Part 7
The ride to home had been brutally silent. Abhay was occupied with his malicious thoughts about Arnav and Khushi too preferred not to talk about Arnav or anything at all.
Next Morning Abhay woke up to find that Khushi had left early for office.
~~****~~
Khushi entered in her cabin and started her work. She had few other jobs to finish before starting for AR office.
It was the afternoon when she was able to pull herself out of all papers and files. She had been making changes and finalising the designs for next event of the company which was coming up the next month.
She collected all the files and walked to the cabin of Mr. Roy.
"That's all, Sir. Now I have to start for AR office." She said after narrating the ammendments in the designs to him.
"Sure, Khushi. Our company car will transport you to AR office. Do your best." Mr. Roy patted her shoulder in a fatherly way.
"I'll give my best, Sir." She replied and left the cabin.
~~****~~
"Aman..! Where is the damn file I had asked for? I had told you I want it urgently..!" Arnav bellowed in the intercom.
"Sir...Actually.. The file ..The file had been sent to you. I myself had placed it on your table" Aman stammered into the phone.
Arnav gave a quick look to his table and found the file neatly placed there.
"Sir...I had.." Aman spoke again trying to clarify. But Arnav disconnected the call.
Since the morning he wasn't able to concentrateon anything but Khushi. Nothing seemed to be in order. But the fact was that he himself wasn't functioning properly. His head was all messy.
Khushi was joining his office today. For an entire month.
And this was making him feel uneasy, restless. The reason was a mystery to himself.
Since all these past years, after his college he had been away from India. But never this sort of uneasiness had occurred to him.
To be factual, during his early years in California he never thought about Khushi. Due to some reasons, the thought of what he had done to her pricked him. So he stopped thinking about Khushi or his college days. With passing time he got over everything, pushing every memory of her in some dark corner of his mind. Even now, a few months back, when he landed in India the thought of her never occurred to him. She was a trivial thing. He didn't have any intention of seeing or meeting her.
A day when he was turning the pages of a fashion magazine, he came across a collection of Bridal wears released by Roy Textiles.
The work of the designer was impressive and he had decided to have a deal with the company.
But when he had a talk to the owner of Roy Textiles he hardly suspected that Khushi was their designer. After all the things had been discussed and sorted between the companies, he met her in the party.
He had been surprised to see her but not surprised enough to turn down the deal.
There was no reason to do that. Khushi or no Khushi. It doesn't matter to him. So he went on with the deal and today she was joining AR.
An entire month, he will have to work with an important element of his past life. It was a good thing or a bad, he couldn't decide.
'Seems like it will be fun.' He told himself.
"I am never going to forgive you for that hurt, pain and betrayel.." She had said to him after the party when he had offered to help her.
"Too much of attitude you have got Khushi Gupta...! Let's see how far you can carry it with me" He thought and put down the intercom which he was still holding in his hand.
He picked the file from the table and got busy in reading it. Minutes passed by and the intercom seated on his table rang.
"Sir Miss Gupta has arrived. She is waiting for you to meet her." The receptionist spoke.
"Send her in." He said in his ASR tone.
In the next minute, he heard the knock on his glass door.
"Come in" He suddenly doubted if his tone had softened.
Khushi entered into the cabin and he looked at her.
~~***~~
"Come in" She heard him say and once again she trembled. Not in fear but with agony.
Once again she was going to see him. And this was just the beginning. A lot was on its way.
She entered in the cabin and found him staring at her with a prominent hard look. The same look which he had given her three years back when she was begging him not to leave her and go.
A wave of anger washed her doubts and insecurities.
"Welcome to AR Fashion House...Miss Khushi Gupta." he said with a smirk.
"Thank you, Mr. Raizada." She likely spat the words.
"Have a seat. Let's talk a bit." Arnav looked in her eyes as he spoke.
"No thanks. My legs are strong enough to withstand my weight for a few minutes. Just tell me where am I supposed to start from?" She asked curtly.
"From me" Answered Arnav.
"Start with learning to behave with me. I don't like people who answer me back and use an offending tone with me. And if you again use this tone with me, it won't take me time to throw you out of my office. Do remember that I am the boss here" He gritted out the words. Round one conquered. He thought.
Her blood boiled inwardly but she didn't let it loose on her face.
"I am very well aware that you are the boss here." She said.
"And I had just asked you.."
"Sir...!" He said in a authorative tone.
"What?"
"Call me Sir. As you know it I am the Boss. Don't address me as just 'you'. I may not like it, Miss Gupta." He spoke harshly.
It took all her might to stay calm.
"Do you get me?" He asked again.
"Yes, Sir. I get it very well."
"...But even I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I am not your regular employee. I am working here because of the deal. And I hope you'll stop treating me as your OWN employee. I still remember that it's Mr. Roy who pays me. We should behave professionally and try to keep our personal grievances at bay." She talked in a manuevered voice.
For a minute, Arnav went speechless. He knew he should shout at her but he didn't. He just stared at her. The Khushi he had known three years back wasn't here. This Khushi was completely new one, ferocious. But no matter what it takes, he'll tame that little attitude of hers.
He picked up the intercom and shouted into it
"Aman, come to my cabin".
In next minutes, Khushi was led out of the cabin by Aman. Arnav had asked Aman to explain the project to Khushi.
"Khushi Ma'am, as you must have been informed by Mr. Roy, AR Fashion house is soon going to launch a new collection into the market. And you have to design them." Aman started.
"Yeah. Mr. Roy informed me about the wedding collection" Khushi replied.
"Good. Please Come I'll show you the samples of few designs and fabrics." Aman led the way and Khushi followed.
In an hour, Khushi was full with details of her work.
"So that's all, Ma'am. Any queries regarding this?" Aman asked as he directed Khushi to her cabin. She was given a seperate cabin of hers.
"No. And Mr. Aman, I hope you won't mind, but could you please call me Khushi? Actually I am not used to hearing ma'am and it sounds quite awkward to me. Why don't we just call each other as Aman and Khushi?" Khushi suggested with a smile.
"As you like it ma'am..err I mean Khushi" Aman returned the smile.
"So now we are set to start the work." Aman stated.
"Yeah." She said taking in the look of her new cabin.
"I'd leave now. Best of luck with your work, Khushi."
"Thank you." She said and Aman left the cabin.
She dropped into the chair. Taking a file from the table she got busy.
~~****~~
PRECAP
"I don't like this attitude, Ms Gupta"
"Why? Is it driving you crazy?"
"No, but it's urging me to do something you'll regret for the rest of your life"
"Like what? Spending other night with me and then running away like you did before?"
Arnav smirked hearing that.
"Running away? If you wanna think that, you are most welcome. It's just that, I had a whole future in front of me, rather than loving you."
And for the first time in the day, Arnav succeeded to wipe that smile over her face!
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