Forever and Beyond #2: New Note on Page 69 (14th July)

Khushi had never been this stressed and worked up about anything in her life. She being the pampered girl had always been cared and protected. She had always been the apple of her parent's eyes and so had always been kept away from extra hard work.

But right now all she wanted to do was cry. It had been only 3 days since she was officially appointed as the designer of the upcoming fashion show and all she wanted to do was pull her hair out in frustration.

To add it, Arnav had almost disappeared since then. He had promised to help her out but he had been so busy in his own work that she had hardly gotten any time to meet him.

She had come up with 4 designs out of the 9 she had to make. She was not sure if what she made was up to the AR's standards but she had tried her best.

Now all she had to do was catch hold of the ASR and show them to him. Since the past 2 days she had been trying to catch his attention but all in vain. It was like he had taken an oath to stay 10 miles away from her. But today she was adamant to talk to him and get the designs approved.

She was in her thoughts when she heard her cabin door opening and saw Arnav leaning on the door, looking at her. She took her time to check him out from top to bottom.

Wearing a black three-piece suit with his hair gelled up and a day old stubble adoring his face he looked nothing less than a Greek god. She looked at his face to notice how tired he seemed. She had seen him coming in early every morning and walking out of the office extremely late at night. She wondered how much sleep he gotten in these past few days because she could clearly see dark circles under his eyes.

He cleared his throat to get her attention when he saw that she had no intention of stopping to gawk at him. The minute she came back to earth she turned around, not wanting to face him.

She was upset and there was no way she was going to let him off the hook so easily. He had dared to ignore her and she would make sure he pays for it.

But all her determination went down the drain the minute she saw a bar of Hershey's chocolates in front of her.

Arnav had known that she would be angry. He had promised to help her in designing the clothes but he wanted her to do it herself. She had to trust herself to be able to make the best designs and that was the only reason he had stayed away from her.

And right now, he knew that he was not going to be left in one piece by his hotheaded girlfriend and so he did the next best thing. He tried to divert her mind and what was better than food for Khushi. While coming to office this morning he had stopped by a grocery and bought a bar of Hershey's chocolate, which he now knew was another one of her weaknesses.

He had seen her multiple times nibbling on that chocolate when she didn't have Jalebies.

He gently opened the door of her cabin and peered in to hear her cursing him. She looked annoyed.

He slowly walked in while she moved her face to the other side. He thought it was better to give her the chocolate before she started yelling at him.

He put out his hand with the chocolate in front of her eyes and waited to see her reaction.

Her eyes glistened at the sight of her favourite chocolate. She couldn't remember the last time she had had Hershey's. Her hands were itching to snatch it from him and tear open the wrapper.

He smirked. He had caught the longing in her eyes and he knew that it was not long before he would be forgiven.

The minute she looked up at his smirking face, she came back to reality. She remembered that she was supposed to be angry with him and so she looked away. There was no way he was getting off the hook so easily.

Arnav sighed. This was going to be difficult. He thought. He went on his knees and turned her chair so she was now facing him. Keeping the chocolate on the table beside him, he took her hand in his and made her look at him.

"Baby, I'm sorry." Was all he could say in his defense

"Sorry? What for? Its not like you have done anything, right?" sarcasm was all she could get out of herself. Typical, he thought. Her anger most of the times came out as sarcasm, this was her way of keeping herself from yelling.

"Khushi, I'm sorry, please? I know I promised to help you but I just got so caught up with everything else that even though I wanted to help, I couldn't. Wouldn't you forgive me this one time?" he lied through his teeth. Ofcourse he had enough time to give her, but he was not going to tell her that.

She sighed. She knew he was extremely busy with the show preparations and she also knew that she was being unreasonable but being the spoilt kid that she was, she couldn't help throw tantrums all the time.

She looked down at their entwined hands as she felt her eyes going moist. She had stopped feeling good about herself. She didn't like it that she was being so hard for him to handle. Agreed, he had taken her responsibility but she was not doing anything to help him in making it easier for him.

Looking into his eyes, as the first drop of tear rolled down her eye, she barely whispered, "I'm sorry."

He was shocked to see her crying. He had expected her to ignore him and be upset with him but never had he thought that she would start crying. Gently cupping her face, he asked, "What for? You haven't done anything wrong, Sugar."

"No, I am wrong. You had promised to take care of me but I am not even helping you. I am all the time acting moody and making it difficult for you. I know you have so much work and yet you are taking out time for me. I feel so inadequate now." She was silently sobbing as she held onto his wrist that was cupping her face.

He held onto her tighter and made her look at him as he moved his thumb gently on her cheeks, removing any traces of tears.

"Why do girls have to cry for every little thing? Wasn't di enough of a drama queen that even you have to add onto the cry baby' list?" he said trying to lighten the mood as he saw a small smile appear on her face leading to a chuckle.

"I'm not joking, Khush. Why do you have to cry so much? When I proposed my love to you, you cried. Today when I ignored you, you cried. What is this? Nigra Falls?" he frowned.

"Shut up, Arnav. I am serious. I hate myself for putting you through all this."

"Good that you hate yourself, I don't want anyone else to love you except me, not even you. And if you really hate putting me through all this, then lets start with you not crying. I hate seeing you cry because of me, even if its happy tears. Can you do that for me? Not cry?"

She nodded her head vigorously as she moved her hand to hastily remove the tears. She was going to do anything to make it easier for him to handle her. She knew what a nuisance she could be, she had heard her mother telling her time and again that she was not an easy person to handle.

"I won't cry. I promise." She smiled.

"Oh thank god. So now can I stand up? My knees are hurting." He asked sheepishly as she nodded her head again.

He got up and took his hand out to reach the bar of chocolate which was long forgotten on the table but before he could even touch it Khushi had already snatched it away from the table was trying to hastily open it. He shook his head and brought his hand in front of her, silently asking her to give it to him.

She moved her hand away, protecting the chocolate from his eyes. She really is a kid, he thought.

"I'm not going to eat it. I was only offering to help you open it." He shook his head again putting forward his offer.

Finally understanding his intention she kept the chocolate in his hand, looking at him with child-like eyes, asking him to quickly open it for her.

He opened it and kept the chocolate back in her hand and she was just going to bite into it when she heard the door opening again and Lavanya walking in, like she owned the place.

"Hi guys, whats happening?" Lavanya asked as she seated herself on the chair next to Arnav and right in front of Khushi.

"Nothing much, trying to calm my all time hot-tempered and now 3 days ignored girlfriend." He replied looking at Khushi who was very efficiently ignoring both of them, too engrossed in other things.

"Happiness, will you please leave that chocolate alone. And hey, give me some of that as well." She said as she got up and snatched the chocolate from her.

"La, give it back to me. You know I don't share my chocolates with anyone."

When La made no move to give it back, Khushi jumped up from her seat and yelled.

"Lavanya Kashyap, you will give me back my chocolate, right this minute." She punctuated each word, which was no less than a warning.

La finally gave in and passed her back the chocolate and sat back on the chair.

"Happiness, you're going to become fat very soon and then no one's going marry you." If looks could kill, right now, La would be dead looking at the glare she got from her best friend.

"What? I'm just saying." She said and turned around to look at the all time spectator. "ASR, do you know what your girlfriend was doing last night at 12?" she asked and continued before getting an answer, "She had gone on a Jalebi making spree. I swear we could feed the guests of a big fat Indian wedding with the amount of Jalebis she made."

"La, stop exaggerating. I could eat those Jalebi's alone, they weren't too many. And why would someone not marry me? I think I look perfectly okay, and a little bit of weight isn't too bad, right Arnav?" she narrowed her eyes, daring him to not agree with her.

"I think Khushi's right. A little bit of weight wouldn't harm anyone." He replied checking her out thoroughly, trying to imagine a little bit of fat on her, just on the right places.

He smirked when he saw a slight blush appear on her cheeks. He guessed, he was caught checking her out, which had led to this extremely beautiful colour to rise on her face. He winked at her making the colour go deeper than it already was.

She looked down, trying to hide her blush from the audience when she heard someone clear their throat. They all looked towards the door to see Anjali standing there.

"Ahem, may I come in please?" she asked.

"Di, you don't even have to ask." Replied Khushi, quickly getting up from her place to greet her.

"Oh, I was just passing by so I thought I could come meet you since you haven't come home in very long. How are you Khushi?" Anjali said as she hugged Khushi.

"Sorry di. You know how busy I am with the show coming up. It wasn't easy to be the great ASR's PA and now I have even become the designer so its just really tiring. I'm sorry but I promise to come over as soon as we are back." Khushi said, holding her ears with slightly pouting lips.

In the background, Arnav rolled his eyes looking at the drama Khushi created everywhere. Getting up from his seat he walked over to the two ladies but before he could even speak, Lavanya barged into the conversation.

"Ahem, I am here too, you know." She said looking at the two ladies.

"Sorry La." Khushi said before turning towards Anjali and speaking again, "Di, this is my best friend"" she started but was cut off by Anjali.

"LAVANYA!!??" she yelled.

"Hii Dii." Lavanya said matching her volume and excitement while she hugged Anjali.

"Oh my god, Lavanya what are you doing here? Where have you been all this while?"

"Oh, di I just came here a while back. ASR needed help with the show so I thought of coming over and I wanted to meet you as well but he wouldn't let me." She said, innocently.

"What the-? That's not true di. Firstly I never called her here. ASR doesn't need anyone's help. She has invited herself and she isn't even of any work around here, all she does is flirt with random guys or barge into my meetings." He said in his defense.

I don't even know why I have given her the job. He finished in a voice that was barely audible but was caught by Lavanya.

"Excuse me? I am absolutely not inefficient, if that's what you're referring to. Just to remind you I have even cracked deals which you couldn't." she narrowed her eyes and pointed her index finger at him, trying to make a point.

"You did not crack any of those deals..." he started when he saw her eyes getting narrower by the second. "Okay, yes you did crack them but you only had to do it because I was stuck in some other important work. There is no such deal that Arnav Singh Raizada cannot crack, so please don't flatter yourself."

In between this argument, two people were stuck. One looking at them fighting as her head went from one side to the other as if sitting in a tennis match while the other was still a little confused about what was happening.

Khushi was confused about a lot of things that were happening and so she was nibbling on her chocolate trying to get her head to work. Finally loosing her head she yelled, "STOP IT." Making all the heads turn towards her

"Can I please know what is happening here? Di how do you know Lavanya? I am absolutely loosing it here."

"Well, La used to come over to our place when Chottey and she were in college and then she joined AR, so her visits became more frequent." Anjali replied, as a matter of fact.

"Small world, I tell you. I see everyone knowing each other here." Came her reply, still lost in her own world, her chocolate half way in her her mouth.

Arnav moved her hand to put the chocolate in her mouth but when she still didn't eat it, he went near her ears and softly whispered, "Bite."

She instantly looked up, her eyes coming in contact with the chocolate brown eyes. She looked into his eyes, getting lost in them.

She could feel goosebumps erupting on her skin as she looked into his eyes to only find love and admiration in them.

Her trance was broken by the sudden clearing of throats as she realized they had audience and ended up turning a dark shade of red. She looked down to hide her blush but was already caught by everyone.

Hearing a loud shriek she looked up to find Anjali looking at her with a sudden gleam in her eyes. She frowned, thinking what had happened to her suddenly when she heard her speak.

"Oh my god, so is that a yes?" Khushi frowned again, what was she talking about?

"Di, I have no clue what you're saying."

"I mean, Chottey and you! Did you agree?" she was literally jumping while Khushi's eyes went wide. How did she know? She thought and turned around to eye Arnav who was looking at her ready to speak in his defense.

"Oh, don't look at him. He hasn't told us anything. We found out ourselves, we were just waiting for you to give your verdict. When did it happen? Why didn't you tell us Chottey?"

"Hold on right there. Us? We? Who all are you talking about, di?" Khushi cut in. This is already getting worse.

"Oh, nani and me."

"What? Nani knows?" her eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets.

"Well yes. I can't wait to tell her, shes going to be so excited. Maybe we can plan your wedding with Aakash and Payal. Oh that would be great. I can speak to your parents about the same. This is going to be so much fun, two weddings"" she blabbered but was stopped by a sudden yell.

"No di, you are not doing any such thing." Arnav finally butted in while Anjali's face fell.

"What? But why?"

"Because Khushi isn't ready to tell anyone yet. Lets not pressurize her, please. She wants to give time to us right now before we take things forward. And no telling anyone about us. If the elders get to know, they would force us to get married, which we don't want right now. Please di." He pleaded.

Khushi silently looked on, admiring him while he handled the situation. She could not believe she was lucky enough to get him.

"Alright, I wont tell anyone. But I am so happy you finally found someone Chottey." she smiled as she stroked his face.

"Oh alright di, that's enough. This is my office not your kitty party so please lets not get all emotional here. I need to get some work done here. I will meet you at home." He asked, clearly indicating it was time for her to leave.

"Okay okay, I'm going." She said as she hugged Khushi and Lavanya one last time before moving out with Lavanya, giving the couple some privacy.

The minute the door closed Khushi tightly hugged Arnav which clearly was unexpected by him but nevertheless hugged her back, bringing her closer to him.

"Thank you." She finally said.

"What for?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

"For handling the situation so well. I was too shocked to say anything."

"You don't have to thank me for anything, sweetheart." Gently kissing her head while she snuggled closer to him.

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