Posted:
Awesome update finally d truth is out poor Khushi :(
Loved her condition good that Khushi wants 2 start working in AR as Aakash secetary not as Arnav's
Key to your heart..
Please note that text in blue and italics is for what the respective characters are thinking..but not saying out loud...
Chapter 12
It was Friday night and after a hard week's work, Akash was sitting with Nani...and Nani was lovingly putting cool massaging oil onto his hair...with him sitting on the floor and Nani on the couch...
They saw Arnav whiz past with car keys in his hand...
"Chotte...tum kahan jaa rahe ho...ithni raat ko..?"
("Arnav..where are you going...at this hour..?")
"Office..."
"Bhai...Its Friday night.I don't think there is any work pending...plus..there won't be anyone at the office right now.."
"Akash...our business extends to other time zones too...and Aman is waiting for me to get to the office...A Canadian client is due to give a presentation..I have to be there...good night.."
He did not pause for a moment more and went out...
"Aakash bitwa...iss Aman ka kuch na kuch toh karna padega...poora hafta kaam karke aaj jab Chotte ko thoda rest lena chahiye..aur woh Aman ka bachcha usse offife kheench raha hai..hmmph."
("Akash...we have to do something about this Aman...Arnav is working hard for the whole of the week and during wekends, when he is supposed to take some rest..this Aman keeps dragging him back to office...")
Akash smiled and replied...
"Naani..iss mein Aman ka koi kassor nahin hai...bhai ne hi insist kiya hoga..Aaj kal Aman ka bura time chal raha hai...kuch din pehle woh AR ke marketing manager hi he...lekin ab toh..Bhaiyya ki coffee se leke har meeting ke liye usse kaam karna pad raha hai.."
("Naani...trust me..Aman is not the one at fault here...It Arnav..he mut have insisted..and these days, poor Aman is having such a bad time...a few days back, he was just our marketing manager...but now...From Arnav' coffee to every one of his meetings, Aman has to be there..")
And he added with a small laugh..
"Har din Aman ko daant miltha hai..use coffee banaana bilkul nahin aatha..aur bhai ko toh coffee machine se bana hua coffee zara bhi pasand nahin hai.."
("Aman gets a thorough scolding every day...he does not know how to make coffee...and Arnav hates the coffee from the coffee machine...")
"Kyun...usne abhi tak ek naya secretary nahin rakha..?
("Why Akash...has Arnav still not appointed a new secretary..?")
"Woh iss baare mein baath hi nahin karna chahtha hai naani..mujhe lagtha hai ki bhai kisi aur ko Khushiji ki jagah lethe huye dekhna nahin chahtha hai.."
("He does not want to even talk about it..I feel like he does not want any one else taking Khushiji's place...")
Nani sighed..."jo bhi hua..bahuth bahuth galath hua...bechari Khushi..ab woh teek hai..?"
("Whatever happened...was really unfortunate..how is Khushi coping with everything..?")
"Dheere dheere woh sabse baat karne lagi hai...aur office ka atmosphere bhi back to normal ho gaya hai...lekin woh pehle jaisi Khushi nahin rahi...woh tab hi kuch bolti hai jab koi use kuch poocha jaaye...warna apno kaam se rakthi hai aur chup chaap ghar chali jaati hai.."
("She is slowly coming back to talking terms with all the colleagues...and the office atmosphere is also back to normal now..but she is not the same anymore...She only answers when she is asked something..otherwise stays quiet and remains focused on her work..")
"Chotte ne use phir se daanta toh nahin.."
("I hope Arnav did not scold her again..")
"Daantna toh door ki baat hai...bhai aur Khushi...dono ek doosre se baat hi nahin karthe..."
("Nani...they don't even talk to each other anymore...")
"Hmm...galathi Chotte ne ki hai...us galthi lo sudhaarne ka tareeka bhi Chotte ko hi doond nikaalna hoga..."
("Hmm...Arnav is the one who committed a grave mistake..and he himself has to find a way to correct it...")
*******
Arnav was back at Shantivan...lounging on the recliner by the pool side...gazing at the stars...and lost deep in thoughts..
He had hardly seen Khushi these days..It was always Akash who used to visit his office and hence there was no need or opportunity for him to go to Akash's office...nearby where her desk was..Akash too seemed to come to him more often than before...even for trivial things which earlier Sheetal used to bring to Arnav...Sheetal...at the thought of her, Arnav's fists clinched...her greed was the root cause of all this..
She had met Ranveer Sharma when she had accompanied Akash to the award function in Malaysia...where she had easily fallen prey to Ranveer's promises of a better position and a nice 'joining package' that was waiting for her at the Singhania's..
Khushi..she had become the collateral damage in all this...humiliated in front of the public...by his intentional character assassination and bogus accusations...how he wished he could have undone everything...that they would have never reached this situation where Arnav had become nothing but a stranger to her..a stranger who had hurt her once and who she had shut out of her world..lest he repeated his actions...
Arnav always prided himself in taking steps which had immense foresight...yet he regretted that he had miscalculated once and it had cost him not just his PA...but maybe much more than that...
*******
Khushi was attending a meeting with Akash..it was regarding the preps for a new show...AR had been unable to take part in the fashion portal's event because of the whole design leak fiasco and this time had decided to hold a fashion show on their own in about 1 month..Arnav had wanted to be bigger and better than ever to compensate for everything...Khushi dutifully took note of the key points while completely avoiding eye contact with Arnav who was also at the meeting...
Afterwards, Khushi walked out of the conference room towards the cafeteria with Lavanya...She and Lavanya had become friends over the last few weeks...After she had rejoined, Lavanya had come to Khushi to apologise...but Khushi refused that she ought to so so as Lavanya had just been honest and had not done anything wrong...after the initial awkwardness, they both had become pretty close...
They were sitting at a window side table and sipping coffee..
"Khushi..I heard that we will be joined by a new team member for this season..."
"Is it..?"
"Yes...Some NK from Australia.."
"Oh..I wonder how he will be..Foreign accent n all. .."
They shared a laugh, finished coffee and left for the design studio..
********
Khushi was asked by Akash to meet him at a client's office to assist him with a meeting that was getting pretty drawn out..She waited for the elevator and got in with a hurry...As she stood facing the floor number panel, she was aware of his presence...she stole a sideways glance and saw his side profile...
Khushi quickly directed her eyes to the floor and caught her breath till the elevator pinged indicating it reaching the ground floor..
She got out and had taken 2 steps when she heard him clear his throat..as if a prelude to asking her something..
She did not want to answer whatever he was going to ask...She had imagined this scenario a thousand times..and had found it as a perfect chance for her to lash out..
Will he ask her how she is doing in her new position..?
How do you think it will be Mr Raizada...?The usual..of course..lets see...I have copied two sensitive documents onto my pen drive and once I get my hands on a third one, I am all done for the day...happy..?
"Khushi.."
Arnav took her name..unsure if she would blatantly ignore him as she had done for the past few days..
His voice shook her out of her thoughts..
Her eyes met his, while spewing absolute fury at him...It was pure rage and hatred that Arnav saw in her eyes and he recognized it very well...because these were emotions he knew inside out..he had mastered it over the years...
A lifetime of unfortunate incidents had led him to revisit these emotions time and again..they were his weapons..with which he used to make his opponents quiver..surrender...but he very well knew the price he had to pay for carrying those emotions as a part of one's being...
Seeing those feelings reflecting across Khushi's face was unbearable for him...
In the matter of a couple of seconds, Arnav realized that those emotions were replaced by something else...He saw her looking to her sides, as if taking in her surroundings...
Khushi had realized that she could not possibly ever utter those thousands of answers that she had already conjured up in the mind..all through the days and nights that she had sulked in her room..because...he was still her boss...she worked for his company...and she could never berate him...especially not while in his office...
She chose the wisest option and walked away from him...with quick steps..
Arnav looked at her petite form...hurrying away from him as if he had plague...he resigned to the fact that she might not ever see eye to eye with him...and the thought felt to him as strangely unpleasant..
******
Anjali prayed for some divine intervention so that she could escape the current situation she was in...well the irony was that she was thinking this while seated in a satsang at the temple...the prayer function was yet to start and as they had arrived early..
Her mamiji was chatting to one of her "prhriends" on the bride hunt she was on..for her Akash bitwa..and her equally blingfully (gaudily) dressed "prhriend" had jumped on the opportunity to start gunngaoing (praising) about her eldest daughter Pari...and she was not intending to stop any time soon...
Anjali knew Pari very well...even knew her date of birth and height statistics as well...no..not because she was a friend of Pari's..but because she had seen one of her mug shots in Shyam's files...as he was employed to be her attorney in a rave party drug bust case...she was one of the youngsters detained...
God forbid if that Pari ever set foot in my house as a Raizada bahu...
As she looked to the entrance to see if Panditji had finally decided to make an entrance, she saw someone familiar...Khushiji's sister...Payal...
"Payalji..."
Payal smiled as she spotted who was calling her and took the seat next to Anjali..
After exchanging pleasantries, Anjali introduced her to mamiji..and as the satsang got over, she insisted Payal to accept a lift...
Anjali walked to Akash's car who had come to pick them up after work...She noticed Payal's smile getting a little brighter on seeing him...
They dropped Payal at Laxminagar and was on the way back to Shantivan..
"Anjali bitiya...lagtha hai aaj hamre Akash bitwa ke liye dulhan mil hi gayi hai..."
("Anjali...I believe we have finally found a bride for my Akash today")
"Haan mamiji..aaj humein Akash ki dulhan mil gayi hai.."
("Yes mamiji, we have finally found the perfect bride for our Akash..")
Little did mamiji know that Anjali's choice for Akash was not the same as her's...
*****
2 weeks later...
Anjali was unfurling an imaginary banner of 'Mission Accomplished' as she sat in the drawing room of the Gupta household where everyone was enjoying the happy occasion of Akash and Payal's roka ceremony...
After all it was because of her matchmaking and negotiation skills that both families had agreed to this proposal so quickly...the hardest part was persuading mamiji to let go of Pari's proposal...but her waterworks and emotional blackmail had had another conquest in the form of her mamiji...
While everyone was busy discussing the impending ceremonies for the wedding, there were two people in the room, trying their best to appear happy while keeping the emotions brimming just below the surface curbed..
Khushi had seen Arnav glance at her once or twice in between the roka ceremony..this was exactly why she was hesitant when amma had told her about the Raizadas asking for Payal as bride for Akash...she was happy that Akash would be her jiju..He had always been nice to her and she knew he was a perfect match for her jeeji..but then she remembered how she had played a role in Payal's last proposal falling through and she did not want her family to suffer because of her equation with the bride groom's brother...her jeeji deserved the best..
But Khushi could not be there for longer..not with Arnav sitting in the couch opposite to her along with Anjali...She quickly made an excuse and went towards the kitchen..No one except Arnav and Anjali noticed her exit...
She straightened the satin dupatta that was falling off her shoulders and put the dishes into the kitchen sink for washing...As she turned, she saw Arnav standing near the counter.
"Can I..get a glass of warm water...please..?"
Khushi heard the sound of laughter seeping in from the drawing room and decided not to create a scene...She filled in a glass with warm water and kept it on the counter, instead of handing it to him...
Arnav came around the counter to take it and leave...while Khushi looked away absent minded towards the sink...
"Khushi...tum"
("Khushi..you")
When she heard him take her name, Khushi snapped...She remembered how he had distanced and turned cold by calling her Ms Gupta, when she had needed his support the most...
She realized that they were not in his office..they were in her kitchen, in her home...She met Arnav's eyes...and Arnav saw the steely determination cloud her pupils...He saw those familiar emotions of pure rage flicker across her innocent features..
"Samajhthe kya ho apne.."
("Who do you think you...")
As soon as Khushi had said these words, Arnav stepped closer and covered her mouth with his right palm and held her in place with his left hand going over her right shoulder to the back of her neck...
"Not a word more...Khushi...no...I know what you want to say..I perfectly understand why you want to say those things..But please...don't..you think you will feel better if you spew those hate filled words at me..no..you won't Khushi...this anger that you have for me...let it go..please.."
Khushi squirmed in his hands, but Arnav just paused for a moment and continued...
"Don't fill your heart and mind with hatred and rage towards me...It will consume you Khushi...gnaw at your soul and take away any last shred of happiness...I have always found shelter in these feelings and look what they have turned me into...please don't let yourself turn into someone like me...I am not asking you to forgive me..but forget...stay indifferent..but don't lose yourself Khushi...not for getting back at me..I am not worth it..."
Khushi looked at him with tear filled eyes as she saw how he was suffering..in self-pity...the lowest of low feeling that can ever exist...she slowly stilled and Arnav took his palm off her mouth..
He slowly bowed down..Khushi stepped back..unsure what he was about to do..Arnav raised the pakora dough stained corner of her dupatta from the big vessel next to her feet...and handed it to her...
As she took it from him, she understood that earlier he was just trying to point it out to her about the dupatta...Arnav walked away from the kitchen with the glass of warm water in his hand, for Anjali who had suddenly requested it in the middle of a hot sunny day...
Author's note:
Guys...how was it...I know I know..you all must have been waiting for Arshi love story to start..but hey I could not do that right now...would it not be too soon..Khushi was just detained because of Arnav...so I have to write things out carefully so that there is a steady progress..
P.S: the last scene in the kitchen had to be rewritten by me because somehow the first (and with better dialogues) draft that I had written got deleted and I could not recover it...😔..hope the rewritten part was up to your expectations..
The way Arnav reacts in the kitchen is inspired from a dialogue from one of my favorite movies...You've got mail...do watch it if you haven't..
Please please leave a comment..not just a like...
any feedback on this FF is always welcome and I am eagerly waiting for it...😊
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