Arnav-Khushi: Perfectly Imperfect - Last Part [12/04] Note-Page 50 :D - Page 11

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Part 12

To say that Arnav Singh Raizada was confused would be an understatement. There were myriad questions, ifs and what ifs and so whats, buzzing through his mind. The cumulative effect of it all was quite dizzying.

First there was the most agonizing uncertainty of whether or not Khushi did like Akash.

He could not ask Khushi, of course, because he could not have her fall under the erroneous impression that he had feelings for her or something.

Akash had to be oblivious to Khushi's feelings for him. Akash was one of the few people who knew that Khushi was only acting to be his fiance, so if he had known, he would have reciprocated her feelings. This was Khushi after all.

As a last resort, trying his best to appear casual and nonchalant, Arnav asked NK. After all, Khushi had asked NK if Akash was single. But when Arnav tried to probe into why Khushi had wanted to know, NK bounced a question back at him.

"Why are you asking me?" NK had asked, confused.

Could his family get any more maddening?

Next came the phase of Arnav wondering why it mattered to him whether or not Khushi liked Akash. She was free to like whoever she wanted. Okay, granted, there was the contract. But maybe she had been waiting for their two months to get over to make a move, and that's why Akash having a girlfriend had been so upsetting to her. There was no reason for Arnav to get so preoccupied.

And there definitely was no reason for Arnav to feel relieved that Akash was seeing someone (whoever she was) and was therefore out of the picture insofar as Khushi was concerned. On the contrary, being given that she was his friend now, maybe he should have felt bad for her.

Understandably perplexed by the inane workings of his mind, and concerned about his own sanity, Arnav took the route that all clueless aashiq's the world over opt for when all attempts to rationalize their feelings fail dismally - he decided that he would meticulously avoid Khushi. Surely then, he would stop spending all his time thinking about her.

Meanwhile, some distance away, Khushi had prepared everything for Lavanya's upcoming heartbreak for when she would learn that Akash had a girlfriend. The usual, of course. Tubs of ice-cream and other fatty comfort foods, non-romantic chick flicks, and well-rehearsed rants against all the men in the world.

As a self-professed expert in all matters love and heart, Khushi knew that it was difficult to predict how exactly a person might react to heartbreaking news. Stunned silence, tears, anger, despondent resignation, outright denial - anything was possible, and master planner that she was, Khushi was prepared for it all.

What she was not prepared for, however, was for Lavanya to burst out laughing midway through Khushi's tirade against Akash.

"O-M-G, you are so crazy!" Lavanya said breathlessly, through tears of laughter.

Khushi looked at her, sadly, her heart swelling up with sympathy for her friend. Clearly, Khushi was not the one who had gone crazy. But finally, once Lavanya was able to calm herself down, the truth finally came to light.

"Chamkili, Akash asked me out last night, but I couldn't tell you because you left the house so early. I was the girl who was with him at The Taj!"

Khushi's joy knew no bounds as she threw herself in Lavanya's embrace, and started chattering away about how infinitely more fun her upcoming "engagement ceremony" would be, now that Akash and Lavanya were actually together.

"No," Lavanya stopped her quickly, "Um, actually, we don't want to let Akash's family to know just yet. Nobody can know, not even ASR."

"But I am allowed to tease Akash in private, right?" Khushi exclaimed gleefully.

She was just about to badger Lavanya for all the juicy details of her date with Akash, when the door bell rang. It was Hari/Om/Jai Prakash who had come to deliver the lehenga that she was to wear for the "engagement ceremony." She smiled as she texted Arnav.

The potato sack is beautiful, Arnav. Thank you.

She could see that he had received and read the message, but he did not reply. She figured that he must have been busy at work.

"Or with some girl," Lavanya said, shrugging. Engrossed as she was in examining the embroidery on the lehenga, she did not notice that Khushi's face had turned pale at her words.

Khushi took a deep breath and reminded herself of the anti-men rants that she had so carefully prepared for Lavanya. They rung as hollow words, however, because she knew that Arnav, even with all his obstinate aversion to romance and love, was special. She steadied herself and busied herself in the script of her upcoming play, trying her best not to see Arnav in the character of the male protagonist.

The next two days passed in a flurry of rehearsals, photoshoots for her portfolio, shopping with Lavanya (who had once again literally run out of things to wear), and, inevitably, some amount of secretly obsessing over why Arnav had not bothered to keep in touch at all, and finally, the day of the "engagement ceremony" arrived.

Khushi frowned at herself in the mirror as she combed her hair, feeling extremely uneasy. It was only a role that she had to play, but it had become a role that she somehow felt emotionally invested in, to the extent that the truth that it was all ultimately fake, bothered her to no end. Surely, any actress worth her salt, would be better at drawing the line between make-believe and reality.

Lavanya, of course, was spending an inordinate amount of time in getting ready, and getting more and more hyper by the minute.

As for Arnav, he was in a grumpy mood because his strategy to avoid Khushi was clearly not helping to take her out of his mind. And now, Di had asked him to go and pick up Khushi, giving him "the look" that left no doubt in his mind that he had no choice in the matter. Seriously, what was he - a driver? He was on the verge of daring to make some excuse, when Akash bounced in, offering to go and pick up Khushi and Lavanya.

Arnav glared at him. Why on earth was he so excited all of a sudden?

"I'll go," Arnav stated with an air of non-negotiable finality, grabbing his car keys.

Within half an hour, he was at the doorstep of the Kashyaps' residence, waiting for someone to answer the door, and hoping that it would not be Khushi.

Something had changed in their equation or perhaps he was the one who had changed. A part of him did not want to face that change, or what it implied. On the other hand, he felt the need to act normal because he did not want her to feel that he had changed. How would he explain it to her when he could barely understand it himself?

As his luck would have it, Khushi was the one who answered the door. She looked prettier than usual, breathtakingly so. Yellow suited her beautifully, the colour of sunshine, brightness, happiness, Khushi.

"Hi Raizada," she said, looking distracted for some reason.

Arnav wrenched his attention away from how she was looking and noticed that there was a slight frown on her face. She seemed to be struggling with the clasp of her necklace.

"Can I help?" he offered automatically, without thinking.

"No, it's fine," she replied, slightly flustered, "Lavanya... umm... once she is out of the shower. I mean, I will ask Lavanya to help."

"Are you sure?"

"Ouch!" she exclaimed suddenly, wincing in pain.

"What happened?"

"I think my hair's stuck in the clasp. Hey Devi Maiyya, I hate these girly jewelry things. Ow-ow-ow!"

"Let me help," he said, and without waiting for her response, he gently held her wrists to lower her hands and turned her around.

luv it superb thanks for pm

Hi, read the story in one go...must say that this is the best story I have read 😆😆, I'm in love with this Khushi and arnav...please continue the story eager to read the next chapter.

Such amazing story full if fun , romantic lines . I read all the chapters in one go :)

Pls update soon waiting for the next part :)

Really nice! So Akash and Lavanya are dating now. One less thing for Khushi to worry. Phew! Wish the update was a bit longer with more of Arshi

Arnav is going to be crazy..

Comedy of errors :-)