~* Arhi SS - Seven Stages of Love Chap 3 on pg4 *~ - Page 3

Originally posted by: sathyaish

jus lived it
plz pm me

Hey, thanks. I will be updating this thread quite often. I mean like every 2-3 days. But will surely try to PM you.

Originally posted by: jg12

Very cute

Thanks. Please do read the next parts and let me know how it goes. :)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

"Khushi, you are here? I thought you went to office." La said standing in front of the mirror in Khushi's room.

"Office? What office?" Khushi got up from her bed and stood next to La. She still had a huge grin.

"Are you okay, Khushi? You were supposed to go to office with Arnav?"

Khushi's eyes lowered and all her attempts of controlling her smile of embarrassment were futile. Her cheeks looked rosier than a baby tomato. Her hand involuntarily clasped La's palm. She squeezed it rather hard. She then let out a huge sigh.

"Darling, are you unwell? Or did Arnav do anything to you? What happened? Tell me."

"What did he do? Nothing he did. Nothing! A aa aa."

Why was she having trouble saying his name? A 1970's sati savitri type woman had kicked into her? No, this is 2013, I can do it she thought and took a deep breath.

"A aa aa " she paused.

"A aa aa, what? Are you planning to join music classes?"

"No. I think I am unwell. I will call in sick, La. I want to stay at home."

"Okay. I have to rush now. And I will be a little today, lot of work. But we will keep texting. Take care, sweetie. Whatever it is, we will talk about it in the night." La said and left the house.

Khushi took her phone to call for a sick leave. She did feel sick, but this sickness was different. Unlike anything she had ever experienced. She wanted to for a second, only a second, stop thinking about Arnav. Or stop thinking about shirtless Arnav. When did he go to gym? Why did he hide that from me? And he likes me? Really? How can he like me? Stop. Dear mind, please stop.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Khushi here. Sir, can't make it to office today."

"Khushi, are you all right?"

Why was her boss so worried about her? Usually it was just, "Okay, take care."

"Nothing, Sir. I am not able to drink, no I mean think."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, I have a headache, Sir."

"Stop calling me Sir, Khushi. This is Arnav. I am sorry for what happened in the morning. I thought it was Akash. Why did you go away? You wanted to meet him right?"

Arnav? She had dialed his number? And why is he so insistent on her meeting Akash? The very mention of Akash's name was enough to bring her back to normalcy.

"Yes. Of course. But I remembered something, so had to go. Meet you in office. "She said and cut the call. Why waste a sick leave on a thing as stupid as seeing a man shitless? Sick leaves are reserved for emergencies like going shopping or something. She tied her hair into a ponytail, adjusted her duppata and left for office.

** ** **

Arnav was already at his chair, typing something. She sat next him and crossed her legs. She looked at him and expected him to say hi but his eyes were on the screen. He likes me but wants me to meet Akash? What a dumb man. And I am sitting right next to him and he can't feel my presence? He definitely doesn't like me, she thought. She pressed the button on the CPU still staring him.

When the system beeped due to the boot, Arnav turned his face.

"Are you okay?" he said and his eyes went up and down twice.

"Fine. Thank you." She said and turned her face towards the monitor.

"We both have a meeting with the boss in five minutes. He seemed angry when he didn't find you in your desk earlier."

"Came 10 minutes late; not like I murdered someone."

"Now, let's go to the conference room."

Arnav and Khushi sat in front of a man, well in his late thirties. He was a short man and never stood at one place for more than 30 seconds. There was a sense of urgency in whatever he did. Khushi always wondered if he was a premature baby and came out of his mother's womb in seven months.

"Bug Report, Weekly status report? Why aren't they done? I want them by lunch break today." He said and sat down.

"Sir, but I was busy fixing 2345 and 7899. Both are high priority issues." Khushi said almost immediately.

"We have to learn to be efficient. Don't you know the company invests money on you? They expect returns. Manage your time, Khushi." He said and got up.

"And you Arnav? I want your reports in an hour."

"Yes, sir. I was working on them."

After another 15 minutes of reports, money, investments, and motivational talk which did nothing but infuriate Khushi, the boss let them go.

"He wasted a good half an hour. I could have completed something in that time." She said as they walked towards their cubicle.

Khushi soon forgot what happened in the morning. Within two hours she had finished all the reports, double checked them for any errors and also attached everything in the mail. She looked at her watch. There was still half an hour for the lunch break. She asked if Arnav had sent his; he had sent them and was reading something on his phone. Whenever he didn't have work, he would always read something on the phone. She always wished to know what he would read so much.

She began to type the content of the mail.

Hi,

PFA reports.

Thanks,

Khushi.

No, it would be fun if its

Hi premature baby,

Why can't you stand at one place for more than 30 seconds? And why are you so bothered about the company's money?

Baby, baby, baby, oh.

You are such a TV serial villain. < Pure evil>. At least they are handsome. Here are your reports.

Not so thankful

Khushi.

She had re read what she had written for the 14^th time and each time it became funnier. She highlighted the entire content and was about to press the delete button when Arnav said,

"What happened, Khushi?"

"Haan?" she turned around and in a state of shock clicked the send button.

Within a second, the mail was sent. She told Arnav to look for Mail Recall on Google. There was no time to explore Outlook now.

"Don't worry. He is in a meeting now. He will not check the mail soon. We will recall it."

After a minute or so, they were finally able to recall the message. Thank God for far sighted developers of Outlook. Arnav stood behind her chair and read what she had typed.

"TV serial villain? Aur Baby, baby, baby? Justin ka gaana. Usspe suit hota hai. Khushi, tum kitni pagal ho yaar. I laa "

"I laa?" she turned around in her chair towards him.

"Nothing, now send that report. Its lunch time." He said

** **

To hold him or not to hold him? That was the question. And where to hold him? Shoulders? Waist? Khushi thought as she sat on his bike. She settled for holding the handle like she always did. Even though she had innumerable bike rides with him, today felt totally different. She wished there would be a traffic jam every five minutes and the ride would never end.

To her disappointment, the ride lasted for 15 minutes like it always did. Arnav parked his bike in front of his house and took out his helmet.

"Akash will be home in half an hour. You want to come in? "He said.

"Sure." She said and followed him to his place.

"Why are you so desperate?" she said while he was pouring orange juice into a glass in the kitchen.

"Excuse me?" he let go of the bottle and turned towards her.

"I mean, why do you want me to meet Akash so desperately?"

"I am desperate? You are the one who has a crush "he said and made inverted commas with his 2 fingers while he said crush.

"Oh, that's the problem? Just because I said I have a crush on him?"

"Khushi, I just want you to be happy and if you like Akash, so be it."

"But I don't like Akash."

"What?"

"I know it sounds stupid but I had a crush on him, that's true but, ever since I have known that "

"What, Khushi?"

"Nothing, I don't know what it is, but, but, you know, when I saw you in the morning, I wanted to do this thing. I hope you don't mind, it's extremely dumb, I mean, I don't know." She said.

"Do what? Are you okay?"

She moved towards him slowly. Her hand involuntarily moved towards his arm. She wanted to feel his bicep. Then she realized the stupidity of the whole thing. She withdrew her hand and said "Nothing."

"You wanted to do this?" he said.

Khushi, for a second, did not realize what had happened. Arnav had kissed her cheek or had he? She was expecting duppatta pulling, sweet talking, eye gazing and what not. And kitchen was not the place. But she was not that rich to afford a pool.

But all this was so sudden. Had he really kissed her? Or was it just her imagination. And Arnav is capable of these things?

"What did you do?" she said and looked into his eyes.

"Do you mind that Khushi? It was an impulse. I am sorry. Really sorry."

"No. I mean, yes, no."

"Khushi, you are making me nervous" He said and turned around.

"I laa, will you ever complete that statement?" she said and leaned on to the counter.

"I like you and I totally understand if you don't like me. I wanted to tell you from a long time" He said and turned towards her.

"Arnav, what you did like a few moments ago was "

"I am sorry, Khushi. I am really sorry."

"Was magic! Can you do that again?"

"Are you sure?" he said and moved closer to her.

"I can do something better." He said and winked.

Before she could open her mouth to say anything, she was in a daze. Her mind couldn't think of a single thought. He was kissing her; she felt like she was flying in mid air and wished that it would never stop. Love and its strange ways; a pool, kangan, or a duppata was not needed to experience it. She closed her eyes. The third stage of love - the first kiss had engulfed her in every possible way and there was no turning back now.

jus loved it
wat a brautiful first kiss

Interesting concept
Nice update.
You have described well the three stages of love using arnav n khushi in story.
Looking forward to read rest of the stages of love.

@massu91 - Thank you so much for reading all the updates and leaving a comment. Very sweet of you. :)

@sathyaish - Thank you! Hope you see you around. :)

@Javeria3991 -Glad that you liked the concept and story so far. Please do read the other parts.

@yappingduck - Hey, thanks a lot for reading all the updates. Makes me happy! Thank you. :)

Originally posted by: sanamsky

awesome n funny

Thank you! See you around! :)

my comp crashed and i lost all my files.. Vll update this as soon as i get it repaired..