Chapter 30B-
This one goes out to Z aka Lazy Patha.
I update Chapter 1C of my other FF- Boomerang yesterday. You can read it here.CHP 1C
Kushi took her mobile phone out of the small purse she had been carrying, in the hope of calling Arnav and asking him to return to Shantivan from the parking area. They would need to cancel their plans for the rest of the evening. Just as she took her phone out, her mother saw her and called out her name. 'Kushi, bitiya!'
Her mother took a few strides towards her to reach and held her in a bear hug that indicated how much she had missed her daughter.
''How are you doing Kushi? Your father and I have missed you.'
Kushi managed a weak smile in return.
'It looks like Kushi bitiya didn't like our surprise. She hasn't said anything.' Sashi remarked fondly, to no one in particular.
'Bauji', Kushi greeted her father by hugging him. 'Its nothing like that Bauji. I was just completely surprised to see you both here. I had absolutely no idea. Which is why it took me a while to react. I'm so glad both of you decided to pay me a surprise visit.'
'Kushi what kind of a blouse is this? Your arms and back are nearly bare.'
'Garima!' Sashi admonished his wife. 'Let her be Garima.'
Then Sashi turned to his daughter, 'So will we keep talking here or can we go inside and see your flat?'
Kushi slapped her forehead and proceeded to open the door to her flat. Sashi told her that they had to make an unexpected trip to Delhi pay their final respects to a friend who had passed away.
Kushi excused herself from the living room in the pretext of bringing her parents some water from the kitchen. She needed to be alone as she was feeling very anxious about how she was going to manage the situation with her parents and Arnav. She decided to call Arnav, but in her nervousness she fidgeted with her phone and dropped it on the floor by mistake. She picked the phone and placed a call to Arnav, unfortunately for her the call remain unanswered. She had just begun typing him a message, when her mother walked in.
'Whom are trying to call Kushi?'
'Oh Amma, I was replying to Payal's message, she is with Akaash.' Kushi mumbled trying not to look her mother in the eyes.
Kushi filled two glasses with water and the mother and daughter duo moved to the living room with an anxious Kushi still trying to type a text message intended for Arnav.
She offered one of the glasses to her father who excused himself to use the rest room. Garima sat on the couch in the living room and Kushi moved close to the door so that she could forewarn Arnav and block his access to the house.
'This flat is nice Kushi. Once Payal gets married and moves to her new home, what do you plan on doing?'
'Woh Amma, I was thinking...' Kushi replied while trying to steal glances past the door.
'I'm here Kushi, its time for my surpr...' Arnav stopped as soon as he saw a middle aged woman sitting in Kushi's living room. It didn't take him much to realise that the woman was Kushi's mother. The resemblance was uncanny.
Garima was worried about what Kushi would do once Payal got married and moved out, as she didn't want Kushi to live alone, that too in an unsafe city like Delhi. Which is when she heard a man walking into the flat excitedly while addressing her daughter asking her about some surprise.
Arnav stood rooted close to the door.
Garima kept the glass on the coffee table and turned to ask Kushi in a no nonsense tone, 'Who is this Kushi?'
'Woh Amma... This is Arnav...ji.' She added the 'ji' purposely to his name. 'He is Payal's brother in law and also my Boss.'
'If that's the case why is he standing outside.' Sashi said as he walked back into the living room. 'Bitiya is this any way to welcome guests home? Haven't we taught you better. Please come in. I'm Sashi Gupta Kushi's father.' He greeted Arnav near the door and invited him in.
'Hello Aunty.' Arnav greeted Kushi's mother whose stance hadn't still softened. Arnav looked at Kushi and Kushi silently pleaded with him using her eyes, asking him to stay quiet.
The exchange between Arnav and Kushi didn't escape Garima's notice and a slow fear started developing near the pit of her stomach.
Arnav sat on the couch next to Sashi and Kushi excused herself to make tea for all of them.
Garima listened keenly to Arnav and her husband's conversation. She asked Arnav a few questions of her own. What surprised her most was that in spite of being Akaash's elder brother Arnav wasn't married yet.
Kushi returned a short while later and placed the tray with three mugs of tea. When Sashi picked up one of the mugs, Kushi jumped in. 'Bauji thats for Arnav...he likes his tea with less sugar.'
Garima had noticed that Kushi had referred to him as Arnav this time and even seemed to know how he liked his tea, something didn't seem to add up. She decided to probe Kushi further and hoped that her daughter hadn't done something stupid. A short while later Arnav stood up and took his leave. Before he left he told Kushi in a placid tone, in the presence of her parents. 'Kushi can you please call me when you are free.' Kushi nodded her head not trusting herself to speak.
Kushi knew Arnav wasn't happy with how she had introduced him to her parents. But she had been taken by surprise by their sudden trip, she didn't know of a better way to avert the mess that would have ensued if she introduced him as her lover.
'Kushi I'd like another cup of tea, will you make me one?' gGarima asked pointedly. Kushi walked back into the kitchen followed by Garima.
As Kushi lit the gas burner and placed a milk pan, Garima leaned against the wall and spoke to her.
'Kushi, bitiya tell me why do I feel something isn't right? Tell me, that my fears are misplaced and that there is nothing between you and Payal's brother in law.'
Kushi was shocked, she had underestimated her mother.
'Kushi... ' She called her daughter, 'Say something.'
Kushi tried to hide her fear and nervousness behind a goofy smile.
'Amma how can you even think like this about Arnavji and me? He is my boss, Payal's brother in law. I look up to him. There is nothing more to it Amma.' She lied with ease, with her eyes trained on the milkpan.
'If that is the case why did her drop you home, why did he come home at this hour, what surprise was he talking about?' Garima questioned.
Kushi had to hand it to her mother, she hadn't missed a single detail. 'Amma I went to a wedding reception with Payal. She had to go out with Akaash from the venue. Since it is unsafe to travel on my own in the night Akaash asked Arnavji to drop me home.' She added tea leaves to the milk pan and said, 'Arnavji wanted me to help him choose a surprise gift for Payal and Akaash's wedding. '
Garima kept quiet trying to connect the dots based on Kushi's responses. Kushi's answers did seem reasonable. However a part of her still told her that there was more to it that what met the eye. She decided to ask one final question and leave it with that.
'Kushi why did you call him Arnavji sometimes and Arnav the other times?'
'Woh...' Kushi mumbled. 'Amma he is elder to me by eleven years and he is also my boss at work. Since I know him outside of work I call him Arnavji. But he doesn't like it and keeps telling me to call him Arnav.' She laughed trying to make her mother see the funny side.
Garima continued to look into Kushi's eyes as if she were searching for something.
'Amma, Arnavji has a girl friend already, so if you still don't want to believe me its okay.'
Garima nodded her head, given Kushi's reasons and answers it did seem plausible that her daughter and Arnav didn't share anything beyond a platonic relationship. If only that intuition would go away.
Kushi poured the tea into a mug and handed it to her mom. She stayed back in the kitchen on the pretext of cleaning the place when her mother suggested that they join her father in the living room. She was feeling extremely ashamed of herself for lying to her mother. Today she had done something that went against everything she valued- she had lied blatantly and that too to her parents.
But she had absolutely no other option. Her parents sudden visit had left her unprepared and cornered. Her parents would never accept this relationship, and she could never lose Arnav. She was in no position to choose one over the other. What she did was wrong, but if the lie kept her parents happy so be it. She took a deep breath in after apologising to her God for misleading her parents and went to join them.
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Arnav tried Kush's number once more time. It was close to twelve in the night and Kushi hadn't event sent him a message. He was getting worried for her. He didn't want her to face everything all alone and wanted to be there for her. However at the same time he was also upset that Kushi had failed to acknowledge their relationship in front of her parents.
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Garima and Sashi sat in the train after bidding Kushi a good bye the following morning.
'It was nice to meet Kushi bitiya. Its a shame Ammaji couldn't join us.'
'Garima!' He shook his wife who seemed to be lost in her won thoughts.
'Is everything okay?'
'Ji. I think its time we got Kushi married.'
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'Damn it Kushi why haven't you been taking my calls or replying to my messages?'
Arnav had been waiting outside Kushi flat the following morning. he had tried calling her through the night, his calls and messages remained unanswered. He called Payal in the morning who had stayed back with Akaash at their farm house so that Kushi's parents could sleep at their place comfortably. Payal informed him that Kushi had gone to the station to see off her parents.
'Sorry Arnav. My mother didn't leave me alone even for a moment. She had some doubts about us and wouldn't let it go.' Kushi opened the door to her flat and walked in. Arnav followed her inside.
'How did you manage to clear her apprehensions?'
'I told her that you were seeing someone else.' Kushi announced without any sort of hesitation.
Arnav's eyes hardened with Kushi's revelation.
'Shall we talk about this over some chai Arnav?' She asked him, a nice cup of tea is exactly what she needed to beat the weariness of the previous night.
'I would like a cup of tea Kushi. But Im surprised you are referring to me as Arnav and not Arnavji.' He replied sarcastically.
Kushi's shoulders dropped low. She knew he wasn't happy with the happenings of last night, but she had no other option.
'Arnav I did the best I could manage in the situation. Remember I had told you that I needed time to break this news to my parents ? I also remember you agreeing to it.'
'Oh I remember, I'm a man who keeps his promises. Its one thing to ask for time to explain our relationship but another thing to blatantly lie about it.Do you know how silly it makes our relationship look?'
'Please Arnav not now,' she walked towards Kitchen, deciding to put some distance between Arnav and her.
'I'm very close to my parents. They are very conservative about things like these.' Her parents were even against the idea of her falling in love with someone, let alone stay in a relationship with a man who would never marry their daughter.
Arnav lightly massaged his neck trying to calm his rising temper. 'Kushi when you speak like this, it makes me feel that you are ashamed of our relationship and that given a choice you would hide it.'
Kushi who had been collecting tea mugs from the kitchen cupboard stopped and turned back to face Arnav. 'Why would you even think like that? Have I ever made you feel insignificant?'
She asked while fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. As it is she was feeling guilty about lying to her parents and instead of being supportive Arnav was giving her a hard time.
'The same night when I screamed and announced to the whole world about our love, you decided to hook me up with another woman. You lied to save yourself of any embarrassment of being seen as a woman who had embraced a relationship with me. What do you want me make out of this Kushi?' He asked her in an accusatory tone.
Kushi close her eyes and told herself that she wouldn't cry, not now, not for this, not because her boy friend decided to act like a jerk.
'I don't want to talk about this now Arnav. Quite clearly you don't see or understand my situation. So I'm not going to explain myself anymore.'
Arnav who had been leaning on a wall straightened himself. 'Fine. I will see myself out. Call me when you are ready to talk.' And with that he walked out of her kitchen and her apartment. He was very disappointed when Kushi didn't make an attempt to stop him.
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It had been a week since their argument and contrary to his expectations Kushi never called. Initially he was furious with her. That she had failed to acknowledge their relationship, that she had lied about him seeing another woman, compounded with her refusal to discuss this, had Arnav seething. But as days passed, his anger slowly dissipated. When he saw her at work all he wanted to do was to forget the whole damn thing and whisk her away to some place far away. Since holi they had been busy dealing with the complexities of their relationship instead of celebrating their love. He hated it when they fought, when they argued. It made him restless, made him feel that a part of his happiness had been
taken away and he couldnt do anything about.
It was Friday evening and he was sitting in the garden and recollecting the times when Kushi kept him company by the swing.
'Is everything okay between Kushi and you?' Anjali joined her brother in the garden.
Devyani had informed her that Kushi hadn't visited Shantivan for the last few days. And when she had seen Arnav back to his old grumpy self she knew that the two lovers had a tiff.
'Everything is fine.' Arnav mumbled and looked away.
Anjali sat next to her brother and placed her hand on top of his. 'Whatever argument it is, just let it go Arnav. Its not worth it.'
Arnav relaxed when he felt his sisters hand on top of his. 'She hesitates to acknowledge our relationship. She lied about me to her parents. Anjali, Am I being unreasonable?'
'Arnav it is not easy for any unmarried woman to acknowledge a relationship in our culture. Remember for how long I had evaded questions on Shyam.'
She then added, 'Arnav don't be hard on Kushi. She is still young. Its is a big deal for her to even agree to this relationship.'
'But why wont she stop treating this relationship as some sort of a mistake.'
'Why wont you get married to her then?'
'Anjali...' Arnav replied in an irritated tone.
'I'm not asking you to marry her. I'm just telling you that when it comes to beliefs people can be very stubborn. She accepts you with your stubborn beliefs, I think its only fair that you accept her in the same way.'
His sister had a point, Kushi had gone against her own beliefs to stay with him, this is the least he could do for her. He had to ask Kushi for forgiveness, he had to apologise to her for his unreasonable behavior.
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Kushi parked her bike near her home after a tiring day at work. A new campaign was scheduled to go live earlier in the morning but production had messed it up. So she had to stay back and help her colleague to set it right. She looked at her phone after parking her bike, it had been a few days since their argument, yet Arnav hadn't called. She closed her eyes for a few moments.
She was trying hard to make this work, yet Arnav had latched on to one reason to accuse her unfairly. But more than that the actual argument, the fact that Arnav hadn't called her, is what that had upset her most. She walked up to her flat lazily which is when she saw Arnav standing outside her flat. as soon as he saw her his face lit up with a big smile, that melted Kushi's heart instantly.
'Arnav?'
'Pack your bags Kushi, we are going away for three days.'
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Edited by Naach_Basanti - 12 years ago
CID
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
12