Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Sleep Deprivation

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Khushi was feeling extremely guilty since the last two days. Ever since Arnav had decided to go with her to Chandigarh, he had completely immersed into work to compensate for the time he wouldn't be around. He had spent the entire Sunday working and the next day too he had left for work before Khushi could even wake up and returned very late after every one had slept.

Tuesday morning Khushi found Arnav sleeping on the recliner and his laptop lay on the table ahead. Khushi sighed realising that he must have sat working after returning too. She wanted to wake him and ask him to move to the bed and sleep comfortably but she knew if he would wake up, he wouldn't sleep and go back to work. She quietly had her bath and was about to go down to the kitchen when her cell phone rang loudly, she cursed and cut the call quickly but Arnav had already stirred and blinked his eyes open.

She looked at him apologetically, "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you. Why don't you move to the bed and sleep for some more time?"

He sat straight rubbing his eyes, "No, I need to be at work in some time. There is an important deal that needs to be taken care of before we leave on Thursday."

"But you came back so late last night and you seemed to have worked even after returning. When did you sleep? Early morning? Of course another hour of sleep wouldn't hurt. You'll feel better." Khushi argued.

But Arnav was already feeling much better hearing the concern in her voice for him. He stood up and started moving towards the wardrobe to get his clothes, "I'm fine Khushi. Don't worry about me."

Khushi came forward and held his arm to stop him. He looked surprised at her hand and then at her face. "Arnav I thought you said Akash Jiju can manage everything in your absence, then why are you over working yourself? You shouldn't be coming with me if this is going to be a problem for your work and by the looks of it even your health."

He turned to face her, "Khushi I think we have already discussed this. I am not letting you go alone and as far as my work is concerned Akash can handle everything. It's just this particular deal that I need to take care of before we leave. And don't worry about my health, I'll have very less work to do while we are in Chandigarh. You'll be busy with work and I'll get lot of time to rest."

Khushi sighed giving up. "Do you need anything right now?"

"Just a black coffee and I'll come down for breakfast once I get ready." He smiled at her and turned back to the wardrobe. Khushi came down to the Kitchen and started making his coffee. For some reason she was feeling extremely frustrated by Arnav's behaviour.

Nani came in the kitchen and Khushi wished her good morning. She took in Khushi's annoyed expression and spoke, "Is everything okay Bitiya? You look a little upset."

Khushi turned to Nani and replied, "It's Arnav. Naniji he is working crazily just so that he can go with me. He barely slept last night and even now he is getting ready to go to work. He just won't listen."

Nani smiled. "That's typical of Chote. He won't listen to anyone when it comes to work and even more right now because he'll not let you go alone. There's nothing we can do about it."

"I wish Di were here. Maybe she would have convinced him." Khushi said.

Nani ran a hand over her head, "If you haven't been able to convince him then I hardly feel Anjali bitiya would have been able to either. Both of you have same amount of importance in his life and if he didn't listen to you then I doubt he would have listened to her."

Khushi sent his coffee to his room with HP and started making breakfast. Payal entered the Kitchen after Nani left.

"Jiji why are you here? You should be resting. How's your fever?" Khushi asked touching her forehead.

"I'm absolutely fine Khushi." Payal said rolling her eyes. "In fact I don't have fever for over 24 hours now but you just won't let me leave my room. But today I'm not going to listen to you. I'm here to help you."

Khushi smiled. She knew Payal was fine since yesterday but just wanted her to take rest for an extra day. Both sisters made breakfast together and Arnav left for work immediately after eating.

Khushi too left for work after sometime. She too had to take care of a lot of stuff before she left for Chandigarh and it was almost 9:30PM when she returned from work. Payal was waiting for her for dinner, everyone having eaten already.

Khushi frowned when Payal told her that Arnav had yet not returned from work.

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Next day Khushi returned home early to do all the packing. Arnav was again late. They were leaving early next morning and she thought that at least today he should have returned early. After dinner when she returned back to her room, she called up Arnav.

"Arnav it's 10:30. When are you coming home?" She asked.

"Uh... Khushi I'm just leaving in a few minutes. You go to sleep. HP will serve me dinner when I return." He replied.

"Okay, don't be late." She said.

He agreed and disconnected the call. It was 1:00 AM by the time Arnav returned, he saw Khushi sleeping peacefully and moved to the bathroom to change. When he came out she wasn't in the room. He was surprised and checked by the poolside. He was about to move out to see where she was when she entered the room carrying his dinner tray.

"I thought you were leaving in a few minutes when I called." She said looking at him accusingly.

"Um... yeah... I got held up." He explained sheepishly.

She just shook her head and set the tray on the table and sat on the bed. He sat down to eat. "Are you done with your packing?"

"Yes, I returned early from work today to pack." She replied.

"Okay. I'll do mine now." He said.

"I've already done that." She responded.

He looked at her surprised. "You packed for me? But why? I would have done it. You wouldn't know what all I'll be needing."

"Yeah I didn't know, so I called up Di and packed everything as she instructed. I hope that should be Okay?" She asked.

"Um... yeah if you spoke to Di, then that would be fine. Thanks." He replied turning back to his food.

Once he was done, she took the tray back to kitchen. When she returned he had once again opened his laptop and sat typing something.

"Oh God! Arnav you are working again. Can't you sleep at least now? We have to leave early, it's already almost 2:00 AM. You have to drive for 5 hours, you need rest." She said exasperatedly.

"I know Khushi. Just this mail needs to be sent and then I'll sleep." He saw she was glaring at him angrily. "I promise. You go to sleep."

It was already late and Khushi fell asleep as soon as she dropped on the bed. She woke up at five when the alarm went off. She turned it off and got up to see that Arnav had once again dozed off on the recliner while working. She wondered how long he had stayed awake. She let him sleep for another hour while she got ready. She woke him up at six and he got up immediately.

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier? We'll be late." He said groggily.

"What time did you sleep Arnav?" Khushi asked pointedly.

"I don't know... maybe at four." He replied not meeting her eyes.

"Arnav I think we should take a driver along with us. It's not good for you to drive for so long considering you slept for only 2 hours, not to mention almost the same time for the last 3-4 nights as well." Khushi insisted.

"I don't need a driver." He said stubbornly "and even if we wanted we can't take one along because it's too late to decide that. One of our drivers as you know is on leave and the other one we can't take with us as Nani, Mami and Payal may need him."

Khushi tried to protest but he cut her off, "Don't worry about me Khushi. Driving doesn't bother me. I'll be fine."

Khushi controlled herself from huffing in frustration, "I'll send black coffee for you. Get ready, I'll ask HP to put our bags in the car." She walked out of the room without waiting for his reply.

He smiled shaking his head.

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After a light breakfast Khushi and Arnav were ready to leave. As they got near the car, bidding everyone a good bye, Arnav saw Payal making HP to keep two baskets on the back seat of the car.

Khushi hugged Payal and thanked her.

As they started with their journey at sharp seven, Arnav glanced at Khushi, she seemed to have settled down comfortably.

"What's in that basket on the back seat?" He asked unable to take the curiosity anymore.

"Oh I couldn't eat breakfast properly so early in the morning so Jiji packed some for me and also some other stuff for us to eat on the way." She said simply.

"You took two baskets full of eatables for us to eat for a five hour journey?" He asked with disbelief.

"Of course not." She replied. "Only the smaller basket is for our journey. The bigger one is full of homemade snacks for us while we are staying there."

"Khushi, we don't need to carry so much. We can get snacks in Chandigarh." He said suppressing a smile.

"I know but they won't be homemade." Khushi shrugged. "And I know you don't like all such things but Naniji asked me to take them and I couldn't refuse."

He didn't argue after that. Khushi sat quiet for a few minutes and then started getting bored. She was used to travel with her Amma and Payal and they would chat constantly and there was nothing she could talk to Arnav about. She looked at him and saw that he was concentrating on driving. She turned on the radio and tuned in to a station that was playing peppy Bollywood songs.

Arnav didn't say anything for a couple of songs but when Sheila Ki Jawani started playing, he protested. "Can you please turn it off or play something else?"

"Why what's wrong?" She asked surprised.

"Just change the damn station." He said and pursed his lips.

"No. I like fast songs and it will help you stay awake too." She said as if it was some kind of a therapy.

"Whatever..." He muttered.

Almost an hour after they had started, Khushi's stomach started rumbling as it was her regular breakfast time. She turned around and extracted a container of Parathas from the basket.

"Do you want to have some?" She asked.

"I'm fine. I don't eat while driving." He replied.

"Okay." She said and dug in. Once she was done with the Parathas, she put the container back in the basket and took out another container. She opened it and smelled deeply. "Mmm... Bless you Jiji." She said and put a Jalebi in her mouth.

"You brought Jalebis to eat on the way?" He asked surprised, though he knew how much his wife loved them.

"Who travels without Jalebis on a road trip?" She said casually indulging in Jalebi after Jalebi.

He remembered when they had been to Mumbai how she had sneaked away from the Hotel to eat Jalebis and he had been worried sick. She had gobbled down a box full of Jalebis and had still been ready for Lunch with the excuse that Jalebis were mere Stress relievers and had nothing to do with hunger. He couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the memory.

She looked at him questioningly and he shook his head controlling his expression.

"I thought Jalebis were stress relievers. Why are you having them now?" He asked unable to stop himself.

"Ummm... Yeah... but a sleep deprived driver is enough to get me stressed." She retorted.

He just rolled his eyes.

Traffic was light and Arnav was driving really fast but since they were on a highway, Khushi couldn't make out the speed.

"We should reach much sooner than expected with this kind of traffic." He said.

"Hmmm... that's good." She replied.

"You leave for client site at 1:30PM right? You should get at least an hour's rest." He stifled a yawn. "Lunch will be ready when we reach."

"Are you tired?" Khushi asked not missing the yawn. "Maybe we should stop for 10 minutes. I've got some coffee for you just in case."

He declined and continued driving...

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They were at about an hour and a half distance from Chandigarh. Khushi to Arnav's relief had switched to a station playing old and soft melodies. She was enjoying the scenery outside. She sighed and closed her eyes to the soothing music feeling relaxed.

After a few minutes she felt something strange about the motion of the car. She opened her eyes to see that their car was going towards right rather than straight in full speed. To her horror she saw that Arnav had dozed off. There was a loud horn heard and she saw a speeding truck coming towards them from the opposite side. As the truck approached closer and closer, her eyes widened and she screamed, "ARRRNNNAAAVVV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Chapter 38: Stubborn

I still have that helmet I had borrowed earlier...

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