Arnav could not believe what he had just heard.
'There must be some mistake. Could you try her room?' he told the lobby assistant,
'no Sir. Miss Gupta has left. She was staying with us for a week. She had to leave,' he said.
Arnav ran a distressed hand through his hair. How was he going to trace her now?
'Could you tell me where she was going?" he asked. The lbby assistant gave him a suspicious look. 'Hey, here's my State ID and driver's license. I am safe. It's just that we fought and she has left without telling me anything. Do you know where she is headed?'
The lobby assistant checked his ID and then said 'I heard her speak to the cab guy that she was getting late to board the flight to India from Chicago.'
She was going back to India? How on earth will he look for her? He didn't even know her number.
He felt like kicking himself for not asking for it. He had been so sure she would be around.
As he walked away from the hotel, his life seemed to be the same bleak one of the past 7 years.
His eyes looked into the distant horizon and said 'Please God. Once chance is all I ask---I don't believe in you. But she does. Won't you help me make her pain go away?"
Distraught, he got on his car and drove towards Chicago airport---
As the car sped towards the airport, Khushi's heart became heavier with every mile because she was leaving him behind.
A part of her wanted to know how he was doing in life.
Whether he was happy.
How much he had moved on.
Whether he was happy with La.
Whether he had totally forgotten her.
But she did not have the courage to stay back and listen to his tales about his life with La.
She did not have the courage to be in the same room with him again without feeling her heart breaking.
She did not have the courage to start reliving the past al over again.
Seeing him made her realize, nothing had changed in terms of the basics-----she still cared for him and her heart still beat for him.
She did not want that.
She did not want to go to that place where there was only pain and agony.
She did not want to do anything with the person who was another woman's husband
No way
She would never think of him, because she had many, many reasons to forget----
He did not know where she would be in Chicago
Which flight she would board
But he had to try
He had to give her a chance to know that he loved her and he wanted to make amaneds
For the umpteenth time, his mind asked the question-How will you find her?
Suddenly, as he was absently looking at his phone, he remembered that he had called NK.
Stopping his car, he eagerly looked up the call log and dialed his number.
After some time NK picked up,
'Arnav, why are you calling again?
'NK, please give me Khushi's number. She has left and I need to find her,' he sid urgently/
'And why would I do that when she has taken so much pain to hide herself from you?' NK asked.
'Please NK. I need to tell her I still care. I need a chance with her,' Arnav pleaded.
'Sorry buddy, you blew all your chances seven years ago.
Had you not been such a self centered jerk, you would have seen what she was going through when she kept asking your opinion about marriage.
You would have seen how insecure she was about you, when you were busy wanting to see the world and experience it.
You literally killed her and none of us have been able to piece her together.
All you needed to do was trust and stp and think.
But you were too busy playing the blame game and sleeping around,' NK concluded angrily.
'You haven't told me anything I haven't told myself. But NK, like her I lied. There was no La. There has been no one but her.
Please, please give me her number,' he pleaded.
There was a silence on the other end and then NK said
'How can I trust you not to hurt her again?' NK asked.
'Would you believe me if I say, hurting her hurts me more?' Arnav asked.
Again NK was silent.
'I will have to ask her buddy. She may not want it,' NK said.
'Please NK don't ask her. She may not agree,' Arnav said.
'Sorry buddy. I cannot do this without asking her,' NK said and hung up
Khushi trudged with her baggage and moved towards immigration.
She had been lucky to get a ticket at a short notice. It had cost her a hell of a lot of money.
But right now, she was hell bent on fleeing.
Her phone rang, with NK's number flashing.
'Hi NK,' she said warmly. She listened in surprise as NK narrated the details of Arnav's call.
And when he told her he was not married to La and everything was a lie, she almost collapsed due to the sheer joy her heart felt.
NK ended by asking her permission to share her number.
She asked him time to think.
Khushi sat in the airport lounge, lost in thought.
Every memory flashed before her mind's eye
Her friendship with Arnav
His dating of La
His calling her a hanger
Their first kiss
Her confession of love
Their heady days of love
The night they made love
And it halted in the hotel room with his words echoing in her ears:
'Explain about what? About how you have always carried on with NK behind my back? All that actng of virginal innocence. And I fell for it.
'You wanted me to marry didn't you? You wanted all my wealth? And when that did not happen, you caught the next rich guy-NK.
You are such a tramp,'
'La spent the night with me Khushi. Just as you have been spending with NK,'
'Yeah. May be in our next life, if there is one. But come to think of it. Scratch it. I don't want to ever meet you in this life forget the next one. Goodbye.'
'Goodbye Khushi. It wasn't nice knowing you,'
She wasn't aware she was crying.
Picking up the phone she called NK,
'No NK. Please do not share my number with him,' she said stoically.
Picking up her luggage she moved towards the immigration area, as the announcements for immigration were made----
Members Lounge
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