Tangled | ArShi FF |Thread #1| Link for Thread #2 in Index | Pg 1 - Page 38

Payal stayed over at Khushi's place for the weekend. The girls had a lot of catching up to do. Khushi had again put her work on the backburner and it had started to mount. Come Monday, she immersed herself fully in getting rid of all the pending work. Fuelling her self on coffee and whatever Lavanya ordered from restaurants, Khushi spent the next few days doing nothing but work.

By end of the week, she could finally breathe easy. She had gone through most of her old files. She made a resolution of going back to her old routine of working on weekends. This weekend, she was busy with Payal, the 2 weekends before that, with her stranger. And then it hit her-

Oh Sh*t! She hadn't contacted her stranger for days.

On Saturday night, she had said she'd talk later and today was Friday. She took out her personal iPhone and unlocked it. She was about to start with an apology when there was a knock on her door. It was Arnav.

"May I come in?" he asked with a smile.

"Lavanya is supposed to call me before sending someone into my cabin," she replied, confused.

He entered her office and took a seat across the table.

"Lavanya is on her lunch break," he informed and Khushi looked at her phone. It was 2pm.

He continued, "Did you not realize it was lunch time already? You seriously need to take a break from work."

"Taking a break from work is what put me in this situation in the first place," she responded, "Any way, why are you here?"

"See I am offended," Arnav replied, mock frowning, "I thought we were friends. Didn't we shake on it last Saturday?"

"I remember," she replied reminiscing about their dinner from a few days ago.

"I am here to take you out for lunch." He stated.

Khushi raised her eyebrow, "You and me? Lunch?"

Arnav waved his hand, "Relax Miss Gupta. This is not a date."

Khushi was hungry and she had her afternoon free. She stood up and picked her handbag gesturing Arnav to lead.

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They went to a pizzeria, 2 blocks from the office. After placing the order for a pizza and pasta with iced teas, Khushi spoke, "I have been meaning to talk to you about Magnolia."

Arnav's ears perked up, "Oh?"

The waiter placed the iced teas on the table. Khushi thanked him and took a sip, "I have been going over the data and I think this is a good time for us to expand- increase production. The owner of the plot of land, next to our factory wants to sell. We could buy it."

"Oh." Arnav repeated the word, timidly.

Khushi went on enthusiastically about her idea. She had, like always, done her due diligence. The idea seemed promising; buy a new piece of land, build a new factory and increase production. She had set the timeline of a couple of years.

Arnav felt a pang of guilt. He looked at the way her eyes shone when she explained him how they could capture more market share, how she could grow her company further. She didn't know that he wasn't there to see Magnolia grow. He was there to vote against her and in favor of selling the company, then buying it from Sheetal for scraps.

Children's toys wasn't a sector he deemed very profitable so once he bought Magnolia, he'd have sold the unrequired portions and retained the rest to be used for one of his other businesses. In roughly 2 months, Magnolia would no longer exist.

He had done this ample times before and never felt bad about it. Yet today, it was different. He hadn't expected to be friendly with Khushi. The more time he spent in Magnolia, the more he got to know her. And now that they were on the path of becoming friends, this secret of his, made him feel somewhat ashamed.

"So... what do you think?" Khushi asked once she had concluded presenting her case. She lifted a piece of pizza from the plate and took a bite.

Arnav was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even realize when the waiter had placed the food on the table or when Khushi had finished talking.

"Erm..." he cleared his throat, "I don't know..." he shrugged his shoulder and lied, "It doesn't seem promising."

"What?" Khushi asked incredulously, "Why?"

He pressed his lips in a thin line before responding, "Just a gut feeling."

"A gut feeling? Seriously?" she asked in disbelief, "I tell you facts and give you data and all you have to back your argument is- gut feeling?"

"I wasn't expecting work talk over lunch," he said somewhat frustrated.

She gave a slight nod, the shine in her eyes had dissipated, "You are right. I shouldn't have sprung it up on you like that. I'll send you the files by next Wednesday. Once you go over them, you'll understand. I can set up a meeting with the bank and our legal team for the land acquiring deal later in the week."

Arnav nodded without saying anything. She was already planning for the loan and the legal documents. How was he going to put a stop to this? If he wasn't friendly with her, it would have been so much easier. Why did he have to go around making personal relations?

After the lunch, he returned to his house, too occupied to deal with any mundane office work. Guilt had been eating at him ad try as much as he could, to tell himself that this was how business worked, he wasn't able to shake off the feeling.

He needed to talk to someone... to the one person he felt he could share everything with. He took out his personal phone and typed a message.

(Friday, May 26)

-Arnav- 3:54pm || Are you there?

He waited for a reply for an hour, which didn't come. He set aside his phone and lied on the bed, closing his eyes. Some hours later, his phone pinged. He immediately sat up and unlocked his phone.

-Unknown- 10:10pm || Hey! Sorry. I just reached home. I had been meaning to text you. I just couldn't find the time.

-Arnav- 10:10pm || I understand.

-Arnav- 10:11pm || Is this a good time?

-Unknown- 10:13pm || Yeah. What is it? All okay?

Arnav shook his head. All was not okay. But what would he tell her? That he had taken up a job under false pretenses and was now lying to the one person he admired and respected?

-Unknown- 10:15pm || Hey, are you fine?

-Arnav- 10:16pm || Have you ever lied?

-Unknown- 10:16pm || Haha. Plenty of times. :D My cousin and I used to act sick so that we could skip school.

-Arnav- 10:17pm || Not innocuous lies. Something serious, which could adversely impact a person

-Unknown- 10:18pm || How adversely?

Arnav began typing and paused. What exactly would be a response to the question? How adversely... would his lie impact Khushi and her company. When he didn't respond for a couple of minutes, his stranger replied.

-Unknown- 10:20pm || That bad, huh?

-Arnav- 10:22pm || I feel like sh*t. I don't know how I'll go through with it.

-Unknown- 10:23pm || Do you have to go through with it? Can't you back out?

Arnav sighed and pondered- could he back out? What would that achieve? He'd lose a good opportunity to make money. And all this for whom? For Khushi? Who was just a friend... well, she wasn't even a friend. They had just started this amicable relationship.

Suddenly Akash and Payal's thought came to his mind. He hadn't even considered the personal implications that his betrayal would cause. Payal was Khushi's cousin and Akash was his. When they'd marry, his and Khushi's relationship would also change.

-Unknown- 10:25pm || I don't know what exactly you do [hope it's all legal :D], but on a serious note, in my line of work and in my position, I have had to take some decisions that I am not proud of. Sometimes that's how it works...

-Arnav- 10:26pm || I've done this many times before. Without flinching. But this time...

-Unknown- 10:26pm || What's different this time?

Arnav reflected again- so many things were different this time. He had consciously started bonding with Khushi and add to it, their cousins getting married would add more to the complication.

-Unknown- 10:28pm || You don't have to sort everything right now.

Her words gave him a breather. She was right. He didn't need to decide at this moment- what he'd do or how he'd do. He had time- 2 months to be precise. With time and more perspective maybe he'd be able to think straight.

-Arnav- 10:29pm || Thank you.

-Unknown 10:29pm || I'm glad I could help. :)

-Arnav- 10:30pm || Does all this change your opinion of me?

-Unknown- 10:30pm || No. I appreciate your honesty.

-Arnav- 10:31pm || It doesn't make you dislike me? Not even a little bit?

-Unknown- 10:31pm || Nothing could make me dislike you.

For the first time that day, Arnav managed a smile.

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(Wednesday, May 31)

True to her word, by Wednesday next week, Khushi had sent Arnav the files outlining her idea of buying land to increase production. The files, handed to him by Lavanya, had a detailed report with a cost-benefit analysis of the potential purchase.

He took the entire afternoon to go through each page, each detail, each number. By the end of it, he was impressed. She had done her homework well. But this could never happen. Not if he wanted to profit in the deal. And that was why he was here. If Sheetal's deal weren't lucrative, he wouldn't be wasting his valuable time in Delhi. He would be in Mumbai or New York or anywhere in the world, scoping new opportunities.

Yet all of this still made him feel bad.

"Hey!"

A chirpy voice jolted him out of his thoughts. He knew who it belonged to even before he lifted his eyes.

"Khushi," he said, "What brings you to my office?"

She stepped in, her glance shifting around the room. It was the first time she had come to his office.

"I was going home. While walking to the lift lobby, I saw your PA was still here, so I decided to check," she answered taking a seat. "It's close to 11 pm, Arnav. Let your PA go. Poor guy will doze off right on the table if you don't."

"It's 11!" he exclaimed, raising his left wrist to check the time, "Good Lord! I didn't even realize." Before talking any further to Khushi, he intercommed his PA, asking him to leave for the night.

"Earlier this week you caught me lost in work and today I returned the favor," she spoke with a smile.

Khushi's gaze lingered to her reports sprawled on his desk, "So... what do you think about my proposal?" There was optimism in her eyes.

He leant back on his leather chair and stretched his arms, "Can we talk about anything other than work? Please?"

"You've been over working," she stated, "Come on, I know a good place for drinks."

He eyed her curiously; "You want to talk me out for drinks?"

"Oh Relax Mr. Raizada," she said mimicking him, "It's not a date."

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It was Wednesday night- a weekday so the pub where Khushi took Arnav was not very crowded. They got a table at the far end of the room, away from a live band who was playing upbeat music.

Placing the order for drinks and starters, they first made small talk about the office. 15 minutes and a drink later, they started talking about personal lives when they digressed from Payal-Akash's engagement talks.

"So... what about you?" Khushi asked with a smile, "Is there a girl?"

Arnav started to nod his head but midway shrugged his shoulder.

"That is one confusing response," she commented.

"I..." Arnav stuttered, "I... don't know... There is a girl, I met... I mean..." he raised his hands to gesture the word but ended up shrugging again. "Well," he arranged his thoughts, "There is a girl, we love talking to one another, we flirt too... but these feelings are quite confusing... I think I like her... I don't know."

"Huh!" Khushi exclaimed, "Arnav Sing Raizada at a loss of words. I never thought this day would come."

"It's complicated," he said, smiling at her comment. "But I like her... I do... or I think"

Khushi contemplated the phrase- It's complicated. That was her relationship with her stranger in a nutshell. She loved texting him, they flirted with each other, he would tell her his problems and ask for solutions... she had bonded with him so freely- something she never did in the past- even with her ex-boyfriend from college (a chapter she would be grateful to forget). Her stranger... made her feel alive... made her happy...

"You seem lost in thought," Arnav commented abruptly, "Who's the guy?"

She grinned, "Well, I am in the same boat as you... It's complicated."

He chuckled, "Look at us... I think we've more in common than we realize."

She considered his words, "We may have complicated relationships but I think it's safe to say my complication will be very different from yours."

He seemed do the same- think over her words. At last he spoke, "I agree."

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