Chapter 57: A Tepid Affair
Lavanya called Arnav two days later and formally asked if he and V
would accompany them on a family picnic that weekend. He couldn't tell her how glad he was that she
was talking to him again. He was
stubborn to a fault and if left up to him, sadly, he couldn't guarantee that he
would have taken the initiative to repair the rift that had formed between them. He would like to think he would have, but he
couldn't guarantee it. His
stubbornness had been indulged for too long now for it to disappear
overnight... like many other traits of his...
He told Lavanya that he would try his best, but that he wasn't
sure. He remembered Khushi asking V to
come on the same picnic and V's answer.
Admittedly, she had not been in the best of emotional states in that
moment, but there was nothing to indicate that things had changed drastically
since then. In fact, V had gone into a sort
of withdrawal that had become perplexing to the family.
He found V that night on her balcony, leaning against the balustrade,
looking off into the distance. She had
been like this for the past few days, a bit dazed, her mind only half in the
moment while the other half perpetually floated along somewhere else... he,
like the rest of the family, had let her be, not precisely knowing what to
do. Every particle of her being had
always been so animated, even at rest, that it was difficult to know what to make
of this Vaibhavi... she didn't look sad or distressed, which would have prompted
the family to intervene in some fashion.
She just looked... preoccupied...
When he cleared his throat, she looked up startled.
"What's wrong with you?" He
asked and she shook her head, looking away again.
He watched her carefully for a moment before he asked, "Did he hurt you
that much?"
Her head snapped back to him and he clarified, "What he said that
day... all those things... did he hurt you that much?"
Her eyes swept down before she shook her head.
She was
almost docile like this and it was not a look that agreed with her!
He made his decision in that moment and announced it to her. "We are going to that picnic that Khushi
asked you to go on that day. The twins'
mother, Lavanya, called today to ask us again.
I told her that we would go. It's
this Saturday, which gives you one more day.
I won't take no for an answer, V.
We're going. And if you refuse, I am calling Ambika aunty and telling
her that you got a lobotomy while the rest of us weren't looking."
She looked up at him and he was surprised when she gave him a faint
smile.
"I'll go." She said.
He hadn't expected such an easy capitulation and stood there for a
moment, taken aback by the quick victory.
"Well, alright then." He said
finally, at a loss for words.
He stood there for a minute longer before he finally said, "Good night,
V. If you try to climb off this balcony
again, none of my employees are waiting down there to catch you. So do try to control yourself."
She surprised him when she hugged him suddenly, in a quick tight
squeeze.
He let her hug him while he patted her back, albeit awkwardly; she was
not someone given to open displays of affection for all that she was a
wildling. Neither was he. But it still brought a smile to his face and
he told her before she let go, "Well, I am glad we understand each other."
------
He and V arrived at the picnic site on Saturday ten minutes after the
time that Lavanya had asked them to be there.
Even though his natural
compunction was to always be on time, he rarely attended other people's family
picnics and wasn't sure what decorum called for. He certainly didn't want to get there first
and thus he had opted to delay their arrival by precisely ten minutes. The picnic was actually not in any park, but
on grounds owned by Sohan's family a bit outside of Delhi. Thus, it was a relatively secluded green
expanse with numerous trees, picnic benches, and even a small shallow pond
nearby. It reminded him of some idyllic
pasture straight out of a BBC short series featuring some seemingly tepid
family drama with a subversive socio-political subtext. Not that he had seen any such features, but
he imagined that this is what it would look like.
He saw Sohan and Lavanya immediately by one of the picnic benches;
Sohan was going through a cooler of beverages and Lavanya was sorting through
the picnic basket.
"Where are the imps?" he asked
and the couple turned.
"Hey man!" Sohan said as he
moved forward to shake his heads just before Lavanya came forward for a
hug.
"I am so glad you came." She
said as she turned to V and gave her a hug as well.
V smiled and returned the hug just as Arnav repeated, "Where are Nikhil
and Jay?"
"They just went for a walk with Bee and Rajeev around the pond." Just as Lavanya finished, they heard
footsteps behind them and turned to see Rajeev walking up with Nikhil hoisted
upon his left shoulder.
The boy looked as if he had been crying earlier, with tear-rimmed eyes
and a leaky nose.
"What happened buddy?" Sohan
asked and Rajeev looked up at the boy and winked before he asked, "Should we
tell Papa or Mama?"
The boy shook his head and rubbed at his eyes wildly to remove any
remnants of tears.
"What's wrong baby?" Lavanya
asked.
"It's a secret, bhabhi. He just
wants to relax here with you both for some time before coming back out. Isn't that right, Nick?"
The boy nodded and reached for Sohan who had come to take him from
Rajeev.
"You guys go ahead and find Khushi and Jay. We'll be here and Nick is going to help us
see if we packed any popsicles."
Nick brightened up at this suggestion and Rajeev smiled as he turned to
Arnav.
"G'morning, sir."
"Morning." He acknowledged
before Rajeev turned to V and nodded a greeting. She offered one in return as they started
walking.
"So, what happened to Nick?" He asked,
walking between V and Rajeev as they started in the direction of the pond. He hadn't known that Rajeev would be here,
although he should have guessed.
"He got scared by a group of wild geese and literally tried to climb up
my body in fright. So, I brought him
back. It's not like you can chase wild
geese away; they can be quite unpleasant if provoked." He said with a smile before looking off in
the direction of the other side of the.
"There they are."
And sure enough, Arnav could see her form in the distance. She was wearing some sort of long skirt and a
sleeveless top and he could see her trying to give chase to Jay who was
squealing in excitement.
"Jay called Nick a cry baby, so we thought it best to separate them for
a bit until Nick got over his need to have a go at Jay." Rajeev said as they
approached Khushi and the boy.
"Uncle Arnav!" Jay caught sight
of him before Khushi did and left her side to run up to him.
"V, you came!" Khushi said as
she turned around and came towards them.
He saw her glance at him briefly in acknowledgment and he held her gaze
as she hugged his cousin.
She looked away when he wouldn't and it gave him some irrational
satisfaction to know that he wasn't the only one affected like this whenever
they were near each other.
He wished for once that he found some sort of cologne that made him
irresistible to her so that she would be just as tormented as him and would
truly understand his predicament. But
men were always more attracted to women than women were to men. It was just a fact of life. Women were beautiful creatures by no fault of
their own. Khushi just happened to be
more beautiful than most women, again through no fault of her own. How had he not noticed for eight long
years? Even while he wondered that, he
was thankful that it took him that long; if he had noticed before, things
likely would have ended badly. She had
the wherewithal to hold him off now, mature as she was, whereas before that may
not have been the case. And then he
would have been really f**ked.
"Uncle Arnav" He heard Jay call
him and shook his head off of errant thoughts and picked up the boy.
"What's this I hear about you making fun of your brother?" he asked once
Jay was settled in his hold.
"He made fun of me when I cried last week at Shoba's aunty's house when
her dog jumped on me."
"A dog jumped on you?" he asked,
widening his eyes.
"The puppy was trying to play with you." Khushi said coming to his side.
"That was a dog, Bee masi! Not a
puppy!" Jay was insistent. Khushi smiled but stuck to her side of the story,
"It was a puppy, Jay."
"It was too a dog! It was huge!"
Jay said before turning around and wrapping his arms around Arnav.
"I'm just teasing you." Khushi
said walking behind him to see Jay's face.
Jay must have hidden his face from her before she reached around to tickle
him, making the boy fidget, which unbalanced Arnav enough to back into her.
"Oh, careful." She said as he
felt her behind him, steadying him.
He turned around to face her then, Jay giggling and turning with him.
She avoided his gaze as she looked at Jay. "So you have new company now and you ignore
me completely. I am katti with you." She said before turning away.
Jay reached out to grab her but only got her by the hair and Arnav
heard her yelp just as he moved forward so that Jay wasn't tugging on her hair.
Jay giggled again even though he kept his hold on her hair and when the
boy leaned toward her, Arnav moved closer behind her until he was flush against
her back. He took the bunch of hair from
Jay's tiny fingers and the boy let go easily, pulling Khushi by the shoulder
now to lean forward to say, "Dosti please."
She remained still for a few moments and Jay leaned over all the way to
kiss her cheek before he said, "Please Bee maasi."
She seriously had the boy wrapped up around her pinky finger!
She turned around and smiled as she leaned up to kiss Jay's cheek. He didn't notice that he was still holding
onto her hair until he saw her reach her hand up towards where it tugged. She pulled on it and he opened his palm and
let it slide out of his hand.
For a moment, their gazes held, but they were startled out of their
reverie soon enough when Jay exclaimed, "I want popsicles!"
-------
comment:
p_commentcount