Hello!
As promised, back with the next chapter.
Thank you for all of the wonderful comments - replied to some above (pg. 121) 🤗
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The content of this story belongs strictly to the author, -Archi-. Any unwarranted use/copy of it is not encouraged and is strictly prohibited.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lost
“I swear Mitali, if we are going to have to spend the night here, I will personally kill you!”
“Calm down Sam, the boys will eventually figure out that we are missing and come find us.”
“Are you kidding me? The guys will pass out drunk before they even think about us, forget about coming and finding us!”
“Well, Bhagi can’t sleep without wishing me good night, so he will come for sure.”
“You have seriously lost it!”
Khushi groaned, mentally kicking herself for agreeing to come on this field trip. After Arnav’s endeavour with omelettes, she was dragged into taking a walk around the farmhouse, which on one side was covered with a small forest. While it was Mitali’s idea to begin with, Khushi had only agreed on the behest of Anjali and Lavanya, except neither of them actually came.
Anjali had to return to Delhi when Shyam received an urgent phone call from work and Lavanya decided to spend the evening with Akash, who apparently never had enough time for her. The cherry on top, of course, was the rest of the boys planning a game of football in the backyard, with Prachi, NK’s girlfriend, assigned to keep score. Mitali had been close to tears at that point, forcing Khushi to grudgingly set out with the remaining Samriddhi, who also didn’t have the heart to say no to her bestie.
After almost two hours of roaming, however, the three girls despairingly realized that they were completely lost. Being rural lands, there was no marked trail. Their phones too were out of reception range and so they had no choice, but to stop and wait, hoping the boys will show up eventually. While Mitali was optimistic about it, Khushi supported Sam on the matter – it would be midnight before any of the boys realized they were even missing, and who knew what roamed these woods at nightfall.
“Okay fine,” Mitali said. “If not Bhagi, then Arnav will come for sure. He will definitely notice that Khushi is missing.”
Sam was too disgruntled to answer.
So, Mitali turned to her. “Right Khushi?”
Khushi tried hard to agree, but she couldn’t. “I don’t know Mitu… I didn’t tell Arnav where we were going.”
“Great,” Sam muttered.
“Oh come on,” Mitali replied, rolling her eyes. “Stop being dramatic. If not Arnav, then Arjun or Dev will find us!”
“Well out of the three of them, I am placing my bet on Arnav Bhai.”
“Why do you say that?” Khushi asked.
“As if you don’t know Bhabhi,” Sam said.
She didn’t, well, at least not as much as them. “No, I am curious… why do you think Arnav will find us first?”
“Because he is the nicest one out of all of them!” Sam said, sitting down against a tree. “Dev is a goof ball, and everyone knows it. Arjun Bhai doesn’t understand human emotions –like at all– and–”
“Stop exaggerating,” Mitali interrupted, settling on the ground beside her. “Arjun understands emotions… he just doesn’t show them. That’s all.”
“Are you kidding me? I went to him crying about how badly my exams went last week and he sits me down and gives me a lecture on how critical college exams are in life. Who does that?!”
Mitali burst out laughing. “Why would you go to Arjun?!”
“Lesson learned,” Sam muttered, shaking her head. “But my point is, out of all of them Arnav Bhai is the most sensible. He actually tries to understand and help you out.”
Khushi was quiet. So he wasn’t kind just to her, but to everyone around him?
“True,” Mitali replied nonchalantly. “Myra was an idiot if you ask me.”
Sam’s eyes widened in panic, and gave Mitali a pointed look, who realizing her folly hesitantly met Khushi’s eyes. But it was too late, the damage was already done.
Khushi looked back at their guilt-ridden faces, knowing exactly what she wanted to do, but not knowing whether it was the right thing. For so many months now, she had ignored this topic, feigning deafness every time it was brought up, thinking it was none of her business.
But was it really not her business?
So calmly sitting down and hugging her knees, she said, “I know who she is. You guys don’t have to hide anything.”
Mitali let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m a blabber mouth… I didn’t mean to ruin your mood.”
“I am not offended,” Khushi said with a small smile. “Why do you think Myra is at fault?”
The two girls exchanged hesitant looks. “It’s probably best to ask Bhai,” Sam finally said.
“I did… and he told me his side,” she lied recollecting their horrendous fight from a week ago. “But I want to know yourside.”
“We don’t have a side,” Mitali answered. “Lavanya is the only one who knows the full story.”
“But she won’t tell us anything,” Sam added. “All we know is that Bhai was really heartbroken when Myra broke up with him. We all thought he would do something stupid.”
He did, Khushi thought ironically. He married me.
However, what caught her attention more was that Myra broke up with him. Khushi had always assumed that their separation was mutual due to pressure from Arnav’s parents or perhaps, her own impending marriage with him.
So she asked curiously, “Why did Myra break up with him?”
“No clue,” Sam replied.
Mitali had a different opinion. “Well knowing Myra, it’s not that hard to guess.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because she wanted to keep Arnav in a box… relationships like that are toxic.”
Khushi, who was expecting everything but that, was startled. “What do you mean? Doesn’t every girl expect something from her boyfriend?”
“Yeah, but there is a difference, isn’t there?” Mitali answered rhetorically. “Do you think it’s the same if I expect Bhagi to keep me happy as opposed to forcing him to drop everything else so that he has no other choice but to keep me happy?”
“Okay, now you are exaggerating,” Sam objected. “Myra didn’t force Bhai to drop–”
“Look who’s talking,” Mitali muttered. “Who was pissed when Arnav stopped spending New Years with us?”
Sam bit her lip. “Okay fine, yeah I didn’t like some things, but that doesn’t make her a bad person Mitu–”
“Frankly, I don’t care what kind of a person she is. What matters is what kind of a girlfriend she was and sorry to say, she wasn’t a good one.”
“I still don’t understand,” Khushi said.
“It’s simple Khushi,” Mitali replied. “Arnav and Myra were together since college… but from the minute they graduated, Myra had her own priorities and she just expected Arnav to tag along. Sure for one year or two or maybe even three, you tag along, but at some point, Arnav will question that, no? Won’t he say, what is my role in all of this?”
“What were her priorities?” Khushi inquired.
“Job for starters… I lost count of the number of times Arnav would be excited to bring her to meet us and then show up alone, saying Myra was busy with work. Sure, I get it that your job is important, but isn’t your boyfriend just as important?”
Sam interrupted. “Okay, that’s a different scenario… Myra probably was avoiding us.”
Why would anyone want to avoid the Raizada cousins, Khushi wondered bewildered. She could only imagine them showering love and concern on Myra, who was actually Arnav’s choice, as opposed to her, who was just an obligation he couldn’t refuse.
“She didn’t like you guys?” Khushi asked quietly.
“It didn’t look like she did,” Sam said dejectedly. “It was weird to be honest… the first time we met her was at NK’s graduation party. Everything seemed well to me, but I guess she felt awkward. She stopped coming after that… and the worst part was, she slowly stopped letting Bhai come too. Every time we would plan something, she would convenientlyhave something that both of them had to go to.”
“You see?” Mitali said superiorly. “This is the problem… like one would have to be blind to not see how close all of you guys are. Why would anyone try to break that up?!”
“It’s different for you Mitu,” Sam said reasonably. “You grew up with us–”
“Really?” Khushi interjected. She had always been curious about how Mitali fit so well into the group, especially since she wasn’t related to any of them by blood.
Mitali grinned. “Yeah, me and Sam were neighbours when we were teenagers… my parents just moved into the city, and I had no friends, so I would spend all my time at Sam’s house.”
“And that wasn’t enough, apparently. She went on to fall for my brother and became my Bhabhi… well almost,” Sam added rolling her eyes, but there wasn’t a speck of annoyance on her face.
Khushi laughed. It was so easy to like them. “That’s sweet!”
“Thanks Bhabhi… but I really don’t agree with Mitu on this,” Sam said seriously. “Like yes, we all cousins are close, but to an outsider, that might seem overwhelming… who likes joint families nowadays anyway? It’s actually pure luck that all of us get along and that we are friends without our parents forcing us to.”
“Khushi comes from the outside,” Mitali said pointedly. “But she seems to have no such problems with us.”
Sam looked at Khushi, silently asking for verification.
“No problem whatsoever,” Khushi assured her with an impish smile. “I mean, yes, it was a little bit scary at the beginning because I couldn’t remember all of your names, but it’s all good now… I know both of yours.”
Mitali burst out laughing. “We need to hang out more!”
Khushi grinned, a tiny bit flattered. She wasn’t used to people liking her so quickly.
“I agree,” Sam said, also smiling. “Next time, I am planning a date with the three of us.”
“Oh you better make sure Lavanya is invited to that,” Khushi replied knowingly. “If not, she will sulk for the next year and half about being left out… god save us then.”
“I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all,” Mitali began.
Sam interrupted: “And yet, you are…”
“My point is, Khushi has only been here for four months and she already figured out our names, who likes what, and has the decency to come to most of our over-the-top gatherings… Myra was with Arnav for six years, and she couldn’t even manage half of that.”
Six years. Khushi knew she shouldn’t be surprised, after all hadn’t she witnessed first-hand how broken up Arnav was over the matter? It was really no wonder they were together for so long.
“I am not denying that Bhabhi is the best,” Sam answered, throwing a wink to Khushi. “But I just feel like we don’t know the full story… because six years is a significant amount of time, and to think that during all of that Myra didn’t love Bhai even for a second is just wrong.”
“So how else do you explain it?” Mitali countered. “Even you saw how she was acting at Dev’s birthday party last year!”
Khushi intervened. “What happened at Dev’s birthday party?”
“Well, Bhagi and I were having a moment–” Mitali explained.
“Correction: you and Bhagi were making out,” Sam cut-in with a smirk.
Mitali –surprisingly– blushed. “Ahem… yes, so we were in the middle of something, the party was actually in Arnav’s penthouse, so you know the den–”
“Arnav’s office, you mean?” Khushi clarified, wondering if Arnav knew what his cousins were up to in what Lata had almost called as 'sacred'.
Mitali nodded. “We were in the den, and Myra suddenly walks in without knocking–”
“Once again,” Sam interrupted. “It’s not a crime to walk into the den.”
“It is if the door is closed!” Mitali exclaimed. “Like people could be busy–”
“Oh yes, we all know how busy you and Bhagi were.”
Khushi couldn’t help but giggle as she watched Mitali turn even a darker shade of red.
“Anyway,” Mitali said, trying very hard to appear dignified. “So she walks in, realizes we were… um, busy. And she literally rolls her eyes, as though we were being silly and walks back out, slamming the door.”
Khushi tried to look outraged, for that was clearly the reaction Mitali was expecting. However, she found nothing wrong in the encounter. Perhaps Myra was having a bad day.
“That’s not the point of the story,” Sam muttered, who seemed to understand Khushi’s predicament. “Mitu is just pissed that Myra didn’t apologize for walking in on them.”
Mitali pretended not to hear that. “Anyway, so I go running behind her, just to make sure she doesn’t misunderstand us, and we start talking… mostly about her busy life, but something just seemed off… it was like she was conflicted about something.”
“Did you ask her about it?” Khushi pressed.
“Of course,” Mitali replied, almost proud of herself. “She was hesitant at first, but eventually she blurted out that she got a job offer from Dubai and that it was a very nice position that could do wonders for her career.”
Silence followed that revelation. Khushi had an inkling of what was coming next.
“Obviously, I was very surprised… and I asked her what she was going to do. Because Arnav’s life was here in Delhi, I didn’t think he would be happy to pack up everything and just leave, you know?”
Khushi nodded.
“And she says, well, why do I have to be the one to sacrifice my dreams when he hasn’t sacrificed any of his?”
Khushi didn’t follow. “What didn’t Arnav sacrifice for her?”
“Exactly,” Mitali said, shaking her head. “The poor guy put up with long distance, asked her to move in with him, and she still wasn’t satisfied! I obviously asked her what she meant by that statement, and she goes on tell me how much pressure she is facing from her parents about marriage and how Arnav would avoid the topic every time she brought it up.”
Khushi looked at her feet, listening intently.
“It was a long conversation… the point in the end was that she felt she was being taken for granted and that she wasn’t sure if Arnav was the ‘one’ for her. Of course, I told her that she needs to talk to Arnav about all this. She can’t just accept a position in Dubai without consulting her boyfriend… she wasn’t very keen on it though.”
“She wasn’t keen?” Khushi repeated, surprised. “So what did she plan to do? Just leave for Dubai without telling him?”
Mitali shrugged. “Who knows… the next thing we know is that they are broke up, or rather she broke up with him and Arnav got caught up with Uncle’s stroke. We were all too scared to ask him what really happened… poor guy was going through a lot as is.”
Khushi tried to join the dots. “So you guys think she broke up with him just so she can take that job in Dubai?”
“It fits,” Mitali replied. “I mean what else could it be? Obviously if she talked to Arnav, he would have disagreed to move to Dubai, so she probably figured it was best to call it quits.”
Sam finally spoke. “I don’t think so… I mean, we know Bhai, in fact she knows him too. He has never said no to her, whatever she wanted he agreed to it right? So if she put her foot down, I am sure he would be okay to leave everything and shift to Dubai.”
“True,” Mitali agreed, thinking hard. “But that was not the feeling I got that night when I was talking to her. The way she talked about Arnav… it just felt like she was with him for so long because it was convenient. But in light of the job offer and the opportunity to move abroad, the convenience became just the opposite.”
“But–”
Mitali pressed on. “Plus, since when did Myra have a problem expressing her views? If she really did have a problem with Arnav not marrying her, then she would have made a big deal about it before, no?”
“Well, she didn’t have a chance to make the marriage thing a big deal before though, did she?” Sam replied. “Arnav Bhai wasn’t always this sorted.”
“What do you mean?” Khushi asked sharply.
“Oh you know with the restaurant failing, him not finishing his cooking school… he was a mess to be quite honest.”
Of all the things she found out that evening, this had to be the most shocking. Khushi couldn’t make head or tails of what she was hearing. Arnav was in culinary school? And yet, it all vaguely made sense. The ease he had while working in the kitchen that morning, the familiarity he had with cooking, the confidence with which he served the omelettes… of course he was a chef.
“Bhabhi?” Sam called, touching her shoulder gently. “What’s wrong?”
Khushi stared at the two girls. There was no way she could lie her way out of this one, they would know instantly that her façade of a happy marriage was far from reality.
“Nothing,” Khushi murmured, not knowing what to say. “I just…”
“We are so stupid,” Sam said suddenly, slapping her forehead. “All this Myra talk must be the last thing you’d want to hear… sorry for being so insensitive Bhabhi.”
Mitali looked at her lap, slightly ashamed. “It’s my fault… I really shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Khushi shook her head. “No, I insisted on talking about her, remember? And really, I am fine with it… it’s actually nice to hear it said out loud, you know? Lavanya and Anjali walk on eggshells every time Myra is mentioned.”
The two girls exchanged looks.
“Yeah,” Sam muttered, still guilt-ridden. “I heard them debating whether to tell you about her when you and Bhai got married…”
Khushi pondered that, wondering if things would have been better if they indeed came clean to her about their brother’s girlfriend in the early days. She would have taken it all in, no doubt, like she was trained to without uttering a single word. But she didn’t know how she would feel about it.
“Well things like this don’t stay hidden,” Mitali murmured.
“No,” Khushi agreed with a sigh. “They don’t…”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
Khushi looked at Mitali, not really sure if the question was posed to her. “Err… what doesn’t bother me?”
“Doesn’t it bother you that Arnav has an ex? And that he was pretty serious about her?” she asked.
Khushi turned her gaze away, thinking hard. Logically speaking, it should bother her. And she knew that was the answer they were expecting. But did it really?
For so long in her life, she believed it was best to accept things the way they were, for they could always be worse. At least, that was what her mother without failed told her. Be happy your father let you pursue medicine, she used say. If she was alive today, she would probably also say, be happy Arnav and Myra are over. Nowhere in that equation, did Khushi’s feelings ever matter.
That’s probably why she didn’t have an answer now.
“I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “I mean it’s obvious that this whole break-up thing has messed with Arnav’s mind… and at times I don’t know how to deal with it…”
“You don’t have to be nice Bhabhi,” Sam said gently. “I’m sure you felt a million times why you got stuck with someone else’s screw ups.”
Khushi shrugged. She felt that about everything in her life, particularly the decisions her father had made. Next to that, Arnav’s decision to marry her despite having such a complicated history wasn’t all that bad.
“Considering how or why Arnav and I ended up here won’t change the fact that we are here,” Khushi said, more to herself than them.
Mitali wasn’t convinced. “How much has Arnav even told you about all this?”
“Not much,” Khushi confessed, unable to avoid Mitali’s shrewd gaze. “But to be fair, I didn’t really ask him either… we both didn’t get married in the easiest of circumstances.”
“So then… how do you deal with it?” Sam asked, confused.
“We deal with it as it comes,” she replied with a humourless laugh. “Baby steps you know?”
Sam nodded. “I know you have Lavanya Di and all, but if you ever need a break from all this, you can come over any time, okay? I promise I won’t ask you anything, we can literally just watch TV together…”
Khushi was touched. “I’d like that very much.”
Mitali smiled too, albeit a little forcibly. Khushi could tell she wanted to talk more about her relationship with Arnav but kept quiet for the sake of the conversation. There was a lot of sense behind her blabber mouth, it seemed, something that Khushi was pleasantly surprised with.
So looking at the both of them, Khushi said, “And thank you for telling me so much about Myra.”
“No, we should be thanking you,” Sam replied instantly. “For being so gracious… and non-judgemental. All these days I thought you didn’t know about Myra… but you did, and you still didn’t say anything. I would have called it quits if I was in your place!”
Mitali nodded furiously in agreement. “Seriously Khushi… you have no idea how special you are for all of us. It’s such a relief knowing that Arnav has gotten a wife who finally understands him…”
Guilt pooled deep in the pit of Khushi’s stomach.
If she really meant the world to you then why don’t you try being a man and win her back?
If everything she heard today was true –and she was pretty sure it was– then Myra was not the saint Khushi had thought she was and nor was Arnav, the criminal. How could she have judged him so wrongly? How did she even think that the man who had selflessly tried to make her life better could be the one responsible to break another woman’s heart? She had blamed him for not understanding her, but how was she any better than him?
Khushi cleared her throat, trying hard not to drown in remorse.
“If you don’t mind,” she said timidly. “Can I ask you girls one last thing?”
“Of course!” Sam replied.
“If Arnav wanted to be a chef, why did he take over the company?”
It was the final piece of the puzzle that was missing, and since they had nothing better to do, they might as well discuss it. Anything to keep the regret at bay.
Mitali was the one who answered. “Shankar Uncle had a stroke remember… so I’m sure he felt obliged to take over the company to make his father happy.”
“But you said he had a restaurant?” Khushi interjected. “What happened to that?”
“It’s a long story,” Sam said taking a deep breath. “Since time immemorial, Bhai and Bade Papa didn’t get along… their fights were legendary, apparently. And it only got worse when Bhai decided to become a chef. He even enrolled in a cooking school after his university, but halfway through it, he quit and opened his own restaurant... for whatever reason, that didn’t do very well. So he ended up selling it less than a year later.”
Wow. That was all Khushi could think of as she tried to process it all.
“It killed him though… I can never forget the look he had on his face the day his restaurant closed. I honestly thought he will never ever cook again…”
“Same here,” Mitali agreed. “It was such a pleasant surprise seeing him bustling in the kitchen this morning.”
Khushi couldn’t help but recollect Lavanya’s words from not too long ago.
Imagine what it must have felt like seeing your father almost paralyzed in the hospital, not being able to even get down from the bed to use the bathroom and yet the only thing that he worried about was the company, the company for which he sold your mother’s jewelry to start?
Imagine what it must have felt like, knowing that your father has put you in charge of his life’s hard work, and mind you, it’s the same father you neglected, and walked away from when he needed you the most, but still, he placed his faith in you. How would it feel to know you are letting him down?
Khushi bit her lip, being suddenly reminded of the feeling of claustrophobia that overwhelmed her when her father abruptly announced that she was going to get married last September. Perhaps what Lavanya had said was indeed true. Perhaps Arnav didn’t marry her out of greed. Perhaps it was his last resort.
As the reality of that sunk it, Khushi distantly heard leaves rustling as muffled footsteps hastily approached them. The three girls stood up anxiously, not a single one of them daring to believe it could be their family. Then out of nowhere, Mitali screamed:
“BHAGI!! YOU FOUND ME?!”
Sure enough, Khushi saw Bhagi step into the clearing, holding up his phone for light.
“See?” Mitali told a relieved looking Sam. “I told you Bhagi would come!”
And then she took off, running straight into his arms. “Thank god you came!”
But Bhagi was nearly not as pleased as her. “What the hell were you thinking?!” he fired as soon they broke apart. “I toldyou the trails weren’t marked, so why on earth would you come this far into the forest?!”
“We got lost–”
“Thank god Arnav could trace the last spot you had signal! If not–”
And that’s when Khushi noticed the silent figure of Arnav, calmly standing behind his furious cousin. Upon catching her eye, he quietly made his way towards her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Khushi nodded, unable to meet his eyes. “I didn’t think you would come.”
“Because we are still not on talking terms?” he teased in a whisper.
She shrugged, not knowing what to say, causing Arnav to chuckle.
“Oh Dr. Gupta,” he said, interlocking his hand with hers. “That ship has sailed. Come, let’s go home.”
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So Khushi is finally asking questions… it only took 35 chapters, but at least she managed to get here 😂 What do you think she will do next?
Please like & comment!
Archi
P.S. - AD is still quite busy at the moment... I will update by next Wednesday at the very latest. Thank you for being patient 😊
Edited by -Archi- - 5 years ago
because of family tree which looks more company organizational structure. Good luck in your life with whatever you are doing. 
. I know who is going to fall first and fall she will , very hard. 
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Cricket
Bigg Boss 19
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