Chapter 23

Chapter 22

To the utter disappointment of Arnav, the Khushi he saw almost what seemed like an eternity to him is completely opposite to the Khushi he knew till date. Surprising him to extremes Khushi simply answered in one word and kept to herself mostly not speaking much and avoiding any possible interaction between them. All his attempts to communicate with her were dodged out and she took it to herself to use her hands and expressions to express her emotions, replies rather than speaking at most of the times. The same routine followed the next day, whereby the end of the day Arnav's patience which was kept under a thin line of control finally snapped.

Khushi being off for the last few days had her desk and emails filled with a lot of pending work to be looked after which made her stay late than her usual time. Alongside her Payal too was accompanying as they are working on the upcoming Mumbai project, which in near future requires her to tag along with Akash to finalize the deal. ASR was capable of handling the deal single-handedly but would always ask Akash to join so that he would know the tactics.

Rubbing her forehead which slightly started showing her the signs of migraine she peeped into Akash's cabin, where her sister along with Akash and Arnav was working seriously with no regards to time. With a knock on the door, she made her presence known, asking Payal silently to call it a day for now. Comprehending the unspoken words between the sisters Akash responded first stating that he would drop Payal home once they are done as it would take an hour more to give the final touches to the presentation surprising the other two people.

Did his brother simply say he would drop the lady back? They may send the other car with security but his tone was pleading Khushi to let her sister stay? Isn't it up to Payal to decide why was he taking up the responsibility? Maybe the time has come for them to have a man to man talk.

when did she the rights to decide for her to Akash is the first question which raised for Payal but assuming it to be the pressure of the work which needs to be completed she kept quiet but letting Khushi leave alone at this time of night didn't seem to be the right decision too.

"Why don't you wait until I'll finish this off Khushi?" she tried to search for a middle ground.

"No Jiji, I'll leave, you carry on, don't worry I'm not driving, I'll book a taxi and message you once I reach" leaving no scope for her sister to retort she left the cabin as the effects of the migraine started becoming unbearable.

.................................................................

Khushi stood leaning on the nearest pillar waiting for the cab, the weather turned bad just within minutes of her leaving, it may rain any moment now, the booking app showed it would be eight more minutes before it arrives, she unplaited her hair letting the cool air to dance with her hair and closed her eyes trying to cool her mind off the tedious work and enjoy the weather as much possible. She was jerked out of her thoughts with a slight moment and standing in front of her was her boss.

"Let me drop you, it's not safe to travel in a taxi at this time of night" without waiting for Khushi's response he moved towards his car which he drove out of the parking lot and opened the door for her to get in.

Hearing no movement from the other side he turned back to see Khushi still standing in her place with her eyes closed.

"Ms.Gupta" he called out to her with no response from her side.

"What the hell are you waiting for, I said I'll drop you off" the final nail in the coffin was Khushi still standing unaffected even after him asking her to join him.

"MS. GUPTA, GET IN THE CAR" strode towards her and pulled her up against his body with a death grip on her forearm and shouted on her face.

"NO" she turned her face to the right avoiding looking in his eyes.

"WHAT THE! What do you mean by NO?" he tilted his face to the left to have a look at her face clearly, he was not sure if Khushi right away declined his offer, HIS OFFER?!

"No means NO Mr. Raizada, the taxi will be here any moment" she spoke as if they were discussing the weather and turned her face to the left.

"Why would you prefer a ride in a taxi over mine?" he wanted to have a word with her from the time Khushi was hospitalized but both the sisters were adamant on not giving him a chance to speak. First, it was Payal who took all measures to keep her sister away from his eyes like a mother hen, he assumed he can speak to Khushi once she is back, he would want to know if Khushi too thinks he can get so low as to make someone face death just to satisfy his ego.

Proving him wrong Khushi kept silence over the issue, she neither probed it nor allowed him to have a word on it, she completely avoided him like plague, never giving him a chance to explain or even say a word about it. If this was not enough she went a step ahead and tried to be as far from him as possible and dodged his every attempt.

"Why would you want to give me a ride in the first place?" she questioned finally looking at him.

"Why would YOU not come with ME?" he roared back without answering her.

"You were the one who assumes that people are always behind you for either attention or money. Deciding people's character by their financial background. I'm being in my limits, I wouldn't want to piss my boss you see, he takes things too serious required or not." she spat back, coming out of his hold.

"I...I didn't mean it, Whatever has happened that day, I never knew the place was still not ready for occupation, Aman said it's almost done so...." he mumbled in a small voice.

"I'm not speaking about sending me there, whatever has happened I don't hold it against you, you have sent me there, I got stuck. What I'm trying to say is about your monologue on that day, What made you think I'm trying to grab your attention faking my emotions?" it's Khushi's turn now to shout back.

"I...I...." he knew he has nothing to say in his favor, the anger which was actually on his sister for bringing a topic which is an outright a no-no in his dictionary was channelized towards Khushi.

It started to lightly drizzle now and Khushi moved away from him and was speaking on the phone with someone, looks like it is the cab driver as she was giving directions all the while using her hands to give more emphasis on the words as if he could see her.

The cab arrived on the other side of the road the same moment Arnav stepped towards her to speak further. Not trusting herself to speak properly in the present condition of her with her headache going a notch up in the pain she ran to the other side without following the basic traffic rules of checking the sides before crossing, by this time the downpour increased.

Khushi was halfway through when she stumbled upon something on the road and in the process of looking at her ankle, she forgot moving aside to pave way for the car which speeded towards her, the honk making her grasp concluding that she is about to meet with an accident. The car screeched to the other side and the man driving it rolled down the window to shout at the lady who took his car as a weapon to kill herself, but his words fell on deaf ears as Khushi was in her own world, in the arms of a strong muscular man who was her only crush till date.

I assume readers are able to guess what is the next update about, it was an epic scene.

Can someone guide me on how to edit the title because I'm unable to update the chapter number and date for the readers to follow.

All I request of readers is that it takes just a minute to let know your thoughts on the update if you really don’t want to write a comment at least hit the like button so that I know the people who are reading my story. Your likes and comments are my encouragement and inspiration.

 Any resemblance of the storyline or dialogues to other is just a coincidence and please do let me know if any such thing is noticed.