FF : Start Of Something Good ~ Ch.10 Pg.117 08/06 - Page 70

Where was her brother? Anjali wondered as she watered his plants. He should have come here at least once by now. His garden was his master piece, after all, was it not? And it was an unstated agreement between the siblings that she should water his plants when he could not - the end of the deal she kept up without fail. Let alone his garden, he has not even tried to see me once today, Anjali frowned. This was out of ordinary - him not chanting his sister's name as if it was his personal mantra. As if her thoughts had reminded him of her, her phone rang and it displayed that her Chotay was calling her. Receiving his call she complained, "Hum aap hi ke baare main soch rahe the, Chotay. Kaha hai aap? Subah se baat tak nahi kiya humse?" Arnav apologised and explained how and where he was. He had landed in Mumbai and had called her immediately. "Di, aaj aap Nani ke so sakti hai?" Anjali's brows furrowed as she thought of what the reason behind his request might be. "Of course, Chotay. But why?" Her brother, for the first time in as long as she could remember searched for words - an indication that told Anjali that her brother would lie to her next - and listened to his rationale, "Nani was looking a little off this morning. And you know how she makes her health look as if it's not a big deal." That was rich coming from a guy who could not, for the love of his life, take care of his own body! And for a second, Anjali had a flash of suspicion in her mind. Does he know anything about Shyam and is that why he was trying to keep her away from him? On surface though, she did not argue much and gave in.

After talking for a few more minutes, she collected her annulment papers and left the house, sighing when she luckily did not see her ex-husband's face even once in that process. She bid the driver to take her to Aman's and was soon knocking on his door. Aman had been about to sleep on the couch, as he was bored of the television and he opened the door to the love of his life, who looked mouth-watering in a royal blue saree. Walking in, she slapped the papers against his chest, and he caught them in his hands. "What's this?" he questioned, and Anjali put her nose in the air snobbishly and shrugged, before sitting herself on the plush loveseat. Shaking his head at her antics, he settled on the bean bag, right next to her and opened the paper to be shocked - pleasantly, of course! He blinked at the paper - twice! - expecting the wordings to change. When no such thing happened he felt the wall he had put around his heart shatter to the ground. His heart felt stark naked in front of the clairvoyant-with-him Anjali and he felt exultant about it!

Anjali could not help but smile as she heard a bellow of laughter from next to her and she felt her chair being pulled to face him. "You left him?!" Anjali's eyes did not leave his for a nanosecond, as she sighed and nodded in response. They looked into each other's eyes for a minute, where they both understood the fact that Anjali was available and Aman had been waiting for this moment all along. He got up from his heat and moved next to Anjali, making himself cosy in the little available space in the loveseat - still not breaking the connection of their eyes. "Would you like a cup of coffee, Anjali?" Aman enquired with a knowing smile on his face. Anjali's left eyebrow rose as she shook her head with a disapproving look on her angelic face, as if she would not be entertaining such audacious behaviour. He had rejected her once, after all! No matter how good his reasons were! And he had to be punished for it. End of discussion! Aman understood it too easily. And if that gesture of hers had not been clear enough, what she next did made it more than clear to Aman that he would have to fight to re-gain her interests. "You'll have to try a tad little more, Aman." Anjali declared, as she stepped out of his apartment, making him run a hand through his hair, that ecstatic grin still not wiping off his face. Oh, fight he damn-well would! With all of what he ever had been!

*****

It had been hell, staying away from Khushi had been. More than 36 hours since he had last seen her. The most frustrating 36 hours of his life, if he could say so. On top of that he had not been able to even talk to her on the phone. And now he was climbing in through the window of her room in the middle of the night like a thief. Nothing more than a cheap, f**king robber! To see his OWN wife! Arnav's mind exasperated as he finally managed to pry the window open. Just as he was about to climb in, though, he felt a hard something at the back of his head and an order to freeze. He stood motionless and was thinking the danger Khushi had been, while he had gone. If someone was pointing a gun at him, what would have Khushi gone through? He hoped with all of his being that NK had handled it as well as he had reported to him. "Nannav?" a voice whispered after a while and his breath left him in a sigh of relief. It was NK who was doing his job ably. He turned slowly to his cousin who had helped him so much, and smiled a small, grateful smile. Neither of the men said anything. Arnav did not question what NK was doing with a gun, and NK did not ask what Arnav was doing here at this hour. NK made a show of his sleep by yawning hugely and said, "Main sone ja rahaan hoon, Nannav! You owe me big time!"

Arnav saw him walk away and turned back to the task at hand, and his annoyance made its way back to his mind. Succeeding in that task, he straightened his clothes and turned to see around the room. The dim moonlight showed that there was no one here. What the! Where's Khushi now?! He made his way to the door which led to the living room. The crack through the pen door showed light spilling out and after making sure that there was no one around, he meekly slipped out and saw that the television was blaring, but there was no one on the chair and the sofa. He next saw Khushi sprawled on the floor, at the bottom of the sofa and felt a heavy weight of dread settle in his gut. Had something happened?! Rushing to her, he lifted her torso into his lap and patted her cheek, calling her name in a hiss. She frowned in her sleep before her eyes fluttered open.

Khushi had been dreaming of punishing Arnav in her personal court because he had not even called her once in the last day. How dare he not phone her! She felt someone gently slapping her cheek and woke up from her dream and saw her criminal right in front of her eyes. Without thinking about all those crimes of his, her arms went around his neck and they buried their faces in each other's neck. Oh that heady relief when you touched your special someone after so long! She was aware that she was being lifted and carried away from where she had been and opened her eyes to see that she was on her bed, and Arnav had left to lock the door to her room.

Arnav had just returned to the bed when he felt Khushi attack him. "Couldn't you have called me!? At least once?! But no! Once you get to work, you hardly remember anything! You. . . ." she was stopped when she felt his lips at the nape of her neck. Though her mind screamed for her to forget and forgive everything he had done and give into the temptation of the desire that he was demonstrating, she scrambled herself together.

"No!" Khushi pushed him away.

"Khushi. . . . . Please!"

"Punishment first. We really don't want you forgetting your wife each time you look at your laptop now, do we?"

Arnav rolled his eyes and with an intention to get it over with, he said, "Fine! What?!"

"Spell my name."

Arnav looked at her in incredulity. "K.H..."

He was stopped by his wife again as she exclaimed, "Wrong! It starts with a silent 'X'! Out of here!"*

"I had to physically fight with the union leader of our mill, and the new secretary there almost pounced on me with her claws open and I had to practically fight her off too. I don't have time for your games, Khushi! So shut up and come here." Arnav ordered and pointed to his lap, and stressed more, "Now." Khushi bit her lower lip as she looked into his eyes meaningfully and whispered to show her concern, "But this bed creaks, Arnavji." The end of Arnav's lips pulled up into a small smile as he pulled her to himself and stood. Khushi looked down to see that she had been made to sit at the edge of the old table in her room, and gave into her husband's wish and Arnav started to take care of all of Khushi's complaints in his own way. And when he had finally driven himself inside her, he let his head fall back, closed his eyes and sighed a contented sigh. He looked down at Khushi to see her smiling a smile of utter satisfaction, her eyes closed too. He started a crescendo between them and was soon taking them to their own alcove in this big, big world.

"You fired that new secretary, didn't you?!" Khushi reproached, as they slept in a languid state - an aftermath of a passionate love session! "Of course, I did. Now she does it and later she'll turn the table and say that I harassed her sexually. I don't have time for all that shit." "Hmmm..." Khushi acknowledged, but Arnav knew that she was almost halfway to her dreamland. And feeling so calm after so many hours of frustrated stretch of time, Arnav allowed himself to be lulled to sleep by Khushi's rhythmic breathing.

*****

Khushi woke to music, and she laid there, her head on her husband's bare chest as she listened to what Arnav was playing for her on his phone.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsyxZWQ_g0[/YOUTUBE]

You never know when you're gonna meet someone

And your whole wide world in a moment comes undone

You're just walking around and suddenly

Everything that you thought that you knew about love is gone

You find out it's all been wrong

And all my scars don't seem to matter anymore

Cause they led me here to you

When the song ended, Khushi smiled sleepily, and as if she was the happiest woman on earth. "I love you too..." She reassured this strange man that was her husband. He could play such beautifully romantic song to tell her what he felt, yet could not simply say those words. How strange, indeed! And with a sad sigh, helped Arnav to ready himself and leave before Buaji saw them and had an asthmatic fit. . . . .