Hello, Neighbour (ARHI SS) Note - Page 39 - Page 3

Amazing job, and thanks for the pm!

great update

Superb update !!! very well written.. Arnav's situation the things he was going through as he have not seen his Goddess from past one week.. it was beautiful description of his condition.. while even NK worry state about his cousin..

thanks for d pm
lvd d update

poor arnav! he is going to be horrified!..good story! keep it going! i hope la is positive here!

Chapter 4: Don't you want me baby?

"Give it to me", he gestured to his cousin, who ignored him and continued drinking.

"NK, I said give it to me."

"Ok, ok. I'm done! Keep your pants on!" NK passed the drink bottle onto Arnav who snatched it out of his hand, slightly peeved.

And that was the scene that greeted Khushi as she walked into the gym.

---

Payal Bose stared at the woman in front of her with quiet fascination. As a clunky-bracelet clad arm flew by her face for the 4^th time in excitement, she wondered how she exactly arrived at this situation.

Payal was one of India's brightest young talents in the field of astrophysics. She had been given accolades and recognition for the research she had contributed to the Hadron Collider project that famously sought to recreate the God particle that started the Big Bang*. Yet despite it all, a starry CV did not make for a high paying wage. India simply did not have a well-funded cosmology program and she was left to settle for a research job at Delhi University**. Payal chose to sacrifice an illustrious career abroad to stay home and take care of her aging parents. She had no regrets tending to them for the past 2 years until they passed away last summer. They were all she had in the world. However that meant she had shut herself off from the world, where her work and her parents made most of her existence for those 2 years. And now she found herself alone, merely alive and barely living.

Not wanting to depart her hometown and her parents' memories, Payal was reluctant to move overseas away from it all. Her grief was too fresh, and her heart still in mourning. But she knew deep in the deepest of hearts this stalemate was not good for her. She desperately needed a change but one that didn't demand a lot from her.

What she didn't expect was that the change would come presented in the form of the loud, cheerful young woman standing in front of her. They had struck up an unlikely friendship after a car drove past their bus stop and sprayed water on the two of them; causing them to spring forth a string a curses and admonishments. After their anger had subsided, they stared at each other in shock and laughed at each other. Payal offered one end of her dupatta to clean up, and she had offered her perfume in return. The two of them then sat there grimy and wet together, waiting for the bus to come while sharing tidbits of themselves.

When Payal told her she was working at the University, the girl exclaimed that her best friend was going there too. When it became apparent that they weren't in the same field (which was easy as Payal didn't know many women in the field of astrophysics), her companion shared that she was going to live with her friend soon.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a burst of inspiration struck and the woman looked at Payal with fresh eyes. When she learned Payal was living on her own, she jumped out of her seat in excitement. Baffled, Payal looked on as the animated woman in front of her made a hard sell on the merits of flat-sharing with her and her best friend.

Not wanting to leave her parents' home, Payal found herself in a quandary. Her parents' house held many memories - good and bad. However, as of late the memories she held were overwhelmingly sad. Now that she had been offered an opportunity to move away, she had a hard time making a decision. Was this the change she had been looking for?

Payal took a second to analyse the situation at hand, accessing her companion as she chatted away. While she may not be a social butterfly, she was a good judge of character. In the few minutes she had known Lavanya Shah, she found her a friendly but sincere person. She already had an easy camaraderie with her. It was possibly the easiest decision she ever made in her entire life.

Shaking her hand with an overjoyed Lavanya, Payal felt at times like these it was possible that a God existed.

Feeling lighter than she had been for the past 2 years, Payal embraced the winds of change.

What the heck, go for the stars so that even if you don't succeed, you'll fall on the moon instead, she thought with uncharacteristic glee as she boarded her bus, the anal-retentive astrophysicist in her unable to resist correcting that little phrase. After all, the stars were a lot further from the moon.

~*~

"What? Benson wrapped up the deal early? That's surprising." NK's puzzled tone bringing Arnav out of his thoughts.

Only temporarily.

Ever since they had bumped into Khushi at the gym, Arnav had walked away with an inexplicable feeling of unrest. An uneasy feeling had taken home inside his chest. Something was not right. But for the life of him, he couldn't put his finger on it.

When Khushi walked into the gym, Arnav had been completely unprepared. He had chosen that inopportune moment to take a drink of water when his heart leapt out of his chest and caused him to spray water.

Right in her face.

Arnav stood mortified in front of Khushi, his mind and inner conscience abandoning him in his moment of severe and acute embarrassment. NK had returned seconds later with a clean towel in his hands.

"Here Khushiji, use this. It's clean."

She gracefully accepted the towel and dabbed her face dry, glancing at Arnav through her lashes and offering him a small smile. Arnav's face turned redder than he thought it possibly could.

"K-Ku-Khushi, I'm so sorry'"

"Koi bhaat nahin Arnavji. It was just an accident."

She returned the towel back to NK with a grin.

"Thanks NKji, how have you been?"

"Not too bad. Just been busy with work."

"Oh yes! Congratulations to the two of you for your hard work! I watched the news on TV the other day and both of you were covered. Really well done! You must be so proud!"

"Thanks Khushiji. If you must know, it was Arnav's brainchild".

As she turned her beaming face to him, he felt the wind knocked out of his sails again. How did she always manage to do this to him?

"Congratulations Arnavji, for a job well done!"

His brain stuttered for a moment, wondering how to reply. This was his opportunity to showcase how witty and suave he was. However all his brain could come up with was the cheesy 'Thanks Khushi, where is my gift? You?' or the sleazy 'I know what jobs I'd like to be done well'.

He had wisely chosen to go with the generic "Thank you".

Seeing that he had her attention now, he took the opportunity to extend the conversation.

"And how was your week Khushi? Busy?" he rasped, his vocal chords tensed with nervousness.

"Oh I had a great week. I managed to sort myself out and visited my Buaji. She lives in Delhi too. It was nice spending time with her after so long." Khushi enthused, her large, round eyes alight with merriment.

"It's always nice to spend time with family, right Nannav?" NK winked at him.

Arnav rolled his eyes at him as Khushi smiled widely at the two of them. A smile that looked somewhat practiced on her face.

That was the first time that Arnav felt something was amiss.

As they resumed their workout and held steady conversations in between, Arnav began to notice that she would intermittently look at both NK and himself with the same smile plastered on her face; a secret smile that was loaded with meaning; meaning he wasn't privy to.

So he would catch her eye and smile back, and she would return the smile back without a care in the world. That disturbed Arnav more than he would like to admit.

He assumed she was as affected by him as he was by her. He had seen how she practically ogled at him when they first met. Her eyes were wide, and her jaw dropped. Arnav didn't want to boast but he knew he was a good-looking b*st*rd. All it usually took was one look, and panties would drop.

Then why wasn't it working? None of his smirks, grins or smolders had any effect on her whatsoever. It was like she was immune to his charms!

How is that even possible, he wondered? Admittedly it had been a while since he did this. Was he rusty?

Worried about his ability to woo the opposite sex, Arnav stared woefully at the retreating back of Khushi Kumari Gupta as she said her goodbyes while exiting the gym.

Maybe she is still offended by the water incident. Maybe she thought I was trying to overcompensate for the mishap? Maybe...Arnav pondered as he wallowed deeply into the dangerous waters of 'what ifs' and 'maybes'. He kept on at it until he vaguely comprehended that someone was calling his name.

"Yeah?" He looked up to see an irate looking NK, staring down in front of him.

"Nannav, I've been calling you a hundred times and you still didn't answer. Did you hear what I said?"

"Er..."

NK shook his head at his cousin. He knew a lost cause when he saw one.

"Akash just called. He'll be coming back earlier than planned. He's wrapped up the Benson business in a span of one week. I told him to drop by once he lands."

"Sounds good NK. If Mami permits, he should stay in the city with us for a while. We need to finalize some details with our newest collaborators."

"Okay, I'll tell him that." And NK stalked off to his room, leaving Arnav behind with his thoughts once more.

Arnav had never faced such a challenge before. If this is how it was, it was time to bring the charm offensive.

She'll never know what hit her.

---

* Can't remember if it's a fact or whether I made it up :P

**An institution I made up. Could be real though :/

A/N: Hello again! How are you liking the story so far? I don't know if you can tell, but I absolutely love writing Arnav and NK's relationship! So cute naaa???? *evil laugh*. Also, I know Lavanya and Payal did not have much interaction in the show, but I would like to think if they did, they would be good friends :) I tried writing something completely different in tone in-between writing this chapter. All of my previous works ('Do I Have To Spell It Out For You?' and this one) have been very sweet and fluffy pieces. I thought I'd try a darker piece with my new OS: A Second Too Late. Do check it out and let me know what you think!

PS: If you would like to receive PMs, please 'buddy' me and like the first post (https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/78670731) on this thread. I'll just PM whoever is on that post. It makes it easier for me to keep track. Otherwise, I'm happy for you to stalk :)

PSS: I don't actually have some of you on my buddy list. So if you would like me to send you PMs, please make sure to buddy me as well as like the first post (link provided above). Makes sending PMs much easier for me.

Setting the scene - Chapter 4