Part 22
Arnav woke up earlier than he had planned to and despite the late night, he still felt quite energised. He turned onto his side, rubbing sleep away from his eyes as he glanced at the bedside clock. It was a couple minutes past 5am. He knew that there was no way he would be going back to sleep; he was one of those people who just couldn't do it. He decided that a visit to the hotel gym was in order; at the very least that would take care of his...umm...tension.
One hour later, Arnav was back in his suite all showered, dressed and ready for the day. He felt more equipped to face the day now and was really glad that he has a workout. He sat down on the couch, flicking on the TV and began skimming through the various breakfast shows. One about the importance of breakfast caught his attention. Arnav leaned to get the phone sitting on the side table by the couch, a huge cheeky smile appeared on his face as he made a call. A few minutes later he made another call. This time to Miss Khushi Kumari Gupta.
Khushi groaned as the phone rang. Why oh why was someone so intent on ruining her sleep Devi Maiya?! She winced as daylight
hit her eyes. 6:20am. She groaned again, even louder this time as she grabbed the phone. Before she could say anything, a very familiar male interjected.
'Morning Khushi, get ready and come up to my room in 10 minutes. I'm in 371. Bring all your conference papers with you. 10
minutes meaning ASAP,' he hung up before she could say anything. Arnav had to smile, he had clearly woken her up and it sounded like Ms Gupta wasn't a morning person at all.
Rakshas!! Devi Maiya, he was...still is... and will always be a rakshas thought Khushi as she ambled out of bed. Who sounds so wide awake at 6am and more importantly, who gives a woman a ten minute ultimatum?!!! Well if she was late, then tough. Mr Arnav Singh Raizada would just have to deal with it. She walked into the bathroom and 10 minutes later, to her own consternation, she was absolutely ready to go. Khushi silently debated with herself as to whether she was more angry with herself or with him. The little voice in her head whispered; it's ok, you don't have to pretend to be mad at anyone. You're just excited that you get to see him aren't you..admit it. The answer was evident in the smile that appeared on Khushi's face.
Khushi picked up her black folder which contained her conference papers and smoothed out the slight wrinkles on her royal blue salwar kameez and raced out of her room.
6:31am. A knock on the door. Arnav stood up. She was a minute late and she would be hearing about it he decided as he walked
to the door. Arnav opened the door and completely forgot what he was about to say as his eyes travelled up her body.
'Well, I didn't know we were going to be coordinating colours today as well,' he drawled.
Khushi's head shot up taking in an Arnav Singh Raizada
dressed immaculately in a dark navy pinstriped business suit, teamed with a light blue shirt and a paisley printed blue and olive tie. The suit jacket hugged every inch of his muscular frame; clearly custom tailored for him. Khushi saw ASR in suits every single day, but today as she took in the man...Arnav... Khushi had to stop and acknowledge Devi Maiya for her creations.
Arnav watched Khushi as her eyes travelled from the top of his head down to the tips of his Italian loafers. He really didn't
mind being checked out by Khushi, but unfortunately something was waiting for their attention. Arnav cleared his throat, his eyebrows rising as he murmured her name.
His voice broke into her trance and Khushi looked up, reddening in the process because she knew that he knew that she was
checking him out.
Arnav stepped to the side, gesturing for her to come in. Khushi's eyes reflected her astonishment as she looked around the huge
sitting room. Two beige, three by three couches sat in opposite each other covered by embroidered silk cushions. A rich beige, royal blue and burgundy Persian rug covered the hardwood floor. Fresh cut flowers in crystal cut-glass vases sat on the highly polished low tables which were dispersed around the room. A huge work desk took prime position against the window overlooking the manicured lawn downstairs. Devi Maiya, she could probably fit their entire house in this sitting room alone and still have space left over. She walked in slowly, and placed her bag and file on one of the couches as she walked around the room forgetting that she was supposed to be angry at him for waking her up so early.
Arnav sat down, folding one long leg across the knee of the other leg, his arm outstretched against the back of the couch as he watched Khushi. A knock on the door distracted him. Arnav walked back to the door and let a man in with a trolley full of covered dishes. After the man left, Arnav walked to Khushi and stood in front of her.
'I thought we could have breakfast together before the conference,' he said quietly, 'I'll be in meetings with other the
CEO's all day and I won't see you until tonight, so I thought this might be a good idea...' Khushi watched his Adam's apple bounce up and down as he swallowed. She cocked her head to the side; was Arnav Singh Raizada nervous, she wondered in amazement. A sunny smile appeared on her face, 'I think it's a really good idea, in any case, I'm always starving in the morning,' she said as
she walked towards the trolley.
Her eyes widened as she uncovered the dishes one by one; spanish omelettes and toast, idli and sambhar, coconut curd rice,
muffins, croissants, fresh fruit, pastries, paranthas and curd, tea, coffee, juice...
'ummm...Arnav-ji are we expecting anyone else?' she asked in awe, her eyes still transfixed on the food. Arnav cleared his
throat, 'no its just you and me. I just wasn't sure what you liked so I might have ordered a bit more. Let's eat' he said he said gruffly.
They sat down and began eating. Arnav was amazed; Khushi hadn't been joking when she said she was starving. He was
somewhat amazed as she wolfed down more breakfast than he could manage on two different days. It was actually refreshing to see a woman actually eating and not picking at her food. He chuckled as he imagined Khushi and Lavanya Kashyup at the same table; Lavanya would have run away faster than a speeding bullet train had he placed this meal in front of her in fear that she might actually put on weight just looking at the food.
Khushi was thinking about their date and what RR-ji said to her. Well there was no time like the present she thought taking a
deep breath and Devi Maiya's name simultaneously.
'Arnav-ji I need to talk to you about something before we...I mean..before tonight,' she began. She took another deep breath
and looked straight into his eyes across the table.
'Arnav-ji I need you to know that I am working on a business plan to re-start my father's business. I've been working on it for a few days and I have a mentor guiding me. I don't want to deceive you or lie to you, so I'm telling you about this now before...well before anything further happens.'
Arnav was slightly taken back. He had been expecting Khushi to bring up Jaleebi Junction at night during their date. Well now that she had taken the lead, he had no choice but to follow. He leaned back against the chair.
Khushi watched Arnav intently, hoping for his expressions to give something away, but Arnav Singh Raizada was renowned as a
business specialist for this reason - he never revealed anything pre-emptively. Whilst she knew that she hadn't done anything wrong, just being subjected to that intense scrutiny by those bottomless brown eyes made her nervous. Devi Maiya, was this calm before a storm? Maybe he was really really mad.
'Arnav-ji, I'm happy to... I mean I can tender my resignation...if you feel that it's... appropriate,' she whispered.
Well he had to hand it to her again. First it was ethics and business and now she was entwining ethics, business and
relationships; the last one being an area that he was definitely not a specialist in. Arnav leaned back while assessing the options in his mind.
He took a sip of his black coffee and set the fine bone china cup back into the saucer. He spoke quietly.
'I appreciate you telling me about your business plan. Naturally I have questions, but we don't have the time to discuss it now. We'll continue this conversation later,' he said quietly as his
stood up.
Later? He said 'later' not 'tonight' - did that mean that their date was cancelled? Khushi watched Arnav. She expected him to
yell at her - why wasn't he doing that? This was bad. For the first time in a long time, Khushi was scared. Without thinking she jumped up and grabbed his big hand in both of hers. 'Arnav-ji, I'm sorry I've made you angry and believe me I had no intention of deceiving you. I just wanted to tell you everything now. When I started thinking about babuji's business, this..this thing between
you and me wasn't there and to be honest, I still don't understand why you would even want me...' her voice trailed off into a whisper as she stared at his hand in hers.
Like Khushi, Arnav's gaze was locked on their entwined hands. He pulled his hand back.
Khushi gasped. No!!! her mind screamed while terror tightened the muscles in her neck and nerves caused her stomach to turn.
Arnav turned and faced Khushi. Unshed tears began appearing her almond shaped eyes, making them glisten,
but she didn't avert her gaze. She didn't need to, because she hadn't done anything wrong he thought. Arnav took a step forward and although only about six inches separated them, to Arnav they felt like six miles. He spoke quietly.
'Khushi I wouldn't be accepting your resignation if you handed one to me right now. Two reasons; one, you haven't technically done anything wrong and two, AR Corp needs to keep innovative and
driven people around. It's what makes us the success that we are,' he said while his gaze locked with hers. Arnav added a third unspoken reason in his mind; and also because I don't want to let you go. He knew at that moment that he was going to have to think about this more carefully. Losing Khushi was not an option, but neither was preventing her from starting her business.
Arnav stepped even closer. He took her hand. It was trembling. The unshed tear made its escape, falling on the hand that held
hers. He wanted to pull her close, comfort and reassure her. It was a very alien and unexpected reaction. Arnav Singh Raizada didn't do comforting and reassuring...but he wanted to. Very deeply. He knew now wasn't the time. Instead, he fought against every fibre of his body not to hold her, and hold back instead.
Pulling back, Arnav cupped her face in his other hand. It was time to be honest with her just as she had been with him.
'Khushi, I came after you. Tonight we'll talk about why. Right now you have every right to be confused about things. But I will say one thing - you haven't deceived me, stop thinking you have. For the moment, we need to concentrate on why we are here and make it through the day. Can you do that?'
She nodded silently.
'Good. Tonight then...' he whispered.
'Tonight' she whispered back.
Hello my darlings,
so I was getting a bit dismayed with the comment rate (whats new; so are all the other writers I guess...😕) but after some really lovely comments and PMs 🤗 ... I have decided that there isn't anything I can do about this. So.. I leave it with you my dearest reader...
In the meantime, I will do all I can... continue to weave the story that is Master Class...
Edited by warriorprincess - 13 years ago
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