FF-Strings, Tying Us Together #2 Part 15 Pg101 4/7 - Page 65

Recap: Khushi goes to argue with Arnav but La tells her to shut up. Akash stands up for Khushi.

It was mid day now. Khushi had been running back and forth doing all of the silly things her boss, La, had told her to do. It irritated her that she was being forced to do such meaningless things, but she couldn't argue with La. Khushi knew that if she argued with La, she would just go and tell Arnav, making him even more mad at her than usual. So she did everything La commanded, but that didn't mean she was doing them gladly.

As she walked out of the printing room, carrying around 400 pages of various documents, she heard loud noises coming out of Arnav's cabin. Curious to know what was happening, Khushi dumped all of the papers in her hand on her desk and made her way up to see for herself. She silently thanked Devi Maiyya for making the room out of glass walls so she could easily see what was happening inside.

"ASR it's 1:00 pm and you haven't had anything for food all day! Will you please eat something?" La whined as she brought out some of the food she had gotten from the cafeteria, totally unaware of the audience they had.

Khushi craned her neck to see what La had gotten her husband and smirked when she saw what it was.

"What the?! You got me pasta?!?! I hate pasta!! Especially with ranch dressing!" Arnav shouted, while Khushi mouthed the same words softly so no one would hear.

"But... ASR you used to love pasta!" La said in her defense.

"Who told you I liked pasta?!" Arnav asked?!

Me!! thought Khushi, smiling widely as her plan worked in full force now.

"Um... no one!" La responded on short notice.

"What the? Get this crap away from me!"

Khushi quickly got up from her seating spot when she heard La's footsteps coming out of the room and ran downstairs to start differentiating 400 pages of papers to see which one belonged to which file and then hole punching them and placing them in the correct file.

"Don't think this is over Chamkili. This is just the beginning," La said venomously as she walked by Khushi's desk. She knew exactly what the girl had done. She set me up! She wanted me to believe her so I could get yelled at!! La thought as she walked to her cabin to think of something else that ASR would like.

Khushi breathed a sigh of relief and then giggled as she saw La walk away from her. Yes, she thought, This isn't over yet La. This is just the beginning. She thought back to how after Jiju had told her that Jiji had called. Khushi had called Jiji back and was in mid conversation when she saw La walking back. Quickly, Khushi had changed the topic and started talking to Jiji about how Arnav had not eaten since the morning and how he had not even eaten his favorite dish of all, pasta with ranch as a topping. Khushi had been facing the other way so La did not think that she was being tricked but she could see from her peripheral view that La was listening to every word she was saying. When she had seen the look of triumph on La's face, her face had mirrored the same look. Now this will be fun, she had thought, and she had been right. It was fun, she thought.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard the booming voice that was all too familiar calling out to her, "Ms. Gupta! Cabin now!"

She looked up to see her husband standing on the steps looking as if he would eat anything in sight. Maybe I should have told La something that he would have eaten. At least he wouldn't be so brutal on a full stomach! Gulping, she got up from her seat and made her way up the stairs to follow him up to his cabin. As she entered, she saw him him typing away furiously on his laptop, as if he was going to be missing a huge show if he didn't finish quickly.

She silently sat down in front of him, unconsciously fixing her saree before placing her hands on the table gently. She waited until he finally looked up from his computer and looked at her. He gave her a questioning glance but she just returned it with her own since she had no idea what he was actually talking about.

"Did I tell you to sit down?" he finally asked, breaking the eerie silence that had enveloped the roam.

"What? Yes! I mean no!" Khushi stuttered as she stood up, running her hands down the plaits on her saree to remove any crease.

"This isn't a fashion show Ms. Gupta that you kept fixing your clothing. It is an office and you are here to work. Isn't that what you wanted?" Arnav asked in a steel tone voice which Khushi picked up on but wasn't sure why he was mad.

"Yes Arnav. I mean sir. What do I have to do?" Khushi asked confidently, promising herself that she would do anything he said as long as she could get him to calm down.

"Well actually I am going to help you with this task Ms. Gupta. See I need to make sure you are doing it, and not someone else so you will be doing it right here, in front of me," Arnav said in a soft voice.

"Off course... What am I doing again?" Khushi asked not sure if she really wanted to hear what her husband had in plan for her. It couldn't be that bad right?

"There are five male models here Ms. Gupta," Arnav said chilling Khushi's blood, "I want their measurements and I want you to do them."

Khushi stood there in shock as she saw him go back to typing furiously. Her mouth hung open as she thought about touching all of those males and getting their measurements. What has happened to you Arnav?, she thought, Just the other day, you got all angry since I wouldn't pick up the phone since I was talking to Naheji. You came home fuming about how I spent more time talking to random males and then when you called me I always said I was busy... And now you want me to do this...?

"What are you waiting for Ms. Gupta? Go. Call the men. They are all waiting in La's room. Bring them up here and oh! Remember, have a notepad to write down the measurements," Arnav said satisfaction clear in his voice.

"Yes sir," Khushi mummbled as she walked downstairs to La's room.

She entered the room to see the heavily built men all standing there, barely wearing any clothes. Instinctively she shied away when she felt one of the men come closer to her but she didn't say anything. What could she say? After all her own husband had just pushed her towards all of these men, and to top it off, he even wanted to see her measure them just to make sure.

As the men left the room, she saw La smirking at her obvious discomfort. As soon as they were gone, La walked closer to Khushi.

"What did you think? That you would escape just like you did last time? ASR was just going have you measure these men, but we couldn't just do that could we? No off course not. So I made sure to tell ASR to have you measure these men in front of himself. Just to see you actually do the work rather than make someone else do your work for a change," La said, smirking as she got her revenge for what Khushi had done earlier.

"Oh I will," Khushi answered back confidently as she made her way out of the room and quickly stomped up to Arnav's office

Oh you don't know anything yet Khushi. I didn't pay those men for nothing... Watch as they try to harass you and you can't do anything. Just watch. Even ASR won't help you and that's my promise, La thought smirking.