Chapter 4
"Weirdo" Arnav muttered in confusion as he took off his coat.
She was yelling at him in the morning and now talked to him as if nothing had happened.
Drying his face he chose to forget what he did and ignore the morning incident.
He was really tired after a long day of back to back meetings. Tea sounded wonderful right now, he wondered if her offer was still open.
"No you are not hanging out with her, few minutes she was about to kill you by feeding jalebis" he talked to himself and instead went to work on his plants.
As he watered his plants and tended to the dry leaves, he glanced at his roses and suddenly anger overcame him like a tornado, "Where the he- who the hell".
Dropping the tools he stalked downstairs.
He saw di going into her room with a small bunch of roses in hand.
"Di!" he called out.
Anjali turned around to see Arnav stride over to her puffing in anger.
"What happened chotte?" she asked him sweetly, hoping her voice would calm him a little.
"Where'd you get those roses from?" he asked her in a neutral tone.
"Uhh these, Khushi got them for me" Anjali smiled brightly smelling their scent.
"Why didn't you come down for dinner?"
"I had eaten already'umm where is Khushi?"
"I saw her in the kitchen making tea"
"Oh okay, I'll see you in the morning" he hugged her good night and left to find the culprit who dared to touch his beloved flowers.
~~~
Arnav came back to his room defeated, he could not find her anywhere in the house.
"Where the hell did she go at this time of the night?" he asked himself.
He turned off the lights getting ready for bed when he heard a soft laughter. Turning the lights back on he checked outside his room and found nobody.
Moving the curtains he peeked into the poolside and saw her sitting on his chair legs stretched out with a book in one hand and mug in another.
She was in his den all along and he had wasted his energy and time searching for her everywhere else in the house.
"What are you doing here?" he roared.
Khushi moved her eyes up and saw a tall mountain overshadowing here.
"Ah irritated old man's here" she said dryly.
"What?"
"Nothing..hey!" she looked up at him showing all her teeth.
"What did you just call me?"
"N-nothing"
"Irritated old man'of course, this is what us poor men turn into when we're around you" he snapped.
"How dare you" she huffed
"Exactly how dare you' he repeated.
"what?"
"How dare you pick flowers from my pots?!"
"Flowers? Your pots? Ooohh!" she comprehended his words.
"So what if I picked some?"
"They are my plants, nobody touches them without my permission. Also flowers don't bloom for annoying people like you to come take them away" he gritted out.
"Ooo-okay, calm down. I am sorry I didn't know you did gardening and even owned the little garden here" she pointed her at his darling pots.
"I'll get you some new seeds" she smiled.
He could not believe this girl'woman. Why did she poke him in the right places to boil his temper?
"Nevermind. Can you please leave, this is my chair youre sitting on, and its my pool and its my-go to your room."
It was Khushi's turn to not believe this man. She stood and marched towards arms folded.
Arnav took a couple of steps back folding his arms.
"No I wont. I am going to stay here, what will you do" she asked arrogantly her chest heaving up and down.
"I will take you out myself" he replied nonchalantly.
"What the!"
Arnav grabbed onto her arm as he fell backwards into the pool by her sudden forceful push.
"Aaah! I cant swim! I cant swim! I cant swim!" Khushi started crying loud into his ear, gripping his shirt tight enough to tear it.
"Khushi!" he pushed her back holding onto her upper arms, trying to gain stability in the water.
"No!! Don't leave! I cant swim! Please don't let go off me!" she went hysteric.
Panicking at the thought of him letting her go, she grabbed him even tighter and pushed him back into water.
"Mm-blrgg Khushi youre not going to freaking drown!" he yelled over her voice.
He covered her mouth with his hand shutting her loud sounds down to whimpers and pulled her straight to him, wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Sshhh, you're fine. This pool is not deep; you're not going to drown" he explained to her.
She shook her head.
"For god's sake Khushi you are standing, you're taller than the depth of the water!"
Finally her whimpering stop and regained her breathing.
"Drama queen" he muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing'why'd you push me? Ache hua you fell too"
"What did you just call me? Drama queen?" she asked completely ignoring his question.
He nodded his head.
"Well Mr. Raizada, what do you expect, with your pokerfaced stiff personality, women around you have to express for you and ourselves. In that we become drama queens." she retorted angrily and tried to get out of his hold.
Staring at her with amusement, he held onto her more tightly, not letting her get away.
"Let go of me"
"Are you this childish all the time?" he asked her, a smile creeping on the corners of his lips.
"Huh, now I am childish" her eyes glared fire at him.
He moved away a wet strand of hair from her fore head, enjoying her temper and the body pressed against him softly.
Her tshirt hugged her like a second skin, outlining her round breasts and narrow waist.
Arnav's gaze kept moving back and forth from her chest to her face.
"Just your behavior" he grinned at her.
Khushi stood still, their close proximity dawning upon her.
All of the sudden really shy, Khushi looked down not being able to look him in the eye.
"A-Arnav we should get out of this pool"
"No" he bent his head forward, titling her face up and brushed his lips over hers.
She stared at his warm eyes as he trailed his tongue over her mouth before taking it in a full blown gentle kiss.
~~~
Arnav knocked on her door before walking into her room with two mugs of tea in his hands.
"Can I come in" he grinned making himself comfortable on the bed.
"Does it matter if I say no?" she asked raising her eyebrows while zipping her sweatshirt.
"No"
Taking the mug from him, she settled next to him.
"Want to talk?" she asked him.
He nodded yes taking a sip of his tea.
They didn't realize where time flew and soon light rays of sun started to come out when Arnav got off her bed.
She was talking one minute and in the other fell asleep lying on her stomach.
He covered her with the duvet and went to his room to get some sleep before di started calling over his head.
Music Corner
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
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