Shopaholic V/S Workaholic - Page 7

awesome one...

Lovedd it buddy it was beautiful update.
Their eye convo and last line was amazing:)

CHAPTER 13 - When My Lies Land Me Into Trouble...

She walked nervously up the steps to Henry Grey's, one of London's best head-hunters. The wedding in Lucknow seemed to have happened ages ago.

After the wedding, she had stayed back with the family at their house for another couple of days. She had been able to patch up with Anji, but that had cost her a lunch with Shyaam, as well as a long sermon about her expenses. When she had been away, Anji had suddenly decided to clean up her friend's room, only to find the gigantic pile of bills and reminders Khushi had hidden under her bed.

Khushi Kumaari Gupta was chin deep in debt. So, they had figured out she needed a new job, which paid more, then she could repay all of it. The two had started their search immediately and Shyaam had joined in, suggesting to fix an appointment with Henry Grey's. That was three days ago.

Now, Khushi stood in front of the large black-tinted glass doors of the building, breathing hard. She took a few steps forward and checked her reflection. She had worn her best black Prada suit, the pencil trousers stopping slightly above her ankles and the jacket's sleeves at her mid-forearms. Underneath was a brand new pearl grey silk shirt, along with plain grey velvety Dior pumps, and her copper-framed Serengeti Medium Aviator sunglasses sat on her dark hair, today curled into large soft waves.

Could she looked any better for such an occasion? Nah! Anji had advised her to wear the sunglasses. They gave her a sophisticated-meets-intellectual look. She smiled at herself confidently. She would definitely bag the best job here. The only odd-one-out here was the black leather briefcase she was carrying. It had been a gift from her Amma years ago but Khushi had never quite used it. partly because it was too heavy, and partly because she had forgotten the combination, so she could not really open it.

"Hello!" she said confidently to the blonde receptionist. "I'm here to meet Annabelle Legrenier. My name's Khushi Gupta."

"Fine. Have a seat. I'll call you."

Khushi sat in the waiting area. Her eyes settled on the low table before her, hoping to find something interesting to read but there were only finance magazine there. She looked at the foyer instead, sighing. It was a great place, impressive. There was this marble fountain in the middle, this expanse of cream-coloured floor... it was huge. Blimey!

"Khushi?" A tall red-headed girl stood before her in a powder blue suit. Nice outfit, Khushi thought.

"Annabelle? Hi!"

The girl smiled. "No, I'm Anastasia, Annabelle's assistant. Are you ready?"

"Of course," Khushi followed Anastasia as the girl strode across the glossy floor to the varnished wooden staircase. This was really cool, sending your assistant to fetch your appointment because you are too important to do it. Her eyes casually fell on the label on Anastasia's suit and they widened in astonishment. Giorgio Armani! The assistant wore Giorgio Armani! He devi Maiyya! She was loving this place already!

***

"Good morning, Khushi. Please be seated," Annabelle gestured, speaking with a French accent. "I should say, your CV impressed me. Would you like tea or coffee?"

"Coffee, please."

"Anastasia, un cafe pour la demoiselle," the woman nodded once at her assistant who skittered off at once. "Oh, did I tell you I was extremely impressed by you CV, Khushi?"

"Yes, thank you," Khushi blushed. Extremely impressed. That was a good start.

"Especially, by your languages. You seem to be an all-rounder. You do English, French and Hindi very well."

"Oh, my French is not that good but it comes in handy in conversations," Khushi said modestly, beaming as Annabelle gave her an appreciative chuckle.

"German, surprised me, though."

Khushi kept smiling but her heart was beating fast enough. Honestly, the 'fluent in German' bit was a fib she had added just to get the additional points. She did not know a single German word. Annabelle asked her a few more questions about her career in financial journalism and her future projects. Anastasia came to give Khushi and Annabelle their coffee in between.

"Khushi, there's a position in banking that we have. I was think you might be suitable for it. If you agree, we could negotiate this vacancy for you. It is a very attractive offer, trust me."

Khushi suddenly felt as if she could not breath. Annabelle was talking of negotiating a post for her? God, was this her lucky day or what? "Absolutely," she replied, nearly choking.

"So, shall we move to meet your new employer?"

Wait, what? Khushi looked stunned while Annabelle got up from her chair.

"Did I not tell you, dear? The recruitment manager of the Bank of Berlin is here for a meeting with our CEO. I'm sure he'll love you!"

A large smile spread on Khushi's face and she followed Annabelle. She was going to be a banker! It was only halfway down the corridor that it hit her. Bank of Berlin. Berlin. That could not mean... Annabelle did not think...

"I'm so eager to hear you converse in German, you know! I don't know that language myself!"

He Devi Maiyya! No! This cannot be happening!

***

"Fynn Kaufmann, I would like you to meet Khushi Gupta."

"Guten Morgan, Khushi. Wie geht es dir?"

Khushi stood in front of the room with Annabelle and this bearded guy, Fayn-something. She stared at the man wordlessly, a large but fake smile pasted on her face as if she was brimming with happiness. Other people in the room had their eyes fixed on her waiting for her response. She had to say something, but what? He Devi Maiyya!

"Ermm... Hi..." she lifted her hand and waves at every one, but there was not a single smile back. "Ermm... I've just got to..." she started backing away to the door, not daring to look at Annabelle. "I... I..."

All of a sudden, Khushi turned. And ran for her life.

***

She reached the foyer, panting heavily. It was like she had just run a marathon. Her heart was pounding and she felt slightly dizzy. Quickly she straightened skirt, transferred her briefcase from one clammy hand to the other and checked her surroundings. Thankfully, the receptionist had gone off.

Khushi started walking again, all she could think of was getting out of this place. Her career? It was in shambles even before she had come here. Maybe since she had sent Annabelle that stupid CV full of lies.

Walk straight to the door, Khushi. Stop thinking about all this and walk out of here. Get out of this mess. Just-

"Khushi?"

Crap! They've got you! She froze right where she was standing. She turned around, her mouth open but her brain empty of excuses, just to find Arnav Singh Raizada walk towards her...

***

Was this set of somersaults his heart was performing justified? He frowned, doing his best to ignore it.

"This is not a place where I had expected to find you," he said when he reached her.

She looked deliciously flushed, a bit out of breath, her hair beautifully messed. He hid his smile. This girl was getting herself in trouble again? Silly thing! He had been right to nickname her his eighth wonder of the world. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were wide. She was shocked?

Arnav had lost count of the number of days since he had last seen her. His last night at Sheesh Mahal was when he had caught sight of her playing with the kids outside. He was going to talk to her before he left early the next morning but his phone had rung. It had been his assistant who had informed him that one of their Canadian clients was urging for an immediate video-conference and he had had to drop the idea of a conversation with her.

"What are you doing here, Khushi?"

Awesome
I remember this in shopaholic where becky runs into Luke and go suitcase shopping together
Hope Arshi does something together
Love shopaholic
Lov Arshi
Lov ur arshiholic shopaholic

awesome...

loved it! thx for the PM...

Hillarious again
Omg.. He Again caught her...

oh My God khushi, she always causes trouble for herself... she's just too much🤣

CHAPTER 14 - Do I Have A Boyfriend?

She smiled without feeling it. What was she doing? Good question. What would she tell him now? And she needed to get out of there fast, before they found her. She cleared her throat, playing for time.

"Looking for a new job?" he asked, eyebrows raised but she could not guess even remotely what he could be thinking.

She finally found her voice. "Yeah... maybe in banking... or I could be a broker..."

"Well that's a shame!" he whispered loud enough for her to catch it. Laad Governor! she mentally screamed at him. He seemed to be following her everywhere, damn him. And trapping her in those silly questions which made him seem like he was all-too-clever. The nerve of him! She shoul not not care about what he thought. But why did he think it was a shame? What did that mean?

"What are you doing here?" Khushi fired back.

A teeny-tiny smile appeared on his face as he stared at her. "I often recruit from here. There're efficient. Have they found you something yet?"

God! Would he ever stop shooting questions like that at her? He should have been a lawyer. Because he always managed to freak her out. And he always managed to ask her questions she could not answer for. Damn him, the Laad Governor! "Errr... actually... I... I've got a lot of options open... I'm just considering what step I could take next..." Which, seriously, would be definitely getting out of here before Annabelle or anyone else came by.

"You took the day off to come here, right?"

Khushi fought the urge to roll her eyes and nodded. "Of course." What did he think? She'd pretended her dog had been sick and had to stay with it?

"So, what will you do now? Any plans?"

Here, she had to leave as soon as possible and he was curious about what she would do during the rest of the day. Unbelievable, man! Anyway, she should not say 'nothing', never ever. Even if she really had nothing to do but loiter in the streets till evening or bore the crap out of her at the apartment till Anji returned from her classes.

"Uhh... I... I've got a few important calls to make, maybe..."

Got your answer? Then, go now, Mr Raizada! Leave me alone!

"Ah! Well, I'll leave you then. Good luck."

She gave him a business-like smile as he turned to leave. She should have been happy. Laad Governor was leaving finally. Then why was her heart sinking into disappointment while his back was slowly retreating, disappearing behind the doors?

She let the pasted fake smile drop out of her face when he was gone and sighed deeply. She dragged her feet to the exit, regret washing over her. She should have been nicer to him, right? She should not have thought all those evil things about him. Maybe he was just curious? Or lonely? Or was it something else?

The conversation she had had with Anji came back to her. It was when she had returned and told her she had met Arnav Singh Raizada at Tanishq's wedding. Anji had been really excited. She had even suggested Arnav might like her, but Khushi had just scoffed. Now she thought about it, could Anjali be right? He was always interested to know about her. He was always polite to her. He had always been hovering about her during the days they had spent at Lucknow. He, who never ever smiled, had even grinned, smirked, smiled, and whatnot numerous times, dammit! And just with her!

Could it mean-? No! Hell, no! She was just imagining things. And it was all because of Anji and her stupid words. Forget it, Khushi!

***

"Khushi! So good to see you again! But Mark told me you had taken the day off."

Lavanya beamed at her friend and Khushi smiled back. "Yeah, but I had to return and assignment, so..."

In fact, she had gone back to the apartment, lonely and miserable as ever to find this latest pending paperwork her boss had given her a couple of days ago when she had returned. How it had happened, Khushi could not explain but she had sat in from of the computer immediately and in less than three hours, the job was done. She had decided to hand it over at once. She had just come out of Jeff's cabin. He had been utterly shocked. And now she could see similar signs on La's face.

"Kya hua, Khushi? tu theek to hai?" (What happened, Khushi? Are you alright?)

"I'm fine, La!"

They talked for some more minutes before Khushi decided she had to leave. She had only reached the door when La called out her name.

"Khushi!" she swivelled on her toes to see Lavanya hurried towards her. "You know Arnav Singh Raizada?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Khushi's eyes widened. "Why?" she whimpered. How did La know? What did La know?

"You know, there was this press conference last night, yeah? Well I kinda bumped into him, and he started talking to me. He was great, really nice. Then... he asked me about you..."

Khushi's heart was thumping wildly in her chest. "What... did he... ask?"

"Well," La paused with a naughty voice. "He asked me if... if you had boyfriend."

Her mind went light, too light. She felt like she was going to faint. But thankfully enough she did not, it would have given La a piece of gossip. La could be her friend but everyone knew she could not keep a single thing to herself.

"La... I think... I need to go home..."

Khushi got out of there quickly. She did not even want to know what Lavanya had answered him. Or how he had reacted to it. Why the hell had he even asked that? Was Anji right? No way! He was such a great businessman, a tycoon more precisely, all self-made and flying so high. He wouldn't even notice a girl like her. There was already a throng of girls and women, single or not, drooling and dying at his feet at he did not even care to look at them, then why her? Why Khushi Kumaari Gupta, a small town girl, with big dreams and nothing else, not even the supermodel looks like the others had?

She walked blindly, not even seeing where she went. Somewhere in the back of her mind, alarm bells were going off, telling her someone was calling her name, but she continued walking in the breezy streets, eyes wide and her brain crammed with questions and possibilities, until she felt a large strong hand curl around her arm and tug her around.

"I've been calling you for so long? What's wrong? You did not even hear me."

She looked up into black coffee depths fringed with long, black lashes.

"Hello? Earth to Khushi! Are you there?"

The devil! "M-M-Mr R-Raizada?"

He rolled his eyes. "How many times should I tell you to call me Arnav?"

Khushi blinked in confusion. Was it her foggy mind playing tricks on her? Or was he really there? He smiled at her, looking at her short taupe summer dress by Magnolia.

"Aren't you cold?" It was then Khushi realised she had forgotten her coat at the office. She lifted her chin defiantly.

"No." He smirked at her.

"I guess... you're done with your 'few important calls', then?"

Say no, Khushi! "Yes," she like her bottom lip nervously. Amazing how her emotions were changing so quickly. He Devi Maiyya! Damn this man for everything he does to me!

"Good. Listen, I know you are a busy woman and all, but if you had this half hour spare, would you mind a little shopping?"

Awwie ❤️