The Heart Knows #2-IPKKND ff-Thread 3 link-Pg 144 - Page 87

"Your drinks, maam," the bar tender said.

"Tequila," she told him. "I need tequila."

Jia looked at her with her mouth wide open. "Khushi?"

Khushi looked at her. "Yes, Jia?"

"Did you really ask for a tequila shot?"

"But you don't drink, right?"

"Now, I do."

She literally snatched the glass from the bar tender and gulped it down. It tasted bitter and she stuck her tongue out.

"One more," she ordered the bar tender.

Jia tried to stop her. "Khushi, tum..."

"Bas karo, Jia. Main enjoy kar rahi hoon."

By that time, Anjali, who couldn't watch Siddharth any longer, walked to them and saw Khushi downing tequila shots as if they were cool drinks.

"Khushi?" Anjali said in shock.

She took the third shot in her hand and asked for one more.

Anjali caught her hand and stopped her.

"You are drinking, Khushi?"

"Haan, di. Main yeh sab dekh nahi sakthi." [Yes, di. I can't watch all this.]

"Kya dekh nahi sakthi?" [What can't you watch?]

She shook Anjali's hand away and gulped down her third drink.

"Di, yeh theesri drink hai," Jia told her. [Di, this is her third drink.]

Jia had also begun to call her 'di'.

"Kya?" [What?]

"Haan, di. Hum mocktails ke liye yahaan aaye the. Magar Khushi ne patha nahi kyun tequila pee rahi hai." [Yes, di. We came here for mocktails. Don't know why but Khushi is drinking tequila.]

The bar tender handed over her fourth drink. Before Anjali could stop her, Khushi drank it.

"One more," she ordered the bar tender.

"No more. Don't give her more," Anjali told him. "Khushi, what is all this?"

"You know what, di?" Khushi asked her. "Jab aapki ''jaan'' ke paas kisi aur aaya na, tho bahut thakleef hothi hai." [It hurts when someone else comes close to your ''life''.]

Anjali looked at Jia for an explanation. Jia shrugged her shoulders as she didn't know what it was about.

"Khushi...!"

"Such hai, di. Aap ko bhi yeisa situations aa sakthe hain. [It is true, di. You will also get into such situations.] That time, you will understand what love is. And along with love, you will also experience anger. It is upto you to decide what you want to do."

Anjali turned around and looked at Siddharth. She realized that there was some truth in what Khushi said. She didn't like so many girls around Siddharth but she didn't know why she didn't like the situation.

When Khushi tried to move, Anjali caught her hand and said, "Kahaan jaa rahi ho?"

"To meet someone who is standing with my life."

"What happened to her?" Anjali asked Aman who had joined them a minute before.

"Tina happened," Aman told her.

"Tina kaun?" [Who is Tina?]

He pointed to Arnav and the girl and said, "That is Tina. Arnav's ex. She returned from Mumbai a few days back."

"Few days back?"

Anjali wondered about Arnav's mysterious phone call.

"Arnav, I am going to kill you," she muttered to herself. Then, she asked Aman, "Why is she here?"

"Arnav has always had a soft corner for her," Aman explained. "He has known her from the time she entered modelling as a naive seventeen year old girl. She is Pooja's school friend. I think she is here for some assignment. "

"Khushi ko yeh sab patha hai kya?" [Does Khushi know all this?]

"She just knows that Tina is his ex."

Khushi's heart broke with every step she took towards Arnav and Tina. She trusted Arnav but somewhere deep inside her heart, it hurt her to look at him with someone else in his arms. Call it jealousy or anger or plain downright pain. Whatever its name was, it was there.

Arnav saw her and smiled. The pain he saw in her eyes wiped the smile from his face. He removed his hand from Tina's waist.

Khushi extended her hands towards Tina and said, "Hey Tina! I am Khushi."

"Nice to meet you," Tina replied with a smile.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you. So do you."

"I work for Siddharth Raina. We have a show coming up and we need a show stopper. How about we discuss the dates and finalize the contract?"

"That would be wonderful, Khushi..."

"Just Khushi."

Arnav called her. "Khushi, listen..."

"Yes, Mr Raizada?"

Her tone sounded very formal and he flinched at the tone.

"Khushi, it is not what you think."

"What makes you think you know what I think, Mr. Raizada?"

Her voice sounded slurred at the end of her question and he asked, "Khushi, are you drunk?"

He stepped forward to hold her hand but she shrugged it away.

"It is a party, Mr. Raizada. It is not a big deal to drink in parties."

"Khushi, stop calling me Mr. Raizada," he told her.

"I wonder how your employees handle you," Khushi muttered under her breath. She pasted a smile on her face and said, "Anyway, nice meeting you, Tina. It wasn't so nice meeting you, Mr. Raizada."

Arnav rubbed his eyebrows and looked at the people around him. Khushi hadn't created a scene and he didn't know whether to feel satisfied or sad about it. The most important fact was that he hadn't seen jealousy or possessiveness in her eyes. It was something else and it troubled him.

"You know her, right?" Tina asked him.

"Meri biwi hai." [My wife.]

"Biwi?" she asked in surprise. [Wife?]

He nodded.

"She is different. If it was someone else, she sould have blasted out in front of everyone. Khushi is different from others."

"That is what makes her special."

She kissed his cheek and said, "You have a great wife, Arnav. Always be happy with her."

Unfortunately, Khushi saw her kissing him and walked out of the party venue.

Anjali looked at Siddharth and thought about what Khushi had told her. The girls were still swarming around him like flies over a pot of honey. He was the first guy she had ever admired. She didn't know what was happening to her. Whatever she was feeling was too soon for her to recognize or to enjoy it. She had just come out of nearly nine years of betrayal and she didn't want to give in to the new things she felt when she saw Siddharth.

She loved her life the way it was after Shyam was removed. She liked her work. She enjoyed her work. She was independent and she had the courage to stand up for herself. Still, she felt that a part of her was missing. But it didn't occur to her that the missing part was the person standing in front of her.

Or maybe a part of her did know. Because Siddharth hugged everybody. Except her. In the beginning, it didnot matter to her. But as days passed, she felt the difference. Be it Pooja, or her friends, or his colleagues... Whoever it was. He hugged them or returned their hug. With her, it had never happend.

She shook her thoughts away and took a deep breath. She looked at the spot where her brother was. The place was empty.

"Where is Khushi?" she asked Aman and Jia.

"She just left."

"Left? Where?"

"Don't worry, di. Arnav went after her."

Siddharth was in a totally different world. He didn't like the attention he got. He had never liked girls surrounding him as if he was the last specimen of his kind on Earth. At the same time, he couldn't brush them away.

So, he tuned out of the girls' chatter and looked at Anjali. Her face reminded him of what Khushi told him earlier. She had asked him to find some chipku girls and flirt with them. He was thankful that he didn't have to do anything like that. The girls did a pretty good job.

He was closer to his dream.

Originally posted by: adventure_roks

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