_____________________________________________
Present day,
The Hacienda, New York.
_____________________________________________
"Oh dear this is cloyingly sweet isn't it?"
Her expression carefully bland, Renee Archibald called on her infinite reserve of patience and sweet smiles as she listened to Aasha's fiance's pretentious show of jalebi dislike. Thankfully Mr. Mohit Shergill appeared to be about perceptive as his father's company was successful, as such it wasn't in the least surprising that after his obligatory bite into the jalebi he managed to say the stupidest thing anyone could say about a jalebi, and not notice Aasha's blank look at the plate of jalebi's, James' cold glare and her personal split second drop of her polite facade as her mind went - Of course it's sweet genius...it's a jalebi...
No one grew up knowing Khushi Singh Raizada, and not knowing what a jalebi was...hell right now she was probably craving the damn things as much as Aunt K usually did, oh what she wouldn't give to be anywhere but here...rummaging her purse for the softly trilling phone, Renee found herself asking the irony loving fates - where was a good crisis when you needed one?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Present Day ,
Upper East Side, New York.
_____________________________________________
"Finally decide to leave your jealous ogre of a husband and runaway with me?" Drawled Damien in a husky murmur, as he seated both his favorite Aunt and himself facing the veranda- like patio, off his makeshift living room, giving them both a skyline view of New York's in all its Christmas finery.
It was good to see her. Even if now wasn't the best of times to be around another disturbingly attractive Raizada. His slow smile making a rare appearance as he looked up to find her observing him with a disdainful shake of her head, Damien Bass thanked his luck that at least he wasn't dealing with the avenging-mommy he knew Khushi Kumari Gupta, was very capable of being. At least the Governor had had the sense not to tell her...probably more out of self-preservation than out of respect for him...but he'd take what he could get for now.
"Arnav's out with your dad," she replied as if that was exactly what he'd asked continuing contritely with a soft, "I'm sorry about what he did to you that day..." her hand automatically reaching out to soothe the still evident bruising around his right eye, only to have Damien shift away politely...
So he had told her...huh.
Deciding on honesty instead of taking the opportunity to bring out his staunchest supporter, Damien admitted wryly, "I deserved it." Before adding a brusque few questions, wishing fervently that he could be well on his way to very drunk by now, "So, what brings you here, Beautiful? And why aren't you with mom?"
"Your mom thinks she's having Braxton-Hicks again," he heard her answer her voiced slightly dulled, before she perked up with a forced smile, that even in his present state Damien happened to recognize, and continued with an animated sweep of her hand, saying, "Sooo... Dorota suggested I may want to delay going around for a bit, and I missed seeing my only other Jalebi-Jedi...how was Africa?"
Realizing without needing to be told that the last thing his damsel-in-distress needed was to be poked and prodded, he smiled with matched grimness- "Death, gore ...and still easier than Manhattan."
Most people would be put off by such a damning summarization of his weeklong return, Khushi Kumari Gupta, (or rather Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Raizada as her husband tended to emphasize) would not be the amazingly perceptive sidekick who had helped Damien steer clear of ending up a bored over-rich Manhattanite, if she was one of those people.
With a perception that rivaled Blair Waldorf's own ability to sniff out scandal, she tipped her head back and smiled, "You spoke to Aasha I presume?"
"She spoke...I listened." He corrected wryly.
Doe-eyes, which happened to be exact replicas of burning hazel one's he'd been observing mere hours ago, lit up with suppressed laughter- "Ah.How bad was it?"
* * *
Oh this was going to be fun, thought Khushi with a guilty grin, before she prodded her prodigal knight in shining armor or in this case in Armani - "You spoke to Aasha I presume?"
His cynical lift of his brows reminded her so much of Arnav it was ridiculous, even his wry answer had her thinking of Arnav...well actually that was a bit more like Chuck...he was an Anrav-Chuck hybrid...in a purely formed-in-the-laboratory-no-physical-touching way of course.
The funniest part however was that Aasha was basically the same, oh she had none of the masculine traits despite her initial ten years attempting to be a boy so she could enter Damien's No-Girls-Allowed 'conferences' , but if Arnav defined Arrogant and Chuck Bass defined ...well...Chuck Bass...Aasha was all that and more...even a bit of Waldorf charm.
In fact the only thing Aasha had gotten from her, was her persistence. Khushi watched Damien lower shuttered eyes from her while memories of a time long ago, melded in her mind with those not so long past. She thought of midnight type ups demanded by a man who had no scruples and who was determined to make her quit, and she thought of his baby girl watching the boy she had had her heart set on since she was knee-high, waltz around countless ballrooms and stroll along countless avenue's with beauties she once believed she could never compare to.
She remembered how that self same girl had glowed with absolute pure joy at the thought of being escorted to her Debutante Ball by that same boy.
She remembered how she had waited for hours, first in her room and later on the bottom of the stairs, her hair cascading down in perfectly coiled curls, her designer gown, wrinkled from her own pacing.
She remembered her determination to go on to the Ball, refusing to believe that the man of her dreams was anything but unfortunately held up.
But most of all she remembered the way she'd watched her little girl's heart break, not at the Ball, not even when he failed to show up...but later...after she'd excused herself for a scant hour.
Khushi had never asked where she had gone for that hour, she never asked what had happened either.
She already knew.
Aasha Singh Raizada had had her heart broken that night.
But the one thing that Khushi Kumari Gupta had learned in her life, was that only one person could truly break your heart in that particular way. And no matter how much it hurt...if by some miracle they could make it past that...they would be more than just happy. They would be in love.
Her voice low with the weight of the many memories weighing in, she sat back and observed as she informed him bluntly- "You know baccha, it was pretty bad six years ago too."
"Really?" answered her victim tartly, a previously never before used harshness entering his tone as he curtly retorted, "You mean when I was going out of my mind looking for her and when you failed to mention you knew exactly where she was."
While Arnav Singh Raizada would have taken offence to that particular tone, his wife had heard the words laced in it, biting back a smile as she pointed out -"I told you she was safe."
Only to have a biting rejoinder grace her concern- "After two weeks...you told me after two damn weeks."
Now while Mrs. Raizada failed to take exception to tones, expletives were another factor entirely, no sooner had she been about to point out this fact that the target of her ire, relented of his own accord with a almost boyish apology. "I'm sorry...it's just..."
This time Khushi did smile, but only to temper her words, "It's your fault too you know..."
Only to have him lean back and stare blankly out at the bedazzled streets of New York.
She almost didn't have the heart to say what she was about to say, but unlike these two, she knew what was on the line...she had been there before.
So very embroiled was she in her own thoughts, that she nearly missed his half whispered ... "She was a fifteen year old with a crush."
"And you were a nineteen year old who was too terrified of getting involved with someone you didn't think you could walk away from." She accused softly, only to watch him close his eyes in what she realized was regret.
"She's engaged you know."
* * *
Even saying the words out loud made Damien long for a double-barreled shotgun. All the more so because he knew that every word he'd been listening to was nothing but the bald-faced truth.
He had been an idiot. Even if he was innocent about that one night, he was still an idiot.
"All I know was that she spent a night in the hotel with you." Replied his Aunt with a staggering amount of calm for a woman who, extremely devout in her own right, was discussing her own daughter.
Not wanting to worry her unnecessarily Damien, reassured with his usual authority, "Nothing happened," going further to explain the incident as tamely as he could, given its circumstances, "...She was celebrating her engagement...the fiance's an utter social climber with no idea how ..."
"You seem to be failing to understand me Baccha." Interrupted his Aunt with the air of someone who was not actually paying his excruciating explanation much heed, "I do not know about any engagement, I do suspect one however since she happened to be in your hotel room for a night."
For a split second Damien felt like he'd been hit over the head by one of the AK-47's he'd so often seen passed around in the fallen villages of Rwanda.
"Are you..."
Slowly, and very clearly as if she was speaking to a child as opposed to a twenty-six year old who had seen carcasses eaten away both literally and figuratively, the apparently naive wife of the Sub-continents most prominent fashion mogul, explained - "I am simply saying that my very protective husband has sheltered me from a number of facts and the only one I have happened to run across is that you and her were together, I may also have drawn happy conclusions from that fact. "
Damien Bass had often wondered what a sweetly unaffected creature like the woman he had presumed Khushi Kumari Gupta to be was doing with a temperamental, cynical machine like Arnav Singh Raizada.
Now he knew.
"My God ...you really are a Raizada."
Far from being insulted, the woman he was now seeing in a decidedly different light broke out into an arresting smile, as she replied ...
"Maybe it's time you fought for her...like a Bass."
The low hum of his heretofore unheeded phone, reverberated in the background.
_______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Hey Upper East Sider's, Gossip Girl here.
Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's Elite.
I have but one thing to say to you today Upper East Siders -
The Queen is back.
All hail the Queen.
XOXO
Gossip Girl
___________________________________________________________________
::Authors Note::
As promised - The new chappie on the New thread...the New update is directly porpotional to the New Reviews and Comments and Likes!!😳
Love you!!
Nameera
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Shiv Shakti
Anupamaa
Hindi TV Shows
Love Friendship Dating and Relationships
703