Prologue
"Listen, and listen carefully…! I am not interested in you."
She stared at the man in front of her, startled. She couldn't make any sense in him. Her eyes travelled his face, in a hope to find a hint of tease in them, as it always held. But there was none.
"Mom forced me into this. I couldn't say no to her due to her illness. But that doesn't mean that I will compromise on my life with you. I hate you, Khushi. I just hate you…!"
She felt numb. Her knees were weak and she felt dizzy due to his words. What was he saying…? She couldn't make a thing from it. She wouldn't want to make a thing from it.
She knew him from her childhood. They grew up together. They never had a friendly bond, but they didn't have a hatred bond too. They were just not friends. He was his Mamma's boy and she was her Papa's girl. They would always pull each other's legs. They would shout at each other, fight, pull their hairs, but never in their lives, had they held hatred for each other. He was not a bad guy, she knew it. He was not even a man who would play with other's emotions.
"Khushi," he called out for her, and she watched him, who was trying to control his temper.
He sat beside her on the bed, and held her hands in his and said, "I don't hate you, Khushi. And I don't love you too, nor do you love me. This will just never ever work."
"Who is she…?"
Khushi asked him, coolly. She always wondered how she could understand him so well. And the only reason, she knew, that he loved someone else.
The wedding was unexpected. None of them ever thought to have a life together. His mother had a heart stroke and so she wanted her son to get married to Khushi. Now she was here, six hours after the stroke, in his bedroom, as his wife.
"Lavanya"
She heard him say and sighed. It was hard to reach his heart, she knew it too well, and if he loved someone, it would take him a lifetime to forget them. Her marriage held no meaning. She couldn't see any future for it.
"I can't say this to them, Khushi" he whispered, leaving her hands, "Mom shouldn't handle any shocks. I have a plan… to avoid this thing."
Thing…? Khushi wanted to laugh at her life. She got married that day, and her husband was in love with another woman, and on top of it, he had no respect on their relationship. For such a man, who didn't even care for her enough or even talk to her in the first place to make further decisions but came up with his own plan, she would give a damn in her life.
If he didn't want this thing, then she was willing to let him go. She was not a woman who would beg their husband's to give a place for them in their lives.
"We will move from this place, to Delhi, and there, I will move in with Lavanya in some other place and you stay in the flat in which, according to our families, is ours."
Perfect…! She thought. He had a perfect plan and she nodded.
"So we are free from this thing…"
She asked him, while he lowered his head.
~~~~~~~~~~@~~~~~~~~~~
Khushi laughed out freely…! She watched the couple teasing each other and looked at the man beside her, rolling her eyes. After the office, all her colleagues had decided to spend some time together and so they were sitting in a restaurant. She could feel his gaze on her, as usual, yet decided to ignore.
The man had joined the company three months ago and had an instant pull toward her, she knew it. She could see desires for her in his eyes. He never tried to hide it, as many men did, and this made her respect him with her heart.
Silly she might be, but she respected this man, who always let her know about what he felt for her, and yet never took advantage of her. He was truly a gentle man, according to her. And she liked gentlemen. His intense held such power that she, many times, gave in to the thought of letting him have her. She was not a kid. She knew what was right and what was wrong. And she knew she needed her own life, in her own terms. She was a 26 year, well settled woman. Married yet single. Virgin.
She had desires too.
If her so called husband left her a year ago and enjoying his life with his Lavanya, what was wrong in it if she settled down in her life, with a man…?
"I need to leave now, guys. See you on Mon…"
She said at last and made her way out, typing a message to the gentleman, to meet her in the parking lot.
She saw him walking lazily toward her and smiled. She took a deep breath and stared at his eyes.
Those molten bronze eyes…!
"Can you drop me home…?"
She asked, but he already opened the passenger's door for her. She got in and watched him as he drove to her flat.
"Why do you always stare at me, Arnav?" she asked, finally. "What do you exactly want from me?"
~~~~~~~~~~@~~~~~~~~~~
Real Estate
37