Chapter 2

She jumped with fright. "Mom! You scared me!"

Shalini Gupta rolled her eyes as she kept stirring something on the stove. "I am always scaring you guys. Now, tell me, who was that boy?"

"Mr Singh's grandson," she shrugged nonchalantly, dropping her bag on the table. "He is staying nearby so he asked if he could walk with me."

"Why?" Shalini asked with the hint of a malicious smile.

Khushi grimaced. "Maybe he was scared of walking alone? How would I know?"

Her mother raised an eyebrow at her. "So it has reached his ears that my daughter is the Jhansi ki Rani of the region and that made him come to seek your protection?" Trying not to laugh, Khushi simply shrugged. "Or perhaps... he has taken a liking for you?"

"Mom!"

"Who has taken a liking for whom?" Garv Gupta asked.

Shalini turned the stove off. "Mr Singh's grandson. For your laadli."

"That's not true!" Khushi shrieked, turning violently red. "He just walked some of the way with me! We didn't even talk to each other."

Clearly uncomfortable, her father started sulking. "Who's that boy?"

"Aman Raizada's son, Garv," Shalini chuckled, observing her husband. "And Khushi, the phenomenon you are witnessing here is a father getting annoyed because his daughter has grown up so fast and now he is realising she will soon slip out of his hands." Both father and daughter reddened and grunted, making Shalini laugh. "Garv, just about thirty years ago, weren't you laughing at my papa for reacting the way you are?"

He darted a withering look at her. "I can see he was quite right back then," he paused pensively. "But from what I have heard of the boy, he is nice and smart... If he likes you, well... But I would like him to come talk to us first."

Khushi gaped at her parents, horrified. "Excuse me? Mom, dad? Didn't you hear me? We didn't even talk. He does not like me. Full stop."

"Oooh! Does Khushi have a boyfriend?" Payal, the younger daughter, sang from the next room.

"Payal!" Garv warned. He looked at his oldest gently. "Khushi, you are almost done with university and until now, you have been an exemplary daughter. I really wouldn't mind if you..." he paused to clear his throat, "had... a boyfriend..."

"Dad! I don't want a boyfriend!"

"Do you like girls?" Shalini calmly asked, causing Khushi's eyes to widen even more. "Because I would understand you and accept you anyway, okay? You are my daughter, I love you and-"

"Mom, no!"

Her parents looked at each other, confused. "Then what?"

She shrugged and shifted on her feet. "Nothing, it's just an unnecessary trouble, isn't it?" she tried to laugh. And failed miserably, she realised, judging by her parents' expressions. "I am myself too much of a trouble for anyone to live with me, mom. I don't know how you guys do. People don't even like me. I mean... I'm not even pretty."

Garv scowled and his daughter's tearful eyes and reached out to give her a sideways hug, even as Shalini crossed the kitchen to hug her baby too. "We are lucky to have you, sona," her father told her. "Anyone would be lucky to have you. There's nobody else like you."

She smiled and ushered them out of the kitchen to the living room where Payal was waiting. She smiled throughout their little Christmas Eve's custom of drinking hot chocolate and eating homemade sweet dishes in front of the decorated tree, but deep down she felt raw. All twenty-two years she had lived, no one had shown the merest bit of interest in her, why would Mr Singh's grandson now? Contrary to what her parents thought, she was going to spend the rest of her life alone...

***

"Uhh... Khu... Miss Gupta?"

She decided to ignore her frantic heart's reaction and turned to him with a polite smile. "Yes, Mr Raizada?" Oh, man! He looked damn nervous. Or scared. Or both. It gave her a frightening blip of worry for old Mr Singh. "Is your grandfather okay?" she inquired.

He frowned. "Yes, of course."

"Oh," she exhaled, relieved. "Is there anything he wants?"

There was a weird look on his face. "No..."

"Ookayy..." Now she felt the weird look bleed into her own face. Honestly, she could positively kick him. He had been in town for five days already. On Christmas day, she had been saved from seeing him because she didn't have a shift then but since she did have to go to work on the other days, she also had to see him.

And about the visitor's policy, it looked like it was never applicable to Mr Raizada because he was practically always there, charming the pants off everybody, of course except for her, and no one minded his constant presence, again, apart from her. She only got the weird looks and fragments of sentences. For some reason, he was always acting weird around her.

Like the other day, he was playing chess with Harold Summers and talking and laughing with him while Mr Singh was gone for his routine check-up, she went there to pick all the cups left behind and he just froze and ogled at her until she left. Another time, the residents all wanted to watch some episodes of Doctor Who together so she had been pretty excited about it. She could watch any episode gazillions of times and never get bored with it and she even remembered most of the lines by heart. It happened that while watching, she unconsciously muttered the lines under her breath and at some point, when she realised that she was acting crazy, she found Mr Raizada, who had chosen to sit next to her for some reason, staring at her, well, giving her the weird look. And-

"Is everything alright with Nanu?" his voice shattered her thoughts. She noticed his frown had deepened.

"Yes, why?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You are asking so many questions about him."

"Well," she rolled her eyes, "you look rather scared, so I thought..."

"Oh..." he blushed - he blushed??? "Oh, no... Nanu is fine... I was... I was just... you know?"

No, you thick moron, I don't know! What do you want? She raised her brow questioningly, prompting him to elaborate.

Arnav Raizada bit his lip, took a deep breath, bit his lip again, opened his mouth, closed it and bit his lip again. She had to, in turn, bite the inside of her cheeks to prevent herself from bursting into laughter. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them. "There's a... uhh... a party... kind of thing at the... uhh... the town square tomorrow night," he finally managed to blurt out before wincing like he was hurting.

Khushi blinked. "Yes, I know."

"So..."

"So?"

"I was... I was wondering if... if maybe you... uhh... will you come with me?"

"Oh..." she simply stared at him, not knowing whether he was being sincere or this was a nasty joke. He gave her a tiny hopeful smile. It was her turn to fidget nervously. Why was he asking her of all people? "Uhh..." she looked away awkwardly. "I'll... I'll have to ask my parents."

He smiled oddly at her, nodded and left.

***

The next day, she got to the old age home a couple hours earlier because one of the volunteers could not come. Afsana had slipped on some ice and injured herself, thankfully not so badly, but she still needed so rest. So Khushi had had to fill in for her. Surprisingly, a certain young man was not there yet but what she felt was not pure relief. There was some of that, mingled with something else, something she couldn't really make out.

"So, what did your parents say?"

Stunned, she looked up at Mr Singh who was beaming at her. "A-about w-what, sir?"

He sat himself in the armchair before her. "Come on, Khushi. Arnav doesn't hide anything from me. He was telling me he wanted to ask you to accompany him to the New Year's party and that you told him you would ask your parents. What did they say? I can assure them, my Arnav is a very well-mannered boy."

Khushi smiled despite herself at the old grandfather's truest concern.

"But that boy is such an idiot too," he went on, chuckling. "I knew he liked you from the first day and I told him to tell you but he says he cannot, he gets too nervous. You remember that night when he arrived? He just ran out after you after I told him you live near to where our old house is, he never told me where he was going. It was the next morning that he told me. Usually, he stays here the whole night of Christmas Eve. I realised at once that he liked you."

"Nanu, what the hell?" Arnav, red in the face, strode into the room. He looked at Khushi in alarm. "Don't listen to him. He has lost his mind."

Mr Singh laughed heartily at his grandson. "You fool! Do you think I was born yesterday? I have been in love for years, my boy, I think I can recognise that look on your face. You think your mother and you would have existed today if I had been nervous and stuttering like you? Gather your guts and ask the girl properly!"

At this point, Khushi could feel the heat creep up her own cheeks and she obstinately stared at the carpet.

"I would say, go talk to her parents and win their hearts. It's what your father did. And it's what I call making an appeal in high court. Now, what are you waiting for?" he looked at the two young people and chuckled. "Ah, yes, I'll leave you two alone."

Even after Mr Singh left, they stood there, frozen in the terror of what had just happened. "Sorry about that," he ended up saying hoarsely.

"It's okay," she squeaked in reply.

"So... can you come?"

She glanced at him. He was gazing at her intently. Her heart somersaulted dangerously. She could not trust herself to speak, so she nodded. A smile brightened his face and she felt like she could faint.

***

She had been ardently hoping that he would not show up but when she reached there and saw him, his eyes had already found her since long and he was smiling that heart-stopping crooked smile that made her stomach churn nervously. She almost turned on her heels and ran away.

"You look... beautiful," he breathed when she reached him.

Khushi glanced down at the dress Martha had been telling her to buy for the university's Christmas party that she had not been able to attend. "I thought I had overdone it."

He shook his head as he offered her his arm. "You are just... just... perfect..." She blushed and took it shyly. "I was thinking," he whispered to her, "we could go to your place after this and I could... meet your parents?"

"Oh..."

"And my family too is coming tomorrow so... But only if you want to, no pressure."

"No! It would be my pleasure," she replied shakily.

***

"You don't stutter very much these days," she remarked with a giggle.

He dropped one of the boxes on the floor and narrowed his eyes at her. "Neither do you."

Her jaw fell open. "I never stuttered!"

"Really?" he teased back. "Oh right, your favourite word was 'oh'. The answer to all my questions, right?"

She chuckled and hopped over some boxes to sit on the wooden stairs. The house was a real mess right now, but they would make it right.

"What are you thinking?" he wanted to know as he sat down next to her.

She propped her chin on her hand and her elbow on her knee and looked at him. "Isn't this house too big for us?"

Arnav smirked at her. "We can fill it with many many many children."

Khushi punched him on the shoulder. "I could never have thought that the stuttering boy I had met two years ago could be so cheeky!"

"Well, now you know," he laughed, trying to pull her onto his lap.

She slapped his hands away and stood up hastily. "Arnav! We have so much work to do! The wedding is in two months and we have to get your Nana and Nani's house set before that if you don't want to live at my parent's for a while. Mind you, I don't mind, but you will definitely not have me to yourself over there."

And so, he got to his feet with a groan and followed her into one of the rooms they were nearly finished with...