanna play your dark, twisted games with me? Games, where, no matter what I say, it can be turned to mean what you wanna hear." Then suddenly narrowing her eyes, she asked nastily, "Didn't take you long to forget that your sister is getting married to my brother, did it?"

 

She felt Arnav's fingers dig into the side of her stomach, as he retorted hotly, "& it didn't take you long to forget your woes about your home getting sold & come & dance away the night here, partying with your precious NK, did it?" At the mention of Nikunja, Khushi could feel him touching a raw spot & she almost seethed, "Don't talk about things that are beyond you! What would you know about being out of one's home?" This time Arnav let go her waist so abruptly that, Khushi stumbled a few steps back & was actually about to fall, but she barely balanced herself by holding onto the bar side. She looked up as she heard Arnav's emotionless voice, "Actually? Everything!" & as he saw Khushi's face registering confusion at not getting what he was talking about, he drawled, "No body would know more than Di & I, about how it felt when one was evicted from one's own home." & in a flash, Khushi remembered, of course, that's why Di & he came to live here. After his parents' death the siblings were evicted from their ancestral home.

 

As Khushi took a step forward & outstretched her arm to say something comforting to him, he drawled in a now hard voice, "I'd give you an advice, actually. As Rohan said, Nikunja would be sold after you're married off, & judging by your goings, you don't seem pretty off with the idea of getting hitched, so why don't you go & try to hook one of those rich, stupid fools that are flocking around you ever since this damn party started, using your big, golden eyes with their magnetic looks, & then get the fool to buy Nikunja for you?? See, it'd be a win-win for all!" He finished with a humorless lop-sided grin.

 

He fully expected Khushi to carry out her earlier threat of emptying the Tequila shot over his head, actually he craved it, but he hadn't expected to see the naked, raw hurt that filled those big-golden eyes he was talking about. & maybe due to her distressed state, those eyes looked even larger, the smoky make-up stood in stark contrast to the honey-gold orbs, & her cheeks paled visibly, as she said in a whisper, "You're hateful!" & then she turned & ran away from there towards the area where the crowd was most dense.

 

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