Hello
Yay, welcome to Thread 2 of To Love or Not To Love. Thank you sooo much for all your love and encouragement. It is what keeps the story going.
For all new readers, you can start reading the story here:
Chapter 33: Scroll below
Chapter 34: Page 6
Chapter 35: Page 17
Chapter 36: Page 22
Chapter 37: Page 26
Chapter 38: Page 31
Chapter 39: Page 36
Chapter 40: Page 49
Chapter 41: Page 59
Chapter 42: Page 73
Chapter 43: Page 83
Chapter 44: Page 86
Chapter 45: Page 89
Chapter 46: Page 95
Chapter 47: Page 100
Chapter 48: Page 107
Chapter 49: Page 110
Chapter 50: Page 119
Chapter 51: Page 130
Chapter 52: Page 133
Chapter 53: Page 134
Chapter 54: Page 136
Chapter 55: Page 139
Chapter 56: Page 140
Chapter 57: Page 142
Chapter 58: Page 146
Chapter 59: Page 151
Bonus Chapter: Page 152
Chapter 60: Page 154
Chapter 61: Page 157
Chapter 62: Page 160
Chapter 63: Page 162
Epilogue: Page 162
To all those who *rightfully* believe that this Chapter is way too small, fear not, you will have another update by the end of the day - it's just that while doing the edits, I felt the long Chapter was not making sense in terms of the flow. So I decided to split it and beef the second chapter up. I still need to edit what I have rewritten, so it might be tonight, or tomorrow morning by the time it gets uploaded.
Now onto Chapter 33.
Chapter 33
Khushi was pacing the length of her apartment ferociously spewing expletives at whom she referred to as "Ravan Kumar". She had recently discovered that Arnav was an acronym of Ravan and had decided that the name Ravan suited him better than Arnav.
"How dare her", she muttered to herself. "First he asks me to be his...," she stopped midway, shaking her head, trying to get rid of the horrid pictures that were beginning to draw themselves up in her imagination. "And now when everything has sort of settled down there, he comes up with this other nonsensical "be my friend" proposal. I might have even agreed if he had asked nicely. But forcing me into friendship? What does that Laad Governor think of himself? The world might be afraid of him but I'm not. I won't listen to him. I won't take a week off to go to Lucknow. I won't go with him to Milan. And I won't become his friend."
Khushi continued her tirade, unaware that her apartment door was slightly ajar and that someone was listening to every word of her rant very carefully.
*****
The next day, Khushi reached AR Designs earlier than usual. On reaching work, she discovered her desk had been cleared. There was nothing on her table, no papers, no colour pencils, no stencils, no files - except a white envelope that sat squarely in the middle with the words Khushi Kumari Gupta neatly printed on it.
With quivering hands she opened the envelope to discover a flight ticket to Lucknow. The flight was due to take off in exactly six hours. Rage built inside of her. She looked at Arnav's office. Through the glass walls, she saw him perched on the side of his desk, peering into a file, the phone sandwiched between his neck and shoulder.
Picking up the envelope and the ticket, she marched into Arnav Singh Raizada's office. When the door opened without a knock, Arnav casually turned and ended the conversation. Not that Khushi was thinking about etiquettes at that point in time.
"What the hell is this?", she yelled.
"Tickets", he replied, casually, still browsing his file, hardly looking at her. His attitude irked her further. Reigning in her anger, which was right now encouraging her to go strangle Arnav's neck, she asked again.
"And why do I have them?"
"I told you yesterday."
"Well, Mr. Raizada, I am not going anywhere with you, least of all, away from this country. I don't think I can contribute to this project in Milan."
"Well, that is not your decision to make."
"Funnily, it is. And I am going nowhere."
Just then, Aman barged into Arnav's cabin to discuss some details related to the Milan project. Seeing Khushi in Arnav's cabin, he cheerfully inquired, "So all done with the packing?"
"P..packing...for what?" Khushi stammered, fearing Aman knew about the Milan trip.
"For Lucknow of course, silly. I met Sanjana at HR and she said you were on vacation from today for a week, visiting your parents. Well, well, I'm sure you are extremely excited to go."
Heaving a sigh of relief, Khushi put on her brightest smile, which suddenly seemed to irk Arnav.
"Of course, I am going to Lucknow. My train leaves at 8 tonight. I will be seeing my parents after three long months. I honestly can't wait."
"Well, good for you. Have fun!" chirped Aman.
"Oh I will," said Khushi conspicuously leaving the envelope with the air tickets on Arnav's table before leaving his cabin.
"Nice girl," remarked Aman, once Khushi had left Arnav's cabin. "Her infectious enthusiasm will be missed at work."
"Bansal, I don't have all day to chitchat about the personality traits of all AR employees. Get to the point," barked Arnav, leaving Aman flabbergasted as to what possibly could have turned his mood sour so early in the morning.
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