ArHi SS! Love, Inc. [Completed] - Page 7

Excellent start...eager to read more

Wow RB ! What a treat we are in for..

Now we have an edgy thriller and a spicy chick-flick on our platter served piping hot 😉

I like i like!

Its so much fun to read..and really so visual as a chick flik..
And the humour.. :D

Interesting! Hart broken Khushi and Arnav! Looking forward for more

Yeeehawww - felt like that ... Lol !! Can't wait to read more

Count me in to this one too. I think you have the right kind of balance to my life with EV and this one. I couldn't have done my break times between studies more justice apart from juggling between two extraordinarily wonderful fics.

Khushi had been taking her laptop to the loo.🤣

A new one from u and i'm more than ready to read it before i even knw i am ready for it... Khushi my girl is already heart broken with those overly matured exs...and she met certain someone who have bournvita eyes...waiting for the spark...

Image credit: Hasini/Lahari

Chapter 02: Singles

Khushi did what any sane person would do. She gargled up some consonants and vowels but none of them made any sense.

"I beg your pardon?" Mr Bournvita Eyes asked confused at the verbal barrage thrown in his way. She shook her head severely making her neatly French plait move on her back like a vapid snake. She swallowed slowly and unconsciously wiped her clammy hands on her jeans.

She cleared her throat just so that it isn't making squeaky noise anymore. "I don't know why it is necessary to tower books in gravity defying geometry."

He laughed. "I think it is because the person who nudges it unknowingly and collapses the structure would be embarrassed enough to leave the story empty handed." Khushi felt annoyed.

"That's pretty lame marketing strategy," she countered.

"It generally works with people who are easily flustered," he said baiting her again.

She sighed and pushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. It was something she did when she was buying time or thinking something seriously. In this case she was checking out the man in front of her.

"Sketcher shoes, probably bought elsewhere...but wait, there are ads on online shops that its available in India now...seriously, they should do a better job of choosing footwear when they want to launch. I mean who would...no, no, no not now...hmm...nice jeans, no-nonsense plain t-shirt and was it Tissot watch? That was pretty neat. Mild perfume...nothing turns off a girl like a perfume screaming of testosterone."

"Is everything alright?" She heard him say. She didn't know if he had caught her giving him a once over from shoes to his eyes or was he simply inquiring her sudden muteness.

"Peachy," she smiled tightly. "You come here often?" She asked and felt like kicking herself for a lame opening statement.

He offered her a smile which gave birth to a zillion butterflies in her stomach. Or it could be nausea due to non-stop chips consumption. She decided to go with the former.

"At least twice a month. I love to read and I spend Saturday evenings here checking out new books or buying some. It's a nice stress buster," he offered a lengthy explanation.

She wondered if he handed out all information so easily. Stalkers would love him for his idiocy in divulging more information than necessary.

"I suppose so. I haven't been here for quite some time now. They have changed a bit around here," she said eying the books he had bought. There was Hellblazer graphic novel which in her eyes made him plain awesome; anyone who bought not schmoozed modern day sexy accent British exorcist with ambiguous morals and a long trench coat was her favorite person of the day. And then there was a book on gardening. Gardening was so 90s but she let it slide as her eyes widened seeing Pico Iyer on top of it.

This man was solid gold.

But there was one small teeny weeny problem.

She had always believed in opposite-attract formula. Every guy she had dated till now - grand six in total had tastes and personalities opposite to hers. She believed that life would be interesting when she dated men with different backgrounds. She had learned a lot of new things with that attitude but somehow it hadn't worked out well in the end.

Before she could ask him his name, phone number, address, waist size, favorite flavor of ice gola etc., a woman in an elegant cotton sari linked her arm with Mr Bournvita Eyes. He smiled at the new woman, the villain of her story, as she boiled on her feet. The man nodded at her and walked out of the aisle towards billing the new woman next to him.

When the woman passed next to her, Khushi could see the thin strand of black beads around the woman's neck.

Mr Bournvita Eyes was a married man.

Bloody frigging hell.

*****

"What's up with her?" Lavanya asked Payal in hushed whisper as they watched Khushi feverishly go on about her room and cleaning it. The pile of clothes under the bed were taken out, washed and ironed. The unwashed laundry of five weeks was also washed and ironed. Her wardrobe was cleaned and was wide open as Khushi was placing all her clothes neatly inside.

"She has been up all night. She bought about eighteen books last evening and was reading it till wee hours of morning. And then this began," Payal waved her hand around the room.

"I can hear you both, you know?" Khushi said hanging her business formals neatly.

"Do you think she is finally over that gaming freak?" Lavanya asked ignoring Khushi.

"Loud and clear, me hears you." Khushi said standing back and observing her work. It looked pretty impressive.

"I think she has met someone new. Someone has really caught her eye." Payal noted seriously. "That's when she decides never to fall for any guy and tries to organize the chaos around her."

"'She' is right here, only five feet away." Khushi grumbled and started pulling books from the rack and chewed her lips thoughtfully. The large book rack was empty as most of the books had taken residence in attic to avoid goblin eyes of Rajeev. Now they were back in the land of living and several boxes were placed near the foot of her bed.

"Either that or something fell on her head when we were out last night and made her lunacy worse. Could it be the effect of full moon? It's full moon today, I just checked my horoscope," Lavanya replied equally serious. "Do you think we should get her horoscope checked?" She added when Payal didn't reply immediately.

"Or you could ask 'her' directly," Khushi whirled around and air quoted 'her'.

After moments of silence, Lavanya asked. "Yes?" Khushi rolled her eyes at the absolute impassivity of her friends.

"I went to book store last evening and when I was reading a spiritual book I realised that I have lost track of what I liked after I started inviting men with different tastes in my life. As a starting point I decided to clean up my room and get back to reading which I have frankly missed for last year or so." Khushi said crossing her arms across her chest and took a school teacher stance.

"What the frack?" Lavanya said. The F-bombs she dropped so often was now replaced with "frack" after she used the F-word while chatting with her grandfather. She didn't care much about the nosily yelling and loud scolding that followed but when her father cut her allowance to half, she had turned into a new leaf in one point three seconds.

"Hmm.." Payal dragged her hum. Khushi kept it together as the two ladies walked into her room and circled her like vultures.

"I am guessing a man." Payal started. "Someone handsome, not outright extrovert but-someone halfway. Smart probably else she wouldn't be this uppity at this time of the day."

"I agree P. Me also thinks the close encounters didn't go as she fantasized." Lavanya said huskily.

"Reading a spiritual book, eh?" Payal said moving away from Khushi. "That was a nice touch."

Khushi smiled wanly but the last moments of her meeting came to her mind and her enthusiasm came crashing down pretty bad.

"I think he was married." She supplied dully. Payal froze in her tracks and Lavanya looked unperturbed.

"So what if he is married?" Lavanya asked honestly. Payal rolled her eyes.

"How do you know that?" Payal asked gently.

"I saw his frigging wife hanging on his arm," Khushi said waspishly.

"That blows." Payal felt bad for her friend.

"I am a whole new leaf now P - greener and cleaner. I am just going to catch up with my kind of movies and reading material and try very hard to snag a foreign assignment as soon as possible." Khushi declared.

"Who was he?" Lavanya asked curious. "He is Mr Bournvita Eyes." Khushi said dreamily.

About title: Singles is one of my favorite movies of this genre easily in top 5. The movie depicted the twenty somethings individuals in a way which the 90s tweens could recognize themselves with. I watched this movie with my older cousin and her five friends in a old VCR and I fell in love with the music. The sound track of this movie became hugely popular and paved way to the new kind - Grunge/Alternate rock. The Smashing Pumpkins are one of my favorite bands and the figure prominently in this movie.

The books Arnav is carrying are currently on my nightstand. I love Pico Iyer who writes travelogues in a story fashion using first person narrative. Hellblazer is an all time favorite and am sorta heart broken that they closed Hellblazer and started Constantine. Yeah, Hellblazer was made to a motion picture - Constantine with Keanu Reeves playing the titular role. Not an awesome movie but good fun.

Hope you all had a good start of the week! See you all tomorrow with a new update!!