FF(Arhi): Lavender [Thread 2 link - p. 159] - Page 14

I like your style of writing. Great short stories. Please PM me when you update. I am dying to know how you create the intensity between Khushi and Arnav.

Thanks for the PM. That was awesome update, very mature on arnav's part. Kushi was cute. I really like the bond between arnav-lavanya and kushi-lavanya. I can't wait to see how kushi feels for arnav though we got to see the initiation from arnav first. Please PM me on updates

great update that was cute him wanting to look after him, and im pleased he saw that she wears the hair pin, cant wait for the next update

Eight years really changes a person, and in Kushi's case, for the better. I agree with Zarin, this Kushi is so much more likable. Maybe because we never see this in indian dramas, the abla naari stays an uneducated village bumpkin even after marrying a billionaire :\

dat was a gr8 update.

Awesome update, D.

I feel kinda stalkerish. Finding you in a different forum, with a different ID was relatively easy for me. 😆

Thank you ladies... More of you have now joined. Thus, we can skip the Tatyana, alias that it was (and a Russian one at that 😉...

AWWW so cute! he cares about her and he does have some passion for her! LOL nice update!

Chapter 8: The Soup for all Maladies

She took two Midols and slept she knew not for how long...

There were disturbing dreams of unbearably warm skin that turned into scorching heat... at times she thought she woke, only to realize that she woke to another dream and yet another dream, and then a series of them that seemed endless... reality looming at a distance, shrouded and elusive. It lasted only until she heard the bell ring loud and clear... and then the shroud fell off and the distance rushed at her at the speed of light and in a moment she came to, wide awake. She was wrapped up in the bathrobe and her sheets were tangled all around her. She sat up and stayed that way for a moment in silence, trying to gather her bearings from the rapid waking. The window was open, she noticed, although it was dark outside now; there was a breeze floating in and she pulled off her terry robe so that it cooled her overwarm skin.

She looked at the bedside clock when the bell rang again.

8:30 pm.

She managed to get out of bed and walk to the living room before the doorbell rang again.

"Who is it?" she called out as she paused and looked down at herself . She had on a long cotton sleeveless nightgown. It was really not good for entertaining and the whole reason why she had dragged on the bathrobe over it this afternoon when the devil had come to pay an unexpected visit.

"It's me, Bee. Open the door."

She smiled as she heard Lavanya's voice.

She rushed to open the door and Lavanya walked in carrying two hefty packages.

"Chicken soup or Cream of Broccoli?" Khushi asked as she tried to take one of them, but Lavanya shooed her away and walked to the dining table herself. "Both. And some fruits. And some iron pills. It must be bad this time if you called out from work."

"How do you know that I called out from work?" Khushi asked as she turned to her in surprise.

"Arnav called asking if you were sick in truth or just playing hooky."

"Playing Hooky! Of all things. I have worked every single Sunday for the past three months and that jackass thinks I want to play hooky! That must be why he showed up. To get visual confirmation that I am indeed sick."

"He showed up here?" Lavanya paused in between taking the soup out of the bag and looked up in surprise.

Khushi looked at her and nodded, but then suddenly remembered what he had said. "Wait, how is Jay?"

"Arnav told you?"

Khushi nodded.

"He's fine. Just a minor ear infection. I gave him an early dinner with his antibiotics and left the both of them listening to their dad's 150^th variation of the Batman multiverse." Lavanya smiled in memory, which made Khushi smile as well. She could just imagine the scene. Sohan was the greatest story-teller on the planet; it likely helped that he owned probably every single copy of anything that DC Comics has ever released. He was only tongue-tied when it came to his wife... well, that was really only in the beginning... now he had no such issues... but then again, Khushi had never seen Lavanya be so rude to anyone as she was to Sohan in the beginning... how strange love and attraction worked...

"I am sure the story will do most of the curing than the antibiotics." She mused with a smile as she walked to the kitchen to get two plates. "Can I pour you some as well, Lee? Did you eat?"

"I ate. But I will have some with you. Can't have my weak girl eating by herself." she heard Lavanya call out and smiled again as she grabbed two soup plates. Lavanya knew how bad some of her periods could get and always made her special Broccoli-cheddar soup, assuring her that it had all the iron and jadoo she would ever need to get through these days.

She put the plates down and went to get the glasses. By the time she returned, Lavanya had served the still steaming soup. She didn't know how Lavanya managed that... she was convinced that motherhood had given her superpowers...

Just as Khushi took the first spoonful, Lavanya spoke. "Does the man have the hots for you?"

And just like that, Khushi spit out the spoonful of soup and spluttered and coughed with enough racket to make Lavanya get up and pound on her back.

"Dear Lord, Lee... you want to send me to an early grave?"

"Does that mean he does?" Lavanya was persistent even as she brought the glass of water up to Khushi's mouth to make her take a drink.

"Why would you say that?" Khushi asked before getting up to walk to the kitchen on the pretense of getting a napkin.

Lavanya wasn't Lavanya for a reason, because when she walked back to the dining table, she was merely staring at her, giving her the infamous "See-if-I-don't-make-you-spill-all-your-secrets" glare.

Khushi avoided her gaze as she sat down once again.

"Bee, answer me. Does he?"

Khushi shook her head. "Of course not. That's a silly question, Lee. He merely wanted to make sure that I wasn't calling out without adequate reason the day before an important meeting. That was all." She kept her gaze on her soup as her ever-accommodating mind rapidly replayed images of the devil pulling the pen out of her hair and giving her a wooden hairpin, the devil holding her up against the wall this afternoon, the devil carrying her to her room and speaking with uncharacteristic candidness about her period, of all things... She took the glass of water and took a quick sip before holding the cool glass to her warm cheeks.

Lavanya watched her for several moments before she said, "Maybe I was asking the wrong question thus far. Do you have the..."

Khushi didn't let her finish before she blurted out, "No! no no. I don't."

"The lady doth protest..." Lavanya started and, once again, Khushi cut her off because she could finish.

"...only just enough. The lady doth protest only just enough."

Lavanya laughed her husky cheery laugh just then and Khushi smiled.

"It's me, Bee... You're hiding things from me?" she asked when she finally stopped.

"Only the things I hide from myself, Lee. Nothing else." Khushi answered truthfully.

Lavanya tilted her head for a moment before she squeezed Khushi's hand. "Fair enough. Let's eat."

Khushi sighed in relief and smiled again as she picked up her spoon to dig in to the soup that was the panacea for all maladies, both of the mind and the body...

***