Forever and Beyond #1 Link to #2 on pg1 - Page 49

"Happiness wake up, will you? We are getting late. ASR will kill us." Said a jittery Lavanya. She couldn't imagine how angry Arnav would be if they were late.

"Go away, La. I want to sleep." Replied Khushi in a sleep filled tone.

"Khushi please wake up. I don't want to be late."

"So then go. Who asked you to waste your time here."

"Khushi get up or I am calling ASR. I am sure he will give you a good bashing."

"Yah whatever." Said Khushi, her voice fading out.

"KHUSHI" yelled an absolutely miffed Lavanya.

"JIJI TAKE HER AWAY FROM HERE RIGHT NOW." Yelled back Khushi.

"Your beloved Jiji is not here. She has left for work. That's it. I am done right here. I am calling ASR, he will only handle you." Said Lavanya as she pulled out her phone from her jeans pocket.

Arnav was driving from Shantivan to AR. He was stuck in a jam and was waiting for things to clear out when he heard his phone ringing. He switched on his Bluetooth and spoke.

"Hello?" he said

"ASR, I am done with your girlfriend. And today if I get late it will be her fault." Spoke La.

"La, whats wrong with you? And what are you talking about?" asked a confused Arnav.

"I am trying to wake Khushi up but she refuses to get up. I swear I am going to kill those stupid models who made my Khushi so tired. Which moron assigned them?"

"That moron would be me, La." Replied Arnav with a straight face while Lavanya bit her tongue.

"Uh.. yah.. right.. um.. So.. where was I?" stammered Lavanya while Arnav chuckled.

"You were telling me about Khushi?" he pointed out.

"Right Khushi, so she isn't ready to wake up. What am I supposed to do? If I get late for office, you're going to become all ASR on me."

"Give her the phone, La. Don't really know if you are even her BFF, as you claim to be. Cant even wake her up." He muttered under his breath.

"I heard that." Came a quick reply from the other side of the phone.

"I'm glad you did." He replied.

Lavanya handed over the phone to Khushi who put it on her ear.

"Helllo?" she stretched.

"Good Morning, Sugar." He said softly.

"Hmm." Was all he got back.

"Baby, wake up. Don't give La such a hard time."

"Who asked her to stay here and babysit me. I am telling her to leave but she seems to feel jealous of me sleeping." She said making a face and Arnav could only laugh.

"Sweetheart, we need to work right? Do you want to leave me all alone to finish mine as well as your work? Then I am going to have to miss my meals and you very well know what happens if I miss them." He said giving his last shot and knew that she would immediately wake up.

As if on cue, Khushi widened her eyes and screamed.

"What the? Arnav you cant miss your meals. You are diabetic. Don't you remember what happened the last time you missed Lunch? I had to drag you all the way from your desk to the couch when u fainted."

"But if you wont come for work then I will have to do your part of the work as well." He replied in a baby voice.

"Alright, I'm coming. But I am telling you, you aren't playing fair. Don't think I don't know what you did there." She said, narrowing her eyes while Arnav chuckled.

"I know I am going to pay for this. Now come soon. Love you."

"Hmm. Bye." She blushed. She still could not grab the whole idea of being in a relationship with Arnav and having him acting all mushy with her.

Shrugging her thought, she got up and went to get ready.

****

20 minutes later Khushi was sitting on the passenger seat of the car while Lavanya was driving like a maniac. She had already broken 3 traffic signals and was on her way to break the 4^th one. Khushi was swaying from left to right as if she was sitting in one of the video games car and experiencing a life and death situation.

"La, slow down. What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Well if you would have been nice enough and woken up on time I would not have to break all these signals."

"So what? Can you just slow down. Why are you getting so hyper?"

"Khushi, ASR may be in love with you and not say anything to you but he is surely going to kill me if I am late. Don't you know how much he hates latecomers?"

"He wont say anything. And even if he does, I will talk to him because its anyway my fault, so please can you slow down now? I am not even married yet, why are you hell bent on KILLING me?" she said as her voice became louder by every word she spoke.

The rest of the journey continued with Lavanya driving like a drunkard and Khushi yelling at her asking her to slow down. 5 minutes later Lavanya was running inside the AR building with Khushi following her. Khushi had never seen her best friend so scared of anyone. She was quite amused at her behavior. They reached the reception and heard the receptionist say,

"The two of you are very late. ASR is going to be very angry."

Just then they heard the intercom ring and Riya, the receptionist, picked it up.

"Hello?... Yes sir, they are here!... Sure, sir." Was all they heard as she kept the phone and looked up to address the two people in front of her.

"ASR has called the two of you to his cabin."

They started walking towards his cabin but were stopped by the one person they didn't want to meet early in the morning.

"Hello girls" Shanaya said in her ever-so-sarcastic manner.

"Hi Shanaya." Came Khushi's voice.

"I see you are late today. I hope you know how angry Arnie gets when his employees break the rules of his office." Smirked Shanaya.

"Ofcourse we know that, Shanaya. Thank you for reminding us though." Interfered Lavanya. She was not the types to take any kind of crap from anyone, let alone this excuse-of-a-woman.

"You know I wouldn't really be surprised if he fires you today, Khushi. There was this one employee who worked for him some 4 years back and one day he entered office 10 minutes late and well, he was thrown out, and you know you are already an hour late."

Shanaya was trying her best to make Khushi as scared as she could. She had thought of making her feel like any other employee, because for Arnav, his work held utmost importance and any kind of nuisance created where his work work concerned, well the person was in big soup.

"Thank you for telling us this extremely sorrowful story that you witnessed. By the way, Shanaya, I have heard that ASR had even kicked you out and that's why you had to shift to the US. Is that true?" asked Lavanya, with her hands folded on her chest and a smirk on her face.

Shanaya was dumbfounded. The nerve of the girl. Who did she think she was. No one could speak to Shanaya in that manner and get away. Her trail of thoughts were broken when she heard Khushi speak,

"La, I think we should leave. Arnav is waiting for us." She was sleepy right now and didn't want to have to deal with Shanaya and her non-sense.

"Yah, I don't want to deal with her early in the morning anyway." Lavanya murmured.

"Oh so Arnie is calling you. I am sure its your last day today. Best of luck, Khushi." She added as she swayed her hips and left them.

Khushi groaned as Lavanya pulled her up the stairs. She was already on the verge of loosing her temper. Shanaya had already started playing her games. Khushi knew she had to be careful of her actions and reactions around Shanaya, she was a very witty person and knew how to get her way, but Khushi was not going to let that happen.

Her thoughts were broken when she heard La nervously babbling something.

"Look ASR, I swear I was ready on time," she said as soon as she entered his cabin and then looking back and pointing at Khushi, she continued, "Its Khushi's fault. I was trying to wake her up, but she just wasn't ready to get her lazy butt off the bed. Please don't yell at me. I promise to leave her behind, if she plans to throw tantrums again."

Khushi sighed, standing behind Lavanya. What was wrong with the girl? Why was she getting so hyper, anyway it wasn't the first time Khushi was late.

"Will you please shut up for sometime, La. I have had enough of you yelling at me since the morning." Khushi said in a low irritated voice as she sat herself on the couch.

"Khushi, what the hell are you doing? This is ASR's office, you cant just come in and make yourself comfortable like its your own house. Get up, will you?" Lavanya said in her still very hyper voice.

"What is your problem, La? Why cant you just shut up for some time?" yelled Khushi as she felt a pair of arms coming around her waist and pulling her to its hard form and running its hand on her back, trying to calm her down.

Khushi was getting very agitated now and Arnav could clearly see it. He was sitting on his chair when he saw the little conversation taking place between the two friends. He suddenly heard Khushi yelling, which was very unlike her, and immediately went by her side to hold her close.

As soon as he held her, he felt her loosening up and leaning into his form. She kept her head on his chest and closed her eyes. She had no idea what was happening to her. She had never felt so restless about anything. She remembered the little self-talk she had last night.

She had fallen off to sleep as soon as she fell on the bed but had woken up in the middle of the night, feeling thirsty. After entering her room she had been unable to sleep and her thoughts had drifted off to Shanaya. Even though she trusted everything Arnav said, she had felt like something was not right and somehow even after convincing herself of the contrary that feeling of uneasiness still lingered.

She wanted to talk to Arnav about the same, but was not sure how he would take it. She didn't want him to misunderstand her and think that she didn't trust him and so she had decided to keep it within herself. She had even thought of telling Lavanya but had ridiculed that as well. She knew lavanya would over-react and become her protective self and she didn't want to disturb La for such petite things.

She came out of her thoughts when she heard Arnav address her.

"Khush, are you okay?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. She could merely nod her head and whisper a "I am fine."

"What's wrong?" he asked again.

"La, is irritating me since the morning." She said in a baby voice, pouting like a kid. Arnav smiled at her childishness and turned to Lavanya with fake anger.

"La, why are you annoying her?"

"ASR, I don't want to loose my job. I know how particular you are about office timings and rules."

"It doesn't matter, not where Khushi is concerned."

"Fine, I am sorry. I wont trouble you again, happiness." Lavanya said, making a small face. Khushi noticed this and didn't like it one bit so got up and gave La a big bear hug and said,

"Don't worry La. I like it when you irritate me. Now don't get all sentimental with me." She teased and Lavanya smiled.

"Okay guys, enough. Why do the two of you have to get all mushy in my cabin everyday." Said an irritated Arnav.

"Aww, ASR don't worry I am leaving, you can get all mushy with her as well." La winked and Khushi blushed hitting La's head.

"Well I don't need your permission for that, but right now I have called you to tell you that we have to leave for Vancouver next week so we can get everything ready for the show on time and for that I need you to get everyones travel arrangements done by today Khushi, and you to start clearing up all the work in this office so we can go without any rigidities, La."

The two of them only nodded and saw Arnav's smile turning into a sly smile as the two of them looked at him questioningly.

"Well, the three of us will be extending our stay so we can have a small holiday'" he started and saw the eyes of the two ladies widen while he continued, "Aakash and Payal will be joining us after the show is over." He completed and felt the weight of the two ladies on him as they hugged him tightly and blabbered.

"Oh my god, really?"

"ASR is taking us on a holiday!"

"This is so exciting Arnav!"

"We can do so many things there."

"Jiji will also be with us, so I wont have to make excuses as to why I will be gone long."

"Thank you so much ASR!"

"I love you Arnav, thank you." said Khushi as she loosened her grip on him but felt herself being pulled towards him by her waist. Lavanya had already left him and the room to give them some privacy, so now they were completely alone in the room.

Khushi looked up into his eyes while he brought his lips towards hers brushing them lightly and said,

"Never thank me for anything, Sugar. I love you and that's all that matters."

*******

For all those who skipped reading the note above, please do read it as its important.