He’s Amazing ~ Part 5 {Reloaded}

“Oh my God! He asked you out!”

“Lavanya, you’re acting as though he’s asked me on a date! We’re just going so that he can discuss my work with me! It’s not a big deal.”

“If that was the case, why can’t you do it in the library or the canteen or the cafe? Or if he needed a more private setting, why not his classroom or in his office?”

“Maybe it’s just to get an informal atmosphere! And all the informal places on campus always have lots of people around and it’s distracting. It’s not a big deal La.”

“Why are you so oblivious! Okay fine, don’t believe me now, but wait and watch Khushi, it’s a date; I’m telling you that now!”

 

*****

 

Over the next two days, Lavanya constantly pestered Khushi, telling her that it was a proper date, yet Khushi chose not to believe it. After all, even Arnav had said that he wanted to discuss her work! And besides, why would he even want to go on a date with her when she didn’t even show interest in him when he could go on a date with any of the other girls who were constantly throwing themselves at him? AND he had said that this was a professional environment and he didn’t want his personal life to get tangled up with it. It definitely was not a date. Khushi was sure of it.

But as Sunday came, Khushi got more and more nervous. She started doubting the whole situation. What if it was a date? It couldn’t be, but what if it was? What if for some reason he had thought she was interested in her and was taking her out to let her down lightly. That would be so awkward. Khushi shook her thoughts away, she was overthinking. La had gotten into her head and she was thinking about things that would definitely not be the case. This was just an informal dinner between a tutor and his student so that they could discuss her work, it was nothing more. 

Sensing that Khushi needed some time alone with her thoughts, Lavanya decided that she would go out to lunch with Karan so that Khushi got some space to think her thoughts through and compose herself. Before she left, she realised that Khushi needed a pep talk.

 

“Why are you feeling like this Khushi? It’s not a date, it’s just dinner. Calm down Khushi, it’s nothing. Listen if it’s what I have been saying that has gotten into your head, then I’m sorry. I was just teasing. Khushi relax, it’s going to be fine. But why are you acting like this and why are you so nervous? Khushi, do you actually have feelings for him?”

 

Khushi shook her head.

 

“I definitely do not have feelings for him. I’m just a bit nervous because I don’t know what to expect.”

“Just relax and don’t think so much about it any more. It’s just dinner and you are just going to talk about your work. It’s nothing to worry about. Relax babe.”

 

Khushi nodded and told La to go and enjoy herself. She reassured Lavanya that she would be fine and that she would stop worrying. But the moment Lavanya left, Khushi felt herself feeling tense again.

 

What if it really was a date? And why was she feeling like this? She never felt this nervous before a meeting with a tutor, so why now was she feeling like such a mess? What if she did… No, no, she couldn’t! She couldn’t have feelings for him. It wasn’t possible. She hadn’t even thought about him like that. Given she thought that he was good looking, but beyond that, she hadn’t really thought about him. She definitely did not have feelings for him. She wouldn’t allow herself to have feelings for him. 

Putting her thoughts aside, Khushi sat down on the coach and clicked the tv on. She had time. She could relax for a little while before she had to start getting ready. Settling down, she turned over to a movie channel and found that one of her favourite Salman Khan movies was playing. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she felt herself relax as she left herself get absorbed into the film. 

 

*****

 

The movie ended and Khushi looked at the clock, 4:30. She gasped, and realised that there were only 3 hours until she was set to meet Arnav. Watching the film, she had lost track of time and now she felt overwhelmed. She hadn’t even considered what she could wear.

Her heart jumped and then tightened. She could tell she was nervous; this was the first time anyone had asked her to dinner. Date or no date, this was the first time any man had ever made the effort to ask her out and to take her somewhere. Even Nikhil had never been bothered to take her out. He had always opted for easy options like them just hanging around school or sitting in his car. He never actually had taken her anywhere. The only time he had taken her out out, they had gone to see a film but even then it had ended badly because Nikhil had spent most of the time touching Khushi thigh and trying to get a kiss out of her.

Shaking those thoughts aside, Khushi opened her wardrobe and looked inside. She had tonnes of clothes, yet nothing seemed to call out to her at this point of time. One by one she took all her dresses out examined them. After going through over 40 dresses, Khushi picked a kameez that was light blue, simple yet dazzling like she was. It had silver work, not too heavy, but not plain. It could easily pass as something that she could wear to class, but paired with the right shoes and she could easily dress it up. She pulled a silver pair of sandals out of her wardrobe and placed them on the floor by the door. She turned and looked at the clock, it was past half 5. She didn’t need to get dressed just yet, she could start getting ready in another half an hour or so. 

At about 6:30, Khushi was ready to go, her thumb hovering over Lavanya’s contact ID, trying to decide if she should call her to ask her if she would be back soon. She wanted Lavanya’s opinion on her outfit because this was definitely La’s department more than her own. La would know if this was actually the right outfit or not and if it wasn’t, La would help her to pick something else. They still had time. Before Khushi could actually click on Lavanya’s name to call her, La walked into their room, her eyes red. She had been crying. This caused alarm to Khushi because La never cried. La was always the tough cookie, nothing made her cry. Khushi rushed to her side.

 

“What’s the matter La?”

“He, he-he dumped me!”

“WHAT!”

“Khushi, he dumped me! He’s fallen for this other girl in some other uni! He’s not been cheating on me, but knowing that he was looking at someone else while he was with me… How could he?”

“Oh my god La. What an ass! How could he do that? I don’t even… Wait let me go and see Mr Raizada and cancel him. I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m going to sit with you and you can tell me all about what what happened or we can just put a movie on… But I want to spend time with you, I can’t leave you like this.”

“No Khushi, don’t do that, you have to go. I’m fine Khushi, honestly. I was a bit of a shock and that’s why I am reacting so badly. But honestly I don’t feel like crying any more, see.”

 

La wiped her tears away and gave Khushi a small smile.

 

“I’m the one that’s always told you, if a guy doesn’t realise how important you are, he isn’t worth it. I’ve always said it to you and now its time for me to have faith in my own saying.”

“But Lavanya…”

No buts Khushi, I know what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to wiggle your way out of this and you are trying to use me as your excuse. No way am I going to let you do that! I told you, I’m fine. I’m just going to put a movie on, get some chocolate and I am going to enjoy my night and I want you to do the same. Any ways, lets get you dressed!”

 

Khushi knew that La was putting on a face so that she wouldn’t back out of going with Arnav and she knew that pressing La would be futile, but she knew in her heart that she couldn’t leave her friend like this. But she also knew La far too well to know that she was going to lose this battle. Sighing, Khushi knew that it was better all round for her to just drop the topic here and listen to what La was saying.

 

“I am dressed! See!”

 

Khushi gave Lavanya a little twirl so that she could see her dress properly.

 

“You can’t go wearing that on your first date!”

“It’s not a date La!”

“Whatever, I’m not going to let you leave this room wearing that, maybe another time, but no today. Now lets see what you’ve got!”

 

Lavanya opened Khushi’s wardrobe. It was still a mess as Khushi hadn’t had the time to tidy it up again. La flicked through Khushi’s hangers, shaking her head and tutting as she rejected outfit after outfit. Khushi sat on her bed and watched La, knowing that they were going to be here a while because nothing Khushi wore was Lavanya’s style. After rejecting almost all of Khushi’s outfits, La finally stopped and pulled one out.

 

“You’re wearing this!”

“I can’t wear that! What will he think? He’ll think that I thought it was a date and then it’ll get all awkward because he will assume that I too like all the other girls just want to get into his pants. It’s a meeting about my work! I can’t wear this, it will give all the wrong impressions.”

“Stop complaining and go and get changed. When he sees you in this, he will think that you’re damn sexy! Now go Khushi, get changed.”

“But La…”

 

Lavanya pushed Khushi into the bathroom. Grumbling from inside, Khushi hope that La would see her way of things and realise that this dress was highly inappropriate, but when La didn’t give in, Khushi stopped, sighed and got changed. Lavanya pressed her ear to the door and she could hear the rustling of fabric and knew that, as always, she had gotten her way. 

 

“Khushi! Quick! It’s nearly 7!”

“Coming!”

 

Moments later, the door opened and Khushi walked out. She looked amazing. So unlike Khushi. She was wearing a red western dress. It was quite low cut at the front and back, and reached just below her knees. Taking Khushi in, La noticed that Khushi had done her makeup again. She had changed her subtle blue eye shadow for a more neutral shade and had completed the look with a pinky-nude lip-gloss. Lavanya looked at her and gasped.

 

“Wow! Who are you?”

 

Khushi giggled and slapped La playfully on the shoulder.

 

“La, I feel really exposed like this. You can see far too much cleavage, this really isn’t appropriate at all. And not to mention there is far too much leg on show…”

“Wait I got the perfect thing to go with this dress and that will fix your problem.”

 

She rushed over to her own wardrobe and pulled out a sequined black shrug. Khushi put it on. It covered her arms, back and chest, and added to the overall looking without taking away from Khushi’s beauty and the dresses beauty. 

 

“I knew that dress would come in handy one day. See Khushi, when I buy you things I buy them knowing that you will need them in the future. So next time you turn your nose up at a dress I buy you and say that you don’t wear something like that, remember this day and this dress and remember that La always knows best!”

 

Laughing at La and her dramatic nature, Khushi walked back over to her wardrobe and pulled out a pair of black strappy sandals and put them on.

 

“Khushi, come on, lets go! We both know that you can’t walk fast in heels any way. If you don’t get moving, you will be late!”

“Wait, what will I say if someone sees me. They will realise something’s going on, that’s why I’m dressed like this. I never dress like this. Oh La, people are gonna say all kinds of crazy things and Mr Raizada said to not make a big deal of it and not let anyone know. “

“I’ve got it covered, stop panicking!”

 

As they made their way out of their dormitory, they got stopped by Sia who called them into the common room. Lavanya protested and said Khushi didn’t have time, but Sia being Sia wouldn’t take no for an answer, grabbing Khushi by the arm and pulling her into the common room.

 

“Khushi?”

“Nikhil?”

 

Khushi looked to Lavanya, the shock evident. Khushi had known that she would bump into Nikhil at some point, given that they were at the same university. But he lived in a different building and most of his classes too were in a completely different building. They rarely bumped into each other. So what was he doing here? Now? In her building?

 

“Wow… You look so… Different.”

“Erm, thanks?”

“You look beautiful! Wow Khush, I’ve never seen you like this. You look incredible.”

 

At this point Sia stepped in. She wasn’t here to listen to Nikhil fumble like a fool just because Khushi was showing a little leg and did her make up for once. 

 

“Where are you going Khushi?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Lavanya, stay out of this, I’m speaking to Khushi. Any way, don’t you have some crying to do? I heard Karan dumped you!”

 

Lavanya felt like she had been slapped across the face. In attempts to get Khushi ready, she had forgotten what had happened to her, but now that Sia had brought it up, it stung all over again. She felt here eyes prick with tears and she looked down, blinking her tears away before looking up again.

 

“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. I will find someone better. Besides, what’s it to you any way?”

 

Sia shrugged off Lavanya’s comments. She had wanted to set La off but she hadn’t been able to, she didn’t care. She had bigger fish to fry at this moment.

 

“Khushi tell me now, where are you going? I’ve never seen you all dolled up like this.”

“Sia, I…”

 

“She’s going on a date.”

 

All heads turned to Lavanya.

 

“She’s going on a date with a really hot guy from another university. And if you’ll excuse us you’re making her late.”

 

As Lavanya grabbed Khushi’s hand, she heard the gasps behind her. Girls whispered and she could hear Nikhil asking no one in particular when Khushi had started dating again. Pleased to have killed multiple birds with one stone, Lavanya pulled Khushi out of the common room and they ran to the back entrance.

Arnav was already there, waiting for her. 

Lavanya hugged Khushi, wished her luck and then turned and rushed back towards their dormitory. Having spotted Khushi. Arnav slowly made his way towards her.

 

“Good evening, Khushi.”

Unwanted ~ Part 42

Arnav

As I awoke, a strange sense of familiarity took over my body. Rubbing my eyes, I vaguely became aware of the of body that was draped over mine. Feeling myself become alert, I looked down at Khushi and pulled the sheets up over her to cover her exposed back. As she felt the soft sheets move along her body, I felt her stir in her sleep, her leg moving against mine as she snuggled closer. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her closer to myself. This felt right, finally felt really right. Even when we had been together like this in Mumbai, it still felt as though something was missing, but now, it was perfect. Everything was perfect.

Looking over at the clock, I realised there was still a little time left before we had to get up. I snuggled down next to Khushi and closed my eyes once more. But just as I felt myself starting to drift off, I heard a little voice at the door.

 

“Mama, papa?”

 

Ah shit. I had forgotten that it was about time that Arushi usually got up. Untangling myself from Khushi, I pulled the covers up around her neck and pulled my t-shirt and sweat pants back on.

As I reached the door, I turned back to the bed to make sure that there was no sign of what had gone on between me and Khushi. That’s when I saw Khushi’s clothes all pilled by the foot of the bed and her bra and panties lying on my bed of the bed.

 

“One second Ari…”

 

Rushing over to her clothes, I pushed them under the bed and went back to the door.

 

“Why you take so long papa?”

“I door was locked and I couldn’t find the key.”

 

Stepping into our room, Arushi raised her little arms, gesturing that she wanted me to pick her up. Picking her up, I shut the door with my foot and sat down with my baby girl on the recliner. I watched as she turned to the door, creasing her forehead.

 

“The door doesn’t need a key?”

 

My kid was smart, a brain as sharp as her mothers.

 

“That’s the thing na. I was so sleepy when I heard you and when I couldn’t open the door, I thought I needed a key to open it.”

“Silly papa.”

 

Wrapping her little arms around my waist, Arushi snuggled into me.

 

“What’s the matter? Still sleepy?”

“Little bit sleepy.”

“Why did you wake up so early then?”

“Sleepy gone.”

“Do you want to have breakfast?”

 

Arushi nodded and I took her hand as we made our way downstairs to the kitchen.

 

“So what do you want to eat?”

“Pancakes?”

“Pancakes? You really are you mothers daughter aren’t you?”

 

Sitting Arushi on the worktop, I got to work. We made small talk as we made our pancakes. We talked about how much she liked her new room, how excited she was to start at her new school, how much fun she was having with her cousins.

 

“I like it here, I have lots of people to play with.”

“And you get to be with me all the time.”

 

She gave a little nod, but the now bubbling pancakes had taken her attention. I had never paid close attention to kids before, but after spending so much time working with little kids and now being a full time father of one, I realised just how easy it was for their attention to be diverted. The smallest of things intrigued them.

Just as I was plating up the last pancake, Payal walked into the kitchen.

 

“Good morning bhai, good morning Aru! You’re both up and in the kitchen very early today.”

“What can I say, like you sister, your niece needs sweets as soon as she wakes up too.”

 

Laughing, Payal came over to where Arushi was sat and lifted her off the worktop and into her arms.

 

“You like pancakes?”

“I like pancakes lots!”

“Okay, next time you want pancakes, tell maasi! I make better pancakes than your papa!”

“Really?”

 

Arushi looked at me with big eyes. Clearly the idea of yummier pancakes meant she was ready to leave my time and join Payal’s.

 

“Your maasi’s pancakes are good but mine are the BEST!”

“Aru your papa is lying to you. Mine are better than his!”

 

I was about to hit back when Arushi lifted her hand to stop us. We both looked at each other, holding back the laughter.

 

“Today I will have papa’s pancakes and tomorrow maasi will make me. Then I will decide who’s are best.”

“Deal!”

 

I plated up the pancakes and put them down onto the table. Payal put Arushi down and she began to eat her food. With my head, I gestured for Payal to come to the kitchen with me.

 

“Payal can you watch Arushi for a few minutes while I quickly go and have a shower? I don’t want to leave her alone…”

“It’s okay bhai, you don’t need to provide me with a reason when asking me to watch Aru. She is my niece after all.”

“Thanks Payal.”

 

As I turned my back to leave, Payal called out to me.

 

“Bhai, just one minute please.”

“Yeah sure, what’s up?”

“I just…”

 

I watched as Payal took a moment to compose herself before she carried on.

 

“I just wanted to apologise.”

“For what?”

“For my behaviour towards you over the passed few years. You are elder to me both in age and relation and I misbehaved you with…”

 

Placing my hand on her shoulder, I stopped her.

 

“Hey, you don’t need to apologise. It’s not fault. The situation was what it was and it was hard for all of us to deal with. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“But still, please forgive me.”

“Payal, you are my little sister, you never have to apologise to me. But if it will make you feel better about everything, then don’t worry, you are forgiven.”

“Thank you bhai. I can’t even tell you how horrible I have been feeling. I mean I have always felt bad for my behaviour because at the end of the day you are my husband’s older brother and I felt like rubbish when I disrespected you, but the sister in me couldn’t bring myself to be normal with you.”

“It’s understandable Payal. If I was in your position I’m sure I would have done much worse. You just avoided me, I don’t know what I would have done but I can assure you I would have done worse.”

 

Payal chuckled and then gestured that she was going to go back to Arushi and that I could be on my way. As I made my way back to our room, I couldn’t help but smile. Things really were starting to sort themselves out. The bad phase of life was finally coming to an end and the good phase was finally starting.

 

*****

 

It was a little later and everyone was now up and at the breakfast table. Payal and Khushi had put together a grand breakfast for us all and we were enjoying it wholeheartedly. It felt so good to be sat like this as a family after so long. While we adults sat at the table sipping our tea and talking, our kids sat in the living room, their breakfast done, playing with each other. Baby Akshay was sat in his little bouncer watching his sisters as they tried to make a puzzle. I smiled to myself. Soon enough, we wouldn’t be able to keep Akshay tied up in the bouncer, he would want to be on the floor too, getting in on the action. It felt good watching the kids. Just knowing that my entire family was together again after so long felt amazing.

 

The day dragged on. As it was a Sunday, there was no work to be done and so all of spent the majority of the day either in our own rooms or pottering around with the kids. I spent most of my day walking around behind Arushi. It was fascinating how much kids actually did during the day and how they acted like they were the busiest people in the house. I watched as she playing with Shalini and Akshay, how she went looking to Khushi whenever she needed something. How Payal was almost always only a metre behind Arushi, waiting for when she could come in useful to her niece. I watched as she sat with Nani and told her about her life in Mumbai. I watched as her little face dropped when Nani asked her if she missed Raj.

In a way, I felt jealous that my daughter had such a strong bond with another man, but at the same time I knew it was unfair of me to feel resentful towards Raj. He had been there for Khushi and Arushi when I couldn’t be. He loved Arushi as if she were his own child and never let her feel that she didn’t have a father in her life. I owed that man so much. But still, hearing her speak so fondly of Raj, talk about all the things that they used to do together, it stung a bit.

 

As I watched my daughter interact with the family, I realised that there was one person, and only one person, in the house, who didn’t really seem to be trying to bond with Arushi and that was Di. At first I didn’t really notice anything, however the more I watched, the more I realised that Di was really cold and aloof towards both Arushi and Khushi.

I had noticed when they first came home, but I had put it down to the fact that we had all been apart so long, we all just needed time to readjust to the new situation, but now that time had passed, it just didn’t seem that Di was warming to them. I wanted to talk to Di about it but first I decided to talk to Khushi about it, see if she had noticed it or if I was just overthinking.

 

Just before dinner, I finally got the chance to speak to Khushi alone.

 

“Khushi, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“It’s just, I don’t know how to ask this, but… Is everything okay between you and Di? Has she been normal with you.”

 

Putting down the shirt she was folding, she turned her attention to me fully.

 

“Why do you ask?”

“I’ve just been watching Di around you and Arushi and I just felt like something wasn’t quite right. At first I thought that maybe Di was having an off day but then I kept watching her around everyone else and I thought about how she’s been with you since you got here and I just felt…”

“I just… I did realise and I was going to say something to Di but I just haven’t had the chance yet.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to me?”

“I just didn’t want you to worry. With everything that’s been going on and everything that has happened over time, I just didn’t want to add to all that by telling you that Di was being weird with me. Plus it just didn’t feel like something that would be a big deal, I had just thought that I will speak to Di myself and I will sort it with her.”

“I get all that, but I want you to still tell me these things. If something isn’t right, if something is bothering you, I want to know so that I can help you deal with it.”

 

She smiled and took hold of my hand.

 

“I know you want to be my knight in shining armour all the time, but there are somethings which I can deal with myself.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’ll go and speak to do after dinner. I was planning to speak to her any way, but now that you have said it too, I feel I should do it. Better to get it over and done with instead of letting the situation fester.”

 

The conversation had reached an organic ending and so I dropped the topic. If Khushi said that she would deal with it, then I was going to let her deal with it without interfering. She was right, there were some battles that she could fight on her own and I should leave her to it so that she could deal with it.

 

*****

 

I sat in bed, waiting for Khushi to come back. After dinner, when everyone else had retreated to their bedrooms, Khushi had caught hold of Di in the kitchen. I had offered to take Arushi to bed. I felt it would be better all round if I just wasn’t around while they spoke.

I didn’t have to wait too long, within half an hour, Khushi returned to our bedroom. Her expression didn’t give much away, but at the same time, I knew her well enough to know that the conversation hadn’t got well. She avoided my eye as she walked around the room, getting ready for bed.

 

“Hey, what happened?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Khushi, tell me, what happened.”

“I told you na, nothing happened, it’s all fine.”

“Khushi, I’m asking you once more, if you don’t tell me what happened, I’m going to go over there myself and get to the bottom of the situation myself.”

“Arnav please, for once listen to me and drop this.”

“Khushi I can tell you’re not happy and Di too isn’t okay. I can’t see you guys like this. I want a happy family, all of us together, happy like before. I don’t there to be tensions between anyone.”

 

Khushi shook her head and grabbed her night clothes and went into the bathroom. It was clear she was going to hold her ground and not tell me anything. The moment the bathroom door closed behind her, I got out of bed and made my way down to Di’s room. I wasn’t going to let this situation fester, nor was I just going to leave it like this. I wanted peace in my life. And knowing that there was tensions between my sister and my wife was enough to cause the peace to go out of the window.

Upon reaching Di’s bedroom, I knocked on the door and waited. Moments later, Di opened the door and smiled when she realised it was me.

 

“Ah chote, you finally remembered your Di.”

 

Ushering me into her room, she gestured for me to sit down. I decided to stay standing.

 

“What brings you to my room at this hour?”

“Where’s jijaji?”

“He’s putting Shalini to bed and then he’s going to the study to get some work done before bed. Did you come for him?”

“No I came to speak to you about something.”

“So I was right, you finally have found some time for your Di? Or did your wife complain about me and so you’re here now to tell me off?”

“I… I don’t know what happened between you and Khushi, she wouldn’t tell me anything, that’s why I’m here to get to the bottom of the situation.”

“What situation, there is no situation.”

“Well clearly there is something. I have noticed that something isn’t quite right between the two of you and Khushi even admitted that much. And I know that she was going to speak to you about it, but when she came back to our room, she won’t tell me anything that happened and I can tell that she is more stressed now than she was before. So clearly something happened between the two of you and I want to know what it is so we can sort out the issue.”

 

There was an elongated pause and I could tell that Di was taking in everything that I had said and she was thinking about what she wanted to say before she actually said it.

 

“If Khushi says there is no problem then I suggest you listen to her and just accept that there is no issue.”

“No, she didn’t say that there wasn’t an issue, she just wouldn’t tell me what the issue is, and like I said, I don’t need Khushi to tell me that there is an issue. I have noticed it myself. I have noticed how distant you have been with Khushi since we’ve been back and I have also noticed how distant you have been with Arushi as well. So please, let’s stop wasting time and let’s just deal with this.”

 

Di watched me closely as I spoke, but I could tell from her expression that she wasn’t planning on saying anything to me.

 

“Fine, if you don’t want to tell me anything, I’ll just go and tell Nani and then she can sort the issue out.”

“Okay fine, I’ll tell you. I just…”

 

She paused and I knew from the way that she was looking at me that whatever came next, I wasn’t going to like it.

 

“I just, I can’t get all cosy and become best friends with her, not after everything that she did and everything that has happened.”

“She didn’t do anything, what are you talking about?”

“Are we all really going to forget about the fact that she left and we didn’t hear from here for years, and then all of a sudden you find her again and you come home and we are all expected to play happy families again.”

“What happened has happened, it’s over now. What’s the point of talking about it still and what’s the point of holding it against her. We all made mistakes, but it’s a part of the past now, we are all just trying to move on and start our lives again. So I want you too to accept the passed and just move on too. I just want peace. I finally have my entire family together again and I want to enjoy my life.”

“I’m sorry chote, I can’t just act like all that didn’t happen and that I didn’t see you go through all that, I can’t forgive her for just leaving like that. And on top of all that she hid your child from you.”

“I get all that but we know why she did it. It’s not her fault that she made the decision to leave. I’m sure if you were in her situation you would have done the same.”

“Maybe I would have, but when I realised I was pregnant, I would have come home.”

“Look, I get it that you have your reservations, but for the first time in years I feel happy and I have my whole family together. Please just try and be happy with me.”

“I can’t. I can’t accept Khushi any more.”

“Di, I think you’re forgetting that you were the one that was adamant that I marry her in the first place. If you hadn’t been so stubborn about it all, I was going to marry Nimi.”

“I made a mistake, I should have just let you marry Nimisha.”

 

I paused and took a step back. What the hell? Why was Di speaking like this?

 

“What the hell is wrong with you Di? I’m sorry that I am speaking like this but what the f… That’s my wife and the mother of my child that you are speaking about and I don’t appreciate…”

“I would like you to leave now.”

“No, I’m not going to leave until we resolve this issue.”

“There is nothing left to say. I have said all that I wanted to say and you know how I feel now. So I suggest we just leave this here and move on.”

“No, I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I want peace, I don’t want any bad feelings and tension.”

“Arnav stop pressing the matter and just leave.”

“I won’t until you tell me what the real issue is because I know there is more to this.”

“Fine. You want to know the full story? Then I’ll tell you. I don’t accept Khushi, I will not accept Khushi and I don’t want her here. Ever since she has entered your life, our relationship has been non-existent. After you got married, you only had time for her. You never sat down and talked to me, you never had time for me. The moment you got home, you just wanted to be with your wife. And then she left and again all your time, you spent moping over her. In all those years you never gave me the time of day. If anything, our relationship deteriorated after she left. Then you left for Mumbai and clearly you got busy with her because you didn’t even have time to call me any more. And now that you’re back, all your spare time you spend with her and your child. You don’t care about anyone else, you don’t think about anyone else. You don’t even ask me if I am okay forget actually sitting down and having a proper conversation with me. She ruined everything and I regret that I ever chose her to be your wife.”

 

If I hadn’t been standing right here and if Di hadn’t been speaking to me directly, I would never believe that my Di was capable of speaking like this. I couldn’t believe that all of this was because she was… She was jealous? I didn’t even know what to say, what was I meant to say?

 

“I don’t even know what to say, why didn’t you just tell me that you wanted more attention?”

 

Clearly that was not the right thing to say. I watched as Di’s nose flare. Shit.

 

“I didn’t realise that I needed to beg my brother for attention. I would have thought he would just known that sometimes he needs to spend time with his sister. Clearly I was wrong.”

 

I knew I shouldn’t let myself get angry, I understood her insecurity, but there was something about her tone that just really pissed me off. She was a grown ass woman but she was acting like an absolute child about this. I knew I should let myself breathe before I spoke but I was just so angry.

 

“I can’t believe you are behaving and speaking like this Di! This is just… I’m a married man and I am a father. My wife and my child are my priority. You’re being so difficult with me about this, but I’m sure if jijaji prioritised his sister over you and Shalini you would be annoyed.”

“That’s not the same.”

“Yes it is! It’s exactly the same. You are telling me that I should put you before my wife and daughter, so now I am asking you, how would you feel if jijaji’s sister put him in this position and asked him to choose between you and her.”

“I am not asking you to choose…”

“Yes you are. You spoke about my behaviour after marriage. I was a newly wed! I wanted to spend time with my new wife and you’re telling me you were jealous of her because I was spending more time with her than I was with you. And than you mentioned about now. After all these years I have got my wife back and I recently found out I have a child. You are holding the fact that I want to reconnect with my wife and that I want to get to know my daughter against me. Had our lives gone ahead as normal, I would have had time for you, it would have been a naturally process as things settled down. But our lives haven’t been normal. Me and Khushi never had the time to just be a couple. We went from being newly weds to being separated for 6 years. I can’t believe you’re really holding it against me that I want to spend time with her.”

“Even if I explained myself you wouldn’t understand.”

“That’s because there is nothing to understand. You are being irrational and are acting childish. I’m sorry Di, but it’s true, you’re behaviour is just out of line and I am sure if I told Nani this, she would agree with me too.”

“If that’s really how you feel then fine, please leave. I would like to get some rest now.”

“I will leave, but I want you to say that you will start making more of an effort to make my wife and child feel welcome.”

“I cannot promise that.”

“Di…”

“I can’t accept Khushi I’m sorry.”

“If you can’t accept Khushi and if you can’t make her feel welcome in her own home then I will have no choice but to take my wife and daughter and leave. I want us all to be happy, and if you can’t accept them and make them feel welcome then it better that we just don’t stay here.”

“Would you really?”

“Yes Di, I really would. I have had enough tension and drama in my life to last me a lifetime. I just want to be happy now and not have to worry about stupid things.”

 

I watched Di carefully. She was deep in thought but I knew she would be stubborn about it. I turned to leave the room and it was just as I was leaving that I realised that there was something else I wanted to say and something else I wanted to do.

 

“I want to do my marriage vows with Khushi again. Not marry her again but just do our vows again. I will have to speak to her and see what she says, but if we go ahead with the idea, I really want you to be accepting of it all and I want you to give us your blessings again.”

 

Di looked at me with wide eyes, clearly she had never expected me to say this and let’s be honest, I hadn’t thought I would say this either. But the thought had just come to me and it just felt right.

As I left Di’s room, I thought about it and I knew this was something I wanted to do. When Khushi and I had got married, we hadn’t planned on it being a long haul thing. It was a bit of a game for us. We had both used marriage as a means to reach our ultimate goals, and maybe that’s why god punished us by keeping us apart for so long. We had treated marriage as a game and not respected it as it was happening. It only felt right that we should rectify our mistakes. And after everything we had been though, renewing our vows felt like something we needed to do before we really started afresh with our lives.

 

I just hoped that Khushi would get on board and not think it was insanity.

Let’s Discuss: Four More Shots Please!

Four More Shots Please! is an Amazon original set in South Mumbai and follows the lives and friendship of four unapologetically flawed women.

We have Siddhi, born and brought up in South Mumbai, the daughter of socialite Sneha Patel who puts what the world thinks about their family and finding the perfect groom for her daughter above her daughter herself.

Then we have Umang, a personal trainer who left her life in Ludhiana because she wanted to live her life on her own terms. She is a proud bisexual who is confident in herself and can take a stand for herself when she needs to.

Damini Rizvi Roy is our next leading lady. Damini is a journalist and founder of a news site. Originally from Delhi, she’s the definition of sorted when we first meet her. She doesn’t have time for anything and her control issues mean she has to have everything in order and her way.

The final main of this show is Anjana Menon, a lawyer and a divorced single mother of a 4 year old daughter.  She doesn’t even have time to go to the loo, getting back onto the dating scene is a myth.

 

Now that we have met the characters, let me begin to talk you through some of my highlights, what I think could have been done better, my personal complaints and what I would like to see in the next season.

 

What’s been done well 

Let’s start off by discussing some of the more well done aspects of the show.

1. The dynamic between the girls – Though there are some aspects of their friendship or certain things that happened in the show that made me raise my eyebrows, all in all I think they have a great dynamic. For example, at the start of the second season, we see how they all drop everything and go running to Istanbul for Siddhi because they thought she was in trouble. Throughout the show we also see them confining in each other about sensitive and private topics. We see how they express their insecurities and fears to each other and how they support each other through it all. Though sometimes they can be insensitive at times, I feel the way their relationship was portrayed was pretty realistic and relatable.
2. Jeh and Damini’s relationship – For me their relationship is probably one of the main highlights of the show. Right from the first episode when we first see them together, we know there is a spark between them, you just know that there is going to be something meaningful between them, so when they finally got together it was a real “FINALLY” kind of moment. Though there wasn’t a huge amount of buildup to them getting together, nor were there many instances where we saw them alone, when we did see them alone it was meaningful and added value to their relationship.
3. Damini’s feelings for Jeh – Damini’s feelings for Jeh are well defined and again, right from the first episode, we can tell that she is fond of Jeh. The way she stays back for a drink with him and how later she confines in him that she doesn’t like going home to an empty house just show how she’s comfortable around him and how special he is to her. I feel around Jeh is when we see Damini most at ease, even without the presence of alcohol. We also see how she is willing to turn down other men just so that she can stay at the bar a little longer with Jeh and just enjoy a drink and a chat with him. Furthermore, the first time we see Jeh and Damini sleep together, we see how she asks him to stay the night. This is significant as with other men, we have seen how she doesn’t allow them to stay the night as she looks to sleep in her cocoon. But with Jeh, she would rather he be her cocoon. All of this put together does wonders to portray just how important Jeh is for her.
4. Anjana and Varun’s relationship – This is another relationship that I think was portrayed very well. This is because we really see a growth and change between them. When we first meet them, though they have been divorced for over 3 years, Anjana still hasn’t moved on from Varun despite her asking him for a divorce. We find out that since the divorce she hasn’t been with anyone else and that she hasn’t even had the time for herself. However, by the end of the second series we see how Anjana has found closure in her relationship with Varun and how she is comfortable with Kavya, his new wife. What I also like is how they can co-parent quite effectively and despite the fact that they are two separate families, they can come together for occasions and celebrate together instead of Arya having to celebrate each celebration twice and with her parents separately. I also liked that we start off with Anjana needing closure from their relationship at the start of the show but by the time we get to the end of season 2, she has found the closure that she needed, she felt guilt when Varun kissed her and she was willing to push him away for Kavya’s sake. It showed that not only did she respect herself but she had also found respect for Varun and Kavya’s relationship.
5. Anjana and Kavya’s friendship – I really like that we see these women getting along. Right from the start we see that Kavya is relatively comfortable with Anj and though Anj is apprehensive and it takes her a while to warm to Kavya, she does ultimately become friends with her. I really liked that we saw the two women having coffee together and that Kavya explained how she doesn’t want to be a second mum to Arya. This was a much needed conversation as it put Anjana at ease about what Kavya’s motives were and it helped for them to build a healthy relationship. I also really liked that Kavya wasn’t apprehensive about speaking to Anjana about Varun. It showed that Kavya was secure in her own relationship and that she was genuinely trying to form a relationship with Anjana by speaking about things they had in common. I found the development of their relationship to be really wholesome and genuine. Furthermore, when Anjana found out that Varun and Kavya were pregnant, she was genuinely happy for them. Albeit she was shocked at first, she was genuinely happy for them and there was no malice in her even when she went and told her friends about it.
6. Siddhi finding herself – This is one characters arc which I am actually satisfied with. When we first meet her, her goal is to get married because that’s what her mother has always wanted for her. She doesn’t really have any ambitions, her only aim is to find a husband. We also see how her mother makes her feel crap about her body but she’s always been relatively happy with her body, hence why she doesn’t really mind eating that extra bar of chocolate even when she probably shouldn’t. However, it was after Mohit entered her life and when he introduced her to sexybods, that she actually started really loving her body. I think they dealt with self exploration was great. Going on a semi-pornographic is not a way I would want to find affirmation from the world but it worked for Siddhi and it helped her to find her feet. I also really liked how by the end of the first season, Siddhi realised that she wanted more to life than to just be someone’s wife. In the second season, we saw Siddhi trying different occupations in order to find her niche. I really liked how we saw her stumbling upon stand-up comedy and realising that this was her thing. In real life, you can think something is for you but when you actually do it, you realise it really isn’t for you and your ideal career path just falls into your lap and this is what happened with Siddhi. Furthermore, by the end of the season she realised that this was something she wanted to take forward and that she was actively taking steps to get a qualification to help her kick start her career. So all in all I felt Siddhi’s personal character arc was the best presented in the show.
7. Jeh and Umang’s friendship – When we learnt about the first day that the girls met each other and when Jeh first met Umang, we saw that Umang was probably the girl Jeh liked the least. By the end of the second season, it was noticeable that out of all of the girls Jeh had the best relationship with Umang. Part of this could have been because Jeh and Umang had time to bond one on one whereas the other girls didn’t have that, but all in all, it was nice to see the development and growth of their friendship. In earlier episodes, I was also slightly convinced that Umang had feelings for Jeh due to how she made flirty comments at him, but once Samara came in to Umang’s life that was no long present. They just shared a healthy platonic relationship.
8. Production and direction of the show – This is less about the actual story but more about the viewer experience. I don’t know much about film making but I feel they did a really good job of making the show appeal to the eyes. From the sets to the outfits to the shots that they used, most of them were very pleasing and satisfying to watch and enhanced the overall vibe of the show.
9. The soundtrack – I absolutely LOVE the music that they use in the show. I have both albums saved and you can bet your bottom I will be jamming to these tunes for months to come. I think they have just done an absolutely fab job with the music that they have created and used.
10. Casting – The casting of this show is *chef’s kiss.* From the main characters to the additional characters, I just love all of the actors that have been associated with this project and I just feel that everyone is very talented and has brought a lot to the show. Focusing on the four leading ladies alone, I think they are incredible actresses and that they are incredibly brave to have taken up these roles. I cannot speak highly enough of this cast.

 

Flaws 

No project is ever perfect and though I feel overly satisfied with this show, there were a number of aspects which I felt brought them down a bit.

1. All the girls stopped speaking to each other between the end of season 1 and beginning of season 2 – This was something that just didn’t make sense to me. I understood why Siddhi stopped talking to the other girls, though I do not think the issue with them was major enough for her to completely stop speaking to them for 4 months. I understood why all the girls stopped speaking to Anjana and why Anj stopped speaking to them, a lot of harsh things were thrown back and forth so this made sense to me. What didn’t make sense to me was why Damini and Umang stopped speaking to each other as well. During the big fight, nothing happened between Dee and Umang and so when we learnt that they also hadn’t spoken to each other in months, I just felt it didn’t make sense and that it was unnecessary for them to have stopped speaking too.
2. Damini’s OCD – To me, Damini’s character was the most interesting and I felt there was so much scope for exploration with her character. So when they addressed her OCD, I was really excited because I felt this could be a very interesting arc for her character. In the first half of season one, we see Damini exhibit little acts of compulsive behaviour, be it her sanitising her hands too many times, making sure the shot glasses were completely straight, or refusing to let anyone stay the night with her because she needed her coccoon. However, after Jeh and Damini get together, it is almost as though all she needed was a relationship with a man she actually cared about to cure her of her OCD. Her OCD was almost completely gone when they got together and I just felt it was a lot of potential wasted and they overly simplified OCD. I am not saying that I wanted to see her undergo therapy, but I think it would have been better if they had showed her quirks clearing up more gradually.
3. Lack of progression in Jeh and Damini’s relationship post getting together – Though the initial development of Jeh and Damini’s relationship is one of my main highlights of the show, their development after they get together is very disappointing. Once they expressed that they like each other, and after we saw Jeh helping Damini in the bathroom, the rest of their relationship was almost purely physical. We don’t see them dating or spending time together, we see them sleeping together and that is about it. Understandably, we could have seen more emotional growth after they slept together, but the writers decided to break them up because of Warsi. And then when Damini broke it off with Warsi and came to tell Jeh how she really felt about him and how much she wanted their relationship, we are hit with him getting back with his ex. In the second season we follow a similar pattern. For a lot of the season they’re not really speaking to each other, and then they reconcile and start confining in each other, but again we are rushed into seeing them sleep together. However, what I did like was how Jeh wanted to slow their relationship down so that they could date and get to know each other, and though we see them being slightly more domesticated and more like a normal dating couple, it is short lived as they break up again. However, I am hoping for more meaningful development of their relationship in the next season. I just felt that they were the most sorted and functional couple in the show and that there was a lot of scope to show them having a meaningful relationship but it was all messed up by the constant break ups and the constant insertion of a third person in their relationship.
4. Samara’s bipolar – Similar to Damini’s OCD, this is another story line that had a lot of potential and there was scope to see Umang and Samara working together to help her get back to a healthy place in her a life. I feel this story was done better than Damini’s but it still had so much more room for development.
5. Death of Siddhi’s dad – I couldn’t decide if I wanted to mention this in this section or further down in my list of personal cribs but I think I will add it here. To be frank, I don’t think they needed to kill of Sids’ dad. They did it to add a shock factor into the finale, to leave everyone high on emotions to build up the anticipation for the next season. However, I don’t think it was necessary as the last episode had already been quite heavy and there was enough left open for them to pick up from for the next season. I felt they did it so like at the end of the first season, all girls have their own issue to deal with but the steaks were a lot higher at the end of this season and the things the other girls had experienced had been intense and I feel it would have been better if they had left Sids’ in a stable place so that she could support her friends.
6. The girls quitting jobs at the drop of a hat – In the real world, jobs are hard to come by, and for most people, they cannot just walk out of one job without the security of another. I understand that both in Umang and Anjana’s cases they were majorly disrespected and if I were in their place I would for sure want to leave too, but one has to act rationally. It just felt unrealistic that they both just walked out without thinking of the consequences. Normally people would be sure they would have another job to go to before they walked out of one, but they just walked straight out without the security of another job, which just isn’t realistic enough for me.
7. Heavy emphasis on casual sex and explicit depiction – To clarify, I am not a prude, I do not have issues with sex or the depiction of sex in shows and movies. However, I just felt that some of the conversations between the girls were overly explicit and I just don’t feel that it was necessary. Also, I felt they overly normalised the role of casual sex with all of the girls shown to engage in casual sex at some point. I understand it is a part of life and for a lot of people casual sex is not a big deal, but I just felt it wasn’t necessary for it to be shown through all of the girls.
8. Camera angles – Again, I am not a prude, however, some of the camera angles used when the girls were engaging in sexual activities just made me feel uncomfortable and they just felt unnecessary. I am not going to go into too much detail about it, but yeah, I just didn’t appreciate some of the angles.

 

My personal cribs and how I think certain story lines should have played out 

When you start watching a show and get invested in it the way I have with this show, you notice things which might not be an issue to someone else, but they irritate you and you think of all the ways it could have been done better. This is a list of things which I think were done wrong and how I would have much rather they played out.

1. Damini’s OCD – As expressed before Damini is one character that I had high hopes for and her OCD track is one that I think they could have done a lot better. As stated before, I would have preferred it if they had show her slowly and gradually shedding off her compulsive behaviours instead of it just being gone once she got into a meaningful relationship.
2. Not enough of Damini in season 2 – From everything that I have said so far, I think it is obvious that Damini was one of my favourite characters and I don’t think it is a shock to anyone that I wanted to see more of her in season 2. I felt there was a much more heavy emphasis on Umang and Anjana’s stories in this season and due to that I feel Damini’s story got sent to the back. For the first half of the show, all we see of her is her struggles with finishing the book and bringing it to the shelves, and then in the second half it is her pregnancy. I feel there was a lot of scope to see more of her, but we just didn’t, especially in the second half. If they were to stretched for time for Dee’s story, I would rather preferred them to have given less time to the publication story and more time to the pregnancy story because that had a lot more potential and a lot more scope for growth and development.
3. Disposal for peripheral male characters – As I was writing my plan for this post, I found that a lot of the peripheral male characters (the men that the girls date) all receive a rather unceremonious ending and I was feeling bad for most of them. First up Arjun. I understand why Anjana felt the need to end her relationship with Arjun, but regardless, I felt it was unfair the way they chose to cut him out of her life, especially when he and Arya had formed a bond. I feel Arjun deserved better but I am not too bitter about this one as I can understand Anjana’s point of view. Then we had Amit. I felt extremely bad for Amit because he gave Siddhi the footing she needed in order to find what she wanted to do and he was willing to share his spotlight with her. But she chose to end it with him and the main motivator of her decision was the bad sex. I feel she should have communicated her issues with Amit so that they could have maybe worked through the issue, however she threw him out of her life, leaving him quite broken and defeated. The final male character that was disposed of, was Mihir. When Mihir reentered the story at the end of season 2, I was extremely hopeful for the future of his and Siddhi’s relationship, especially because we saw that she was still attached to him. But ultimately she turned him away too. Though this one hurt me the most, I can’t blame Siddhi because she turned him down so that she could become independent and find herself. So though I understand what the girls were thinking in 2/3 of the cases, I was still disappointed as to how they were just removed from the story.
4. Anjana’s selfishness and her reaction when things went wrong – To put it very frankly, of all the girls, I disliked Anjana the most in season 2. I understand why she wanted a casual relationship, but when she chose to pursue a relationship everyone advised her against, I found she was acting in an extremely selfish manner. Understandable, she was lied to by Shashank, but regardless, he was a married man and when all her friends and Kavya said she shouldn’t get involved, she should have listened. Furthermore, her reaction when it all blew up really irritated me as well. Regardless of what you thought, he was married and you should have known there was going to be consequences so I was really annoyed when she was all teary when it all blew up. She just really irritated me.
5. WARSI – I was tempted to add Warsi as a flaw, but then I thought he doesn’t actually belong there because I’m sure there are some people who don’t see him as a flaw. The first issue I have with him is that he did let himself engage in a relationship with a patient which is very wrong and I’m pretty sure it is illegal. So though Damini was making moves on him he should have backed off too because his career could have been on the line. My next issue is just how pushy he is. In the second season he just felt like an overall kabab mein haddi and he irritated me so much, especially when Jeh and Damini were speaking at the end and he had to stick his nose in and make things worse. Like he knew that Damini would always pick Jeh over him, yet when Jeh was speaking about accepting the baby as his own, Warsi felt the need to stick his ore in and cause tension between Dee and Jeh again. He just came across as a very immature person for someone who is meant to be a mature older man with his life in check. So I would have much rather they just didn’t bring Warsi back for the second season. I really hope he won’t be in the third because if he is, I will be extremely annoyed.
6. Damini’s pregnancy – Her actual pregnancy wasn’t the issue. When Damini first considered that she might be pregnant, I was actually quiet excited because I thought it would be interesting to see how she and Jeh deal with an unplanned pregnancy. What my issue was was that it was Warsi’s baby. Knowing how Jeh reacted to her and Warsi before, we knew it wasn’t going to go well. I think instead of them throwing a spanner into the works and messing with Jeh and Damini’s relationship, it would have been a lot better if the baby had in fact been Jeh’s because it would have meant that their relationship would have had to mature a lot more quickly and just generally, I think it would have been interesting to see their dynamic while coming to terms with the fact that they were having a baby. This was a majorly missed opportunity for a lot of great progression.

 

Hopes for season 3

We’re almost at the end of this mammoth review and I feel it would be good to dedicate the last section to what I want to see happen in season 3. I have a lot of ideas so I will try to discuss them as briefly as possible so that this post doesn’t get painstakingly long.

1. Umang living for Umang – Throughout seasons 1 and 2, Samara has been Umang’s priority and she put her before herself. Umang walking away from the wedding at the end of season 2 was very significant because she realised that she needed to be in a relationship where they were both equals and she didn’t have that with Samara. In season 3, I hope that Umang gets back out there and starts focusing on her career instead of getting caught up with another relationship. I also hope that Umang and Samara do not get back together because I just don’t think Samara will ever be able to love Umang back the way that Umang loves her. However, if Samara realises how important Umang was and that Umang’s dreams and career are just as important that I won’t be anti Umara.
2. Anjana’s impulsiveness – Though in season 1 and 2 we saw Anjana have some restraint before throwing herself into a relationship, she was still extremely impulsive and still went for it even if it meant that there were going to be consequences in the end. I think we really need to see her take a step back from things and really analyse situations, especially when it comes to men, before she jumps into another relationship.
3. Siddhi getting back on her feet – At the end of season 2 we saw Sids in a very fragile place and understandably so. However, I think it is vital that though she mourns for her loss, she shouldn’t allow herself to wallow. We need to see her bounce back and get back onto her feet and work towards achieving her goals. That is what he father would have wanted from her. I think season 3 should really focus on Siddhi dealing with her loss but pursuing her career above all.
4. Dealing with Damini’s loss and OCD – When we first met Damini, she seemed the most put together out of all of the girls and I feel, after 2 seasons she is the one that has come most undone. Though we saw her in a slightly better place at the end of season 2, it was a temporary fix for Umang’s sake. I think it is vital that Damini’s mental state is explored and that we see her process every thing that has happened to her. From losing her company, to the issues surrounding her book, to losing her baby, there is a lot of major life changes that have happened to her and they need to be dealt with properly. Furthermore, as her life has spiralled completely out of control, not is the best time to see her experiencing a relapse. By doing this, it would give the writers the opportunity to deal with her OCD properly because it wasn’t done well the first time.
5. Proper development of Jeh and Damini’s relationship – Now more than ever, Damini needs her support system and we have seen in the last 2 seasons that above all, Jeh knows what she needs. Now is the perfect time for us to see Jeh and Damini slowing their relationship all the way down and just focusing on rebuilding their emotional relationship and getting Damini back into a good place. I think it would actually be beneficial to see them not engaging into a physical relationship for a while.  When we first met them and before they got together, they had a great understanding but that was lost, I think we really need to see their built up again.
6. No more Warsi – I feel this is self-explanatory given what I have said about him before, but yes, no more Warsi. He has served his purpose, he is no longer needed.
7. Umang rebuilding her relationship with her family – We saw her reach out to her mother before the wedding but she was shut down. I think it is really important to see her family become a part of her life again and them accepting her for who she is. I think she needs them after everything that has happened.
8. Anjana putting her career first again – I highly doubt Anj is going to carry on working with Bose and if she isn’t it gives her the opportunity to go solo and I hope this is what she does. We have seen  that she is an amazing lawyer and I feel it would be great to see her trying to go solo and just putting her career first again. She’s tried her hand at relationships again and I think she should lay off for a while and just wait for someone worthwhile to come along. While she is waiting she should just focus on her career and her daughter again.
9. Damini speaking about her and Jeh – The girls all speak about meaningless hook ups and we have seen Damini speak to her girls about Warsi, but she’s never really talked about her feelings for Jeh to them and I think that would be a very meaningful conversation to witness. Furthermore, Damini actually loves Jeh and I think that is something that really should be addressed with the girls because it has the potential to produce some very powerful scenes.
10. Jeh speaking to Umang about him and Damini – A lot has happened between Jeh and Damini in a short period of time and I just feel it would be interesting to see what Jeh has to say about it all. I think he should have this conversation with Umang just because they share a deeper relationship and we have seen that Umang has tried to speak to him about him and Damini before but he shuts her out. I feel it would again be a really powerful scene to see him opening up to Umang about everything that has happened.
11. No unnecessary love interests – Samara, Jeh, Arjun, Mihir, Warsi, Shashank, Amit… We’ve had a fair few love interests for each girl in the space of 2 seasons and I just feel half of them have been meaningless casual hook ups but took a whole lot of screen time. In this season, I just want to see all the girls processing all that has happened to them and putting their careers first. Realistically, the only girl who needs a love interest is Damini. With everything that has happened she needs a solid support system and I think above all Jeh can provide that. Damini has been an independent woman for a long time and I feel, out of all of the girls, she is the only one who actually needs a solid partner so that she can settle down a bit. The rest of the girls have a lot they still need to do before they can start focusing their attentions on a love interest again.
12. Longer episodes or more episodes – In season 1 the episodes were 30 mins on average and in season 2, 35. I just feel if they had 45 mins per episode, a lot more content would be covered and a lot of the issues I had could have been ironed out. Alternative, they could just have a few more episodes per season. We’ll just have to wait and see what they do.

 

To conclude, yes we have finally made it to the end, I think this is a great show. Given there are a lot of factors that I didn’t like and a lot of things which I think could have been done better, there is a lot of things that I really did like.

My final verdict, this is a really good show and I really, really enjoyed it. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Again, it is not perfect, but it is definitely one of the better web productions that I have watched. I mean they are clearly doing something very right considering I have watched the show 4 times over in under 2 weeks! So yes, if you haven’t watched it, please do go and give it a watch.

This has been an absolute mammoth of a post so if you have got all the way to the end, thank you so much for taking the time to read. It means a lot to me and I would love it if you also shared your thoughts about the show in the comments. I would love to discuss the show further with you guys.

There’s so much more that I would love to say abut this show and maybe I will write a few more posts. Let me know if you would like me to do more of these discussion style posts both for 4MSP and for other shows/movies that I have been watching.

Also, Jeh and Damini have had me highly inspired and I would love to write a OS on them or a couple of OS’. If you would be interested to read them, please let me know!

 

I would also like to take this moment to thank my friend Sidhi because a lot of the ideas for this post were bounced off of her. So thank you Sids for helping me gather ideas for this thread.

But for now, that is all. Once again, thank you all for your time and remember, go and watched FOUR MORE SHOTS PLEASE! 

 

He’s Amazing ~ Part 4 {Reloaded}

“Akaash, I need your help.”

“Hey Bhai! Nice to hear from you too, how can I help you? What’s up?”

 

Arnav rolled his eyes at his cousin’s sarcastic tone. He knew that he should call home more often, or at least text his siblings, but life got busy and these little things just skipped his mind. Pushing aside his thoughts, he remembered why he had called in the first place and resumed the conversation.

 

“Tell Nani, I won’t be able to come home this weekend. I’ve got loads of work here and I’ve got a really important presentation on Saturday and I can’t miss it for the world.”

“Why do you always get me to break the tough news. You get saved but Dadi bites my ear off. But sure bhai, I’ll tell Dadi, but you know, she and di were really excited about you coming home. Mom was too. She had everything ready! They’re all going to be so disappointed. It’s been ages since you came home.”

“I know Akaash, it sucks. I don’t do it on purpose, I just hadn’t realised how much work it would be and how little spare time I would have. But being here now, I’ve realised it’s a lot more work than I had anticipated. You know I barely get time to meal prep properly. I’ve been eating pot noodles the last few days. But don’t tell anyone at home that, they’ll just get hyper. But enough about me, how is mamaji? And how is Payal?”

“Dad’s fine and Payal’s good too! Everyone’s just been missing you but otherwise, it’s been pretty normal around here. Oh my god, bhai did you know NK’s coming soon!”

“NK! He’s coming!? That’s great, how long will he be staying?”

“Well for now he isn’t sure, he wants a long break from Australia, and he was missing home. I hope he stays for a while, it’s always so much fun when he’s around right? By the way, bhai, dadi’s selecting girls.”

“Girl’s for whom?”

“For you!”

 

Arnav rolled his eyes and balled up his free hand. He knew this would be a topic that would come up again, but he didn’t appreciate dadi trying to select a girl for him behind his back. He was sure he would go home and he would be presented an extensive list and if he didn’t select anyone from it, there would be hell to pay. But it wasn’t even fair because he hadn’t had a say in the shortlisting process. He would have to have a word with di later and get them to back off.

 

“Akaash, I told you people, I’ll get married the day I find the perfect girl for myself and when I am mentally prepared for marriage. Tell nani to tell all the families of the girls that Arnav isn’t interested at the moment. If they still want their daughters to marry me, tell them to contact me again in 10 years time! And tell nani that she needs to stop going behind my back and pulling these stunts because she’s just wasting everyone’s time. When I am ready, either I will find myself a girl or I will tell nani what kind of girl I want and then she can start her search. I don’t appreciate her and di doing their own thing and acting like it’s the best for me when it probably isn’t.”

“Bhai, chill! I get the point, I’ll tell dadi, don’t worry. Bhai. I mean she will probably give you an angry phone call and you’ll have to deal with that yourself but I’ll pass your message on for now. Also, before I forget, I wanted to tell you, that me and dad have finalised a deal with Malhotra and sons. For their new hotel opening they want all their staff to have matching outfits. We have said we will do some designs for them and send them on. We’ve also said we’ll finalise the prices once they have looked at our original designs. I’m sending you a file regarding it through email. Please check it and tell us if there’s anything you want changing.”

“Akaash, you and mamaji know what you’re doing, you don’t have to ask me every time your signing a new deal.”

“I know, but it’s your company.”

“Mamaji has more of a right to it than I have. He’s been handling it for years now. I trust you guys to know what you are doing and to make decisions that will positively impact the business. I trust you guys, just go ahead with it.”

“I know but still, I like making sure that you approve. This company is your one true love after all. Anyway, look bhai I have to go. I promised Payal we’ll go out for dinner tonight and she’s getting cranky now. Apparently I’ve been on the phone too long.”

“Bye Akaash.”

 

With that Arnav disconnected the call and turned his attention back to his work. On his desk in front of him was Khushi’s assignment that he was going to use. He flicked through it, taking in all her graphs and diagrams, making sure that everything was up to scratch. He knew it would be, but there was a thrill in checking her work. Going through it and just appreciating the brilliant mind behind the report.

 

“Amazing work.”

 

*****

 

“Khushi, hurry, you’re making us late today!”

“La let me get dressed! Any way, class doesn’t start for another 15 minutes; we don’t need to get there so early! Why are you so hyper for this morning, who are you so impatient to see.”

 

Khushi smirked and raised her eyebrow at La. Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, Lavanya ran her fingers through her hair, making sure it was still tangle free.

 

“Arnav doesn’t like it when we’re late!”

 

Rolling her eyes, Khushi laughed and went back to applying her lip balm.

 

“I knew it. You’re rushing me so you can sit and stare at Mr Raizada before the class starts. You have noticed that he never turns up this early any way. He walks in just a minute before class starts. He probably tries to avoid all you pervs.”

 

Lavanya feigned shock at being called a perv, picked up a pillow and threw it at Khushi’s head.

 

“I’m not a perv, I just like appreciating good looking men.”

“Pervvvv.”

“Shut up you, hurry up! Look at the time!”

“If you’re so impatient and want to get to class 13 minutes before we need to be there to stare at a wall, then you go on ahead. I’ll join you in a bit. I’ll be there before class starts.”

“It’s ok for you, he loves you! You won’t have to worry about getting told off if you’re late!”

 

Putting her lip balm down, Khushi laughed and turned her attention to Lavanya. Her poor friend really had the biggest crush on their tutor and it was clear she wasn’t handling it that well.

 

“He doesn’t love me La; he just respects me because I pay attention to my work, not him! But okay miss moody, I’m ready. Let’s go and sit and stare at an empty room for 12 minutes.”

 

Lavanya pretended to be mad and puffed out her cheeks.

 

“Fine! Whatever! Let’s go!”

 

*****

 

“You’re all failures and none of you will get your degrees unless you concentrate! I don’t understand what is wrong with this class. I have seen your marks from before and you all had been doing relatively well and now all of a sudden your marks are taking a dive? Are we not taking final year seriously enough any more? Or are you guys not taking me seriously enough? If you would much rather have a more senior member of staff taking this class, please let me know because I don’t want you all tanking this class and then you all blaming me. Mr Malhotra, please stop texting your girlfriend! This is precisely the issue!”

“I wasn’t texting my girlfriend!”

“Whoever, just stop! As I was saying, none of you are pulling your weight. Your quality of work is what I would expect from first and second year students. This isn’t third year quality at all. I know for most of you just passing is enough, but I really need you to understand that if you are putting yourself through school, it is far more beneficial that you put that little bit of extra effort in and securing those top grades. They are far more useful to you and your futures than weak pass grades. I have photocopied Miss Gupta’s last assignment for you all to look at. It’s perfect in every way. Read through it and compare it to your own work. If your work is anything close to this, then it means you are on the right track, otherwise learn from Miss Gupta! Please take notes from her work so you can see what she is doing and what you are not doing. Only then will you clearly be able to understand what you need to do in order to improve your work.”

 

Khushi looked down and blushed. No one had ever praised her work so much before. Not only was her work being praised, it was being used as a benchmark for other people. It was such an overwhelming feeling.

She looked up at Arnav and gave her a small smile before turning back into the strict lecturer.

 

“Miss Gupta, can you stay back again please. I have got some extension work for you. Seeing as you have completed this assignment there is no point holding you back with the rest of the class. Doing this extra work will mean that you can work towards an additional module which will help you to increase your GPA.”

 

Khushi nodded and the looked away again. Lavanya smiled and shook her head. It was so clear that Arnav was attracted to her! And he wasn’t just in awe of her work but in her as a person too. But obviously Khushi was oblivious to it. Lavanya knew what was cooking but should she tell Khushi? Would Khushi even believe her or would she just brush her off again as she had done every other time?

The clock struck the hour and the class filed out of the room. Khushi held onto Lavanya and wanted her to wait for her outside. She would have much rather La wait with her in the room, but Arnav had a strict policy where he liked to speak to his students one on one so that their conversations could remain confidential. It also gave students the freedom to express their feelings without feeling worried about what other people thought.

Khushi had hoped that Lavanya would wait for her outside the way she had that first time, however Lavanya said that she had told Karan that she would be waiting for him at the common room. She couldn’t be late because they were going to go and grab some food before his next class. Khushi nodded sadly and remained seated while everyone and La filed out.

Once everyone else had left, Arnav closed the door and walked towards Khushi and sat down on the desk next to hers.

 

“Khushi, are you ok?”

“Yes sir, I’m fine thank you? Why?”

“Are you doing anything Sunday evening?”

“Erm, no.”

“Well then, how would you like to go out for dinner with me then?”

“Dinner? To discuss my work?”

“Well… Yes! To discuss your work!”

“Ok then.”

“Great, will you be able to meet me at the back entrance at 7:30? And please try not to tell anyone. I don’t like that thought about everyone knowing that I took one of my students out for dinner. I’m sure you can imagine the kind of rumours that it would fuel.”

 

Khushi felt her cheeks heat up. She looked at Arnav, who was looking down at her with a serious expression. She nodded and then looked away before speaking again.

 

“Can I tell Lavanya? She… She’s my roommate and if I don’t tell her where I am going, she’ll worry.”

“Yes, of course. I’m sure Miss Kashap will understand. But again, please make sure she doesn’t tell anyone else. I’d rather this didn’t cause more of an issue then it is actually worth.”

“I understand and yes I will tell La.Thank you for understanding why I need to share this information with her.”

“Not a worry. Well then, I guess I’ll see you Sunday evening!”

“Bye sir.”

“Bye Khushi.”

Unwanted ~ Part 41

Khushi

A few days had passed since we had returned home and slowly things were starting to finally feel like they were fitting into place.

The first day when we had got here Arushi had been super overwhelmed after seeing everyone and had wanted to go straight back to Mumbai. But after explaining to her that this was our home, our real home and that we had to slowly get used to being here, she understood. But despite that, for the first few days, she did stay close to me most of the time, not really going to anyone else, not even Arnav.

Bedtime had been a hassle too. The bedroom that was next to ours, the day we got home, Arnav had made quick arrangements to get some nice pink bedding in for Arushi and had unpacked some of her toys so she would feel at home, but she refused to sleep in her bed. I’d said I would stay with her, and only then did she agree to sleep in her new room. The night after the first was a repeat telecast. She refused to sleep on her own, so I stayed with her again that night.

On the third night, she had fallen asleep in her bed on her own, but after maybe an hour or so, she came into mine and Arnav’s bed.

The fourth night however, she finally slept in her own bed, the whole night through. The nights after that were the same and we finally concluded that Arushi was starting to feel at home here. And now that Arushi was feeling better, it made me feel a whole lot better too.

Though Arnav had been trying to spend as much time with us as possible, he was struggling. As he’d been away for so long, his work had piled up and he was having to spend more time at the office than he was at the house. It meant that me and him got less time to spend together, but it was okay.

But it was also because he was out of the house so much that he hadn’t noticed that Di wasn’t okay with me.

At first, I hadn’t realised it myself, but then I noticed and I realised. If there was anyone in the house that didn’t seem happy that I was back, it was Di. I didn’t know why she was behaving like this with me, but I knew that I should try to address it as soon as possible. I had wanted to ask Arnav, but I didn’t want to stress him out. So I asked Jiji.

She hadn’t noticed it, she was just glad that I was home. But she said to just ignore it. She just put Di’s behaviour down to the fact that everything had changed and that it was taking her a while to readjust to it all again. Perhaps it was that, but it had to be something else too. But I was going to leave it for now. Right now my priority was my little girl and making sure she was comfortable here.

 

*****

 

As we sat down for dinner later that evening, engrossed in conversation, none of us noticed Nimisha and Pari slowly descend the stairs and come and stand before us, bags packed. Di was the first to react.

 

“Nimisha? What’s all this?”

 

Putting her bag down, Nimisha took Pari’s hand.

 

“I have decided that the time has come for me and Pari to leave.”

“How can you…”

 

She turned to me and gave me a funny look before turning back to Di.

 

“Pari and I have never had much of a place in this house. This has never been our home, and now that Khushi is back…”

“Nimi you don’t need to leave, you’re the mother of Arnav’s eldest child.”

 

At this point Arnav got to his feet, ready to protest, but was stopped by Nimisha shaking her head.

 

“I… I don’t know how to say this but Pari… She’s not Arnav’s.”

 

It took me a moment to realise what she was saying but as her words finally sunk in, I could feel anger starting to coarse through my body. Arnav was the first person to react.

 

“What did you say?”

“I said Pari isn’t yours.”

 

I turned to Arnav and placed my hand on his arm because I knew he was about to lose his top. He opened his mouth to say something but Di beat him to it.

 

“Nimi please don’t feel you have to say such things just because Khushi is back. Pari is yours and Arnav’s and no matter what happens that won’t change. Whether you are Arnav’s wife or not, Pari will always be Arnav’s child.”

 

If I wasn’t already mad at Nimisha, I would be mad at Di. What the hell was she doing and what the hell was her problem. But that was a situation for another point of time, now we needed to handle Nimi and get to the bottom of what she was saying. I turned my attention to her. I needed answers.

 

“Nimisha, stop playing games. Cut all the crap and explain yourself. Is Pari Arnav’s child or not?”

 

I watched as Nimi paused and composed herself. I already knew what she was going to say but I still needed to hear it clearly from her mouth.

 

“Arnav is not the father of my child.”

“You’re so lucky there are kids in the room otherwise I would slap you so hard I…”

 

Arnav put his hand on my shoulder and I knew that I needed to calm down. I watched as Jiji ushered the kids and took them into the other room. Everyone moved away from the table and we all moved over to Nimi. Nani was the first one to address her.

 

“I think we all need to sit down and you need to explain yourself young lady.”

 

We all moved over to the living room and sat down. Arnav sat down close to me, his arm protectively around me and his other hand resting firmly on my knee. I was getting impatient, this whole thing was being drawn out. And everyone was being so calm about it? She had just said that Pari wasn’t Arnav’s child, yet no one seemed to be reacting? We just needed to know what the hell was going on and then send this girl on her way.

None of us spoke, I think we all needed a moment to compose ourselves properly and mentally prepare for what was going to happen next. Nani took lead of the conversation.

As Nani questioned Nimisha, she began to explain herself, I felt my temperature increase and I could feel the same happening to Arnav too. His hold on me was getting tighter and I could tell it was only about time before he lost his cool.

But before Arnav could speak, I spoke.

 

“So you’re telling me, all these years, I stayed away, kept my child away from her father, and my husband away from his daughter for absolutely no reason?”

“I’m sorry…”

“You’re sorry? Sorry? Is that all you have to say for yourself? Do you even understand…”

“It was stupid, it was ill thought out and if I could take it all back then I would but I can’t.”

“Maybe when you first came up with this crazy idea you thought something of it, but why did you keep playing along all these years? Why didn’t you admit the truth sooner?”

“You were already gone and no one knew where you were. It didn’t feel like it was worth saying anything.”

 

At this comment, I could tell Arnav really got mad.

 

“Do you even understand the amount of tension and distress that you have caused? Even if Khushi wasn’t here, I deserved to know the truth. I always said Pari wasn’t mine, but you kept lying to all of us. For years, Payal hated me because I was the cause of all the problems. There have been tension between me and Di for years because I didn’t accept you and now you’re telling us… I didn’t deserve this. I didn’t deserve to be lied to for all these years.”

 

He shook his head and turned away from her. 

 

“I know, I know I have caused a lot of harm and it is naive of me to expect for you guys to forgive me, but I really am sorry.”

 

Arnav got to his feet and turned to leave. Just as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he turned back to Nimisha. 

 

“Make sure you take all your crap with you. Because after today I never want to see you anywhere near this house or my family ever again. If you leave anything behind, you’ll find it all at the dumpsite.”

 

Before she could reply though he was already gone. Nimisha turned back to me. 

 

“I really am sorry.”

“I can’t believe you and Ranveer… Just leave honestly. I don’t want to hear anything more from you and I don’t think anyone else wants to have anything more to do with you. Just leave.”

 

I got up too and left. I didn’t want to have to deal with this any more either. The whole situation was just insanity and now knowing that I had spent so much time away from my husband over a lie, it just made me so much more angry at myself for leaving. I should have stayed. I shouldn’t have been so weak. Had I just stuck it out, it would have been hard but perhaps it wouldn’t have taken Nimisha this long to admit the truth and for this chapter to have been closed. Because I had been weak, Arushi and Arnav had lost out on so much time together. 

As I made my way up to my bedroom, I knew I needed to apologise to Arnav too. I opened our door, I saw that Arnav was standing by the door to the poolside, looking out at the blue water. Closing our bedroom door, I walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. It took him a moment to realise that I was there, but I watched as he wiped his eyes before turning his attention to me. 

 

“Is she gone?”

“She’s going.”

“Finally.”

 

Taking his hand, I led him over to the old recliner and got him to sit down as I sat beside him. Wiping his eyes, I took his hand in my own. 

 

“Why are you crying?”

“I just… I don’t know to be honest with you. This is all just so much more overwhelming than I ever thought it could be. I always knew Pari wasn’t mine, but… Just hearing her finally say it… And then I just can’t stop thinking about all the time that we lost because of her…”

“I’ve been thinking about that too. Had she not done all of this, we could have been together the whole time. It’s just… Insane that she and Ranveer did all this and that they played along for so long. It just doesn’t make sense to me. They’re just both deranged.”

 

He half scoffed and half laughed as I said this. He turned his attention to me and looked into my eyes.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Cupping his face, I dropped light peck on his lips. 

 

“You have nothing to apologise for. If anything, I should be saying sorry to you. I shouldn’t have been so weak, I shouldn’t have left. I should have been here to deal with it with you. Had I stayed, this game of theirs wouldn’t have lasted so long, I’m so…”

 

He silenced me with a kiss. It wasn’t a peck like I had given him either, it was a mind clearing, soul stealing kiss. With one hand on my waist and the other on my face, he shuffled closer to me as he deepened the kiss. I let him. I felt his hand came down onto my thigh and I could feel his hand moving up slightly the longer we kissed. When I felt his hand creeping too far up, I had to stop him.

 

“Not now…”

“I need you.”

“I know and I need you too, but it’s the middle of the day and we’re not home alone any more.”

 

I watched as he moved back a bit, the irritation evident. 

 

“I miss when we were newly weds and when we were able to just lock ourselves away for an hour or two in the middle of the day.”

 

I shouldn’t have laughed, but I did. And he was annoyed that I was laughing but his annoyance melted away a moment later and he laughed with me.

He wrapped his arms around me and just looked into my eyes for a moment before he spoke. 

 

“You know, even when everyone tried to convince me that Pari was mine, I just knew she wasn’t. I felt like I was going crazy, I really started to doubt myself and sometimes I did think that maybe she was mine. But inside, I knew she wasn’t. It drove me crazy but I just knew it. Everyone in this house told me that I should accept Pari and Nimi but I couldn’t. I always just knew.”

 

Placing my hand on his knee, I gave it a squeeze. 

 

“You should always listen to your gut. If your gut told you that something wasn’t right, then you should know that something isn’t right.”

“I’m just so glad that I stood my ground and that I didn’t listen to them. Had I listened to them, I may not have you in my arms right now.”

 

I gave him a quick kiss and then rested my forehead against his. This was nice, this was right. This is how things were meant to be. How had we lived without this for so long? When we both finally came back to our full senses, we decided we should go back downstairs. As we approached the door though, he blocked it, and turned to me. 

 

“Just know though, you might have stopped me now, but tonight, we will do it. It’s been six years since we last made love in our bed and I can’t wait any longer.”

 

It took me a moment to put together what he was saying, but then I realised he had circled back to what I had stopped from happening between us not too long ago. Cupping his face, I dropped a quick kiss on his lips.

 

“I won’t make you wait any longer.”

 

*****

 

The rest of the day passed slowly. After Nimisha left, Di went up to her room and refused to see anyone. I wanted to speak to her, there was clearly a problem, and I needed to address it, but I knew that now wasn’t the time. It was clear the whole family were still trying to comprehend everything that had happened and that it would take them time to really accept it and move forward, but I was glad. It meant that Arnav and I could really try and move forward in our lives and we didn’t have to keep looking over our shoulders to see what Nimi was doing. 

As the evening crept on, the mood began to pick up slightly but I started feeling more and more nervous. It didn’t really make sense, because it wasn’t like it would be the first time that Arnav and I would sleep together, but the idea of doing it in our marital bed again after so long was causing me to be equal parts anxious and excited. 

Dinner ended and I put Arushi to bed. I stayed with her for a while, to make sure she was fully asleep before I got up to go back to our room. As I pushed the door open, I noticed the room was far darker than usual. Shutting the door and locking it, I walked further into the room and made my way over to the light switch and attempted to click it on, but as I went to flick the switch, Arnav stopped me and swept me off my feet. 

 

“Arnav…”

“Don’t turn the lights on.”

“But I can’t see anything, I can’t see you.”

 

He didn’t say anything, just bought his lips to mine and silenced me with a kiss. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I snuggled into him as I let myself kiss him back. I felt his arms tighten around me as he carried me over to the bed and gently put me down. Breaking the kiss, he reached over to his bedside table, and I heard him flip a switch.  Above our head, a string of fairy lights came on. They weren’t bright, they were the softest shade of white, just about bright enough that I could see him. Smiling I moved back into kiss him. Our lips met and he pulled me over himself, his hands on my waist, holding me close to his body. Involuntarily, my body moved against his, causing a friction to grow between us. 

When we came up for air, I rid myself of my clothes and he did the same. The feel of his skin against mine was still enough to give me goosebumps, but the feel of his lips and his hands on my bare skin was enough to make me feel like I was going to explode. Flipping me onto my bad, I let him overpower me and take the lead. 

As his hands touched me in the most intimate of ways, he stopped for a moment and looked into my eyes. 

 

“You ready?”

“Always.”

Low reader interaction

Hi guys! I hope that you all are doing well and that you are keeping safe during these testing times.

 

I am writing this note after much thought. I was going to leave it, however, I have been noticing for a while now and I thought to address it. I don’t know how many of you know it works behind the scenes, but I am able to see how many people are viewing my content, how often they are looking at my blog, and where they get links from etc. I get very in depth information in regards to my performance.

In the last few weeks I have noticed that despite uploading content more regularly, I’m not getting the readership which is causing me some concern.

I don’t mean to sound like a whiny kid, but I work hard to get these chapters written and edited, the process is long and tiresome, but it is something I enjoy hence why I do it, but it’s also really demotivating when I only get 3 comments and 4 likes on a chapter which is like 3000+ words long.

 

So I request you guys, please do leave comments and let me know how you feel about chapters and what you would like to see done differently. Please leave me feedback because it really helps me to see what you guys are thinking/feeling. So please, I request you guys to interact with me more so I know what content is working and what isn’t.

 

That’s all I had to say for today. I would also like to take this moment to say that please follow me on socials for post updates, or just follow my blog directly so that you get an  email whenever I update. I also have been working really hard recently and I have been working on ‘He’s Amazing,’ ‘Unwanted’ AND I have started working on “Wilted Heart” too! I had already posted the prologue and first chapter of ‘Wilted Heart’ but I have decided to take them down and repost them when I start posting the other chapters. I feel I posted it so long ago and it would just be confusing if I suddenly launched back in with chapter 2, so yes, I will be relaunching that story all over again in a few months time. I am hoping that I can finish ‘Unwanted’ by the end of June so that I can then focus on just ‘Wilted Heart’ but we will see how it play out.

So yes, please turn notifications on and stick around because I have already scheduled so much content for the coming months and due to all the extra free time, I plan to keep working.

 

Lots of love!

 

He’s Amazing ~ Part 3 {Reloaded}

“He’s amazing Lavanya!”

“Now you realise! I’ve been telling you that since the very first day I saw him.”

“Honestly La! He’s so good looking! I don’t think I’ve seen someone so good looking before.”

“Better than Nikhil?”

“Way better! No competition at all.”

“You’re over him then?”

“I wouldn’t go that far. But it’s a journey that I need to go on and I know it is better for me to get over him. He isn’t worth it. He never was and I guess you were right, I was wasting my time on him. Now that I have truly realised and accepted that, it’s going to help me to move on.”

“Wow Khushi, what’s Arnav done to you.”

“Nothing, that’s got nothing to do with Mr Raizada, I’ve just realised Nikhil isn’t worth it. Me appreciating Mr Raizada’s good looks has no connection to my feelings towards Nikhil.”

 

Lavanya wanted to carry on speaking anout Nikhil and Khushi’s feelings, but she knew better than to press on with something when she knew that Khushi was trying to end the conversation. Shaking her head, she decided it was best to carry on speaking about Arnav.

 

“Why do you always call him Mr Raizada?”

“That’s his name the last time I checked.”

“Khushi, we all call him Arnav, you should too!”

“You know Lavanya, when he said my name, it sounded so nice.”

“He’s been addressing you by your name for ages.”

“No, when he called me Khushi. It sounded so nice. The way he said it, it was so soft and… I don’t know how to explain it, I felt all warm inside. It’s so strange.”

“He called you Khushi? How are you only just telling me this now! This is where you should have started the conversation.”

“Yeah he called me Khushi. Why is that such a big deal, am I missing something here?”

“He doesn’t address anyone by their names, not even the guys! Khushi, don’t you see! You mean something to him! He always addresses us by our surname, never first name. This MEANS something Khushi don’t you see.”

“Don’t be silly!”

 

Khushi laughed off Lavanya’s comments and went back to her book. Lavanya clicked her tongue and looked on at Khushi in disbelief. How was this girl so oblivious to everything around her? How had she not realised that Arnav doesn’t address anyone by their first name? How did she not realise?

 

*****

 

Arnav was sitting in his room, a pile of papers in front of him that needed marking, but his mind was elsewhere.

Arnav had a small place of his own in the teacher’s quarters, near the dormitories. It wasn’t home, but he was making the most out of his own little space for the time being. Putting his pen down and picking up his cup of coffee, he shook himself out of his thoughts. He needed to focus on the task at hand. And he really needed to stop thinking about the kinds of things he was thinking because they would just get him into trouble. But still his thoughts troubled him, his feelings all tangled up like a bowl of spaghetti.

 

“Arnav, get a grip! What kind of things are you thinking? She’s your student and you can’t be thinking about her like that. You can’t let hormones and emotions get the better of you, your work is what matters here and if you let your heart take over, you will ruin your career before you even have the chance to properly have one.”

 

He took a long sip of his coffee and was ready to get back to his work when another thought hit him.

 

“But what if she has feelings for you too? It’s not actually against the law to engage in a relationship with a student. It’s not like she is a high school student and she’s underage? She’s a mature, consenting adult, she won’t even be your student soon. It wouldn’t be wrong? It wouldn’t pose a risk to your career? But does she even feel the same way? She’s never given you much attention, maybe she isn’t attracted to you? Maybe she isn’t even attracted to men hence why she hasn’t even given you a second look. But maybe she does? Maybe she doesn’t want to show that you affect her? What should I do…”

 

*****

 

Lying in bed, Khushi closed her eyes and let sleep take over her body. Sleep. So warm and comforting, like an old friend. The moment her eyes shut and sleep embraced her, the dream too made it’s reappearance. It took her a moment but she fought the dream and woke herself up, sitting up in her bed and looked towards Lavanya. Getting out of her bed, she walked over to Lavanya’s, sitting careful on the edge of her bed and then nudged to wake her up. 

 

“La, wake up. Please wake up I need to speak to you.”

“Ugh, what’s the matter Khushi? I just fell asleep.”

 

Rubbing her eyes, Lavanya sat up, bummed that her sleep had been disturbed.

 

“I had the dream again!”

 

Eyes wide, any annoyance that she was feeling left and she wrapped Khushi up in her arms.

 

“Oh god, are you ok babe? Look you’re safe, you’ve got me. I got you. I’ll always be here for you Khushi you know that. You don’t need to be afraid of anything, I’m right here. Like always, I’ll always be here with you, ready to fight you’re demons. I got you Khushi, I got you…”

 

Taking in Lavanya’s reassuring words, Khushi held onto her friend and felt sleep taking over her body again. Although there was no space for two, Lavanya moved up and allowed Khushi to lie down beside her, still holding onto her.

 

Covering Khushi with the blanket, Lavanya thought for a moment before she too began to feel sleep threatening to take over her body. 

 

“You’ll get over everything Khushi, I promise you. And I’ll be right here to help you through it.”

 

*****

 

Khushi was an orphan. Her parents had died when she was 8. 

On the fateful day when it had happened, she had left for school as she usually did and came back to find her parents dead on the floor of the living room. It was an overwhelmingly terrifying sight for a child, but Khushi remained relatively calm. She crouched down beside her parents, tried to nudge them awake. But even as a child, she knew she was too late.

She searched for her 15 year old brother, he would know what to do, but she couldn’t find him. Unable to think any further and with tears threatening to finally spill over, she ran out of their house and ran all the way to Lavanya’s which was about 2 blocks away. She knocked on the door, crying her eyes out at this point. Lavanya’s dad opened the door. He smiled as he saw his best friends daughter, but his smile slipped away a split second later when he realised something was terribly wrong. He had never seen the little girl like this. 

 

“Khushi? What’s the matter darling? Why are you crying so much?”

“Ma, Papa!”

“What happened?”

 

A sick feeling washed over Lavanya’s dad. Something was wrong. Something was frightfully wrong. Khushi was unable to say any more, wasn’t able to answer any more questions. She was crying hysterically. Taking the little girl into his arms, Lavanya’s dad called out for Lavanya’s mom and told her to take the little girl inside, to get her cleaned up and to get some food in her.

Lavanya’s dad made his way to Khushi’s house, his mind whirring away with all the possibilities of what may possibly be so wrong to send Khushi running to their house in such a state. Maybe they were having an arguement, he knew his friend and his wife never really argued, especially not in front of the kids. Maybe that had scared Khushi. Maybe one had hurt the other? Maybe they had shouted at Khushi… What he didn’t expect though was to find his best friend and his wife lying in a pool of their own blood on the floor. He crouched down beside them, no… No this couldn’t be happening, this wasn’t happening. They were fine, they were just hurt… He called for the police and ambulance, but even before they arrived he knew what had happened here. They had been murdered.

That was the day Khushi lost all. Her parents were gone and so was her brother. She knew her brother was alive, but where was he? Where was he now when she needed him more than ever? Had he not returned from school yet? Had he not come back to the house yet? Or had he come back, seen what she had seen and then run off somewhere? But where was he? Didn’t he realise that she would need him?

Lavanya’s parents adopted Khushi. They had been willing to take her brother in too but he never returned. The police was out looking for him, perhaps the murderer had taken him hostage, perhaps he had seen what Khushi had seen and had run off, but there was no sign of the boy. He didn’t return home, he didn’t come looking for his sister. Though it was unsaid, Lavanya’s parents had thought they killer had taken the boy and… But they kept Khushi’s hope alive. One day her brother would return for her, she knew it.

As the years went on Khushi and Lavanya grew up together/ Before they had been best friends and now they were that and sisters. They both loved each other dearly. If one cried, so did the other. If one laughed so did the other. They shared everything with each other.

It took a while for the processing to go forward, but with Lavanya’s fathers help, everything that belonged to Khushi’s parents was transferred to her name. She now had enough money to make sure that she was set for life, but her money was never used. The Kashap’s never used Khushi’s money on her nor did they allow her to touch her money. It was all in her account waiting for her to use once she was old enough. Over the years and especially when she got older, she wanted to pay them for rent or to contribute towards her living costs but they never allowed her to do so. They bought Khushi up as their own. It was a simple matter of, “we don’t take money from Lavanya so we don’t take money from you, you are both our daughters, both the same, and it is our responsibility to make sure that you both are well looked after.”

Khushi hadn’t wanted to carry on and get a degree, because it was expensive and she couldn’t let the Kashap’s fund both hers and Lavanya’s tuition. And she knew they would never let her use her own money, yet the Kashap’s insisted that she continued and got herself an education. They told her that money wasn’t an issue and that they would be able to cover the costs comfortably but Khushi had still been reluctant.

Luckily, they didn’t have to pay as Khushi managed to get herself a scholarship. She had made sure that she performed well in school to make sure that she would be able to secure a scholarship and she had. She was delighted.

Over the course of the last 13 years, never in her life did Khushi feel that she had lost her parents. Of course she missed her own parents and she wished she could have them back but the Kashap’s were her parents too and she loved them. She loved them unconditionally and they loved her in the same way.

There was nothing that could ever tear her away from them. This was her family and they were her everything. 

 

On the other hand, there was Arnav. Arnav Singh Raizada. You must have heard the name. Even if you hadn’t heard his name you must have heard his family name.

His parents too had died when he was 14. His father had engaged in an affair which had led to his mother killing herself and then his father, unable to handle the guilt of the fact that his wife had killed herself because of him, he too shot himself with the same gun she had used.

Arnav resented his father, both his parents actually, for having been so selfish, for just leaving him like that. Though he felt alone, he was taken in by his maternal grandmother. His uncle was there, his aunt; he had a cousin that was a few months younger than him, named Akaash, all took him in and it was nice to be around family, but his life just wasn’t the same. He and his sister had to leave Lucknow because his paternal uncle had said that they couldn’t stay there any more and had moved to Delhi.

His sister, Anjali meant everything to him. He had seen how she had broken down after the death of his parents and how it had been a blow for her that their selfish uncle was willing to throw them out onto the streets. He had watched her struggle to come to terms with the fact that they had to leave their home and move to Delhi, but over the years, he watched how nani worked with Anjali to help her learn how to live life again.

It had taken a long time for Anjali to accept her life and to move forward but she had learnt to live again and had fallen in love with a lovely man and a few months back she had got married to that man, Shyam. Akaash too had got married to a lovely lady named Payal. The unity in their family was amazing. So much love. Everyone was so happy together. 

However, everyone was still worried about one thing. Though it seemed that Arnav had moved on with his life and that he was thriving, it was evident to everyone that he didn’t like to let people into his life, that he didn’t like to get close to people. Given there had been women who had peaked his attention, but they never meant enough to him for him to want to settle down. Akaash had got married, yet Arnav who was older refused to do so. He just wasn’t willing to even consider the prospect of marriage.
Originally, the family had wanted Arnav to marry Payal, claimed that she was a lovely girl and she was, but he still refused. It was after he said no that Akaash had got to know her and had fallen in love with her. When pressed why Arnav would reject such a lovely girl or why he wouldn’t consider marrying at all, Arnav simply brushed the topic off and claimed he was waiting for the right women.

Arnav’s father had been rich. Scrap that, he had been very rich. His father had started a business and he with his wife’s brother had built it from the ground up. The business was for Arnav. He wanted Arnav to take over the business and make it successful. But more than that he had wanted to make sure that Arnav’s life would always be secure.

Once he was old enough, Arnav took the company over from his uncle’s care but still worked closely with him to take the business as far as he could. AR designs was Arnav’s life. He threw himself into it as soon as he returned home from America after completing his degree. He worked his butt off to make it successful and within the first year after his takeover, AR designs was huge. Even his uncle couldn’t fathom how Arnav had managed to propel the buisness to such heights in such a short period of time, but he was proud of his nephew and was glad that he had found something in his life which caused his eyes to light up.

 

Arnav never wanted to be a lecturer, but had only come because the vice principle was a close family friend and had felt that Arnav was the perfect person. Arnav couldn’t refuse. It would be disrespectful to someone who had helped and was so close to their family. And that was why he was here now.

Maybe it was coincidence or maybe it was fate, but Arnav felt that he was finally getting close to finding the women he was looking. Call it a gut feeling but he felt that his life partner was somewhere around here. It was a strange feeling. He wasn’t actively looking for love, nor did he want to commit, but at the same time, there was a feeling inside him that told him his other half was around here somewhere and he knew that whoever she was and whenever he found her, she was going to be something special. It didn’t make sense to him, this feeling, but it was what it was. He just knew this place was going to play an important part of his life… 

But was it really here that he would meet his life partner? Who could this woman be? Where was she? Was it really as he was thinking or was he hallucinating? What was happening? 

Getting back into a regular routine

Hi guys! Hope you are all doing very well and that you have been enjoying the first two parts of He’s Amazing. I’ve been working super hard to get these chapters edited and I can confirm that the next 5 or 6 parts have also been scheduled. I’m currently busy with assignments and so I haven’t had the time to edit and schedule any more parts, but I will be working on that again within the next few weeks and hopefully there will be a seamless flow of content for you guys for the coming months.

As it stands, there will be one chapter of He’s Amazing going up once ever 2 weeks, meaning 2 chapters a month, however when I have more time on my hands and when I can edit more, I do intend on getting ahead of the game and editing faster. Hopefully that will mean that I will be in a position to increase updates to once every week.

I also intend to pick Unwanted back up and finish that story and I want to really start working on Wilted Heart and get that up for you guys because that’s a project that I have been super excited for for a really long time.

So all in all, I have every intention to get back into a regular habit with my content creation and posting, I just need to find the motivation to do it all and the time to balance it all between my uni work. So please bare with me, stick around and I promise that at the very least, I will be bring you guys regular updates for He’s Amazing.

 

Please let me know how much you guys are liking He’s Amazing. For those who have read it before and who remember what it was like before, please let me know if you have noticed an improved reading experience this time because personally, as I have been editing and working on it, I have found myself to be adding great chunks of new content and really changing the overall language of it. So please let me know if you have noticed and if you are liking it.

In the meantime, if you guys would like to keep in touch with me about general things, you can find me both on instagram and twitter, both under the username @tweetee_x

Hope to see you all again very soon!

Lots of love!

He’s Amazing ~ Part 2 {Reloaded}

The two girls linked arms and walked off towards the girls dormitories, completely brushing away the conversation that they had just had and forgetting about the gorgeous man that they had left behind…

 

As Khushi and Lavanya opened the door to their dormitory common room, Sia jumped to her feet and pulled Khushi into the room and shut the door behind her.

 

“Now tell me, why did Mr Hottie, keep YOU behind?”

“Sia! Mind your own business! What’s it to you if Mr Raizada kept Khushi behind.”

“Shut up Lavanya. This has nothing to do with you! So tell me Khushi, why are you clocking the new teacher? Wasn’t being dumped by Nikhil enough for you?”

 

Sia gave a harsh laugh and Khushi and Lavanya both looked at each other, shocked at the fact that Sia would really bring that up now for absolutely no reason.

Coming to her senses, Khushi bolted up the stairs to hers and Lavanya’s shared bedroom. She shut the door and leaned against it, letting her tears cascade.

She let herself cry for a while. For herself who was still affected by that drama, for the love she lost, and for the constant taunts that she had to deal with. Once she finally pulled herself together, she looked at her phone and then dialled someone’s number.

 

“Hello?”

“It’s Khushi.”

“Oh, Khushi! How come you’re calling?”

“I miss you.”

“Khushi…”

“Don’t, please. I know you ended things with us, but I still have feelings for you.”

“Khushi, you need to stop doing this to yourself. I don’t want to be an ass about it all, but you’re making it really hard for me and you.”

“But I…”

“Listen, you’re a great girl and you know you weren’t the issue. The issue was that we didn’t want the same things. You believe in marriage and frankly I don’t. There was never a future for our relationship and we reached a dead end, you know this. And Khushi it’s not just that, you know what our problems were. There were many. Us breaking up was the best for the both of us.”

“Nikhil, I know. But I still think it could work with us. I can try…”

“We’re not in high school any more. We’re not kids. If you want to be with me, you’re going to have to be prepared to really BE with me. And frankly Khushi, you know that isn’t going to happen. We were together over a year and you wouldn’t even let me kiss you. Khushi I’m sorry, but that isn’t enough for me and it just isn’t going to work.”

“Nikhil, I…”

“Save it Khushi, please! We were doing fine. We were in the same university, the same place, but we hadn’t seen or spoken for months now. Why are you making it hard for yourself? Move on! I’m sure you’ll find someone, someone who’ll believe in marriage, someone who you’ll be prepared to kiss, someone you’ll be prepared to touch. Khushi you think that someone’s me, but it isn’t. Babe, look if we can, I want us to be friends, but I’ve moved on. You have to as well. There isn’t a way forward for us otherwise.”

 

How was he able to speak so nicely yet sound so sharp at the same time? She could tell he was being patient but it was evident in his voice that she was testing his patience. He would snap if she pressed him further and that was the last thing that she wanted. With a sigh, Khushi knew it was better for her to just wrap this conversation up before it got ugly and someone said something they shouldn’t.

 

“I’m sorry. I understand. Yeah, I’d like us to be friends.”

“I would too. But I don’t think we can until you are fully sure that you don’t see me as anything more than a friend any more.”

“I understand. Goodbye Nikhil.”

 

Disconnecting the call, Khushi threw the phone onto her bed and fell after it, covering her mouth with her pillow as she let our a gut wrenching yell. Sitting up, Khushi wiped her tears away and recomposed herself. She was okay, she could do this, she could move on. It was all going to be fine. Just as she wiped the last of her tears away, Lavanya walked into their bedroom, her face flushed with anger.

 

“God Khushi, you should have seen what I said to her. She ain’t gonna trouble you again, I promise. She’ll think twice before she even looks at you next time.”

 

Khushi looked up with a weak smile and turned away again.

 

“Khushi? What’s the matter?”

 

Lavanya sat down next to her and Khushi wrapped her arms around her.

 

“He dumped me all over again!”

“Oh Khushi! Why did you call him?”

“I was missing him.”

“Babe, you have to get over him. It’s for your own benefit. He isn’t worth it Khushi. He’s scum. He’s the kind of guy that would go for Sia. He just wants to use a girl.”

“I know, but I loved him. I think I might still love him.”

“Khushi I promise you, you will find someone. Someone far more worthy and who will love you with his entire heart unconditionally. I know this feels like the end of a road, and that there isn’t a way forward, but I promise, one day you will realise that actually Nikhil didn’t actually very much to you at all. You just liked the idea of him, not him actually. You will realise what you thought was love was just actually an intense crush. One day you will fall in love with a real prince, I promise you.”

“But what if… What if someone does come into my love and I learn to love him and he leaves me too?”

“Then he wasn’t the one either and we go through the process again. It will be hard, but we will find you your prince.”

“I’m scared; I’ve lost everyone I loved. I only have you, aunty and uncle. What if I’m not destined to have someone else in my life?”

“Then you will always have just us and we will keep loving you. Our love is more than enough isn’t it?”

 

Khushi gave a small smile.

 

“It is. It is enough.”

“And you’ll always have us. No matter what happens we will always be here for you even if anyone else isn’t. But we will find you someone. A guy. Who’ll love you! That’s my promise to you! I am one million percent certain that there is someone out there for you and he is waiting for you just as you are waiting for him.”

 

*****

 

A few days had passed since Khushi meltdown and since then things had been getting better. They were back into full swing with their studies so Khushi didn’t really have much time to think about other things. She threw herself into her studies. She knew that she needed to do her best in order to secure the grades she wanted. Her education was the one thing in her control and she was ready to throw herself into it completely. While all the girls in Arnav’s class were crushing on him, Khushi kept her eyes down. Her focus was on her education, she didn’t have time to get involved with anything else. 

Especially not another man.

 

“Well seeing as this is the first time we’ve got through everything we have planned, I guess you guys can relax until the end of the hour.”

 

Turning his attention back to his laptop, Arnav began to log off, preparing to be ready to leave as soon as the hour ended.

 

“Mr Raizada, have you got a girlfriend?”

 

Arnav looked up, his eyebrow raised.

 

“Miss Mishra, can we keep my personal life personal please? I don’t like to divulge personal information to my students.”

“Sir please tell us, you know how we girls are. Please tell us.”

“I know very well how girls are, but I must remind you, this is a professional environment for me and I am your tutor. Disclosing such information and having such conversations is inappropriate.”

“Please sir, just answer this and we will stop bothering you, promise.”

“Very well then. No I have not got a girlfriend.”

“Can I be your girlfriend?”

“Excuse me! I just said how this is highly inappropriate, please stop.”

“Arnav I can tell you’re attracted to me.”

“Miss Mishra, I am your lecturer, I might only be a few years old than you, but that does not mean you have the right to speak to me like that! I am still your senior in this room! And you will address me as Mr Raizada.”

 

Lavanya’s eyes widened with glee, she loved seeing Sia being brought down a peg. But she hadn’t expected Mr Raizada to react so badly. Looks like he was really serious about the whole tutor-student dynamic.

 

“Sorry.”

“I’m warning you Miss Mishra, any such comments again, I won’t hesitate to have you thrown out!”

 

Sia looked down, seething with anger. Lavanya forced back a giggle and nudged Khushi. As the clock hit the hour, everyone got to their feet to leave. For the first time Sia was the first to leave and she dragged Tina out with her.

 

“Miss Gupta! Can you wait please?”

 

Khushi froze and looked to Lavanya.

 

“Khushi, I’m going up to our room. Karan should be calling me and I haven’t got my phone. I’m sorry, I can’t wait up.”

“It’s fine, I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

 

Lavanya walked away and once the room had cleared, Arnav shut the door and walked towards Khushi.

 

“Miss Gupta, I would like to ask you if you could do a special job for me.”

“Yes sir, what would you like me to do?”

“I would like you to complete the assignment that I set you as soon as possible because I would like to use it for a presentation I’m delivering this weekend.”

“My assignment?”

“Yes. They want to see the work done by my best student. And that would definitely be you. I would use one of your older papers, but you didn’t complete them under my supervision so it wouldn’t really be a reflection of my teaching.”

“I’m your best student?”

“Of course, always so focused, simply gets on with what she’s doing without acting like a kid.”

“Sorry I don’t understand sir.”

“You must have seen how the rest of the girls behave. It’s getting quite annoying now. I know I shouldn’t be speaking ill of other students to you, but I’m sure you can understand. I just want you to know that I appreciate you focusing on your education instead of making a joke of yourself like other characters in the class.”

“You don’t like the attention sir?”

“No.”

“I don’t like attention either.”

 

Khushi lifted her eyes, she felt like she actually wanted to see the man she was speaking to properly, to really appreciate this person who thought so highly of her and who also held similar views to her.

It was then, for the very first time she looked at Arnav and she felt her heart stop for a moment. Lavanya wasn’t joking, he was gorgeous. He was tall, tanned with cute slightly curly hair and you could tell he was built. Khushi could imagine how his body would be, just like Salman Khan’s. Strong muscular arms, hard chest and a full on 6 pack. God he would definitely be amazing shirtless. His eyes were caramel brown, the perfect colour to drown in. Shaking her thoughts away, shocked that she was thinking such thoughts, she came back to her sense.

 

“Sir was there anything else or can I leave?”

“Yes you may leave.”

“Bye sir.”

“Bye Khushi.”

 

Once outside Khushi let out a long sigh. The way her name rolled off his tongue, mixed in with the smile he gave her was enough to send her mind into overdrive. Letting out another sigh, Khushi let her back slump against the wall.

 

“He’s amazing.”

 

He’s Amazing ~ Part 1 {Reloaded}

“Oh my god Khushi, look at him! He’s gorgeous!”

“Lavanya, please we aren’t going to go through with this again, remember you’re with Karan!”

“I know Khushi, but look, he’s so totally adorable.”

“It doesn’t matter; you’re not going to have time to get to know him.”

 

Lavanya sighed and took Khushi’s arm as they began making their way down the corridor towards their classroom. Khushi and Lavanya were studying business and mathematics and were in their third and final year of university.

 

“Khushi do you know who’s taking over from ‘the old grouch?’ He left at the end of last semester and they didn’t tell us who was taking over!”

“I think it probably will be Mrs Chopra.”

“Khushi, we can’t be taught by her, we’ll all fall asleep and we’ll never get our degrees!”

 

They had reached their classroom and taken their seats. Lavanya looked up only to see the hot guy she was talking about entering the room.

 

“Oh my god, Khushi, look it’s him. I think he’s probably moved from some other uni and is going to finish his degree with us! He’s going to be in some of our classes oh my god!”

 

Khushi shook her head and sighed. La would be La. There was absolutely no hope for this girl.

 

“Everyone settle down please!”

 

The class settled down and Lavanya looked on in disbelief. Wait. What was happening? Was he…

 

“I’m Arnav Singh Raizada and I shall be taking this class and lecture until you all finish your course. You may all call me Mr Raizada.”

 

Lavanya dropped her face into her hands, This was really happening. He was… The tutor.

A girl, tall and beautiful raised her hand.

 

“Yes?”

“Arnav, are you sure you’re supposed to be teaching us, you don’t look old enough to be a lecturer. Moreover personally I find that you’re too good looking to be a lecturer.”

“Well I’m flattered to hear that. Yes, I am your lecturer, as for my age, I just got my masters from Harvard for the same subject. They needed a new lecturer to take over the senior class, so here I am. As for my name, you may call me Mr Raizada.”

“Khushi, look at the nerve of Sia, what the hell! She’s such a try hard!”

“La, why are you getting so angry, what does it matter? He’s our lecturer. What’s the big deal?”

“So you don’t find him good looking?”

“No, not really.”

 

As Lavanya and Khushi argued over how good looking Arnav was and why men should be avoided, the rest of the class progressed.

 

“Well we haven’t got anything done today, so from tomorrow, it will be all focus on the work and nothing more. Good afternoon everyone.”

 

With that, everyone began to put away anything they had taken out. Arnav looked around the room and his eyes fell on a girl. She was busy reading her textbook as Arnav walked over to her. She saw his shadow over her and looked up.

 

“Yes sir?”

“Miss Gupta?”

“Yes sir.”

“Can you stay back please?”

“Sure sir.”

 

With that Arnav walked away. Lavanya rushed to Khushi’s side.   

 

“Khushi, what the hell are you! Its like he doesn’t affect you at all! You didn’t even look at him twice!”

“He doesn’t La. He’s just another man, and my lecturer!”

“But he’s gorgeous! How can you not be affected by him at all? I know you’ve had your issues with men, but really, you should stop acting like you never what to be with another man again. It’s okay to look at men you know. Ok maybe not Arnav, but there are so many guys, it’s like no one affects you.”

“Lavanya, my hearts been broken once, I don’t want it to happen again.”

 

The bell rang and the class began to walk out, Khushi remained at her desk, waiting for everyone else to leave so that she could speak to Arnav. Lavanya said she’d wait for Khushi in the hall. As Lavanya left the room, Arnav closed the door and approached Khushi.

 

“Miss Gupta, I was given your assignment from last semester and I must say your work is absolutely amazing!”

“Thank you, sir. I’m glad you liked it.”

“I didn’t like it, I loved it!”

“Thank you.”

“Any way I’m not going to keep you for any longer, I’m sure you want to make the most of not having any work. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

With that Khushi left the room only to find Lavanya standing outside with a serious expression on her face.

 

“What’s up with you? What’s with the face?”

“Did he want your number?”

“What? NO! Why would he want my number?”

“Oh I thought he wanted your number.”

“God Lavanya, get real. Do you think he’d go for someone like me when Sia will practically throw herself at him. Any way he’s a Harvard graduate, I’m sure he’s got a girlfriend! Even if he doesn’t, I don’t think he’s looking to date one of his students. And even if he is, I’m not interested!”

“Ok, ok! I get it! But you have to admit he’s fit!”

“Lavanya, what do you want from me? If you want him go ahead, but I’m not interested! So I don’t look at him like that.”

“Khushi tell me what’s happened! Before we could sit and rate guys for hours but now, you’ve changed so much!”

“You want the truth? Then listen! Guys remind me of Nikhil. What me and him had. Every time I’m with another man I remember him. And I hate him Lavanya! Please, try to understand.”

“I understand Khushi. I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain.”

“It’s ok. Lets go, I want to get into bed!”

 

The two girls linked arms and walked off towards the girls dormitories, completely brushing away the conversation that they had just had and forgetting about the gorgeous man that they had left behind… 

 

*****

 

Author’s note:

So here we go again! For those of you who have been on this journey with me before, it would mean a lot to me to have you guys came on this journey with me again because I have been making a lot of changes to each chapter before posting it again. Anyone who has read this recently will also realise that I have taken the decision to merge chapters. So what you have just read was previously posted as parts one and two, however they were both very short chapters so I have decided to merge them together. This is something that I plan to do for most if not all chapters. So the next chapter (part 2) will be what used to be part 3 and 4. So ultimately instead of having 100 parts, this story will only have 50, but they will be much longer chapters and hopefully you will be able to notice the improvement of writing quality.

That is all for today, thank you so much for taking the time to read both the part and my note. I have scheduled the next chapter to go up in exactly 2 weeks. I do hope to start working on other unfinished projects again because I have a bit more time now with this pandemic going on and I feel you guys will also appreciate a more regular flow of content.