He’s Amazing ~ Part 16 {Reloaded}

“We have fixed Khushi engagement! It’s taking place on Sunday night!”

Lavanya and Khushi looked at one another and then at the large woman in front of them. Both unable to comprehend or say anything. Lavanya came out of the trance first.

“But buaji! Tonight is Wednesday! We only have 4 days! And more importantly Khushi doesn’t know anything about this guy! You can’t expect her to get engaged to him! And what about what she has to say, you haven’t even asked Khushi if this is what she wants. If she wants to marry him, or if there is someone else that she cares for! You can’t do this! You can’t just make a decision like that without even consulting her, this isn’t the 20th century where you can just fix your daughter’s marriage and be done with it. We have rights and we deserve to make our own decisions, this is just… This is insanity!”

“Lavanya! Whatever we are doing is for the benefit of Khushi! We haven’t asked Khushi because we know she would never refuse this boy. He’s a gem, the kind of boy that you girls would choose for yourselves any way! We haven’t picked a random champu off the streets, we have found a educated boy from a good family. A family we know well. We know what we are doing.”

Lavanya opened her mouth to argue back but was stopped by the mother. Garima could tell that if her daughter and her sister-in-law started arguing now, there was no stopping them. They would carry on locking horns all night, neither of them would give in.

“Jiji, tell them exactly what happened, they have a right to know everything from the start. If you explain it all properly, they will be more understanding and open to understanding what is happening.”

“Very well. His name is Aayaan Malhotra and he’s from London. He’s settled in the UK and has come back to get married. He’s been here for the last 3 months and has been looking for a bride but has been unsuccessful. That’s when one of our family friends told his family about us. They said that we have two daughters, both of which are of marriage age. So they came to our house a couple of nights ago and we told them about both of you. We showed them pictures of the both of you and they couldn’t decide. Aayaan was asked which one of you two he liked more, he said that both of you are beautiful and both are educated, two of the main things that matter to him. He said that he couldn’t choose, especially without meeting you and actually knowing what you both are like. So his family asked about you age. We said that you’re the same age, only Khushi is 4 months older. Due to this, they said that seeing as Khushi was the older sister, they would get their son married to her. But then they realised that something had to be wrong, because it’s not possible for you to be biological sisters because you only have a 4 months difference between you. We then told them how we had adopted Khushi after her parents died. They asked whose daughter was Khushi actually. We said you were the daughter of the Late Raj and Parvati Gupta. Once we said this, they said that they had known your parents, that they had been good friends with your parents and that you would be the perfect daughter-in-law for their family. So of course we said yes.”

Khushi and Lavanya listened patiently, taking in everything that Buaji had said. Khushi felt her head spinning slightly, there was so much going on and it was all happening so fast that she was struggling to comprehend. Luckily, she had Lavanya on hand who was ready with her questions and objections.

“Buaji, how could you just agree? They might be good people and they might have known Raj uncle and Parvati aunty, but you should have asked Khushi! How do you know that Khushi is ready for this. I just can’t believe…”

Garima cut Lavanya off by turning her attention to Khushi.

“Khushi if you don’t want to get married, or if there is someone else in your life, tell us dear. We won’t mind. At the end of the day, this is your life and you have every right to live it the way you want to. We just want to fulfil our responsibilities as your parents and do what we think is best for you, but if this isn’t what you want, we understand that and we will respect your decision.”

Khushi looks at Garima. She was confused. She didn’t know what to say. Thoughts of Arnav came to her, but then she looked up at these people, the people that had taken care of every need, the people that loved her when she didn’t have anywhere else to go, the people that never let her feel like an orphan. She couldn’t say no. She knew that whatever they were doing, they were doing it for her benefit.

“I agree to this rishta.”

*****

“Lavanya, hurry, check if Khushi is ready or not, the boy’s family will be arriving soon!”

It was the evening of the engagement and there were only a few hours left until Khushi would be engaged. She had met Aayaan, and he was lovely. He had been sweet and caring. He told Khushi that even though things were happening really quickly, he wanted them to be friends first and get to know each other well before they actually got married.

Everything had happened so fast that she hadn’t really had the chance to get nervous or think about other things. But now with only so little time left, Khushi was beginning to feel her nerves. She couldn’t help but think if she was making the right decision or not. She had tried to avoid thinking about Arnav, but now that she was sat here, ready for her engagement, she couldn’t help but think about him. She had thought that she would get married to him and only him. But clearly the universe had other plans for her.

She had so many thoughts of how her engagement would be if she were getting engaged to Arnav but now… Everything was so different. She had taken a backseat as the Kashyap’s organised everything. They had planned a grand engagement, Lavanya above all making sure that they left no stone unturned. When Khushi had first agreed, La had dragged Khushi up to their bedroom and demanded to know what the hell she was playing at. But when Khushi had said that she really did think that this would be for the best, Lavanya eased up slightly. Though La still had her questions and her reservations, she knew that if Khushi was willing to give her life a chance, and if she was willing to embrace what was coming at her, she wasn’t about to step in her way.

Lavanya had begun to get a crack on preparing for the engagement after that and she made sure that everything was absolutely perfect.

Looking at her watch, Lavanya rushed up to Khushi’s room to check that her sister was ready to go. Lavanya herself was already dressed in a hot pink lengha with her hair styled pin straight. She went for a simple look, but being Lavanya she looked amazing as ever.

She walked into Khushi’s room, and found Khushi ready. She was standing by the mirror in an cream and pink lengha, her hair was curled slightly with tiny diamante clips pinning back loose strands so that they wouldn’t keep falling onto her face. In awe at how good her sister looked, Lavanya went and stood next to Khushi and realised that all of a sudden Khushi was a whole lot taller than she was. That’s when she noticed Khushi wearing a pair of killer silver heels.

“You look amazing Khushi!”

“Do I?”

“Babes, you’re going to knock Aayaan dead! Let me take a picture, Sia’ll be dying to see you!”

Lavanya snapped a few photos of Khushi when a girl of similar age to them rushed into the room.

“Lavanya, hurry! Aayaan’s here!”

“What? They’re here? Priya you go, give me a sec I’m coming!”

“Ok.”

Priya rushed away and Lavanya held Khushi’s hand.

“You ok?”

“Have you said anything to Arnav?”

“No.”

“That’s fine.”

“But Khushi you have to tell him. How’s he going to feel once he finds out?”

“Well he isn’t going to find out until I’m married, so it doesn’t matter.”

“But Khushi…”

“La please, don’t say anything. I know what you’re going to say, there’s no proof that he actually slept with her, but what if he did? And even if he didn’t this time, what if he does this to me again another time. I can’t risk it La. For once in my life I have to be selfish and the best thing for me right now is to accept this proposal.”

“Okay, okay, if that’s what you want Khushi, then I respect your decision and I won’t bring up the Arnav topic again. I just want you to be certain that this is what you want because this is a huge deal and it isn’t something you should do if you just want to spite Arnav. This is about your whole life and it has to be something you really want. If there is any doubt in your mind, or if you think you don’t have the right intentions, then you still have time to walk away… Just think about it.

Any way, I’m going down to greet the guests and the grooms side, I’ll come and get you when they want you.”

With that Lavanya left Khushi in her room with her thoughts. She thought about everything Lavanya had said and she knew that she was doing what was best for her. This wasn’t about spiting Arnav or trying to get a reaction out of him, this was her putting herself first for once. Khushi was content with her decision, well as content as she could be. She was going to do this, she was going to get engaged to Aayaan today and soon she would marry him. Nothing was going to change her decision.

*****

Downstairs all the guests had arrived and Aayaan’s family too had arrived. He was wearing a black sharwani with a hesitant smile. Aayaan was highly good looking, but compared to Arnav, he was pretty average. It was one of the first things that both Khushi and Lavanya had noticed about him, but neither had verbalised their thoughts to the other.

Aayaan entered the house and looked around. He noticed that everything looked much more different than it had done the last time he had visited. He looked around and couldn’t see Khushi.

Khushi… Her name made him smile. There had been many women that he had met, but none of them had what Khushi had. She was different. She seemed special. But she seemed sad. Aayaan had noticed that for a girl who was getting engaged to a hot guy like himself from London, she didn’t look happy. He had asked her, but she had simply said that everything was fine, but simply because everything was happening so soon, she wasn’t sure she was ready. He had wanted to ask her more, but had very little time to actually speak to one another. He knew that he should have asked her about it more, but if she had agreed to the engagement, then it meant that she wanted this. He would be able to speak to her and get to know her better after the engagement had happened, there was no point trying to press her about it when their time was so limited.

As the evening went on and most of the guests had arrived, the families had decided that they should get the engagement ceremony started. Garima told Lavanya to go and get Khushi. She made her way up to their room and then bought Khushi down with her. Khushi looked nervous and Lavanya wanted to stop and speak to her, calm her nerves down, but everyone was waiting on them and she knew what people were like. If they stopped for even a moment, people would make a big deal out of nothing. She gave Khushi a reassuring squeeze and whispered in her ear that everything was going to be fine, it was all going to be okay. Khushi whispered her thanks back.

As she came down the stairs, she tried to focus her attention on the stairs so that she wouldn’t trip over her lengha, but then she looked up and saw Aayaan smiling at her.

Everyone who had seen him so far had told her how handsome they thought he was, and how lucky she was that she had found such a good looking and educated boy, but all she could think about was how nothing compared to Arnav. She brushed the thought of Arnav away and walked slowly down the stairs. Now wasn’t the time to think about Arnav. Her thought should only be on Aayaan, the gorgeous guy who was about to become her fiancé.

Everyone smiled and whispered about how good she looked and took pictures of her as she came down the stairs. Lavanya led Khushi over to where the platform was set and where Aayaan was already sitting down on a chair. When he saw Lavanya and Khushi approach, he got up and offered Khushi a hand. Hesitantly, she took it and got onto the platform. She smiled a thank you to Aayaan and then looked down again.

“You look lovely!”

“Thank you.”

The rituals started and Aayaan’s brother passed him a ring and he slid it onto Khushi’s finger. Lavanya gave Khushi a ring and she put it on Aayaan. Everyone smiled, laughed and clapped. Everyone was cheering for the couple who seemed to be perfect for each other. People took tonnes of pictures of the new couple and blessed them all the best for their future.

For the rest of the evening, everyone danced. Aayaan and Khushi had been forced to dance with each other. They had been reluctant as they just want to sit and talk to one another, but they gave in and decided that they would dance and try and make conversation at the same time.

As the evening went on, the guests began to leave, leaving only the grooms family and the brides family. The elders of both families had moved into another room to speak about dates for the wedding and had left all the younger members to speak amongst themselves.

It was during the course of the evening that Khushi reached the conclusion that even though she still loved Arnav, Aayaan was her future and she had to at least give him a chance. He wanted to have a future with her and the least she could do was be fair on him by at least trying to make an effort. She knew that it was going to be hard, but Aayaan had reassured her over and over again that they could take things as slowly as they wanted, that for now they should just try to form a friendship and get to know each other. She appreciated that, appreciated that he understood that she needed time to really process all of this and accept what was happening.

“Khushi, I know this is happening all of a sudden, and I understand that you want time, but I just want you to know that I am here for you. Until the wedding, I want us to get to know each other and be friends.”

“Thank you. For understanding me.”

Before either of them could say any more, the elders came out of the room they had been in and called attention onto themselves.

“May I have your attention please? After much discussion, we have decided that the wedding will take place in 3 months time. We have a few dates in mind and we will have to speak to venues to see which date is available for us, but for now that is all the information that we can share.”

Khushi let out a sigh of relief and smiled. Her heart felt more at ease all of a sudden. All day, she had been worried that they would say that the wedding would be within the next month because she knew that Aayaan would have to go back to the UK soon, but now, knowing that there was a bit of time, she felt so much more at ease. There was time, she wasn’t getting married quite yet.

He’s Amazing ~ Part 15 {Reloaded}

Khushi ran as fast as her legs could take her. She ran past the main lounge when Sia stopped her. She had seen Khushi upset before, had even been the cause of Khushi being upset, but she looked absolutely distraught right now, she’d never seen her like this before.

“Hey Khushi, what’s the matter? Khushi why are you crying? What’s the matter?”

“You were always right, no half decent guy would go for a behenji like me!”

Khushi ran away crying before Sia could even respond. She wasn’t sure what to do. Should she follow Khushi to make sure that she would be alright? Or was that a step too far considering they weren’t really friends, just on civil terms. Shaking her head, she pulled her phone out and shot a text to Lavanya.

Khushi reached her room, threw open the door and collapsed on her bed. Lavanya rushed to her side. She had just finished reading the message that she had received from Sia.

“Khushi, babes, what’s the matter? Is Arnav ok, has something happened to him. Sia just texted me saying she saw you looking really upset and she was worried and…”

“He cheated on me!”

“What!”

It took La a moment to comprehend what Khushi was saying. Did Khushi say that… No surely not, it wasn’t possible.

“He slept with Pooja!”

“No, Khushi you must be mistaken, he loves you!”

“That’s what I thought, but you should have seen everything! Their clothes were all over the place!”

“Oh, gosh! Khushi, I’m so sorry babes! But Khushi that doesn’t have to mean that they… Maybe she just spent the night and they hadn’t tidied up…”

Even as Lavanya was saying it, she knew it wasn’t convincing in the slightest. Lavanya held Khushi close to herself while she cried, stroking her hair. Seething with anger, Lavanya vowed that she would destroy Arnav Singh Raizada and Pooja Kapoor even if she had to die while doing it. But something seemed to be wrong. Arnav didn’t seem like one of those men who would bed a woman just for the sake of it. Especially not when she knew how much he cared for Khushi. Something was wrong and she needed to find out what. It just wasn’t making sense in the slightest.

The next day they had a lecture for Arnav’s class. Lavanya got ready but Khushi stayed in bed. Sitting down on the edge of Khushi’s bed, La reached out to her and tapped her lightly.

“Not coming?”

“No, I don’t want to see his face.”

“Babe, I know it’s tough, but this is about your education. If you don’t attend lectures, you’re not going to be able to get your degree. And you’ve worked too hard and come too far to let it all go to waste for a man. Come on Khushi.”

“I know, and I will attend, but I can’t today. Just let me take today off to pull myself together.”

“Ok, you stay in bed; I’ll take notes for you. Do you want me to say anything to him from you?”

“Tell him he’s a douchebag.”

Lavanya chuckled, placed a light kiss on her sister’s forehead and left. She attended the lecture and took down all the required notes. She also noticed Arnav looked upset. She mentally thought to herself that it was good that he looked sad, it meant that he regrets his actions. No guy does that to Khushi and gets away with it.

At the end of the lesson, Lavanya hung back and waited for everyone to leave. But before she could approach Arnav and say anything, Sia was already talking to him.

“Mr Raizada, I have lost my respect for you!”

“Excuse me?”

“You did something to upset Khushi! How could you? What has she ever done but love you? You should have seen her. When I saw her, her eyes were red and blotchy and she could hardly talk! I never liked her, but the past couple of months, I’ve realised she’s an amazing person and I’ve grown fond of her. And to see her like that all of a sudden…”

Lavanya came forward and stood where Sia and Arnav were and looked at Sia in awe.

“Wow Sia, that’s really sweet of you! I never thought you liked Khushi. I mean I know you two have been a lot more civil recently, but I hadn’t realised that…”

“Well Lavanya, I didn’t like her because she was with Nikhil and I couldn’t understand why he would go for her, but again the last couple of months I’ve realised, she’s really cool. Any way, I’m assuming you want to talk to Raizada. I’ll leave, tell Khushi to take care and that I’m here for her too if she wants me.”

“Thanks Sia, I’ll tell her. She really needs her friends and well wishers the most at this moment of time. Depending on how she’s feeling later, you can come up to our room and maybe just watch a movie with us?”

“I’d love that.”

Sia left and Lavanya turned to Arnav.

“Tell me, what the hell happened and why did you do it?”

“Lavanya, please I swear, nothing happened between me and Pooja.”

“Then why is she saying it?”

“I don’t know! But I swear I can’t remember anything. I remember having a drink and then after that, nothing.”

“Well maybe you just had too much to drink.”

“It was orange juice Lavanya! I don’t drink alcohol!”

“Then why can’t you remember?”

“I don’t know!”

“It doesn’t make sense then does it; you’ve got to be lying!”

“Lavanya you know how much I love Khushi, why would I sleep with someone else?”

“Because you’re a man and that’s what you guys do! You probably got so tense that Khushi wasn’t sleeping with you that you decided to sleep with someone else!”

“Lavanya, I love her! What do you think; I’m in this relationship just because I want to have sex with her?”

“Maybe. That is how a lot of men think.”

“No Lavanya, I’m with her because I love her! I want to marry her, have kids with her! Don’t you see she’s the one that I’ve been waiting for all my life?”

“I’m sorry Arnav, you can say this, but it could just be words. And there’s no proof that you didn’t sleep with Pooja, so I can’t do anything. I’m sorry, it’s Khushi decision now. If after knowing all this she wants to get back with you, I will warn her, but I won’t stop her. If she doesn’t want to be with you, then I’m sorry, that’s it. As much as I want to believe you, you can’t remember anything, meaning you could have slept with Pooja, or you might not have. Pooja’s saying you did, so in a sense we have to believe that until we get proof saying otherwise.”

“I’ll get proof and then I’ll get Khushi back, no matter what happens, I’ll get her back!”

*****

Over the next couple of weeks later, Khushi had started coming to terms with what had happened and had made an active effort to avoid Arnav as much as possible. Though she had started attending lectures again, she made sure that she wouldn’t talk to Arnav. Even when he addressed her during the lectures, she wouldn’t look up and say anything more than the required answer. When he asked her to stay back, she would be the first to leave. Her heart hurt, she wanted him back, but she couldn’t risk it. She knew he was always asking about her to Lavanya, but she didn’t have the courage to talk to him. This continued for weeks and then one day, Buaji called.

“Ah Khushi, how are you my darling?”

“I’m fine buaji, how are you and aunty and uncle.”

“We’re all fine. Now Khushi listen to me carefully, you and Lavanya have to come home. Tomorrow! Something very important has come up and you need to be here as soon as possible.”

“What’s happened?”

“Oh well, I don’t want to discuss it over the phone. Now your train tickets are booked, and the university is aware that you both will be off. They will talk to your lecturers and get them to give you some work so you don’t fall behind.”

“But Buaji, what’s happening?”

“Oh Khushi I have to go, people are coming! Tell Lavanya to make sure she doesn’t leave anything behind, she always leaves something important!”

“Ok, but buaji…”

Before Khushi could finish buaji had put the phone down. She looked to Lavanya and told her about her conversation with buaji. Lavanya looked at Khushi confused, but said that she’d talk to Arnav so that he could give them their assignments and any notes that they would be missing out on. She left to go speak to him and Khushi decided to start packing her stuff. She opened her wardrobe and started taking things out and putting them into her suitcase. There was a knock at the door.

“Hey Khushi.”

“Oh, Sia, come in!”

“Hey what’s this La was saying that you guys are going home? I was just coming up and saw her on the stairs.”

“I’m not sure, buaji just called, said something important is happening and that she wants us as home.”

“When will you be back?”

“I’m not sure!”

“But that’s not fair, I’ll be alone! You know I can’t live without you and Lavanya anymore!”

“I know babe, but we’ll be back and I’ll call you every day and Tina is here, you won’t be alone!”

“I know, but I’ll miss you. Any way, I should go, you probably want to pack and I do actually have work to get done too.”

“Bye Sia, I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Take care babe.”

Khushi smiled and Sia left. She wasn’t that bad once you got to know her. You couldn’t blame her for being bitter sometimes, not with everything that’d happened in her life. Her father had had an affair when she was younger and left her and her mother alone. Everyone at school with her had teased her because she didn’t have a dad any more. She stopped believing that people could truly be nice. Everyone had been cruel to her, hence why she had too become hard. But after meeting Khushi and getting to know her, she realised that there were good people in the world. People who understood her pain, who wouldn’t tease her, remind her of what she didn’t have. She realised that these people were what you called true friends.

Khushi and Lavanya left in the evening, Arnav had tried to call, but Khushi wouldn’t answer her phone. They got home late that night and were received at the train station by Lavanya’s dad.

On the journey back to the house, the girls had continuously asked Shashi about what was happening, but he wouldn’t reply. The tension in the car was tangible and Khushi felt a million knots forming inside her. Something big was about to happen, she could just feel it.

They reached the house and were embraced by buaji. Getting into the house, buaji asked the girls to sit down so that she could tell them what was happening. Lavanya and Khushi sat down and looked nervously at buaji. Garima smiled, but it was evident that she too was quite nervous. Her tell-tale sign was how she played with the pallu of her sari, winding it round her finger and releasing it and then doing it all over again.

“Well, I know you’re both going to find this a bit shocking, but it was just too good a rishta we couldn’t turn it down… We have fixed Khushi engagement! It’s taking place on Sunday night!”

Wilted Heart ~ Part 2

After marriage, time flew by with days becoming weeks and weeks becoming months. Soon Arnav and Khushi were 5 months into their marriage and it still felt like the first month. Things had gone well. In the months after their marriage, they had found a comforting camaraderie.

Against their will, Di and Akash had organised Arnav and Khushi’s honeymoon and had sent them off to Bali for a week. Anjali had hoped it would help to bring the couple closer, to help them take the next steps of their relationship, but Arnav and Khushi maintained their distance throughout the trip. It had become more of an adventure where they explored Bali as opposed to a honeymoon. But they had enjoyed their time together and it had helped them to come closer together as friends.

As promised, upon their return from their honeymoon, Khushi slipped into the role of the perfect bahu as soon as she stepped back into the Raizada house, taking care of every single member.

More than anyone, she had formed a close bond with Nani, who’s health only deteriorated as time went on. But with the new daughter in law in the house, her spirits were high, making her feel a lot better than she actually was. Nani and Khushi would sit together for hours on end with Nani telling Khushi all about how Arnav had been as a child, what he was like as a teenager and what he was like now as an adult. Khushi found it amusing to learn about this side of the man she was sharing her life with. She had always found him to be a little distant, maybe even slightly reserved, but from what Nani was telling her, he was a much warmer person in reality, even if he was far more stubborn in reality than she had actually realised. Hearing all the stories about him made her pay closer attention to him and she had realised she had seem glimpses of the Arnav that Nani spoke of. It made her want to get to know him better, to get to know him more closely so she could really get to see this version of him. 

 

All members of the Raizada house were a fan of Khushi, especially her husband. When they had got married, Arnav knew that he liked Khushi and that she was special, but living under the same roof as her, sharing a room with her, and watching how she interacted with his family, he was in awe of how well she handled everything. He also found that he liked coming home and sitting with her every evening and making conversation about their day or discussing a television show together.

They may not have been having physical relations, but they felt like husband and wife in true essence. He found he depended on her for little things and she knew she could always speak to him about little things that may be bothering her. It was all working well for them.

For a while Khushi had been worried that maybe her affect on the family would start fading after she’d been here a while, but she was surprised to find how much of a hold she actually had on them all, especially Nani. A few weeks back when Nani’s medication had been changed and when Nani has been reluctant to comply with doctors orders, it was only Khushi would was able to coax Nani into taking the new medication and following the new exercise plan set out by the doctor.

As the months went by, Arnav simply watched from a distance how Khushi interacted with his family. Everything about her was perfect. The way she was able to make everyone see her way, the way she took care of everyone. He loved how she always knew how everyone was feeling even without them having to say anything and he also loved how she knew he was feeling. He had always thought he was someone quite hard to read, but it had only taken Khushi a few months before she was able to read him like a book. She knew when he had had a bad day and she was able to tell when he just wanted to sit on his own and work without anyone getting in his way. He really appreciated her. As time went on, he found himself growing more and more fond of her, he didn’t want to say it, but he felt as though perhaps he was falling in love with her. But he knew that he needed to keep his feelings at bay.

There hadn’t been many instances, but there had been a few times when he had seen her shed a tear or two over Manav’s photograph. There had been nights when she would awake, screaming his name, tears streaking her face. Arnav knew that Manav would always be a vital part of her life and he knew that he had to give her time and space so that she could process her loss and move on in her own time.

Sometimes it was more than evident that she missed Manav and if she could, she’d have him back in a heartbeat, but other times they felt so close, it felt as though she was somewhat prepared to to accept Arnav. It felt as though at some point, they would truly accept their marriage. But it still felt a distance away. But he would wait. Arnav had no issue with waiting. When he married Khushi he knew that her never accepting him was a possibility and he was prepared to wait.

It was all going well, everything was working out fine, everything was almost perfect…

*****

Until it wasn’t. A few days before Arnav and Khushi’s 6 month anniversary, Nani fell extremely ill. She had developed pneumonia and more than anything it was really affecting her breathing.

Though she was receiving specialist care and her medication had been carefully adjusted, it seemed her health was only further deteriorating. The doctors felt that her time was coming to an end.

The thought of losing his Nani was affecting Arnav more than anyone else in the house. They were all upset, but it was affecting Arnav the most. He couldn’t bare to think of his life without Nani. When he was alone in life, it was only Nani who had his back. If Nani left now, he would be left with no one.

One evening, after the doctor had completed his check up and had left, Arnav felt his legs give way and he had to sit down on the stairs. His life was crashing down around him, they were losing Nani. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t keep his tears at bay and they cascaded down his face. He felt as though he was drowning, there was no other way to describe what he was feeling. It was overwhelming and soul consuming and the weight of it all was threatening to crush him.

As he sat there on the stairs, his hands over his face, he couldn’t tell when Khushi had come and sat down beside him, her hand on his thigh.

“Arnav…”

He looked up and then down at her hand before sliding it off his leg.

“I want to be alone.”

“That’s what you want but it’s not what you need.”

She put her hand back on his leg and shuffled closer to him.

“I know this is a shitty time, but this isn’t the end of the road. Arnav, we’ve been here before, not this exact place but Nani has been ill before and she’s recovered and I have faith she’ll recover this time too. But if you become weak like this…”

“I can’t do it Khushi, I can’t put on a face and act like I think everything’s going to be alright when we know it’s not. She might recover from the pneumonia, but it’s going to take it out of her and I can’t… I can’t…”

He felt the last of his resolve crumbling. But he didn’t want to break down in front of Khushi. It didn’t take Khushi long to realise what was going through his mind. She could tell he was battling with himself.

“Hey, talk to me. Don’t shut me out.”

“I’m not I just…”

“You are. Arnav speak to me. I promise you’ll feel better if we talk through this.”

“I just… I can’t lose her.”

Giving his leg a squeeze, she shuffled closer to him, her shoulder against his.

“You won’t lose her. She’s still got a lot of fight in her. She will overcome this, I’m telling you now.”

“She might overcome this now but at some point… If Nani leaves me, I’m all alone, I don’t have anyone else. Everyone else has their partner and I…”

Finally his biggest fear was out there and Khushi felt so overwhelmed that he had vocalised it to her. She also felt slightly guilty that he would feel alone despite her being there. She was his partner but he still feared he would be alone if Nani left. 

Reaching out, she took his face in her hands and turned him to face her.

“You will never be alone, you’ll always have me. I’m here with you, always. And I’m not going anywhere. I promise you. I’ll always be right here beside you.”

He looked into her eyes as she slowly took her hands off his face. Her eyes were red, she’d cried too.

“Promise me you’ll never leave me?”

“I promise.”

Khushi backed away slightly, getting ready to get to her feet, when Arnav took hold of her wrist and brought her close to himself.

“You’ll never leave me?”

“Never.”

He felt tears roll down his cheeks, he hadn’t even realised how emotional her words had made him, but they had.

“I need you in my life so god damn much.”

“I know you do, and I’m here for you, forever and always.”

Feeling an overwhelming surge of emotion, Arnav took Khushi into his arms and hugged her tightly. The tears fell onto her back as she stroked his back, holding him close to herself.

“Shh… It’s okay, everything’s going to be okay, I’ve got you.”

Arnav was unsure how long the moment lasted, but as he moved back slightly, he realised he didn’t want to move away from her. He wanted to keep her close.

He moved back in towards her again, taking her wrist once more and bring her closer to himself. He kept bringing her closer to himself, their noses now touching.

One hand still on her wrist, the other found it’s way to her cheek. Arnav was vaguely aware of what he was doing and what was going through his head as he shifted closer to her. He knew he should’ve given her a moment to process what was happening but he went for it regardless.

Moving right in, Arnav closed the gap between them, taking her lips between his own. He realised how she had parted her lips to accommodate him and how her hands slowly found their way to his cheeks.

Arnav moved back, and he watched as Khushi’s eyes fluttered open.

“I… I’m sorry, I should’ve… I just really wanted to…”

He couldn’t finish what he was saying because she moved back in, one hand on his thigh the other on his cheek as she kissed him again. While their first kiss had been soft and tentative, there was a lot more confidence in this kiss. Arnav wrapped his arms around Khushi and pulled her even closer, her chest she pressed flush against his own. He felt her hands explore him a little as they dropped from his face to his neck to his chest.

It felt wrong, that they were making out while Nani was so ill, but at the same time it felt so right. They were finally taking that next step.

When they finally broke apart, Khushi looked down, a shy smiling playing on her lips. Taking her hands into his his own, Arnav kissed her hands before cupping her face once more.

“I want you to know there’s no rush for anything, we can take our time.”

“I know, right now Nani’s health is our main focus.”

“But…”

“But what?”

“It just felt like there was a but coming.”

Khushi smiled and took one of Arnav’s hands into her own.

“You’ve grown time know me so well. I was going to say nanis health is our main focus but I would like to explore our relationship more too. I feel ready…”

She smiled and gave his hand a squeeze. She didn’t need to finish what she was saying, he understood what she meant. They were finally ready to make a real go at their relationship.

He’s Amazing ~ Part 14 {Reloaded}

“So, now the Raizada family know, I know and Sia knows about you and Arnav. Do you know how messed up that is!”

 

Khushi put her feet up and crossed her legs as she watched Lavanya react to the news that she was breaking. While Khushi was relatively calm, Lavanya was panicked.

 

“I know! But I trust her; I don’t think she’ll say anything. She has a major crush on Arnav so I can’t imagine her going against his wishes and telling anyone.”

“You have far too much faith in people.”

“I know, but I honestly do have a good feeling about Sia.”

 

Lavanya sat down and took out her book and started to finish her work. Just as Khushi begin to settle down, her phone began and ring. Assuming it was Arnav, Khushi answered the call without checking the caller ID.

 

“Hey, I was waiting for your call!”

“Oh wow, I didn’t think you would be so excited to hear from me. Hi Khushi, it’s Nikhil.”

 

Khushi felt herself go cold as she realised she wasn’t on the phone to Arnav but on the phone to her ex. Composing herself, she carried on with the conversation.

 

“Oh, hi! How… Why are you calling me all of a sudden?”

“I know you probably don’t want to talk to me, but Khushi this is important, can you come and see me in the main lounge.”

“Nikhil, I don’t think…”

“Please Khushi.”

 

Conflicted, Khushi couldn’t decide what she should do. On one hand she really didn’t feel there was anything left between her and Nikhil and meeting him was pointless, but at the same time she was curious as to why he was reaching out to her now after so long. Sighing, she replied.

 

“Ok. Give me 5 minutes, I’ll be there.”

 

Khushi was met with a stern looking Lavanya when she disconnected the call and she knew La was about to go in on her.

 

“Don’t go Khushi! There is no reason why you should meet him. He was a jerk and you’ve moved on. There is nothing left between the two of you. Don’t go and see him.”

“Lavanya, just because he’s my ex doesn’t mean that I have to keep avoiding him. And like you said, there is nothing left between us, so I don’t think he can say or do anything to affect me.”

“I know, but… I don’t want to see you get hurt and I don’t trust Nikhil even slightly.”

“Lavanya, I appreciate your concern and I love you so much for being so protective of me, but I promise, don’t really care about that anymore. I’m happy with Arnav. Nothing Nikhil can say or do with affect me.”

 

Khushi watched as La’s expression softened slightly and she sighed.

 

“Fine, but I’m coming with you.”

“Lavanya I promise I’ll be fine, you don’t have to come.”

 

Grudgingly, Lavanya accepted. Khushi checked herself in the mirror and then walked out, trying to work out why exactly Nikhil wanted to see her after so long. Since the last time she had spoken to him, they had seen each other around a few times but neither had stopped to talk to the other. While it wasn’t really awkward any more, neither of them had felt the need to speak to one another, there really wasn’t anything left to say.

Lavanya looked at Khushi leaving quickly picked up her phone and dialled.

Khushi slowly made her way down to the main lounge, still trying to work out what Nikhil wanted. Reaching the lounge, she saw that Nikhil was already there. When he realised that she had arrived, he smiled and walked over to her.

 

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“Thanks for coming.”

“It’s fine.”

 

There was a brief awkward pause as Nikhil tried to work out what he wanted to say and how he wanted to start. Clearing his throat, he began speaking.

 

“Khushi I know things have been crazy between us and I really regret how things went down, and I just want to apologise again. I truly am sorry and I know I was an idiot. And I know you’re with someone else, I hope he’s the perfect boyfriend that you’ve always wanted and I hope that he treats you right. Because you’re an amazing woman Khushi and you deserve the best and nothing less.”

 

Touched by his kind words, Khushi smiled.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Any way, I called you here today because I wanted to tell you something, and I wanted you to be the first to know about it. Khushi I’m leaving for America tomorrow.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Remember my brother want to America and when he got his citizenship, he applied for my entry. Well it’s been approved and I leave tomorrow.”

“Oh my god! That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you!”

“Thank you Khushi.”

 

Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a box and handed it to Khushi.

 

“Here this is for you. Take it as a parting gift and to say sorry for everything that happened. I really do regret it. I hope we can still be friends even after I leave.”

 

Opening the box, Khushi looked at the dainty bracelet that sat at the bottom.

 

“Oh, Nikhil this is beautiful. Thank you so much. And yes, I think we can be friends. I was mad at you before, and I was really hurt, but in the last few months I have come to terms with what has happened and I just realised that what was meant to be, happened. I have no hard feelings. I believe in fate and I truly think that there is someone out there for you who was made just for you. And I hope you find her while you are away on your adventures.”

“Thank you Khushi.”

 

There was a short, fleeting, awkward hug between them as they said goodbye to each other and then Khushi left to make her way back to her room. Upon opening the door, she found Lavanya anxiously pacing their bedroom. Khushi explained to La why Nikhil had called her, what he had to say and showed La the bracelet that Nikhil had gifted her. Before Lavanya could actually react, there was a knock on the door. Khushi looked to La confused, they weren’t expecting anyone today. Lavanya looked at Khushi sheepishly as she opened the door and Arnav rushed in.

 

“Arnav! What on earth are you doing here? Someone might have seen you what…”

“Lavanya told me your ex called to meet you. Did he say anything to hurt you? Are you ok?”

 

Khushi threw La an angry look and Lavanya retreated into the bathroom.

 

“Arnav, I’m fine. He just wanted to meet me before he left for America. That’s all. He just wanted to say goodbye and make sure there was no hard feelings between us.”

“Oh.”

 

Looking down at his feet, Arnav realised that he may have overreacted slightly, but he let the feelings slide away. He had every right to react the way he did. She was his woman and he had a right to make sure that no other loser was hurting her feelings. Looking up once more, he lopped his arms around Khushi and pulled her close to himself.

 

“Well seeing as I’m here, you might as well give me a kiss before I go.”

 

Khushi blushed, looked towards the bathroom and pressed her finger to his lip. She moved towards Arnav and placed a small peck on his lips and then quickly moved away again. She didn’t want to let things escalate while Lavanya was in the same room. Pulling her close to himself, Arnav lowered his voice as he spoke to Khushi.

 

“Khushi, I think we should book into a hotel tomorrow night, or maybe you can just come round to mine… I’m craving you so badly, it almost hurts Khushi. I just need be alone with you again, so I can cherish you.”

“Arnav, as much as I want to, you know we can’t.”

“I know Khushi and I understand you fully. I’m prepared to wait babe. But I’m not talking about sex. You can just come over and we can spend some time together, just watch a movie and maybe make out a little.”

 

Khushi blushed and nodded. Kissing Khushi on the cheek, he told her he would call her later and would see here tomorrow. He then left.

 

*****

 

As time passed Arnav and Khushi’s love grew. They had stuck to what they had decided and they hadn’t made love to each other again since that first time. They had been tempted many times, yet broke away. Even when things got really heated, they maintained their self control and pulled away. This made Arnav’s love grow for Khushi because he respected her decision so much. Khushi’s love grew for Arnav because despite the fact that he didn’t necessarily see things the same way she did, he still always controlled himself and pulled away when he knew he was getting too carried away. There was a specific instance where they had both gotten all the way down to their underwear and Khushi had lost herself in the moment, yet Arnav pulled away.

There were many times a week when Arnav had to go and have a cold shower, but he didn’t complain, nor did he make her feel bad about making him wait. She couldn’t help but love and respect him so much more now.

 

Time passed and things were going perfectly until…

 

***** 

 

“Pooja?”

 

Arnav opened the door to reveal his old friend. He had been expecting it to be Khushi when he had heard the door, but was surprised to find Pooja. 

 

“Hey Arnav!”

“What are you doing here? You didn’t say anything about coming up to see me.”

“Are you going to invite me in or what?”

 

Arnav moved aside and Pooja walked into his little apartment, shutting the door behind herself. 

 

“Aren’t you please to see me?”

“Of course I am, it’s just you’ve never really come to visit me like this before. Any way, doesn’t matter, you’re here now.”

 

Arnav led Pooja into his house and she looked around amazed.

 

“I love what you’ve done to this place, it’s so homely.”

“Why thank you. I’ve been trying my best and Khushi has been helping out too. She loves to find little nicnacs.”

 

Pooja’s eyes fell on a picture of Arnav and Khushi as she sat down on the sofa.

 

“How’s Khushi doing anyway?”

“She’s fine.”

“That’s nice. Isn’t she around at the moment?”

“No, she left about 20 minutes ago.”

“Oh, what a shame, I was hoping to meet her again.”

“I can call her if you want.”

“No it’s fine, its late and we shouldn’t bother her. She’s probably got some work to do. Any way, it would be nice to spend time with you, we haven’t spoken properly in months.”

“That sounds like a nice idea. Hey Pooja, excuse me a second, I need the bathroom. Pour yourself a drink and help yourself to eat anything.”

“I will, don’t worry, you go.”

 

When Arnav left, Pooja poured herself some orange juice and then poured some for Arnav as well. Putting his glass on the side, she took a seat on the sofa again and waited for him to come back. As he re-emerged from the bathroom and came to sit down beside her, she handed him the glass of juice.

 

“Here I got you a drink.”

“Thanks…”

 

Taking a sip, Arnav smiled as they both settled down on the sofa and eased themselves into a conversation… 

 

*****

 

“Khushi! You’ve got a call!”

“What?”

 

It was the next morning and Lavanya was mad at Khushi for having her phone on so early. Both girls had been sleeping until Khushi’s phone began to ring. By the time she answered, the call got cut. Looking at the caller display, she realised that Arnav had called.

Rolling over, she looked at the clock. It was only half 9. Arnav never called at half 9 on a Sunday because it was was his day to sleep in. Calling him back, she waited for him to answer the call, but it went to voicemail. Khushi got up and got dressed. She was under the impression that Arnav had probably gone to the bathroom.

Once dressed, she left the dormitory and made her way down to Arnav’s house. She knocked on the door but there was no answer. She tried the handle and found the door was unlocked. This wasn’t normal, Arnav always locked his door. She stepped into the house and called his name. There was no reply. She heard quiet sobbing coming from the room and walked in. 

The sight before her shocked her to the core. Arnav was still sleeping in bed, but Pooja was on the sofa, half naked, crying. Khushi looked around the room, trying to decipher what had happened here. Arnav’s clothes that he was wearing when she saw him last night were scattered on the floor and he was topless from what she could see. She turned her attention to Pooja who was stilling sitting on the sofa, curled up in a ball, sobbing. Khushi took her in, trying to work out what happened here. She noticed that Pooja was dressed in a haphazard way. Her dress was half on her. The shoulders of the dress were halfway down her arms and the zip was completely undone. Looking around the room some more, Khushi spotted a pair of panties on the floor by the foot of Arnav’s side of the bed. There was a bra tossed on the floor too. Khushi walked over to it and had a good look at it and it just confirmed what she already knew. It wasn’t her bra, she’d never seen it before. It was Pooja’s. Turning her attention to Pooja, Khushi tried to keep herself together as asked what actually happened here.

 

“What-what happened?”

“Khushi, I’m so sorry.”

“Pooja, tell me, what happened.”

“I’m so sorry Khushi, I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen!”

 

Khushi felt her patience slipping away and she could tell she was starting to panic. 

 

“Just shut the hell up and tell me!”

“Khushi, I… We… Arnav and I… We spent the night together!”

 

Khushi looked at Pooja with a blank face, not understanding fully what she was saying. Or maybe she was understanding but she just didn’t want to accept it. Pooja felt like she needed to say something but she didn’t know what to say or what to do. 

 

“I’m so sorry, I know you probably want to kill me, but I swear, one thing led to another and by the time we realised what had happened, we’d have had sex! It wasn’t my intention, I didn’t want it to happen… It just did.. I don’t even know what to say.”

 

That’s when Khushi snapped. Her boyfriend had slept with another girl behind her back! Tears poured down. She rushed over to Arnav and pulled the cover away from him and shook him awake.

 

“Hey… What the hell? Hey, hey!”

 

Opening his eyes and focusing on Khushi, he realised that something was very wrong here but he didn’t understand what was actually happening. Sitting up, he tried to pull Khushi onto his lap but she resisted.

 

“Khushi calm down! What’s wrong?”

 

When she didn’t respond, he tried to make light of the situation in the hope that that might cause her to tell him what happened.

 

“A man’s trying to sleep. If you wanted to wake me up, all you had to do was kiss me!”

“You ba***rd!”

 

Arnav realised that something was very wrong here but he couldn’t work out what was happening.

 

“Hey, no need to be so rude first thing in the morning. Babe, what’s the matter? Speak to me.”

“Why did you do it? I thought you cared about me!”

“Khushi what are you talking about? Of course I care about you. Baby you know I love you!”

“If you love me so much, why did you sleep with Pooja?”

 

He felt as though he had been slapped, what was she talking about. 

 

“WHAT? Are you crazy, I didn’t sleep with Pooja!”

“Arnav I’ve already told her.”

“Pooja, what the hell are you saying? We didn’t do anything last night!”

“Arnav, you don’t remember because you had too much to drink.”

“I remember coming from the bathroom and then you handed me and drink. I remember drinking it and us sitting and speaking for a while but after that I can’t remember what happened!”

 

During all this Khushi was crying. She was becoming more and more hysterical. 

 

“We’re finished Arnav!”

“No! Khushi please believe me! Nothing happened last night!”

Arnav continued to plead, yet Khushi wouldn’t listen. He got out of bed and tried to reach out to her but she moved away from him faster than he could get to her. She grabbed her stuff and left, slamming the door behind her. Arnav watched her go, unable to go after her because he wasn’t dressed yet. He looked at the door, unable to comprehend what had actually just happened. More than that, he couldn’t work out what had happened at all. Why was Pooja saying that they had slept together when he knew for a fact that that nothing of such had happened. It couldn’t have. He was sure of it… 

He looked over to Pooja who was sit sat on the sofa and everything he thought he was sure about suddenly became clouded. Had he and Pooja actually… Surely not… But what if they had? What would he do if it was true? How would he explain it to Khushi? What was he meant to do? 

Wilted Heart ~ Interlude I

Arnav’s POV

I looked over at her and watched her as she looked out of the window, watching the city pass us by. For the first time all day, she finally looked at ease. 

Dragging my eyes away from her, I focused on the road. We’d been on five dates now and it finally felt as though we were getting somewhere. After our initial meeting, I had assumed that when we went out, Khushi would be quite comfortable with me and that conversation would flow easily. But I found that despite us texting regularly and calling each other from time to time, every time we actually met to go out, it was almost as though I was meeting her for the first time again. She was timid, sometimes distant and often enough quite absent minded. And the car rides home were almost always ghostly silent. 

When with Khushi, I also realised that I couldn’t take the main road in and out of the city as that’s where her and her husband had had their accident. 

Her husband… It felt so strange to think of him like that considering soon I was going to be her husband, but somehow referring to him as her ex didn’t feel right either. Because he wasn’t her ex, they hadn’t broke up and so it felt to refer to their parting as such. 

I shook my head and put my entire mind back onto the road. She had insisted that though she wasn’t ready to fully move on, she didn’t want me to think about Manav or let him impact our relationship. She said that she was willing to give us a fair shot, and I knew that if I let myself get wound up about her past, I wouldn’t be doing her justice. 

“Arnav…”

Her calling my name brought me out of my thoughts. 

“Yes?”

“Could we stop at Starbucks. I feel like a chai.”

“Yeah, sure.”

For our date today, I had decided to take her to the aquarium. When she had told me she’d never been, I knew that’s somewhere I wanted to take her and I was glad I did. Though conversation about life was minimal, we spoke about the fish that we saw, and I loved the look in her eyes when she saw brightly coloured, exotic fish. 

She’d let me hold her hand as we walked along the underwater tunnel, watching the larger fish swim over her heads. At one point she clutched onto me as a fish that looked suspiciously like a shark swam over us. She moved away again quite quickly, but her hand stayed locked in mine. And though I’m ashamed to admit it, the feel of her hand in mine, her holding me so tightly, it did something to me. I knew I had to keep hold of my feelings, we were just friends, barely even friends still, but I couldn’t let my feelings for her get too intense or romantic, because it could just throw a spanner in the works and I knew that the best way to get through to her, was to just respect her space and be her friend. 

After our date with the fishes, we had had a bite to eat at the restaurant in the aquarium, and while the decor was lovely, it was unfortunate that the food wasn’t as good. 

As we pulled up to the Starbucks, I turned to her. 

“Drive thru or eat in?”

“Drive thru please, but then can we find somewhere nice to park up?”

“Yeah we can do that.”

She smiled before turning away and I pulled into Starbucks. Getting to the window I placed our order and then drove round to the next window. 

“I love how you already know my go to order.”

I chuckled before opening up my Starbucks app, ready to pay for our drinks. We’d been to Starbucks a few times and she always ordered the same thing. 

“I just remember from last time, and because she said that was your go to order.”

“But it’s quite specific so the fact that you remember it perfectly is impressive.”

Before I could respond, the guy handed us our drinks and before I could show the guy my app, Khushi leaned over me and got her app scanned instead. 

“Thank you ma’am, have a nice day.”

I was slightly thrown. She had argued with me last time when I had insisted on paying, so I had assumed she’d just let me pay without any arguments this time because she hadn’t said anything. But more than that, the feel over her body across mine, was sending me off slightly. But she moved away as quickly as she had moved into me and sat back in her seat, looking quite smug with herself. 

Handing her the cups, I put the car into gear and we drove off before parking up on a high hill. 

As I cut the engine, she handed me my drink. 

“So, what on earth was that back there miss?”

“What was what?”

She looked smug, a twinkle in her eye. 

“You forgot what I told you the first time we went out, when you’re with me, I pay.”

“I know, I know, and that’s why I don’t argue when we go out for meals or when we go places, but at least let me pay for our Starbucks.” 

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know I don’t. But like how you don’t have to pay for everything when we go out but you do, the same way I can pay if I want to.”

“Well thank you anyway.”

“You’re welcome.”

I could’ve argued the matter further, reassured her that I didn’t mind footing the entire bills when we went out, but if her paying for our Starbucks order made her happy and was something she genuinely wanted to do, then I wasn’t going to stop her. I think more than anything, she just wanted to play a more active part in our equation, and I wasn’t going to take that away from her. 

I watched as she sipped on her chai. She leaned back in her seat, smiling to herself. She brought her hand to my knee as she turned to me. 

“I know sometimes I seem a bit distant when we go out, but I really enjoyed myself today.” 

“I’m glad you did. And you don’t have to worry about being distant, you’re still really good company.”

She smiled and then suddenly because aware of the fact that her hand was still resting on my knee. She pulled her hand away and instantly I missed it. She turned her attention back to the front of the car and looked out of the window as she sipped on her chai. She looked at the sky and then at her watch and gasped. 

“Arnav it’s almost sunset! Can we go outside and watch the sunset?”

She was right, the sky was starting to change colour and by the looks of it, it seemed we were going to get a colourful sunset this evening. Nodding, I opened my door and got out of the car and she did the same. Grabbing a tissue, I came round to the front of the car and wiped down the bonnet. 

“Do you want to sit down?”

She looked at me, her head tilted to the side slightly. 

“Okay.”

I watched as she tried to get on herself, but my car was quite high and she couldn’t quite get on. 

“May I help you up?”

She paused for a moment, and I thought she was going to say no, but she nodded slightly and then with a small voice replied, 

“Yes please.”

Handing my coffee to her, I held her by the waist and gently lifted her onto the bonnet. She scooted back slightly and then I sat down beside her. My car was big, but the bonnet didn’t have all that space for the both of us to sit far away from one another, so my leg rested against herself. At first, I could feel her leg slightly tense, but then, as she handed my coffee back to me, I felt her ease up. 

We watched the sky and drank in silence, but it was a calming silence. 

“I’m so glad we stopped, I feel like it’s going to be a pinky-purple sunset tonight.”  

I turned to look at her, and there she was, sat beside me, staring up at the colour changing sky. Though the sky looked beautiful, Khushi looking up with her eyes wide, taking it all in, with the dimming lights casting a shadow over her face, was just so much more beautiful to me. Her face glowed like the moon and in that moment, I became extremely aware of how lucky I was to be in her presence in that moment. 

She was honestly breathtaking. 

As the sky continued to change colours, we sat and watched in silence before she turned to me and put her hand on mine. 

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For letting me watch the sunset.”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

“Manav never…”

She stopped and quickly took her hand off of mine. Other than the first time we met, we hadn’t spoken about Manav and her past very much. It was a topic she was trying keep separate from us and I respected that. She knew that I knew everything that was important to know, and that I knew what our deal was. 

I put my hand on hers, and gently turned her face towards me. 

“Hey… I know it’s weird and a bit awkward, but I want you to know that you can talk to me about Manav. Like I said I know it’s weird, but I know that’s a part of your life, and that he will always be important to you. I know that and respect that. So if he comes up in conversation or you just want to tell me something about him, you can. I’m willing to listen. When I said I was interested in you and that I wanted to marry you, I accepted everything about you, past and all.”

She paused for a moment and I could tell she was taking in everything that I had just said. 

“Thank you, for just being so supportive and understanding all the time. I can’t even tell you how much it means to me.”

I gave her had a squeeze and smiled at her. She was silent for a moment before turning back to me. 

“I’ve always loved watching the sunrise and the sunset, but Manav, he just found it pointless. For example, if we were driving along and the sun was setting and if I asked him if we could stop to watch, he’d dismiss it. His reply was always ‘the sun rises and sets everyday, why waste your time watching it.’”

I couldn’t help but feel Manav had a point. If I hadn’t been with Khushi right now, I’d have never thought to stop to watch the sunset. 

The remainder of the time, we spent in silence. When the sun had finally set, Khushi was ready to jump off the bonnet and get back into the car, but I stopped her. 

“Just wait here one second, I want to do something.”

She was confused, but she stayed put. I rushed round to the passenger side of the car and opened up the glovebox and took out what I was looking for. Looking at the item in my hand, I couldn’t decide if this was the right time for this or not, but I thought to just go for it. Camping back to Khushi, I helped her off the bonnet and then dropped to one knee. She gasped when she realised what I was doing.

“Khushi Kumari Gupta, I have no idea if my timing is right or not, but I’ve had this ring with me all the time since our third date. Getting to know you, it’s just further reiterated the fact that I want to be with you. I know our situation is a little strange and there’s going to be a lot of adjusting and cooperating from the both of us, but I really want this to work between us. In the instance of arrange marriages, a lot of the time there isn’t a chance like this for the guy to present his lady with a ring on one knee, but from the moment I realised that I wanted to be with you, I knew I wanted to do this. So…”

I opened up the ring box and she gasped once more taking the ring in. It was a bespoke, custom designed ring that I had made just for her. 

“Khushi, will you do me the honour of accepting my ring and accepting my hand in marriage? Will you marry me Khushi?”

Tears streamed down her face and I was suddenly feeling anxious that maybe I had done something wrong, maybe the timing wasn’t right. But with tears still flowing, she smiled and nodded her head. 

“I will… I will marry you Arnav.”

I let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding and slipped the ring onto her finger. A perfect fit. 

“Arnav it’s so beautiful I… I love it so much, thank you.”

I kissed the ring on her finger as she helped me up. She gave me a fleeting hug before pulling away just as quickly. 

“I’m glad you like it and that it fits.” 

My hand on her lower back, I led her to the passenger side of the car and opened the door for her. Once she was in, I went round to my side and got in too. For the rest of the journey, we didn’t speak much, but I kept a close eye on Khushi. She was playing with the ring on her finger, a small, shy smile on her lips. 

When we finally pulled up to her front door, she unbuckled her seat belt and then turned to me. 

“Thank you for today, I had a lot of fun.”

“I did too. Thank you for allowing me to take you out again.”

“Will you call me later?”

Her voice was slightly lower when she said this, and even in the semi darkness I could see her cheeks turning rosy. 

“Yes I’ll call you later tonight.”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Well I guess, I have to get going now. Bye Arnav.”

She turned away and got out of the car and j watched her as she made her way to the door and went into the house. She gave me a small wave before going inside. I should’ve got going at that point myself, but I couldn’t bring myself to drive away. Driving away would mean leaving her here again and all I wanted to do was take her home with me. But alas the time for that hadn’t come yet. 

Putting the car into gear, I made my way home, the thought of the day when she’d finally go home with me keeping me hopeful. 

He’s Amazing ~ Part 13 {Reloaded}

 

After breakfast, Khushi and Lavanya left. They hugged Payal and Anjali and then bid goodbye to NK, Akaash and Shyam. Khushi smiled shyly at Arnav, who in return pulled her into his arms and kissed her lightly on the lips.

 

“Will I see you before we go back to uni?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll have time. I mean we have less than a week to go and La and I haven’t even had time to go shopping yet.”

“Well even if we cant see each other, I shall be calling you every evening.”

“I’m fine with that.”

“Bye babe.”

 

*****

 

On the way back to their house, Khushi broke the news to Lavanya that she and Arnav had slept together. To Khushi’s surprise, La did not take the news well.

 

“What the hell Khushi! What were you thinking?”

“Lavanya I told you. I couldn’t say no! The way he asked me, the way things happened I didn’t want him to feel bad. But it’s not just that, I wanted it too.”

“I know what you mean, but Khushi didn’t you think about your future. Just imagine if you and Arnav don’t get married, you get married to someone else, what will he think of you if he realises you’ve slept with someone before!”

“I know Lavanya, but…”

“But what? What will you say? What will they think of mom and dad? The guy will think that mom and dad were completely useless parents, hence why you were able to go and sleep with someone!”

“Lavanya, you’re acting like you’re someone from the last century! This is normal. Whoever I marry will probably have slept with someone at some point as well. You’re making it sound like people never have sex outside of marriage.”

“That’s not the point! What if you get pregnant with Arnav’s kid now?”

“That won’t happen! We used protection!”

“They do rip sometimes! And knowing the way you two are, you wouldn’t have even realised!”

“Lavanya, stop it now! You’re being ridiculous and quite mean! You’re my best friend; you shouldn’t be like this with me. You should be happy for me!”

“If I was just you’re friend then yeah, I would have been happy, but I’m your sister as well. I’m thinking about your future before everything else.”

“I know you mean well. But don’t worry, nothing bad will happen. Arnav’s promised me we will get married!”

“I hope you do…”

 

Lavanya remained silent for the rest of the journey and Khushi sighed and let herself relive everything that had happened the night before.

When they reached home, they were greeted by Garima at the door.

 

“My babies are back. How was your party, did you enjoy yourselves?”

 

Lavanya nodded and then excused herself.

 

“Amma, I’m not feeling too good, I’m going back to bed.”

“Same, aunty, I’m tired as well.”

“Goodness, you sleep all night but you’re both still tired. Fine go on. Go back to bed.”

 

When in their room, Lavanya closed the door and sat down on the bed. Her mood had changed a lot since the journey. Khushi just assumed that now that Lavanya had time to process the information, she was more understanding of her.

 

“Now tell me everything! How was it? How did it feel?”

“I was… It was something out of a fairy-tale.”

“Did it hurt?”

“It did to start with, and actually the pain did last a while and I was aching this morning too, but the pleasure of it was just mind blowing.”

“God, I hope mom and dad find me a decent guy soon. I want to get married now, just so that I can experience all of this.”

 

Khushi yawned and lay on the bed.

 

“God, you really are tired aren’t you! I just said that so we could get some privacy so I could talk to you about all this, but you genuinely are tired.”

“We didn’t get to sleep until well after 4. Any way, Lavanya, can we go shopping tomorrow. I need to buy some new dresses.”

“Sure. But let me sleep now too. I am actually quite tired too. We were all up until about 3 just talking. You know the Raizada’s are really lovely people. They will be awesome in-laws for you.”

“I know. It’s like I’ve known them forever. I just hope that nani ji, mamaji and mamiji like me too. And then there’s aunty and uncle. I won’t marry unless they approve!”

“You know, NK’s really sweet as well. Every time I turned to speak to someone else, he would start conversation with me again.”

“Arnav was right! He does have a crush on you!”

“I don’t know about that, but he is really nice and I wouldn’t mind getting to know him better.”

 

Both fell silent and just let their minds relax. After a few moments of silence, Lavanya had a thought and she felt she had to speak about it with Khushi.

 

“Khushi, what about your brother?”

 

Khushi jumped up at the mention of her brother. The question had startled her. They hadn’t talked about her brother in years!

 

“What about him?”

“What if he doesn’t approve of your relationship with Arnav?”

“How would he find out? And even if he does, it doesn’t even matter what he thinks. He’s never cared, so why should I care about what he thinks.”

“Khushi, he does care. If he didn’t, why would he keep in touch with mom and dad, finding out about you, sending you money?”

“I don’t know Lavanya. But all I know is, is that he doesn’t love me. If he did, he would have got in touch with me personally. I understand he keeps in touch with uncle and aunty, but he left me when I needed him the most, I’ll never forgive him for that! He left me all on my own. And he knew where I was, if he cared, he could have come to see me. But he didn’t.”

“But he’s still your brother. He matters Khushi!”

“Lavanya, please I don’t want to talk about this!”

“Fine we wont talk about it, but the truth is, you can’t avoid your brother forever Khushi. He will return one day and you will have to face him.”

“Let him come, he won’t see my face!”

 

Sensing that this was a futile discussion, Lavanya dropped the topic.

 

“Just one thing Khushi, when you and Arnav do get married, make sure you keep your volume down.”

“Meaning?”

“I could hear you; I was staying in the next room. And I could hear you moaning and screaming!”

“What! Seriously? If you could hear us, why were you so surprised when I told you that we had slept together?”

“I just thought you guys were making out and doing other stuff, I didn’t think you had actually had sex.”

“Oh god, that’s so embarrassing! What was I saying?”

“You were saying his name over and over again.”

 

Khushi looked away and blushed.

 

“I’m so happy for you babes. I hope you always remain this happy.”

 

Both turned away from each other and let their eyes shut as they peacefully fell asleep for another few hours. La and Khushi were at peace, but their peace was not to last…

 

*****

 

Khushi and Lavanya returned to university a week later. After dumping her bags in her room, Khushi went straight over to Arnav’s. She knocked on the door, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for Arnav to open the door. The moment he opened the door, she flew into his house and into his arms.

 

“Well hey there, I didn’t realise you would miss me that much in such a short amount of time.”

“I missed you so much, you don’t even understand.”

 

Arnav hugged her tightly and smiled at the fact that she had missed him so intensely. Breaking the hug, he took her lips in a hungry kiss. After an eternity they pulled away.

 

“I’ve missed your taste so much! That sounds so strange when I say it out loud but it’s the truth.”

“Same here. I missed yours too.”

 

Breaking apart, Arnav gestured Khushi to sit down on the sofa and he sat down beside her.

 

“So, have you finished your assignment?”

“Which one?”

“I only set one over the break, the one that’s due tomorrow.”

“Oh shit! I totally forgot!”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to do it.”

“No Arnav, I have to do it. Just because I’m your girlfriend doesn’t make me any different to anyone else in the class. I’m still your student and I need to do my assignments if I want to graduate this year.”

 

With that, Khushi jumped to her feet, placed a quick kiss on Arnav’s cheek and rushed out. After watched her rush off, and he couldn’t help but feel amused by her all over again.

 

*****

 

“Welcome back everyone. I hope you have all had the time to unwind and relax a little, but I also hope that you all remembered to complete completed my assignment.”

 

There was a shuffle as students took their laptops out or to get their notebooks out. Most of the members either pulled up their documents ready to forward onto Arnav or had the hard copy ready to hand to him.

One member of the class however, raised her hand and instantly Arnav knew what was coming.

 

“Sir, I haven’t done it!”

“Miss Mishra, welcome back. I must say I really had hoped that you would have the work done, but I’m not at all surprised.”

“You really expect too much from me. Like you said, it was time for us to relax and unwind and that is what I did, you assignment simply did not find into that agenda.”

 

Members of the class looked to each other, flabbergasted at the way Sia was able to speak to Arnav.

 

“Ah, well yes, you do have a point. I completely understand. But you’re back now and it’s time to get back to reality and I want my work done. So seeing as you have failed to complete my work, you shall have to add an extra 2000 words to your assignment and I want it on my desk first thing tomorrow morning.”

 

Sia grumbled and then looked away muttering to Tina.

“He might be good looking but he’s a right ba***rd.”

 

Khushi looked at Sia and threw her a dirty look, but didn’t say anything. Inside, she was seething though. How dare she call Arnav such a thing? She turned away and continued to listen to what Arnav was saying. And just like that, his voice was enough to calm her down completely. Was it possible just to be turned on by his voice? To find so much peace in his voice even when he wasn’t speaking to her? It was the strangest thing but she liked the feeling.

The lesson ended and Khushi watched as everyone else left the room. Arnav looked at her and smiled and closed the door.

 

“My baby stayed back for me?”

“Of course I would.”

 

Khushi got out of her seat and sat on Arnav’s desk. He moved towards her and closed the distance between them. He positioned himself between her legs and moved in to kiss her. The kiss started light like every other time and gradually he hunger between them grew like a fire.

When they finally moved apart from one another, Khushi gave him a playful smile as she played with his tie.

 

“My man doesn’t want me today.”

“How did you get to that absurd conclusion?”

“You’re not hard.”

 

Arnav raised his eyebrow at how straight forward she was being. But it was a game he was also well versed in and was ready to play with her.

 

“Do you want me to be hard?”

“Maybe.”

“If I was hard Khushi, I would take you on this very desk. I’m fighting for my self control as it is. I’m trying so hard to respect your wishes but, when you say things like that, you really test me.”

 

Khushi giggled and Arnav moved in again to kiss her. His hands caressed her body as she wrapped her arms around his neck. But before they could settle into the moment, the door flies open and Arnav and Khushi jump apart.

 

“Oh my god! What the hell! I’m so sorry!”

 

Arnav was the first to get back to his senses and react.

 

“Miss Mishra! There’s something called knocking! Shut the door please.”

 

Closing the door, Sia walked into the room nervously, her eyes never leaving Khushi.

“I left my bag and my phone.”

“That’s fine, but again, there’s something called knocking.”

 

“Khushi, you’re with Mr Raizada? But Lavanya said you were with some guy from another university!”

 

Arnav turned to Khushi, waiting for her to respond but when he realised she was still too shocked to say anything, he knew that he needed to step in.

 

“Well, she said that because we wanted to keep our relationship quiet. I’m sure you can understand that a teacher-student relationship is not something that people would be impressed about. Sia, please don’t tell anyone about us. There would be a lot of trouble if anyone found out about is.”

 

His tone was a lot softer towards the end of what he was saying and he could tell that he was getting through to Sia. Finally, Khushi came back to her full senses and she knew that she needed to say something.

 

“Please Sia, I know you don’t like me and we’ve never been friends or anything, but please, just this once, don’t say anything.”

“I-ok, I won’t say anything. But Khushi don’t think it’s because I like you or anything. I’m only doing so because Mr Raizada said so!”

 

With that, she grabbed her bag and phone and rushed out of the room. Arnav raised his eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, trying to comprehend what had just happened, but he smiled as it all sunk in. It wasn’t the ideal situation but it was better than nothing.

 

“The nerve of that girl!”

“Even if it is for your sake, at least she won’t say anything.”

Wilted Heart ~ Part 1

“Chote, we have a whole album of rishtas for you, can you just take one good look and see if there’s anyone you like? Nani is doing my head in, she wants you married soon.”

“I know Di! But I’m not interested right now.”

“Please Chote, have a look. You never know there might be someone in there who you like the look and sound of.”

“Di you know I hate this concept of having an album. You make it seem like I’m shopping for shoes and not a wife? It’s kind of degrading. I’m pretty sure the women featured in here won’t appreciate knowing that I picked them the same way that I pick my shoes.”

“I know it’s a problematic method! But it’s the easiest way of keeping the pictures and information of all the girls together in one place. It’s so hard to get hold of you and to show you all the pictures, this way is so much easier to keep track of everything.”

“It makes sense but it’s still stupid, I don’t like it.”

“Chote, you can give me a lecture of feminism later, right now can you just take one look through the book, please.”

Sighing, Arnav held out his hand and took the album from Anjali. 

Arnav Singh Raizada, no formal and lengthy introduction needed, naam tho suna hi hoga. And even if you hadn’t heard of him, you are sure to know of someone like Arnav. Charismatic business man, great at what he does, great with the ladies, but is also know for having a short temper.  For years, Arnav had been avoiding marriage, but since turning 26, his Nani was persistent that he needed to get married. And with Nani’s health deteriorating all the time, Anjali too wanted Arnav to get married soon. If anything happened to Nani, Anjali wanted someone by  Arnav’s side, who’d be able to comfort him the way she knew Shyam would comfort her. 

“Have a good look Chote, there are some really pretty and educated girls in there. Notice how I said pretty first because I know how shallow you can be sometimes.”

Arnav gave Anjali the side eye, he was not impressed at being called shallow but he knew his sister did have a point. Sighing, he opened up the album that his Di had compiled and started flicking through the pages.

“I’m sure there is someone perfect for you in there. Please have a good look. Don’t just flick through.”

Arnav didn’t believe that he would find someone for him in this little book, but for the sake of his Di, he would take a good look. After all, there was no harm really in having a look. 

He’d never really given much attention to the girls that Di and Nani selected for him. Up until recently, he had been in a relationship. However now that he was single again, maybe it was time to take marriage seriously. More specifically the concept of an arranged marriage seriously. His way clearly hadn’t worked out for him, so maybe their method would work. But at the same time, he still didn’t want to find someone through Di and Nani, he didn’t think they quite understood what he wanted in a woman, but again, he wasn’t exactly finding someone on his own either.  So might as well give this a go.

Once Anjali left Arnav alone with the book, Arnav logged off of his laptop, and put it aside as he opened the book. For once, he was actually going to give this task his full attention.  

The moment he flicked the book open, he was inundated with bright pictures of smiling girls, with a brief description underneath. 

Given, some of the girls were very pretty, but after reading their background, Arnav couldn’t imagine himself with any of these girls. They just didn’t seem like the type of women who he would pick for himself. He just couldn’t see himself clicking with any of these girls. 

He kept flicking until he finally got to the back of the album. He was ready to shut the book and put it aside and never open it again, but the last picture caught his attention. 

The girl in the picture was wearing a simple red sari. The red looked striking against her milky skin. It almost look like she was glowing. Her eyes were the lightest shade of brown he had ever seen in his life, almost golden. And her long dark hair cascaded down her back.  

She looked so timid, so shy, so innocent. She definitely wasn’t the type of woman who would usually catch his attention, he liked his women bold. He liked a woman who knew what she wanted and how she wanted it. This girl didn’t seem like she would say anything, even if things weren’t going her way at all. But regardless of all that, she had caught his attention and he couldn’t that his eyes off her. There was something about her, something that really spoke to him and he didn’t know what it was. She was just… Captivating. 

Reading her description, he realised she was fairly educated. She’d done her degree here in Delhi itself and had graduated a while back. She was an English literature graduate. Normally this would have made him roll his eyes. He believed English lit was a weak option, for people who believed in romance far too much. But for her, English lit seemed perfect, and it didn’t make him want to roll him eyes. Call it stereotyping, but he could really imagine her with a whole stack of books, looking up at the nights sky, staring at the moon and thinking if a price really existed like the ones she spent so much time reading about.

In his head he was creating a whole character sketch of her and he knew he was getting ahead of himself but everything about her… Everything about her just seemed to fit, so put together as though someone had spent extra time curating her… Maybe… Maybe this girl could be the one? 

Pulling her photograph out of the book, he turned it around to have a look at her name.

“Khushi Kumari Gupta…”

***** 

After leaving the matter to brew for a few days, Arnav realised that he couldn’t take his mind off Khushi. He didn’t want to give his Di the satisfaction that he had picked a girl that she has already selected, but he had to admit, Di did good. But to be fair, there were about 20 girls to pick from. The fact that there was one good one in there shouldn’t have been too shocking. 

Sat in the study, Arnav waited for his Di to arrive so that he could tell her that he had picked Khushi. 

“What’s the matter Chote, why have you called me here like I’m one of your business associates?” 

“Because I don’t know how to talk to you about this so I’m using the style I’m best accustomed to. I feel comfortable like this.”

Anjali looked at her brother who looked highly confused. 

“Just tell me Chote, you don’t have to be nervous.”

Taking a deep breath, Arnav opened the book that was sat beside him and flicked it open to Khushi’s page. 

“I like her.”

Anjali’s eyes widened with surprise and she covered her mouth as she gasped. 

“Oh my goodness! I knew you’d like someone in here.”

Taking the book from Arnav, Anjali looked at the girl that he was showing her. Her expression fell slightly as she recognised who Arnav was talking about. 

“This girl?”

“Yes Di. Khushi… I like her.”

“Are you sure Chote, I mean…”

“I choose Khushi. She’s my one and only choice. If you have an issue with the girl I have selected then we are back to square one as none of the other girls interested me at all.”

“Okay, fine but there’s something you need to know about her first…”

***** 

Khushi’s parents looked at each other as they disconnected the call from the Raizada family. 

“Arnav has picked Khushi.”

“What do we do now Garima?”

“We tell Khushi and see what she thinks.”

“Do you think she’ll agree?”

“Probably not, but it’s been 2 years, if she lets this rishta go, who knows if we’ll be able to get another good one like that again.”

Shashi sighed and slowly took his glasses off. It had been 2 years since Khushi and Manav had had their accident, yet Khushi was still mourning. She wasn’t crying as much as she had done at the start, but Shashi could still hear her cry every other night. 

“Should we go and talk to her?”

Nodding slowly, Shashi go to his feet and he and his wife slowly made their way to their daughters bedroom. 

Upon approaching her bedroom door, they both took a deep breath and knocked on the door. They waited a moment before slowly pushing the door open. 

Shashi and Garima watched as Khushi put her book down that she was reading and they took a seat on the sofa by the foot of her bed. 

“Khushi bitya, there something we need to talk to you about…”

***** 

After talking to Khushi for almost an hour, she finally agreed on meeting Arnav once before any further talks took place. 

“If he doesn’t understand me, and if he isn’t willing to give me time and space that I still need, then it will definitely be a no from me.”

“We’ve made sure that the Raizada family know your circumstances and Anjali bitya said that Arnav understands everything you’ve been through and he will be happy to give you time. But yes, we understand that’s something that you’re going to need to talk to him about as well.”

“Well I guess if we have an understanding… I have no issue to meet him. But I cannot guarantee that I will say yes to this rishta. I’m willing to try, because I know I cannot sit like this forever, but if I don’t get the right vibes then…”

“We understand bitya.”

The conversation concluded and Khushi’s parents kissed the top of her head in turn before leaving her alone in her room once more. 

Turning to the photograph of her and Manav, tears rolled down Khushi’s face as she took hold of the photograph and pulled it close to herself.

“Am I doing the right thing Manav? Is it right for me to even consider marrying someone else? Is this what you want me to do?”

Khushi sat in her bed, waiting for some kind of sign, anything to give an indication as to whether she was doing the right thing or not. But no sign came. 

Sighing, Khushi put the photo back and clutched her pillow close to herself. 

When had life got so complicated? Why was it so hard to make a decision? And why… Why did it feel like Manav was still close by? How could she move on when she wasn’t even sure if he was really gone? But he had to be gone, otherwise he would have come back. It’d been 2 years, he wouldn’t have just left her hanging like this.

Yes. He wouldn’t do that to her. He really was gone. And now it was time for her to finally try and move on too. She had to.

*****

Arnav and Khushi sat opposite each other in silence, smiling at each other politely when eye contact was made.

Arnav looked at his watch. Only 5 minutes had passed yet it felt so much longer. He needed to do something, he needed to say something, otherwise his chances would be over before he actually got a proper chance.

“I’m Arnav.”

This caused Khushi to look up a give a slight smirk.

“I know. I’m Khushi.”

“I know… I mean…”

Mentally whacking himself, Arnav took a deep breath and tried again.

“How are you?”

“I’m good thank you. You?”

“I’m good too.”

Arnav asked her small questions and she did the same back. They made small talk, slowly being more at ease around each other.

Khushi found herself liking Arnav’s company. His calming nature didn’t make her feel nervous and she felt… Safe? It was a weird feeling, but there was something about this stranger that just felt so… Known? It was insane. she knew she had never crossed paths with him before but still.

As time ticked on and as they spoke more and more, Khushi realised that before anything else could go further, she needed to speak to him about the most important thing.

“Arnav ji, there’s something I need to talk to you about before we go any further.”

“Please call me Arnav, and go ahead.”

Bracing herself, Khushi took a deep breath and composed herself.

“As you know, I was married before and my husband… He got taken away from me far too soon.”

“I know, I’m really sorry for your loss. No one deserves to go through that, especially not so soon after getting married. I’m truly very sorry.”

“Thank you…”

Tears welled up in Khushi’s eyes but she knew she couldn’t fall weak. She needed to speak to Arnav and make sure that they had an understanding.

“I just… I want you to know that I don’t know if I will ever be able to be your wife, in the true sense. I will do my best to look after your family and fulfil my duties as a bahu but…”

“I understand. Your husband, he was your college sweetheart and even before you could start sharing your life he… I get it. Honestly speaking, I like you Khushi. When I saw your picture and then when I read the information about you, I liked you. You sound like the type of person that it would be nice to live with and I know you’ll take care of my family. The main reason why I’m even here is because of Di and Nani. They want me to get married. I feel like you’d be the perfect bahu for the Raizada family. But more than that, I feel you would be good company. Someone to come home to and to just sit with and have a nice cup of tea with as we speak about our day. You could say I could pick any woman, but I just feel that it would be a lot more pleasurable to go on this journey with someone who I am interested in, but also someone who understands I don’t want a wife for the usual reasons why a man would take a wife. I am doing it for my family, the same way that you are considering this for the sake of your parents.”

“Thank you for understanding. And again, I will do everything that’s expected of me in terms of being the daughter in law of your family. And I will try to be the best roommate and companion that you could ask for.”

She smiled and he laughed slightly. From the things they said to each other, it reminded him of how he had asked people questions before agreeing to be their flatmate when he was at university and realised that this was a similar concept. They were potentially going to marry and live with each other but they were not going to be husband and wife in the traditional sense. They were just going to be two people bound together by holy matrimony and they were going to share a room, but htey weren’t really going to be sharing the same life. It was a slightly bizarre concept. Shaking his thoughts away, he realised that Khushi was waiting on him to say something.

“As long as we have an understanding, as long as we can be honest with each other, we can make this relationship work.”

“I believe we can make this work.”

“We can live together as friends.”

“Friends… That would be nice.”

After speaking some more, Khushi took all the information in and realised that they had a mutual understand, that it seemed that it could work out between them. Maybe this was what was destined for her, and maybe this would work out well. Maybe…

*****

After spending a long time speaking about life and little things, Arnav checked his watch and realised that he should make a move.

Before taking his leave from Khushi, he asked for her number.

“I’ll call you, it’ll be nice to speak to you some more.”

“I feel the same way.”

“‘Maybe I can take you out for dinner one day?”

Smiling, Khushi nodded. She wouldn’t mind seeing Arnav again. He was nice and conversation with him was easy once they got over the initial awkwardness.

As Arnav took his leave, Khushi realised that her parents would come into her room any moment, asking how the meeting with Arnav had gone and what she wanted going forward.

*****

“So what did you think of her Chote?”

“She’s great! I had expected it to be a little hard to speak to her but it wasn’t. I mean obviously it wasn’t the easiest, but once she got talking it was all good.”

“So…”

“I like her and I think she likes me too. I’ve got her number so maybe I’ll speak to her again soon and she said she wouldn’t mind going out for dinner with me one day.”

“Sounds like it all went great!”

“I hate to admit it but, it went amazing Di! Thank you for showing me that dumb book of yours. Without it, I’d never have found Khushi! Thank you Di.”

“I’m just glad that it all worked out.”

“I mean it’s still to early to tell, but I like to think that even if it doesn’t work out, at least we will be able to stay friends.”

Anjali left Arnav so that he could change and freshen up. Loosening his tie, he took a seat on his recliner and leaned back, playing out what had happened earlier in the day. Initially he had been nervous that she wouldn’t agree to meeting him, or that she’d tell him that she wasn’t interested, or that she just wouldn’t be the type of person he’d be able to live his life with but she…

She was perfect. Just damn perfect. They had decided that they would move forward as friends and that they would fulfil this relationship as friends, but in his heart, he could feel that they would be able to move passed just being friends. It was a dangerous thought, and he knew he was getting ahead of himself, but after meeting her, he couldn’t help but feel that they would one day share something more. He didn’t know how to explain how and why he was feeling this way but he was certain that they would. That with time, they’d be able to take their relationship forward. He was sure of it.

*****

One loud knock on Khushi’s bedroom door brought her out of her thoughts.

“Come in.”

Shashi and Garima walked in tentatively, not quite sure what to expect.

“Khushi…”

“Before you ask, yes things went well, yes I like him and yes… I don’t mind meeting him again.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Khushi’s parents looked to each other.

“So marriage?”

“If both families are happy with this rishta, if he wants this rishta, then I have no objections.”

“Are you sure?”

Pausing for a moment, Khushi unconsciously looked at her photo of Manav on her bedside table. Turning back to her parents she nodded.

“Manav… He’s gone. I’ve had my life on hold for the last 2 years. He’s not coming back I mean he can’t… He can’t come back and I accept that. I’m sure he’d want me to move on with my life too. And Arnav is nice. He seems like a great person. Of course I need to get to know him a little better but I have a feeling that we can make things work. He understands me, and he respects me. I don’t think all men would be so understanding of my situation, so yes, I would like to give him and this relationship a chance.”

After talking everything through, it seemed that Khushi really was serious and that the Gupta family needed to speak to the Raizada’s. This rishta was going to happen.

*****

Five months, a thousand phone call hours, a million text messages and at least 10 dinner dates later, Arnav and Khushi’s wedding day finally arrived.

Standing in front of the mirror, Khushi looked at herself as Payal faffed around behind her, making sure her bag was properly packed.

Rolling her eyes, Khushi turned to Payal.

“Jiji, it’s fine, I’m packed, can you just leave it now?”

“I’m just making sure.”

Shaking her head, Khushi turned away and looked at herself in the mirror again, giving herself a small, sad smile.

She couldn’t quite believe that this day had arrived, that this was actually happening. 2 and a half years ago, she had been stood in a similar spot, over the moon to be getting ready to get married to the man of her dreams and now…

Arnav was a good man, a kind man, but he wasn’t Manav. But she knew in her heart that Manav wouldn’t want her to hold on like this, she knew he would want her to be happy. So with a heavy heart, Khushi nodded to Payal, signalling that she was ready to go.

*****

Marriage rituals done, Arnav and Khushi sat in the back of his car in silence as they made their way through Mumbai traffic and towards Shantivan. Placing his hand on her own, Arnav gave Khushi’s hand a squeeze.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s just been a really long day.”

Nodding, Arnav took his hand off Khushi’s as she turned away to look out of the window.

“Khushi.”

“Hm?”

“You look beautiful today.”

Turning to him properly, Khushi smiled.

“Thank you, you look really good yourself.”

Smiling to one another, they didn’t know quite know how to proceed with the conversation and so decided to remain quiet before turning away again. The silence between them wasn’t awkward, nor was it uncomfortable, it was just there. Soothing almost.

Feeling herself relax in the silence and the warmth of the car, Khushi settled in her seat and let her eyes shut. She felt at peace for the first time in two years.

He’s Amazing ~ Part 12 {Reloaded}

They reached room number 45 and Arnav unlocked the door. He gestured Khushi inside and then locked the door behind him. This action reminded Khushi of their first date when she had been worried that he would try to make a move on her. And now, months later, here they were again, locked in a hotel room, but this time he was her boyfriend and she loved him to such an extent that it felt almost seemed unreal.

Before Khushi could even take the room in, Arnav pushed her up against the door and pressed his lips onto hers in a hungry kiss. Khushi had thought the last one had been heated and hungry, but this proved her completely wrong. Placing his hands on her hips, Arnav kissed her as though there was no tomorrow. Khushi couldn’t help but kissed him back with the same level of hunger and passion. His hands moved from her hips to her neck. He rubbed circles on her neck with his thumbs and made her moan out. His hands continued their torture and then moved back down her body. His hands reached the sides of her breasts and he stopped as he thought Khushi would pull away like she did every other time, but she didn’t. He hesitated for a moment before he let his hands travel over and cupped her breasts. She gasped; this was new. No man had touched her like this. Was she to be shocked? She didn’t know, all she knew was that it felt good and began imagining how it would feel if she didn’t have clothes on. The kiss broke and Arnav looked at her, his hands still cupping her breasts.

“I want us to go further Khushi. Heck I need it. But if you don’t want to then it’s fine, I understand.”

“I…”

“It’s no pressure at all. If you want, we can. If you don’t then I am willing to wait as long as it takes.”

Khushi looked at his hands on her, and then thought to herself. Was this what she wanted? Was she ready for this? She watched as he slowly began taking his hands off her and it was in that moment that she realised she didn’t want him to let go, that she wasn’t ready for this to end yet. She wanted more. Blushing, she nodded.

“This is what I want.”

Arnav smiled. He pulled Khushi into another kiss. His hands moved off her breasts and travelled to her back. He pulled the dori of her dress off slowly and began pushing the dress off her shoulders. He kissed her neck and shoulders, biting her lightly and then licking it, soothing the pain. Arnav pulled away and looked at Khushi, she whimpered slightly, she hated being away from him. He looked at her and then began pulling her dress off her. It fell to the ground and Arnav’s eyes feasted on her body. She looked amazing. He moved slightly closer and pulled that the stings on her shelwar. It too fell to the ground and Khushi hesitantly, stepped out of it. Arnav looked at her. She looked so beautiful standing there in her blue underwear. Arnav moved around her, and she couldn’t help but feel slightly self conscious. Was he checking her out all round? Making sure she was good? But he wasn’t. He went round and stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. His lips found her neck and his hands travelled along her body. Lightly, he touched her stomach, and Khushi felt tingles run through her body under his light touch. His hands teased her by dropping down to the waistband of her pants and she held her breath thinking he was going to go lower, but he didn’t. He brought his hands up again and cupped her breasts. Khushi arched back into him at the feel of his hands, and let out a breathy sigh as his fingers passed over her nipples. His hands lowered again and Khushi held her breath as she felt him nearing the waistband of her pants. She felt him pause as he played with her waistband. She let herself relax a little because it seemed he wouldn’t do what she was thinking he was going to do and then he did it. Khushi’s breath caught as she felt his fingers slide under the waistband and rest on her. He paused.

“I can stop if you want.”

“Don’t stop.”

He lowered his lips back to her neck as he stroked her sensitive skin gently. She let out a breathy sigh as she felt his fingers caressing her skin and the gasped at the feel of his finger slowly entered her body. Khushi bit down on her lip as she felt him move his fingers lightly, exploring the inside of her body. She felt him apply varying pressures on his fingers and sometimes he moved more quickly, other times more slowly. Khushi felt the pressure growing between her hips and she leaned back into him, begging that she be able to stay up on her own without collapsing in on him.

Arnav could feel her body tightening like a coil and withdrew his fingers. He turned her around and looked into her eyes.

“If you’re not ready for this, or don’t want this, if you don’t want to go any further, it’s fine with me Khushi, I promise you, I’ll wait for you. I don’t want to force you into this.”

“You’re not. This is what I want.”

Hearing this Arnav lifted Khushi off the floor and placed her down onto the bed. Putting her down, he walked into the bathroom. Khushi lay there, waiting for him to come out, struggling to understand why he went in there in the first place. Moments later, he came back out with a box in his hand. Khushi’s eyes focused on it and she blushed as she realised what they were. Condoms. Putting the box down on the bedside table he flashed her a cheeky grin.

“Thank god these fancy hotels always have condoms in the bathroom. We’d have had to halted our plans if they didn’t.”

She smiled as she sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. She watched as he slowly removed his jacket and shirt. He kept his eyes on her as he undressed himself, not wanting to miss her reaction towards his body. He watched as she bit her lip as he threw his shirt aside. He watched as her eyes widened and as she shamelessly took in his naked torso.

Khushi took in his washboard abs and his broad shoulders. She bit her lip lightly as she took in the hair on his chest, and found herself following the line of hair down to his waistband. She noticed the faint V lines that went down into his pants. She watched as he slowly unbuttoned his trousers and pulled down the fly. She bit her lip once more as his trousers fell to the ground and he stepped out of them.

He made his way back towards her, and got onto the bed. He crawled towards her and then moved over her. Khushi clutched the sheets as he neared her, closing the distance between them, her eyes locked on his. He came over her, pushing her back into the bed, his lips on her exposed neck, while his hands fondled with her breasts. Khushi moaned at the feel of his hands on her and hooked her leg around his waist in an attempt to dull the ache that was growing inside her. His lips moved down from her neck to her still covered breasts then pulled back. Lifting her slightly, he reached around and undid her bra and threw it aside. Moving his eyes away from hers, he looked down at her chest and couldn’t help but let out a moan. The sight in front of him was to die for. She had the most perfect pair of breasts he had ever seen, almost as though they had been curated for him. He lightly fingered her nipples and felt as they hardened further under his touch. Fixing his eyes on her once more, he slowly lowered his mouth to on of her nipples and took it between his lips, sucking on it lightly. He continued to work his magic with his hands on the other breast, trying to give it the equal amount of attention. Pulling back, he lowered his mouth to the other breast and did the same. Khushi arched back into the bed, enjoying the pleasure that this man was giving her. She could faintly feel his manliness between her legs and she was almost certain that it was growing harder the longer they were together.

Arnav pushed himself off the bed and and pulled his boxers off. And finally Khushi saw it. She could feel her eyes widen as she took him in but she couldn’t help it, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He was huge!

Closing the distance between them, he wrapped his arms around her as he kissed her. He rested his length against her, letting her get accustomed to his weight on her. He rubbed his length against her but then realised that there was still a barrier between them. Pulling her panties away, he looked at her. She was a true woman.

“Khushi, I can’t hold myself back any longer. I ache to be within you.”

“I want you, within me… But, I don’t think you’ll fit…”

“Babes, I will fit. We’re made for each other, it’ll definitely fit. It’ll hurt a bit, but I promise, that’s only for this time.”

Khushi nodded her head as she braced herself. Arnav picked up the box that he had put beside him and took out a little packet. Opening it, he took out the content of it, and pulled it over his throbbing length.

He lowered himself once more and Khushi gasped at the feeling of him closing in on her. She placed her hands on his shoulders and entered her. He held himself still and locked his eyes onto hers.

“Baby, it’s going to hurt, but I promise the pleasure you will get will be beyond that pain.”

Again Khushi nodded, she was ready for whatever was coming next.

*****

“Ah- Arnav! Stop!”

“Come with me Khushi, it’s ok. Don’t worry baby, you’re ok. Trust me.”

*****

Arnav collapsed against Khushi and breathed heavily. Getting his energy back, he lifted himself onto his elbow and looked at her, smiling.

“That was amazing.”

Khushi blushed as she pulled the sheets up to her chest and settled down beside him.

“Like you.”

*****

A few hours later, though Khushi was aching from the first time, she had reached over to Arnav, wanting to go again. Arnav had happily complied and now they were both nearing their climax once more.

“I can’t hold on… Arnav… It’s too much!”

“Hang in there babes…”

With one last thrust, Khushi spun off the edge and Arnav released. He pulled the cover over them once more and slumber took over…

*****

Khushi awoke the next morning. Her body was aching but she was feeling content. She rolled onto her side and looked at Arnav. Khushi smiled as she recalled the events of the night before.

His kisses.

Her kisses.

His touches.

Her touches.

His thrusts.

Her moans.

His groans.

Her orgasms.

His climax.

Their love.

Khushi nuzzled herself into Arnav’s arms, smiling. They’d made love one more time after their second time. Khushi had known it was a bad idea because she knew her body wasn’t accustomed to him yet, but she couldn’t get enough of him. Even after doing it for a third time, Khushi wasn’t entirely satisfied and wanted to go again but she knew she wasn’t ready for it. He had been much more gentle with her the third time, knowing she’d be sore.

Turning, she looked at the clock, it was nearly 9:30.

Gasping, she jumped out of bed, grabbed her clothes off the floor and went into the bathroom.

Arnav woke up a little while later and reached out to Khushi’s side of the bed but found that it was cold. Sitting up, he looked around the room and then heard the water running in the bathroom and smiled. She hadn’t left while he was sleeping. Turning, he looked at the bedside table and noticed condom wrappers scattered across the top. There was a musky smell lingering in the room and lay back down again, smiling at the thoughts of the night before.

“Damn, she knows how to turn you on Arnav Singh Raizada!”

“And, you know how to turn me on.”

Arnav looked up to see Khushi coming out of the bathroom, fully dressed, drying her hair with a towel. She came towards the bed and sat down on the edge.

“You’re dressed?”

“Yes, Lavanya and I have to get going, aunty and uncle will start to worry if we don’t get home soon.”

“I understand. Thank you, for last night. It was the best night of my life. Literally the best birthday I have ever had.”

“I… You’re welcome.”

“And I hope we have many more nights like last night coming soon.”

“Arnav, I was thinking, maybe we shouldn’t do this again any time soon.”

“What? Why not?”

Arnav sat up, his forehead creased as he looked at her.

“Because it’s wrong Arnav. I know you love me and I love you, but we can’t do this. Just imagine if we don’t get married to each other. We would have to tell whoever we marry that we’ve already have sex before. I don’t know how to explain this, but it would be awkward and it could cause complications. Hence why I believe that we shouldn’t do it again until we know we will actually be marrying each other, or to be safer, after marriage.”

“I understand what you are saying, but now that we have done this, I can’t stay away from you Khushi. And whether we’ve done it once, or whether we do it every night, it doesn’t change the fact that we have done it. If it comes down to it, and if we do have to think about marrying other people, if someone wanted to hold it against you, one night is enough for them to reject you.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but please try to understand what I am saying too. As much as it is about the future, it is about me too. I just feel I would feel guilty if we kept doing it outside of marriage. I don’t know if I can live with myself knowing that I was regularly having premarital sex.”

Arnav took her hands into his and smiled.

“I understand what you’re saying and I respect your wishes. If you don’t want to do it, then we won’t. I’ll wait, because I love you and I want you to be at ease with me.”

“Thank you, for being so understanding. I know it’s going to be hard but think about it like this, next time we do it, we won’t have any barriers between us. Not even a condom.”

“My, my, you are one bold woman. But you know we could have done it without a condom last night, but it was just to protect you. And me really.”

“I know.”

A comfortable silence fell between them and Arnav moved in to kiss her. But just as the gap between them reduced, Arnav’s phone rang. Sighing, he answered the phone.

“Yeah?”

“Bhai, it’s Akaash. Lavanya’s saying to tell Khushi to hurry up, they have to go.”

“Yeah, ok. Khushi’s on her way.”

Disconnecting the call, Arnav turned to Khushi, sighing.

“Akaash’s call, Lavanya wants you to hurry up.”

“Are you going to take me downstairs, or am I to leave on my own?”

Arnav smiled and got out of bed.

“Give me 5 minutes.”

Arnav went to have a shower and Khushi began to tidy the room a bit. She put the used wrappers into the bin, and saw all the used condoms that were already lying at the bottom of the bin. Khushi moved to make the bed and couldn’t help but relive all that had happened the night before. She saw that there were some blood stains, evidence of what had happened, the last of her virginity. Stripping the bed, the left the bed linen in the wash basket by the door.

Before she could think of anything else, Arnav had come out of the bathroom, dressed and ready to go. He took Khushi’s hand and they left the room. Upon reaching the main hall, the saw that some of the decorations from the night before were still around. The Raizada’s and Lavanya were having breakfast, talking. Shyam looked up and saw Arnav and Khushi.

“Aagaya Saale Saab aur Khushi ji.”

“Oh, good morning chote and Khushi.”

“Good morning Di.”

“Did you have a good nights sleep?”

Arnav looked at Khushi, who blushed, giving them away instantly.

“The best nights sleep ever Di.”

Wilted Heart ~ Prologue

Stood in front of her bedroom mirror, Khushi checked her outfit one last time before turning to Payal.

“Are you sure I look okay?”

“You look stunning. He isn’t going to know what hit him when he sees you.”

“Jiji, I’m so excited, I can’t believe that this is happening to me. I never thought I would meet someone in college and that they would steal my heart.”

“Did he steal your heart, or did you steal his?”

Looking down, Khushi smiled as she thought about the journey that they had shared so far. They had come a long way. When they had first met, she hadn’t liked him at all, in fact she had hated him. He was rude, arrogant, stubborn, everything she wasn’t and everything she hated in a man. But as time passed and she had gotten to know him, things changed. She realised that underneath, he was really sweet and loving. She fell in love with him and to her delight, he fell in love with her too.

They had decided to date, though it wasn’t exactly official. They hid the truth about their relationship because they weren’t ready for the pressure from their families for marriage. But as time passed, they realised that they did want to spend their lives together and that they were ready for marriage.

For Khushi’s family, it had been a bit of a shock that she had found someone that she was so fond of and whom she wanted to marry. But they were happy that she was happy and were willing to get her married to him if that was what she wanted. They had been concerned about what Payal would think, and how she would feel, having her younger sister get married before her, but Payal didn’t mind. She was happy for Khushi.

After months of planning, the big day finally arrived and Khushi couldn’t be happier. She was finally going to marry the man of dreams…

*****

Hearing the lock of the door click shut, Khushi tightened her hold around her knees and took a deep breath. She could feel the pace of her heart increasing to the point where it just felt like one continuous long heartbeat.

She felt the dip of the bed as he sat down beside her. Khushi felt him lean towards her as he slowly placed his hand on her.

“You look beautiful babe. The perfect bride.”

His voice was low and husky. Slowly and carefully, he unpinned the dupatta off her head and let it down.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for so long, for this moment… For you to really be mine…”

Blushing, Khushi looked away from him. How could she tell him she felt exactly the same way?

Leaning in, he placed his hand on her waist, before moving towards her slowly. He leaned in further and finally, placed his lips on hers. Their first kiss as man and wife…

*****

Loading the car up with their bags, the new mister and missus were finally ready to set off for their honeymoon. Once the car was packed, the new couple got into the back.

“Baby aren’t you going to drive?”

“No, the driver can drive so he can bring the car back home with him after dropping us to the airport.”

Nodding, Khushi cuddled into her husband’s side. They were soon off, Khushi letting herself settle down beside her husband. But she found it difficult to truly settle down. She felt uneasy, like something wasn’t quite right. She felt something wrong, like something was going to happen…

“Khushi what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know… I just… I feel…”

Wrapping his arm tightly around her, he nuzzled into her neck. Giggling, Khushi settled down and let her mind rest… It was all…

*CRASH*

*****

*Three day’s later*

Slowly opening her eyes, Khushi attempted to lift her head but was unable to do so. Reaching up, Khushi clutched the back of her head, trying to remember what happened.

Flashes of the accident came back to her and her eyes shot open.

“Manav!”

The nurse that had been nearby cane rushing over to Khushi.

“Ma’am…”

“My husband! Where is he…”

“Ma’am…”

The nurse tried to calm Khushi down, but realised her attempts were futile so she called for a doctor. The doctor too arrived and tried to calm Khushi down but found her to become more and more hysteric the more he attempted to get her to relax.

When he realised his attempts were completely futile, he injected a sedative into her drip bag and soon Khushi felt her eyes become heavy once more…

*****

A few hours later, Khushi came round once more and found Payal sat beside her.

“Oh my god Khushi!”

Wrapping her arms around her sister, Payal pulled Khushi close to herself.

“Thank god you’re okay.”

“Jiji… Manav?”

Khushi waited as Payal pulled away slowly. How was Payal meant to tell her that…

“Jiji, tell me nah, where is he?”

“Khushi…”

“Just tell me! I keep asking, but no one tells me where he is.”

Taking Khushi’s hands into her own, Payal attempted to keep her tears at bay. She didn’t want to have to be the one to tell Khushi, but it seemed like she had no choice but to tell her. If she didn’t tell Khushi, she knew that she would just become more and more hysterical.

“Khushi… I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry jiji? What’s happening? Tell me!”

Payal paused, trying to bring all her thoughts together, to try and find an easy way to tell Khushi the truth. But there wasn’t an easy way. There never was with news like this. She just had to bite the bullet and tell Khushi that…

Tears fell from Payal’s eyes as she finally gathered the courage to tell Khushi the truth.

“Manav… He’s dead.”

*****

*Disclaimer* This story is inspired by a VM that I had watched. The VM is no longer available, however if I do find it again, I will like it here so you guys can watch it. So yes, the concept isn’t entirely my own, however, how I have decided to play with the story is all my own work. 

Author’s Note:

I have been trying to get this story written for so long but I have been so busy that it just hasn’t been happening. As you all know, in the middle I just stopped writing altogether so I didn’t finish this story and then when I did start, I realised I needed to finish my other stories before I could start this one.

Some of you may feel you have read this before, or you may even see your comments in the comments section, that is because this was up, along with the first chapter, but then I took them both down so that I could post it altogether again. Now this is up, I will be posting chapter 1 in 2 weeks time. 

He’s Amazing ~ Part 11 {Reloaded}

When the song came to an end, Arnav dipped Khushi and they held their position. Their eyes locked on each other. Everyone was still for a moment, not knowing how to react. The dance had been passionate, very passionate. There had been lifts, dips, tight embraces and close proximity throughout the entire dance that amazed everyone. Payal was the first to pull herself out of the trance and began to clap, causing everyone to follow her lead. Arnav and Khushi’s trance broke and pulled away from one another, Arnav smirking and Khushi blushing. The next song came on and all the other couples took to the dance floor. Arnav smiled at Khushi as he stepped towards her once more.

 

“You’re an amazing dancer.”

“So are you.”

 

“Yikes! Khushi! What the heck you guys!”

 

Arnav looked up and saw that Lavanya was making a beeline towards them.

 

“This is my cue to make an exit otherwise she’s going to attack me.”

 

Before Khushi could protest, Arnav rushed away. She watched as Lavanya closed in on her. Putting her hands out, Khushi addressed La before La had the chance to attack her.

 

“La, please don’t say what I know you’re going to say.”

“What, that you and Arnav totally burnt the dance floor and that your chemistry is just mind blowing!”

“Yup, that.”

“Khushi, I told you. He was the one for you!”

 

Rolling her eyes, Khushi took Lavanya’s arm and they left the dance floor.

 

The remainder for the night was a blast, everyone danced and when they were hungry made their way towards the food table. Arnav had hardly let go of Khushi all night. They had danced until there came a point where Khushi’s feet wouldn’t permit her to stand any longer. Sitting down, Khushi took off her heels and Arnav sat down with her. Wrapping his arm around her, he moved in to kiss her, but was interrupted by Pooja.

 

“Oh, sorry guys, am I interrupting anything?”

 

Sighing lightly so that only Khushi would notice it, Arnav moved away from her.

 

“No, not really. What’s up Pooja, are you enjoying yourself?”

“Oh that’s great that I am not interrupting. It means that I can make my request without feeling bad. Arnav come on let’s dance. You haven’t danced with me all evening! You can’t expect me to enjoy myself when you haven;t even danced with me yet.”

“Poo, I’m slightly tired now. I don’t really feel like dancing.”

“Oh come on Arnav! You haven’t danced with me and it’s nearly the end of the night!”

 

Khushi felt bad. She knew that part of the reason why Arnav hadn’t danced with anyone else was because she wanted him to dance with her. Putting her hand on his arm, Khushi urged Arnav to go.

 

“Go Arnav. It’s not fair, you haven’t danced with Pooja yet.”

 

Arnav looked at Khushi and she smiled. She hoped that she was able to convey to him that she wanted him to go and give his other guests attention too. He reluctantly got up and Pooja took his hand and led him onto the dance floor.

Once they hit the dance floor, Khushi noticed how Arnav kept a safe distance from Pooja but she pulled him closer each time. Khushi watched as Arnav kept putting distance between himself and Pooja but she kept closing the distance between them. There was something about this that caused Khushi to feel slightly uncomfortable. She looked away just as Lavanya came and sat down beside her. 

 

“Oh god Khushi, I’m so tired. NK has been keeping me on my feet for ages, all he wants to do is dance! But it’s not all bad, I’ve got to know quite a bit about him. He’s really sweet and kind! Any way, where’s Arnav?”

“Dancing.”

“What, with whom?”

“Pooja.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“I told him to go and dance with her. She’s his friend after all and she came here today to spend time with him and celebrate his birthday. It would have been rude if he spent all his time with me and then I still kept him beside me even when I didn’t want to dance any more.”

“I guess you have a point. As long as you’re okay though, that’s all that matters.”

 

Khushi nodded and Lavanya went back to speaking about NK. But Khushi’s eye’s kept making their way back to Arnav and Pooja. Was she really okay with this? Was she really comfortable with Pooja having her hands all over her Arnav?

 

*****

 

“Khushi, I’m so sorry, I really do want to spend time with you. I wanted to come back ages ago, but Pooja just wanted to keep on dance.”

 

Arnav had finally broken free from Pooja and he had finally come back to Khushi. She had lost track of how long he had actually been with her for, but Khushi was certain that he had been with her for about an hour. In that time, she had spent a fair amount of time on her own. The Raizada’s had come over to her to keep her company, but they all left after spending a few moments with her because they all wanted to spend time with their respective partners. La too had spent a fair amount of time with her but she had felt it was unfair to ask La to stay with her when she knew how much Lavanya was enjoying her time with NK.

It had been a bit of a drag but Khushi knew that she couldn’t complain, after all, it was his birthday celebration.

 

“It’s fine Arnav, really. She’s one of your oldest friends, she has rights.”

“I’m so glad you understand. Any way, do you want to go somewhere more private? I mean we could book into a room and spend the rest of the evening there. Just me and you… That way no one else would be able to bother us.”

 

The offer was tempting, but Khushi knew that she couldn’t take Arnav away from his own party.

 

“We cant do that Arnav, I mean what will everyone think. They’re all here to celebrate your birthday and then you go missing. It wont look right.”

 

Khushi looked at her watch. It was nearly 11. She gasped.

 

“Oh god! Arnav I have to get home! Aunty will kill me and Lavanya if we don’t get home soon.”

“Shall I drop you off?”

“No it’s fine. We’ll get an auto.”

“Not at this time of night Khushi. Who knows what these late night drivers are like? There are some really dodgy people out there. I’m not going to risk it, Khushi.”

 

Just at that point Khushi’s phone started ringing. She answered it without looking at the caller ID.

 

“Hello?”

“Khushi, where are you girls!”

 

Khushi jumped to her feet upon hearing Garima’s voice.

 

“We’re still at the hotel, we were just leaving.”

“How are you coming?”

“By auto.”

“No Khushi! Not by auto, it’s not safe! Isn’t there any of your friends there that can drop you off?”

 

Khushi thought about it for a moment and thought about Arnav’s offer to drop them off, but it was too risky. If someone saw her and Lavanya with him, there would be a whole lot of questions that would have to be answered.

 

“No, there isn’t anyone.”

“Tell you what, you’re party is at a hotel right?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Fine, you and Lavanya book into a room and spend the night there. Don’t worry about the bill, just tell Lavanya to put it onto her credit card and your uncle will pay for it.”

“Aunty there’s really no need, we’ll come back. We’ve taken autos plenty of times before.”

“No Khushi, just spend the night there. Look I’ll call later, your buaji needs something. Keep safe and don’t leave your room!”

“Ok, bye aunty.”

 

Arnav looked at Khushi and she smiled.

 

“What happened?”

“Aunty said to get a room and then La and I should stay.”

“Excellent! We’re all staying too! Me, Di, Jijaji, Payal, Akaash and NK!”

 

Khushi nodded and Arnav took her hand as they made their way back onto the dance floor.

 

*****

 

By 12, all the guests started to leave. Pooja eyed Khushi and realised that she wasn’t going to leave any time soon. She huffed a little and then left. Only the Raizada’s, Lavanya and Khushi remained. They all sat around a large coffee table in the main hall and talked. Arnav was looking at Khushi the whole time, his eyes not moving at all. Khushi blushed as she felt the heat of his gaze on her.

 

“Hey guys, I have an idea. Let’s play a game!”

“NK, aren’t we a bit too old for games?”

“Payal bhabi, you can never be too old for games!”

“Fine, tell us, what do you want to play?”

“Spin the bottle.”

 

All groaned and protested, but NK remained adamant that they should play. Finally, for the sake of NK, they decided to play. He was as old as all the rest of them; however had the mindset of a child. He pulled an empty bottle out, made sure that the lid was secured and placed it down onto the table. finally, he spun it. Everyone watched it going round and then it began to slow down. It stopped on Arnav.

 

“Ah, Nanav! Truth or dare.”

“You know me; it’s got to be a dare.”

“You have to kiss someone from this circle, full on, on the lips and it has to be in front of us all.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes, it is.”

“As you wish. You’ve just told me to do, what I’ve wanted to all evening!”

 

Arnav walked over to where Khushi was sitting and took her hand. He pulled her to her feet and she stood up slowly, and she looked into Arnav’s eyes nervously. His hands slowly reached up to cup her face, and moved in. Khushi closed her eyes, anticipating the kiss. Then she felt his lips. Warm and hard. The kiss started gently, until he pulled her flush against him. This made Khushi gasp and Arnav took this opportunity to push his tongue into her mouth. She tasted so right. So sweet and feminine, nothing compared to her taste. Khushi let her own tongue wonder into Arnav’s mouth. They had completely forgotten about the rest of the family that were still there. Everyone had looked away, blushing slightly. NK mentally cursed himself. After a long while, the kiss slowed and Arnav and Khushi broke away. Staring at each other for a while, they remember that they weren’t alone. Khushi pulled herself out of Arnav’s arms and blushed. However Arnav wasn’t satisfied, the beast within him was still roaring, it needed more.

 

“Akaash, what room am I staying in?”

“Room 45, floor 4.”

“Fine, I’m off then.”

 

He took Khushi’s hand and pulled her away. She looked at Arnav confused and then looked to Lavanya who was equally confused. But she followed his lead. As they approached the lift and as they waited for the door to open, Arnav wrapped his arm around her and whispered into her ear.

 

“Khushi, I can’t hold back any more. I need you!”