He’s Amazing ~ Part 23 {Reloaded}

“Hurry, we have to get everything ready soon, the haldi will be arriving from the Raizada’s any time now!”

“Yes Jiji, we’re ready, don’t worry, if the Raizada’s come we’re ready for them.”

The Kashyap’s were rushing around making sure that all the last minute arrangements had been made for Khushi’s haldi. It was the morning after the engagement and everyone was already tired, but were running on enthusiasm and excitement. It was the first wedding for their family and the first wedding of this generation so regardless of how tired everyone was, everyone was excited to play their part in ensuring that this was the best wedding yet. With the haldi ceremony to start any time soon, Lavanya was left to ensure that all arrangements for the mehendi, which was to take place the same evening, were also done. It was hard work as she was pretty much working single handed, but she didn’t mind it. It was her sister’s wedding and she was so excited that everyone had trusted her with such responsibilities. Once La made sure that all the main arrangements were done, she left her cousin to make sure that all the little details were taken care of and left to go upstairs to get herself ready and to make sure that Khushi was ready. When Lavanya got upstairs, she was releaved to find that Sia had helped Khushi into her haldi outfit and that they were all ready to go. Unable to stop to compliment, Lavanya grabbed her own outfit and rushed into the bathroom to get dressed. She rushed out moments later and was met with a very amused looking Khushi.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“In all the time I have known you, I have never seen to get ready that fast.”

“It can’t be helped. I am the sister of the bride and I have so much work to do, I don’t have the time to get ready slowly. Any way, you look amazing!”

“Thanks La! I was worried that this dress would look to simple and plain but I really like how the overall look is now. Priya and Sia helped me get ready.”

Lavanya gave Sia a grateful smile. Khushi was wearing a simple yellow kameez because Garima had stopped her from wearing the fancy yellow anarkali that she had originally brought. She had stated that it was too fancy for the haldi and that it would just get ruined and Anjali had agreed and offered to send another dress out to wear instead. While both Khushi and Lavanya had been disheartened by the change, they knew now that it was the right decision.

Just as Lavanya was putting her bangles on, the doorbell rang. The Raizada’s had arrived. Lavanya left the room so that she could go to meet the Raizada’s at the door and welcomed the ladies of the Raizada family. Anjali was holding a large taal of haldi which she handed to Garima before turning to Lavanya and giving her a hug. Turning to La, Garima told her to go and get Khushi. Nodding, Lavanya rushed back upstairs and brought Khushi down and gestured for her to sit on the little stool on the floor. Before sitting down, she approached the ladies of the Raizada family, touching nani and mami’s feet before giving Anjali and Payal a hug each. Anjali smiled as she took Khushi’s arm and sat her down, ready for the ceremony to begin. As nani was the eldest of both families, she applied haldi to Khushi first.

“You know Khushi bitya, some of this haldi was applied to our chote first, not all of it, but quite a lot of it and now we are applying it to you.”

Khushi felt herself blush. There was something about the fact that she was being covered in the same haldi that had already been on his body, that just felt so intimate. Bur before she could dwell on the thought, Mamiji was next up to apply the haldi. She made small talk before blessing Khushi and then moving along. Buaji came next, then Garima, then Anjali, then Payal and then Lavanya. She covered Khushi’s entire face with haldi and Khushi struggled to contain her laughter. Once the main family members had had their turn all the other women in the room too came forwards and applied haldi to Khushi. Once everyone was done and the ceremony was over, nani ji told Khushi to go and wash it all off. Lavanya helped Khushi up and then both made their way to their room. Lavanya opened the door for Khushi, but didn’t go in with her. La still had work to do and Khushi was capable of washing herself down. As Khushi shut the door behind her and turned for the bathroom, there before her, sitting on her bed was her groom to be. She almost let out a yelp of shock but contained herself because she didn’t want to bring anyone upstairs. Quickly, she turned back to the door and locked it before turning her attention back to him.

“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here! You can’t see me until the sangeet tomorrow evening!”

“You know how I am; I don’t listen to anyone. If I want to see my fiancé, then I am going to come and see my fiancé, no one can stop me.”

He slowly made his way towards Khushi and she moved back, but was stopped by the wall behind her.

“You didn’t apply any haldi on me Khushi. That’s all I have come for, nothing else, I promise.”

As he closed the distance between them, Arnav took some haldi off of Khushi’s face and then applied it to her nose before resting his nose against hers. The proximity, the joy of being with her, the excitement of knowing that they were soon to be wed caused Arnav to close the last bit of distance between them as he took her lips between his own and gave her a chaste kiss before pulling away once more, causing Khushi to wrap her arms around him in an attempt to pull him back to herself.

“Sorry babe, as much as I would like to carry on, you know we can’t share anything more than this for now… It was your rules after all. We have to save it all for our suhaag raat.”

Khushi laughed as she put a little distance between them.

“When will I see you again?”

“I might just come during the mehendi.”

“But your not allowed!”

“I’m not allowed to be here right now, but I am.”

Shaking her head, she wrapped her arms around him once more before dropping a kiss on his nose.

“I love you Arnav.”

“I love you too. As much as it kills me, I should head off now. You need to get ready and we’ll get in trouble if anyone sees me here with you.”

Sighing, Khushi nodded as she let him go. Placing a gentle kiss on Khushi’s cheek, he finally took his leave.

“Wait, how did you get in the first place?”

Smirking, Arnav pointed to the window before jumping out of the window and onto the roof before carefully making his way down to the ground. Khushi watched him go and couldn’t help but feel in awe of him. He really was something else.

*****

It was later the same evening and Khushi was ready for her mehendi ceremony. She was standing before the long mirror in her dark green anarkali suit that they had picked the day that they had gone shopping. She was fully dressed and ready to go when Lavanya came up and to take Khushi downstairs. Khushi’s eyes widened upon seeing the entire Raizada family before her, not just the women. There at the front stood Arnav who was staring up at her, wearing a stunning suit. Lavanya nudged Khushi, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“Look at NK, he looks gorgeous right?”

“I still can’t believe you hid that from me for so long.”

Lavanya gave Khushi an awkward smile before trying to distract Khushi.

 “Oh look, there’s Arnav!”

“I’ve already seen him! I know what you’re doing, but I will forever hold it against you that you hid that from me for so long.”

Before either of them could say anything more on the topic, they reached the bottom of the stairs and Lavanya made Khushi sit down on the magnificent chair that was especially for her. Khushi looked around and smiled at the guests who were approaching her, congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. But before she could really converse with anyone, guys started playing the dhol on the sides. Anjali came over to Khushi.

“I hope you liked out surprise! Normally the mehendi is supposed to be a woman’s only ceremony and that’s how we’ve always done it in our family, but we decided that it would be more fun if all of us were here. And then there was chote who just really wanted to come any way. If we told him to stay at home, I know for a fact that he would have found a way to make his way here any way.”

Anjali gave Khushi a knowing smile and for a moment Khushi was almost certain that Anjali knew that Arnav had paid her a visit earlier. She made a mental note to ask Arnav later on.

“I’m glad you all came, you’re right, it’s better this way.”

“I’m sure you’re just saying that because you wanted to see chote as much as he’s wanted to see you.”

Anjali gave Khushi a playful nudge and Khushi felt herself blush. The door bell rang and someone went to open it. There was a pause which was then followed by a squeal of delight as Sia rushed forward and hugged Khushi.

“Sorry I’m late. There was so much traffic. I haven’t missed anything right? I’m such a fool for not bringing my dress with me this morning.”

“No you haven’t missed anything and yes! It was so silly of you to have not brought yours stuff with you. I was starting to worry you weren’t going to come back.”

“Honestly, I almost didn’t come back. When I got home, I did think that maybe I should give this evening a miss so that I could get assignments out of the way so that I could enjoy the rest of your functions in peace, but then I realised that I would regret it so much if I missed this. Khushi seriously though, you have to tell Jiju to go easy on us with the essays! You’d think he’d be in a more lenient mood considering he’s getting married.”

Khushi laughed as she shook her head.

“I’ll tell him for sure, but you should tell him yourself. He’s around here somewhere.”

“I will definitely go and have words with him. But that’s for afterwards. Did I mention you look so beautiful! That colour suits you so well.”

“Thank you!”

Time passed and the guests came up and greeted Khushi. After a while, Lavanya sat down beside Khushi and took one of her hands and started applying mehendi to it, while Payal did the other. The dhol people were playing different tunes and people danced. Arnav was sitting talking to Lavanya’s cousins, and sneaked a look at Khushi every now and then. The ceremony went late into the night and when Khushi’s mehendi was dry, Lavanya pulled her to her feet and took her over to the middle of the room. Lavanya gestured to NK to make Arnav to get up. Khushi would have protested, but she wanted to be with Arnav now. It had been hours, but he had simply looked at her from afar. He had been unable to approach her, and now she just wanted him close to her. The dhol players started playing the song ‘Mehendi laga ke Rakhna’ and there was a loud cheet from the guests as Arnav and Khushi danced while Lavanya, NK, Sia, and everyone else sang. Akaash nudged Arnav over and over, prompting him to sing along too, but Arnav drew the line at dancing, he wasn’t about to start singing as well. Khushi laughed at him, but she didn’t mind. The fact that he was happily dancing with her was all that mattered to her.

At the end of the evening, most of the outside guests had left, leaving only family and close friends. Everyone was minding their own business, either getting something to eat if they hadn’t already had their dinner, or were helping with the tidying and preparation for the next day’s festivities. Arnav and Khushi were finally left alone so they could speak.

“Sangeet tomorrow, then the wedding the day after. You excited? Has the reality of it all kicked in yet?”

“I’m nervous! But yeah I guess I am excited. It’s the day I’ve dreamed about all my life. I feel like the reality of it all hasn’t actually kicked in just yet, but it probably will within the next few days. Or maybe it won’t kick in at all until after we’re married.”

Arnav laughed as he played with Khushi’s hands.

“So where do you want to go for our honeymoon? I’ve been looking at a few destinations but I wasn’t sure where you wanted to go.”

“I don’t mind. Where do you want to take me?”

“I was thinking Thailand?”

“Oh that would be lovely, but is there any point going so far considering we would only be there a couple of days? I’ll have to get back to class and you have to get back to work. Maybe we should go somewhere like Goa. At least that way we’ll still be close but we will be somewhere new.”

Arnav thought about it, maybe she had a point. He argued his point that he wanted to take her somewhere special and Goa just didn’t feel special enough for a honeymoon. Khushi didn’t agree.

“Anywhere I go with you will be special, I don’t care where it is. All that matters is that I will be with you and we will be able to spend time together.”

They discussed the topic for a while more, but then Arnav realised that for the first time all night, they were finally completely all alone. Taking her hand, he brought her close to himself as he also moved in slowly. Khushi closed her eyes, anticipating the coming kiss. Just as their lips met, Anjali, Shyam, Akaash and Payal walked it.

“Oh gosh, sorry guys, we didn’t realise! We’ll leave.”

Arnav and Khushi jumped away from one another, Arnav angry at being interrupted and Khushi hiding her face in his arm out of embarrassment.

“There’s no point leaving now, you’ve killed the moment!”

*****

Author’s note:

Hi guys, I hope you’re doing really well. I just wanted to take this moment to apologise again for being late with this and for the delay to ‘Wilted Heart.’ I am really trying my best to get it all done and up soon, but I’ve been really struggling with motivation to work recently. But I promise I will try to get back on track as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

He’s Amazing ~ Part 22 {Reloaded}

The afternoon of the engagement had finally arrived and the make up artist had arrived and was getting Lavanya ready. Khushi had insisted that Lavanya should get ready before her, after all she was the brides’ sister, and she too had to be looking beyond beautiful. Lavanya was dressed in a light blue lengha that she had picked when they had been wedding shopping. Once Lavanya was ready, the make up artist diverted her attention to Khushi and began working her magic. An hour later, Khushi was ready.

“So, how do I look? Okay or should we change anything?”

“You look beyond perfect Khushi, Arnav is going to faint when he sees you.”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t get knocked out for too long otherwise I won’t be able to get engaged.”

Lavanya shook her head as she laughed before turning her attention to the mirror and fixed her dupatta.

“You know Khushi, not to toot my own horn but I think I’m looking hotter than you.”

Khushi knew that La was joking and decided to play along.

“Well that won’t do. I’m the bride and this is my engagement, I need to look better than you.”

“But I’m your bridesmaid. And you know Khushi, the bridesmaid is far more important than the bride.”

“Where did you get that idea from.”

“Well think about it, you already have a man, so realistically no one is going to care what you look like, but me and the rest of your friends are unmarried. Who knows which mysterious hunk is going to take a liking to us.”

“You mean which aunty is going to take a liking to you and approach you for your hand for their son.”

Lavanya gave Khushi a playful shove.

“Well whatever it is, the bottom line is that it is vital for me to look better than you today.”

“Fine, fine, you’re more important and you look better than me! I don’t really care; all I care about is that I get engaged to my prince!”

“Someone’s getting impatient now isn’t she!”

Khushi looked away, blushing. She was impatient. Impatient to see Arnav, impatient to have a ring on her finger, impatient to become his. Before she could respond to what Lavanya was saying, there was a knock at the door and Lavanya went to see who it was. There was a squeal of delight and then Lavanya ushered the other person into the room. Sia practically ran into the room and rushed to hug Khushi. Khushi jumped to her feet, completely surprised to see her friend.

“Oh my god, what are you doing here?”

“You may have been trying to keep your marriage quiet, but La told me about everything and I came running here. Did you honestly think I’d miss by best friend and my LECTURERS wedding? No way!”

“I’m so glad you came! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you myself. Everything has been happening so fast, I’ve been trying to get every in order while trying to comprehend what’s actually happening. It’s all just overwhelming.”

“I understand and don’t worry, I’m not upset or anything that you didn’t tell me. La explained everything to me, so I get it. But I’m so glad that La did tell me because it would’ve sucked if I missed this! By the way, I hope you don’t mind, mom wanted to join me, so she’s here too! It’s been a while since I’ve had any really good friends so she really wanted to meet you and La.”

“That’s not a problem at all, I’m glad she’s here, I’d love to meet her too!”

There was another knock at the door and Lavanya went to the door to check who it was. Khushi heard another squeal from the doorway before Lavanya came back with the guest. Aayaan walked into the room with a huge bunch of white roses and handed them to Khushi.

“Hi!”

“Oh my god, Aayaan, hi!”

“Lavanya and I have been in contact and she told me that you were getting engaged and invited me, I hope you don’t mind.”

“No of course not! I’m so glad that you were able to come! But I though you were going back to London?”

“I was going to, but 2 days before getting on a plane to go back, my girlfriend dumped me, so I decided to stay back to spend time with family.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok, I guess she wasn’t the one.”

Sia, who had been paying close attention to the new arrival, was trying to work out exactly who this was but was unable to make any sense of the situation and interaction. As Aayaan turned his attention to speak to Lavanya, Sia gave Khushi a little tap before whispering to her.

“Who is this Khushi?”

“Oh, this is Aayaan, my ex-fiancé!”

“Oh right!”

When Aayaan turned back to Khushi and Sia, Sia smiled to him and held out her hand.

“Hi, I’m Khushi’s friend, Sia.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Khushi watched the interaction closely and from the way Sia was smiling, Khushi could tell that Sia was attracted to Aayaan. She watched as Aayaan and Sia looked at each other shyly, before Aayaan came back to his full senses and turned back to Khushi.

“Ok anyway, I’m off Khushi, got to see Arnav and say hi before the rest of the guests arrive and everything gets hectic.”

“Has he arrived?”

“Yeah! His car was pulling up just as I got in.”

Lavanya and Sia gasped and rushed out of the room. Aayaan said bye, that he would see her again soon downstairs and then left. Before Khushi could actually realised that she was alone, her phone began to rang and she answered it.

“Hi babe.”

“Oh, Arnav, hey!”

“You ready, can’t see you yet, why are you hiding from me?”

“No one’s come and brought me downstairs yet. We hadn’t even realised that you had arrived.”

“We got here a little while ago, but I was greeting everyone first. I’ve finally got a moment alone so I thought I would call you. Are you alone?”

“Yeah, Lavanya and Sia have gone down to see you.”

“Oh, does that mean I can come up and we can have a round!”

“Arnav! What is with you is that all you can think about?”

“Well it’s not my fault that my girlfriend is damn hot and a right temptress!”

“I am not a temptress!”

“Yeah you are.”

Khushi laughed as she shook her head. She knew she could carry on arguing with him about it but decided to drop it and actually talk about something important.

“Arnav, is there a lot of people downstairs? I can hear people but I can’t tell how many people there are.”

“There is a fair amount of people here. But I don’t think everyone is here yet. I just heard you aunt saying that your family from Mumbai haven’t arrived yet and I know that some of our family are arriving within the next few minutes.”

“I feel so nervous, I mean, there’s so many people and they’re all going to be watching us and… I just feel so nervous. Your family and mine are all there… What if your family don’t like me?”

“You already know my family like you. As for my extended family, we hardly see any of them any way so it doesn’t even matter what they think. And yeah there are a lot of people are here, but babe, the only people that matter are me and you. Don’t even think about anyone else. Just think about me and the fact that I am going to be by your side very soon.”

“How do you always know how to make me feel better?”

“It’s my job to make sure I know how to calm you, and I promise, I’ll always make sure that I am able to cater to all your needs. Any way, as much as I’d love to carry this conversation on, I can see you two sidekicks approaching me.”

“You should put the phone down before they start teasing you in front of everyone.”

“Come down soon, I can’t wait to see you.”

“I think they’ll call me down very soon. So I’ll see you very soon.”

“I love you Khushi.”

“I love you too.”

As Khushi disconnected the call, she knew that she had the largest smile on her face and she knew that it wasn’t about to leave her any time soon…

*****

After what felt like forever to Khushi, Lavanya and her cousin Priya finally came up and told Khushi that it was time for her to go downstairs. Priya looked to Khushi and hugged her tightly.

“All the best Di, you look amazing! Jiju’s going to fall for you all over again!”

“Thanks Priya. Are you sure I look ok?”

“You look amazing and that colour suits you so well!”

Khushi looked at herself in the mirror and realised that Priya wasn’t lying, midnight blue looked amazing on her. She looked at her empty ring finger and smiled.

Lavanya noticed this and nudged her.

“Only a little while longer and that finger will have a gorgeous ring on it.”

Khushi smiled and thoughts of Arnav rushed through her mind. It still seemed so surreal that she was about to get engaged to Arnav. That her crush on him had brought them here already. Khushi stopped herself from reminiscing over their entire relationship because she knew that if she started going down that rabbit hole, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself back out of it.

She turned her attention to Lavanya and Priya, gesturing to them that she was ready to go down. Each sister took one arm carefully and guided Khushi down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, they were met by Shashi and Garima who took over from the girls. They walked Khushi over to the stage like area where Arnav was already sitting down, waiting for her. He smiled up at Khushi, who gave him a small smile as she blushed.

Once Khushi was seated, the elders announced that it was time for the ceremony to begin. The whole thing happened so fast and Khushi felt like she couldn’t quite focus on anything. All she really could pay attention to was when Anjali passed Arnav the ring and he slipped it onto her finger. She looked at it and really took it in. She had wanted to see it before, but Arnav had refused to show her, stating that he wanted it to be a surprise for the day. Now that she was looking at it, she couldn’t take her eyes off the huge diamond that was set in the middle of the ring with a few smaller ones set around it. It was gorgeous and it sparkled at the slightest of movements. It caught the light and she could see just how clear the diamond was and she knew that it was by far one of the most expensive rings she had ever laid her eyes on and now it was on her finger, hers, binding her to the man she loved.

Lavanya came forward and handed Khushi Arnav’s ring. Arnav extended his hand and she slipped it on, meeting his eyes briefly before looking down once more.

Everyone cheered and clapped for the new couple.

Arnav took Khushi hand and placed a gentle kiss just over the ring which led their guests to coo at their cuteness.

Ring exchange done, the guests came to greet the couple before turning away from them as the food was served. When everyone was busy eating, and no one was really paying attention to the newly engaged couple, Arnav took Khushi’s hand and pulled her up the stairs.

“Hey! What are you doing, where are we going?”

“I’m clearly taking you upstairs.”

“You know this is my house!”

“And I am the son in law; I have every right to go where ever I want! And right now, I want to go upstairs so that I can spend some time alone with my fiancé.”

Khushi laughed and shook her head. He was hopeless but she wasn’t about to object to his plan either, she wanted to spend some time alone with him too but she knew that they couldn’t go to her bedroom, that would be the first place that anyone would come to find them. She thought about it for a moment and then pointed towards the guest room and said they should go in there. Arnav pushed the door open and pulled Khushi in. But before they could actually settle down and enjoy their moment alone, they realised that they weren’t actually alone.

Lavanya and NK jerked apart, clearly startled.

“What the!”

“Nanav?”

“Khushi!”

“Lavanya?”

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Nanav, allow me to explain. Lavanya and I… Well… We recently started dating. We met and there was definitely something between us and then during this time of planning your wedding, we realised that we were really fond of each other and we just…”

“WHAT!”

Khushi looked between Arnav and Lavanya and NK, unable to respond. She didn’t know what to say or think. On one hand she was so happy that La had found someone that she had liked, but at the same time she was so mad that La had hidden this from her. How could she not tell her something so huge? Especially when the person in question was her brother-in-law to be.

“Khushi I should have told you, but I felt so shy. how could I tell you that I was seeing your to be brother in law?”

“How long have you been… How long have you actually had feelings for one another?”

“Well, Khushi, er, we’ve known that we’ve had feelings for each other for a while. Maybe since just after Nanav’s birthday. But nothing actually happened between us until a few weeks ago.”

“You have to be joking! NK you didn’t tell me anything either!”

“Nanav, I was going to, but then all this started happening and you got busy…”

“Ok, ok, fine. This isn’t over, we all have to discuss this at a later time, but right now, I want to spend some time with my fiancé!”

Lavanya and NK left the room and Arnav shut the door behind them. He wanted to talk to Khushi about what they just witnessed but at the same time he just wanted to make the most of being alone with her. Pushing all thought of La and NK away, he pulled Khushi against himself and kissed her neck.

“Arnavvv…”

“Hmmm?”

He continued to kiss her neck as she tangled her hands into his hair, pulling him closer to herself. Moving up from her neck, he took her lips between his and kissed her. Khushi held onto Arnav, fearing that her legs would give way under the intensity of their kiss. They continued kissing for a while, but finally pulled away, in desperate need of air.

“God, I cant imagine how I’m going to live until the wedding.”

“I’m sure you’ll manage.”

“What if I sneak in in the middle of the night?”

Arnav wiggled his eyebrows at Khushi and kissed her once more before letting her go. Sorting his hair out, he realised that they should get back downstairs before people started to realise that they were missing. As they made their way back down, Khushi couldn’t help but smile at the thought of him sneaking into her room in the middle of the night. She knew it couldn’t happen, but she knew that she wanted it to happen. Maybe they would be able to pull it off… Just maybe.

*****

Author’s note:

Hi guys! So as you can see, this update is actually a week (?) late and I am posting it on the wrong day. It is because, as I started in my previous note, I had been busy with work and studies and didn’t have time to write and edit and it had a knock on affect on this story as well. I still have not had the time to finish writing the next chapter of ‘Wilted Heart’ so that will not be up on Sunday, but I will try my very best to have it up for next Sunday.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this and I will make sure that the next chapter of this story is uploaded on time and on it’s scheduled day of Friday.

He’s Amazing ~ Part 20 {Reloaded}

For the first time all evening, Khushi finally took a good look at Arnav once she was seated beside him and it was then that she finally realised he was wearing a black sharwani. He caught her taking him in and she smiled at him before quickly looking away. God he looked sexy!

Nani moved forward and proceeded with the shagun ceremony. Everyone beamed with happiness as they watched, glad their their children had found happiness in each other and that they were preparing to start a new life together. Buaji and Garima had tears in their eyes, their Khushi soon wouldn’t be theirs.

Khushi had periodically turned to Arnav and had tried to read his expressions. She noticed how he had been beaming throughout the ceremony, regularly taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

Once the rasam was done, Nani turned the Shashi and Garima and smiled.

“Shashi ji, your daughter is now ours! And you don’t have to worry, she will be the darling of our family. We will treat her with the same love we give to Anjali and Payal.”

“Thank you, and you Arnav, for both choosing my daughter and taking a stand for her today. I know you will all keep her very happy.”

Arnav smiled and nodded, but quickly got to his feet when he saw Anjali and Shyam glaring at him, gesturing for him to touch Shashi’s feet.

“Shashi ji, would it be possible for all us elder people to go and talk about other arrangements.”

“Of course, please follow us to the other room.”

The elders left to discuss what was to happen next and the youngsters stayed behind, talking excitedly about the function that had just happened and about all their plans for future functions. Arnav casually put his arm around Khushi and pulled her closer to himself.

“Hey babe.”

“Hi.”

“So, you’re officially mine!”

“Not officially. I become yours officially after the wedding!”

“Who are you trying to fool. You’ve been mine right from the first moment we both properly looked at each other. By the way, did I mention that you look beautiful?”

“Thank you, you look incredibly hot.”

“You look hotter. In fact you look so hot that I want to take you upstairs right now. Can I take you upstairs?”

“What do you plan to do there?”

“Someone’s got naughty ideas in her head hasn’t she? I want to make love to you for so long and so hard that you can’t move tomorrow morning.”

Khushi bit her lip and felt her cheeks heating up as he nuzzled into her neck.

“I’d love that!”

Both Arnav and Khushi got caught in the moment and completely forgot that they were surrounded by their siblings. Bringing his face to hers, Arnav smiled as he leaned in to kiss Khushi. As if on autopilot, Khushi too moved forward. Their lips touched ever so lightly, but they both felt the insane fireworks go off around them.

Anjali was the first to notice what was happening and cleared her throat loudly. Arnav and Khushi jumped apart and looked at their siblings feeling extremely awkward.

“Ahem, chote, as much as I have no issue with what you two are doing, would both like to pay attention and help us plan YOUR wedding. Or would you both rather we just let you carry on and we do all the wedding planning for you.”

Arnav ran his hand through his hair and gave his sister a sheepish smile while Khushi kept her eyes on her lap, feeling too shy to meet anyone’s eyes.

“Nanav, you’ll have plenty of time with Khushi on honeymoon. But I don’t think you need it, seeing as your honeymoon period started a long time ago!”

“Nanheji, they have to go on honeymoon, after all it’s time to ‘bond’ every couple needs their honeymoon. Why I remember our like it was yesterday. Rani Sahiba, do you remember how much bonding we did during out honeymoon?”

There was scattered laughter throughout the room and Anjali blushed before punching her husband on the arm. Khushi looked around in awe at the people sitting around her. They were all so open with each other. She decided that if she was to be a part of this family, she too would have to speak up and actually interact with them properly.

“Payal bhabi, tell us, how was your honeymoon?”

“Horrible, all Akaash did was sleep all day! We barely went out to sight see and there was no time at all for shopping.”

Akaash turned to his wife, his eyebrow raised. He then turned to Khushi as he offered his side of the story.

“Yes I did sleep all day, but someone has left out a vital part of the story. You should ask her why I had to sleep all day. But I’ll save us all time and tell you all. It’s because someone wouldn’t let me get to sleep until the early hours of the night. If she wants, she can tell you why we were up so late every night.

Again there was scattered laugh and Payal blushed. Anjali came to her sister-in-laws rescue and diverted the attention away from Payal.

“Chote where will you guys go on honeymoon?”

“Wherever Khushi wants to go.”

“Where would you like to go Khushi?”

“I don’t care as long as I’m with my husband.”

“Then it’s settled, Saale Saab, you and Khushi ji shall have your honeymoon in the storeroom at home!”

“What, no way Jijaji! There’s no space for one man to lie down in there, how will me and Khushi both fit?”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to manage. After all, the less space there is during the honeymoon, the better right?”

The group burst out laughing and Khushi hid her face in Arnav’s chest. Lavanya who had been watching the scene that was playing out in front of her, laughed. She couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with happiness for Khushi. The people who were sitting around them right now were some of the best people she had ever met and she was so glad that they were so open and fun. She just knew Khushi would have a great time with them.

“Please stop teasing my sister! Her honeymoon is private and all details of the honeymoon are confidential and should stay between her and Jeej. But of course as her sister and best friend, I will know everything…”

“La! You know I wouldn’t tell you!”

Before Lavanya could reply, the elders of both family came out, causing Arnav and Khushi to jump apart.

“We have decided that the engagement will be the day after tomorrow and the rest of the ceremonies will start after that. We have decided that this will happen as soon as possible as we want it be done before Khushi and Arnav have to go back to university at the start of next semester.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and began talking excitedly.

“But Nani, with everything being so soon, Chote and Khushi won’t have time to go on honeymoon?”

“They will leave as soon as the wedding ends. That will give them 5 days for their honeymoon.”

The Raizada’s and Kashyap’s embraced each other, excited that this was happening and so soon.

They sat around for a little while longer before the Raizada’s decided it was time to leave. As they greeted each other and slowly left, Arnav hung back and waited for his family to leave and for the Kashyap’s to be out of earshot before he turned to Khushi.

“I’ll FaceTime you tonight. Be ready.”

Before Khushi could reply, Arnav dropped a quick kiss on her cheek and left.

*****

It was later the same evening and Lavanya was finally settling down after a long evening. After the Raizada’s had left they had got changed and then got straight on to tidying up the house before sitting down with their parents and discussing all the things that needed to be done within the next few days before the engagement. Khushi was in the bathroom and Lavanya was waiting for her to come out so that they could finally actually talk about everything that had happened today.

Just as La picked up her own phone, Khushi’s laptop, which she’d left on was now ringing, signifying that someone was FaceTiming her. Lavanya answered the call upon seeing that it was Arnav. She waited as the call connected and waited for Arnav’s face to pop up on the screen. When he did finally appear, Lavanya got the shock of her life and instantly averted her eyes. Arnav was sitting in front of her without his shirt on.

“Arnav What the hell! Please put your shirt on!”

“What the? Lavanya?”

“Yes!”

“Where’s Khushi?”

“In the bathroom. Where’s your shirt, do I have to tell Khushi to buy you one?”

“No Lavanya, I don’t see the need to wear a shirt when I’m talking to my girlfriend. It’s not like I have anything to hide.”

“Yeah true, she’s seen it all hasn’t she?”

Eyes still averted, Arnav and Lavanya laughed at the last comment and it was then that Khushi walked back into the bedroom. She came to sit down beside Lavanya and said hi to Arnav. La said bye before passing the laptop back to Khushi.

“Hey darling.”

“Hi handsome.”

“Has Lavanya left?”

“Yeah, she’s sitting in her bed.”

“But she’s still in the same room?”

“Yes, why?”

“Fine go to an empty room and take the laptop with you.”

“Why?”

“Just do it! I want to talk to you in private.”

Khushi looked to Lavanya who simply smirked. Khushi left and made her way to the guestroom.

“Ok I’m here.”

“Good. Now lock the door and close the curtains.”

“But why?”

“Just do it!”

“Ok, ok, laad gavarnor.”

Khushi went over and locked the door and closed the curtains. She flipped the lights on before coming back to sit on the bed.

“What now and what are you up to?”

“I just wanted to see you.”

“Oh seriously? Is that all? Why did I need to lock everything and close everything? You can see me na?”

“Because we need privacy for I want you to do for me.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Arnav smirked and Khushi felt herself getting a little tense. Was he going to make some sort of strange request?

“Strip!”

“What!?”

“What did you think I meant when I said see you?”

“See me, like this!”

“Oh gosh Khushi, why would I want that? And look I’ve already done what you would have wanted me to do; I’ve only got my boxers on!”

“Arnav, stop being silly, if you really want to see me, we’ll go out tomorrow!”

“Oh we’ll do that, but this is going to be fun as well.”

“I refuse to take my clothes off!”

“Then I refuse to meet you tomorrow!”

“Oh don’t be mean!”

“Please baby, I want to see you.”

“Fine.”

Khushi grumpily placed the laptop on the bed and stood up.

“God this is so awkward!”

“Just imagine it’s me taking your clothes off.”

Khushi looked at herself, took a deep breath and slowly pulled her kameez over her head. Once off, she slowly put it aside before turning back to the computer screen. Arnav on the other side gasped. She looked amazing. No matter how many times he saw her in her underwear, she still took his breath away every single time. There she was, stood before him in a black lacy bra. Arnav could feel himself harden, how he wished he was there with her, to touch her, to kiss her…

“Your shelwar has to go.”

“What!”

“Babe, do it. Please.”

Khushi took a breath and then undid the strings on her shelwar. Arnav gulped. Khushi stepped out of them and it took her a moment to have the courage to look up to the screen and take in his expression. Though she had stood before him in nothing but her underwear before, doing it like this made her feel so much more exposed, so much more vulnerable. Arnav on the other hand was sat there, taking her in. There she was, in nothing but two pieces of skimpy black material and he couldn’t do anything about it.

“God I want to touch you and kiss you.”

“I want to feel your touch on my skin.”

“Tomorrow baby, I promise!”

“But engagement preparations!”

“We’ll think about that then. Khushi… Take your bra off…”

“Arnav!”

“Babe, we’ve got this far.”

Khushi shook her head but turned around all the same. Arnav saw her hands go to her back and she unclasped her bra. She pulled it away and turned, excruciatingly slowly. Her checks were bright red. Arnav’s mouth fell open. She looked amazing and instantly he regretted his decision because it made him want to be with her. He desperately wanted to be with her desperately. Khushi looked up and she could tell that he was fighting for his self control, that perhaps he hadn’t thought this rendezvous through properly.

Arnav shifted and Khushi got a slight peak of him, it was evident he was hard. She felt herself flush further as it brought back all the memories of the two nights they had spent together and it made her long for him. To be with him, to be in bed with him. To be touched by him, to be intimate with him again…

“What now?”

“Nothing, we don’t have to do anything, we can just sit and have a normal conversation… Or we could have a sexy conversation, it’s up to you…”

“But like this? Shouldn’t we get dressed again?”

“No, it’s so much more fun to do it like this…”

To begin with, Khushi felt extremely self conscious about the fact that she was sitting before him, naked. But after a while, she stopped thinking about it and they fell into a regular, easy conversation.

“You’re damn sexy.”

“I know, you’ve mentioned it at least 4 times in the last half an hour.”

“I’m going to have to go now Khushi, I desperately need a cold shower!”

With that, Arnav bid her goodnight and then disconnected the call. Khushi closed her laptop and looked at her clothes that were strewn all over the floor. Picking each bit up, she looked at the clock as she got dressed again. It was well past midnight, so she decided to sleep in the guest room.

Pulling the last of her clothes back on, she shook her head as she smiled to herself.

“He’s mental, but I love him.”

He’s Amazing ~ Part 19 {Reloaded}

“Arnav!”

Khushi rushed passed him before he could respond to her and started pacing in the living room. Shutting the door, Arnav walked over to Khushi.

“What happened Khushi?”

“Buaji just called. She said there’s another family interested and that she wants me and Lavanya to go home as soon as possible! What do I do now?”

“What do you mean, what do you do?”

“I want to marry you, and I thought you’re family was going to talk to mine! But now this other family and buaji…”

“Khushi relax! The family that’s talked to yours is mine! Di told nani and nani’s already talked to your Buaji! I got off the phone with Di just moments before you came and started breaking my door down.”

Khushi was still for a moment as she took in what Arnav was saying. She didn’t know how to react or what to say. She wasn’t even sure she fully understood what was happening.

“What already!?”

“Yeah!”

“But isn’t it too soon?”

“I know its soon, but I couldn’t risk someone else getting in the way of our relationship.”

“Oh gosh so when I go home tonight, I’m going to have to wake up early the next morning because NANI is coming to see me!”

“Yeah, she is! Mamaji and mamiji will be going with her and I think di might go as well!”

“What about you?”

“I’ll come with the shagun!”

“Do you really think they’ll like me?”

“I know they will!”

Unable to contain her excitement, Khushi let out a squeal of delight and rushed into Arnav’s arms and gave him a big hug. Finally things were going their way!

*****

“So where are you lovely daughters?”

“I’ll just call them.”

Garima got up and went to go and get La and Khushi. Khushi was dressed in a light pink anarkali that Garima had gifted her earlier and Lavanya was dressed in a simple kameez. She didn’t bother too much, after all they hadn’t come to see her had they? Both girls had arrived home late the previous evening, but they had gotten little sleep as they were excited about what was to come. Khushi had turned her wardrobe upside down, unable to find something suitable and was beyond relieved when Garima had gifted her this dress. Khushi had stressed for hours, fretting over how she would do her hair, how she would do her make up, how she would smile the first time she met nani… Lavanya had been as supportive as she could be, but by the time the Raizada’s arrived, La was already exhausted and ready for the day to be over already.

When Garima knocked on their door, both girls jumped to their feet.

“Ready?”

“Not at all.”

“Oh well, let’s get this show on the road regardless.”

Khushi took a deep breath and they slowly began to make their way down the stairs. Khushi allowed herself to take a sneaky peak at the guests who were waiting for them downstairs. She noticed an elderly women sitting beside Buaji, smiling up at her. Next to her was a man, maybe as old as Lavanya’s dad. She made a mental note that this was Arnav’s mamaji. Next to him was sitting a lady dressed in the brightest colours she had ever seen. This must be the famous mamiji, Khushi thought. Arnav had told her a lot over the phone about mamiji. Stuff like how she loved to speak English and that applying make up on Payal was her favourite time pass.

As they descended the stairs, buaji got up and made Khushi and Lavanya touch everyone’s feet. They were then seated on the opposite sofa to nani ji. Nani ji looked at both the girls in front of her and smiled.

“Well Shashi ji both your daughters are very beautiful!”

“Thank you.”

“Well, from what you have said, we have already chosen which of your daughters we want to make our daughter-in-law and considering your daughter is also prepared for this marriage, we see no reason to delay. So I think, and if you feel the same way, we should come tomorrow with the shagun and with Arnav to really finalise this rishta.”

Khushi turned to Lavanya, eyes wide. Was it really going to be that easy, that straightforward?

“Wouldn’t you like to ask our daughter anything?”

“I don’t really see the need, clearly your daughter has agreed to this marriage and my grandson too is prepared, so I don’t want to delay. Arnav’s mood changes very quickly. So I want to do everything as soon as possible! There will be an abundance of time to sit and talk with my daughter-in-law after tomorrow.”

Shashi looked between his sister and his wife and his daughters. It was all happening so fast, but he had spoken to Khushi the night before and they knew that she was willing to accept this rishta. Nodding, he focused his attention back to Devyani Raizada.

“We don’t have any objections to any of this and neither does our daughter. So I guess this means that we are all set and ready for the shagun tomorrow.”

The Raizada’s got up and prepared to leave. Lavanya gave Khushi nudge and Khushi got to her feet and approached each other the Raizada’s and touched their feet and took their blessings. Once both families had greeted each other and the Raizada’s left, Shashi and Garima hugged their Khushi, glad to know that their role of being her parents and getting her settled down was almost complete.

“You know Khushi, I honestly didn’t want to get you married off so soon, but you’re fathers dream had always been to get you married to someone decent before you turned 24. And seeing as you turn 24 in 2 months time, I wanted to get this done with as soon as possible. But if it were completely up to me, I would keep you close to me as long as I could.”

“I understand uncle ji, and I know that if papa were here, he would have done the same, so I have no objections.”

Shashi opened his mouth to say something else, but Lavanya stopped her dad and grabbed hold of Khushi’s hand.

“I know there’s a lot of sentimental talk you guys need to have with each other, but this isn’t the time. It is Khushi’s shagun TOMORROW and there is so much we need to do in preparation. You all can have your sentimental talks tomorrow evening!

With that Lavanya dragged Khushi away. Shashi and Garima smiled as they watched their daughters rush of excitedly. They were fulfilling their late friends dream, and they knew they were doing it to a standard that would make their friends proud of them.

*****

“Khushi, we’ve arrived!”

“I know you have.”

“Where are you then?”

“In my room.”

“Come downstairs!”

“Aunty hasn’t told me to come down yet!”

“I’m dying to see you babe.”

“Same here! But we have to wait!”

Khushi smiled as she heard Arnav sigh on the other side of the phone. The day had flashed by, she hadn’t even realised when night had begun to fall and when the time approached for the Raizada’s arrival, but the time had come and they had arrived. Khushi was about to say something more to Arnav, but Lavanya rushed into the room and told Khushi that Garima was calling her to come downstairs. The time had come! Khushi told Arnav that that she had been told to come down and so she would be seeing him very soon. They disconnected the call.

Khushi dropped her phone onto the bed and smoothed her dress down. She was wearing a heavily done up anarkali dress in navy blue and had decided to wear her hair down. Lavanya took her hand and walked her sister downstairs.

Everyone smiled as they watched the to-be bride come down the stairs. Khushi stole a glance at Arnav, gave him a small smile and then looked down again. Shashi got to his feet and took Khushi’s hand and gestured for her to sit down next to Arnav. However, before Khushi could sit down, Nani stopped them,

“Why are you getting Khushi to sit next to my grandson? Only the to-be bride is to sit with him today.”

The Kashaps and the younger Raizada’s looked at each other, slightly confused What was Nani on about?

“Devyani ji, Khushi is the bride!”

Nani’s eyes widened as she took in Buaji’s words and shook her head.

“No, no, no! I chose Lavanya for Arnav!”

“But we were talking for Khushi! She is the elder daughter and we have been speaking about her this whole time.”

“But I assumed you meant Lavanya when you told me that Khushi wasn’t your real daughter.”

“We only mentioned that because we felt that you had a right to know that, but we consider Khushi our eldest daughter! She is our eldest daughter!”

“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, but we have selected Lavanya and she is our choice!”

Khushi looked to Arnav and felt the tears well up in her eyes. She tried to fight the tears back, she didn’t want to start crying, she had faith that Shashi would sort the whole situation out.

“Shashi ji we are sorry for the misunderstanding, however after you told us about both your daughters, we felt that Lavanya would be better for Arnav. She has more of what we think Arnav would want in a wife. Like you said that Khushi wouldn’t want to move away from her in-laws after marriage, and Lavanya wouldn’t mind, we felt that Lavanya would be the better choice because chote has always said that he would want to move out with his wife. Also we thought that Lavanya would be a better choice seeing as she has a much more modern approach to things whereas Khushi has a much more traditional one.”

Shashi turned to his daughters. He could see that Khushi was getting upset. He gestured for Lavanya to take Khushi upstairs. La nodded and led Khushi back upstairs. Once the girls were gone, Shashi turned his attention back to Nani.

“Devyani ji, I understand what you are saying however Lavanya doesn’t want to get married and Khushi, for the first time was really interested in a proposal.”

“I understand, but I think that Lavanya would be a better option for our Arnav!”

Arnav had hoped that he wouldn’t have to bring his and Khushi’s relationship to light, but now with everything getting so complicated and messy, it would make life a lot easier if he just spoke up and told the truth.

“Nani… There’s something…”

“Don’t worry Chote, we will sort this out. I know what kind of woman you are looking for and I know that Lavanya will be perfect for you.”

“But Nani, how could you say that when you haven’t asked me what I want in a wife.”

“Because I know your choice chote, and after speaking to the Kashyap and getting information about both of the girls, I assumed you meant Lavanya when you said you liked one of them.”

Arnav sighed and shook his head.

“My choice is Khushi, I like Khushi.”

Arnav then went to explain how Khushi was his student and how they had fallen in love with each other. He explained how he had wanted to do this properly and wanted his family to pick Khushi out of her own merit as opposed to because he had fallen for her. He explained how he knew what nani was like and how she would have been critical and reserved if he had straight out said that he wanted to marry Khushi. When Arnav was done, he fell silent and waited for soemone to say something. Everyone looked around, slightly confused and then nani spoke.

“Chote if you and Khushi had fallen in love, why didn’t you just tell us? I understand what you have just said and I can see why you felt the need to do all this, but I think you should have had enough faith in me to know that more than anything, I want your happiness. It doesn’t really matter to me whether you have an arranged or a love marriage. All that matters is that you are happy and you have picked someone you think you can build a life with. And if you and Khushi feel that you will be happy with each other, then I will not get in the way. I agree for you to marry Khushi!”

“Really?”

“Yes chote, of course! Khushi was my original choice but then I thought about what you wanted in your wife, so then I changed my mind and chose Lavanya instead!”

Buaji to her feet and said that she would go and get Khushi. She went up to their room to find Lavanya sat on the bed. Buaji raised her eyebrow, asking where Khushi was. Lavanya pointed to the bathroom.

“Tell her to get out of there and to come down quickly, Nani ji has agreed to hers and Arnav’s rishta.”

Lavanya let out a squeal of happiness and knocked on the bathroom door as Buaji left.

“Get out of there, I need to talk to you.”

It took her a moment to finally respond, but when she finally did, she came out of the bathroom, her eyes bright red from all the crying that she had been doing. Lavanya rushed to her side to tell her the good news.

“Oh my god Khushi, guess what!”

“You’re getting married to Arnav!”

“No, Khushi…”

“I’m so sorry La! Please forgive me for having a relationship with your husband!”

“Khushi shut up you nutter and listen to me. He isn’t my husband nor is he going to be.”

“They all prefer you to me! They want you to marry him! And I feel horrible knowing that all your life you will live with him, knowing that he and I shared an intimate relationship.”

“Khushi! Listen to me! I’m not marrying him! You are! They had chosen you originally, but then changed their minds thinking that he would prefer me! But Arnav has told everyone about your relationship and that he wishes to marry you!”

“WHAT? He told everyone everything? What did they say, how did they react?”

“Well I guess they all reacted well because everyone is waiting for you to go down so that we can get this show on the road. So let’s go! They’re all waiting for the beautiful blushing bride!”

Wiping her eyes, Khushi smoothed her clothes down once more and reapplied her lip gloss. When Khushi felt she was finally ready to brace the world again, she took Lavanya’s hand and they made their way downstairs. Nani met Khushi at the bottom of the stairs and took her hands into her own, apologised for the misunderstanding and told her that she was more than happy to be welcoming Khushi into their family. Khushi gave Nani a small smile.

“Come on then, let’s get this ritual started.”

Nani led Khushi over to the sofa and sat her down beside Arnav who gave her hand a squeeze as the rituals for the shagun finally began.

He’s Amazing ~ Part 18 {Reloaded}

“Wow, I can’t believe that no one said anything to Aayaan!”

“I know! I was expecting some more reaction at least. I guess we will never really know how his family reacted to the news.”

Khushi and Lavanya had returned back to university and we’re tidying their things away as they discussed the events of the day before. Aayaan had stayed true to his words and had gathered both families together and had told them that while he did really like Khushi, he did not think that she was the person for him and told both families that he was still in love with his ex-girlfriend from London. He expressed to his parents that he had been respectful to their wishes and that he had tried to engage in a relationship that they approved of but he just couldn’t bring himself to throw himself into it. It had been an extremely awkward conversation and she felt bad for Aayaan because she knew he was doing this for her more than anything else, and she had offered to say something too, but he had told her not to.

After Aayaan and his family had left, Buaji had been in an extremely grumpy mood and highly disappointed that things hadn’t worked out. Shashi had suggested that the girls not waste any more time of their semester and just prepare to go back to university.

“When are you going to tell mom and dad about you and Arnav?

“I’m not sure; I’ll talk to him and see what he says or how he wants to do it.”

“Well whatever you do, do it soon. You know how buaji is; she’s probably looking for another guy for you right now.”

“Yeah, I know. Any way La, I’m running late, I should have already been at Arnav’s by now.”

“Oh yeah, you go and enjoy!”

With that Khushi rushed out of her dormitory. They had been back a while but Khushi hadn’t had the chance to see Arnav again yet. Though she still wasn’t sure about everything that had happened between him and Pooja, she had realised that she loved Arnav more than anything and that she wanted to spend her life with him, no matter what might have happened with him and Pooja. She had thought that she would be able to walk away from him, move on with her life and throw herself into something new, but after seeing him again, after being so close to almost having to let go of him completely, she realised she couldn’t do it, nor did she actually want to do it.

She knocked on Arnav’s door, He opened it and pulled her into the house. He pushed her up against the closed door and kissed her senseless. Khushi hands travelled to his neck and held him close, kissing him with the same amount of passion. When the kiss broke, Arnav lifted Khushi off her feet and took her into his bedroom. It was as he was putting her down onto the bed, that she realised he was wearing nothing but his boxers.

“You haven’t got any clothes on?”

It was a clear statement and she didn’t know why she had asked it as a question, but she had done.

“Why should I have bothered wearing anything when you were going to come and rip them off me any way?”

Before she could say anything, he was on top of her, pulling away her clothes.

“Arnav!”

“I know what you had said, but Khushi I need this more than anything, and I know you want it too! So much crap has happened, we need to do this.”

Khushi thought about it for a moment and knew that she should say no. Her sentiment about waiting until marriage was still something that stuck in her mind, but at the same time, she knew how much he wanted and needed this and she too knew that she really needed this as well. Looping her arms around his neck, she kissed him and smiled at him, showing him that she wanted whatever he wanted.

Pulling her clothes off, he left her in nothing but her bra and panties. Slowly he moved back over her, kissing her neck. Khushi placed her hands around his neck, wrapped one leg around his waist and held him close to herself. His lips travelled south of her body, moving down from her lips to her chin to her neck and carrying on. Hands on her bra, he pulled one side down slightly, freeing one breast as he gently teased the hardened bud with his tongue. He kept his eyes on her as he watched her reactions to his mouth on her. He felt her leg tighten around him as he took the whole nipple between his lips, initially sucking on it lightly and then getting progressively more aggressive. Khushi bit down on her tongue, not wanting to let out any sounds, but as she felt his hand travel down her body, inching towards the waistband of her panties, she could help but breathlessly call out his name.

She caught his hand when she felt him getting into her pants, but he brushed her hand away and continued and let his hand travel into her panties. He touched her down there and she felt overwhelmed at the feel of his hands on her. He moved back up and kissed her on the lips and whilst he had her distracted, he gently pushed a finger into her, making her gasp. Arnav broke the kiss and looked at Khushi. He felt her muscles adjusted around his finger, and then slowly withdrew it. He pushed it back in and let his finger play with her body and when he felt her body had adjusted to his touch, he let a second finger join the party, continuing the rhythm. Khushi couldn’t breath; this was such an overwhelming sensation. She had, had sex with Arnav, but this was so much more. It was so much more intense and she could feel her climax building up nice and strong. Maybe it was because his fingers were able to reach parts of her that he couldn’t reach with his manhood

Arnav could tell Khushi was on the edge and he knew he wanted to really throw her off the edge this time. When they had made love the first time, more than anything it had been a case of their bodies coming together, it was more of the act of sex than actually making love. But this time, he wanted to focus on her and give her a proper orgasm. With this in mind, he took his hands off her and slowly started travelling down her body again, kissing her lips, her neck, her breasts, her stomach and going lower still. Khushi’s hands tangled into his hair as she felt him going further down her body. His hands stroked her inner thighs and before she could say anything, he lowered his head kissed her down there. Khushi gasped and clutched Arnav’s hair as she felt his tongue on her.

“Arnav…”

“I want you baby. All of you…”

He did what he needed to do and Khushi could feel her orgasm building with him. When it finally came, it rocked her entire body and left her breathless. She lay still when the waves stopped crashing within her and Arnav moved back up to her, cradling her in his arms. They lay still in each others arms for a moment and Khushi gave herself the time to let her body and her breathing regulate once more. When she felt like her body had gone back to normal, she turned to face him.

“Arnav, I need you… Make love to me.”

“Are you sure you’re ready?”

“Yes…”

Moving over her once more, he kissed as he slowly joined their bodies in the most intimate way. Taking hold of her leg, he placed it on his waist and he felt her do the same with the other. The act didn’t last long. From the moment he started, he knew that they both wouldn’t last long and he found his release far sooner than he thought he would. He held himself within her for a moment as he kissed her, and then finally rolled off of her and lay back on his side of the bed.

“Arnav…”

“Sleep baby, you’re tired and you need rest.”

Curling into him, Khushi tucked herself into Arnav and soon she felt herself fall asleep and moments later, he too fell asleep. They were both so content, almost as though all of the tensions that they had been dealing with the last few months were no longer an issue and as though they had finally turned a new leaf. They were finally moving on and starting afresh.

*****

“Ok settle down everyone! I apologise that I’m late, I managed to sleep through my alarm this morning.”

Lavanya and Sia giggled, knowing exactly how and why their lecturer had missed his alarm. Khushi had rushed into the dormitory 15 minutes before the lecture was due to start and had run around like a headless chicken, gathering her things and running into the shower. Lavanya had never seen Khushi have a shower so fast, but somehow, she managed to shower in record time and was gathering her things and getting dressed when Lavanya had left for class.

Arnav looked around, looking to see if Khushi had arrived yet. He turned his attention to Lavanya as he addressed her.

“Hasn’t Miss Gupta arrived yet?”

“No sir, she too slept through her alarm this morning, but she should be here soon.”

Before La could even finish what she was saying, Khushi rushed into the room, mumbled an apology and took her seat. Lavanya and Sia nudged her and giggled.

“So Khushi, La was telling me you didn’t come home last night. Tell us, tell us, what happened, where were you?”

“Go away Sia, you don’t need to know!”

“Fine, don’t tell Sia, tell me!”

“Lavanya, I’m not telling you either! Both of you are so nosy.”

“Can you ladies leave Miss Gupta alone? If she doesn’t wish to tell you something, you shouldn’t force her to tell you.”

“Sorry sir.” – Lavanya and Sia said in unison.

Khushi smiled to Arnav gratefully.

The lecture began and her friends stopped bothering her but Khushi couldn’t concentrate on what Arnav was trying to explain to them. Her eyes were fixed on the man in front of her, her boyfriend, her lover and hopefully one day, her husband. Her mind kept going back to the night before. The way he had touched her, how his fingers had pleasured her, how his mouth had pleasured her… Everything he did made her feel so special.

Khushi continued to gaze at him with glassy eyes throughout the lecture, taking in very little of what he was saying.

At the end of the class, when everyone was filing out, Arnav called Khushi back. She waited at her desk and once everyone left, she made her way over to his desk. He lifted her onto his desk and kissed her lightly. The kiss was a short one and Khushi knew that he was preoccupied and that he was about to say something important. Cupping his face, she raised her eyebrows at him.

“What’s the matter Arnav?”

“Khushi, after you left, I spoke to Di. Told her about the fact that you nearly got engaged to some else and I want us to get married, or at least engaged as soon as possible!”

“WHAT! You told Anjali Di that?”

“Yes, and she agreed. So what she is going to do is, tell Nani about your family and the fact that they have two daughters. She will bring Payal into it who will say that she knows both of you quite well. Di will say something about the fact that your family is looking for a groom for you and that Di and Payal both think that you will be the perfect match for me. When Nani asks me, I will agree to marrying you.”

Khushi felt slightly lightheaded as she took in everything that he was saying. Was he being serious?

“I… I don’t know what to say…”

“Say you agree with this plan and that we should go ahead with it.”

“I… It’s so elaborate, why can’t you just tell Nani that we love each other and want to get married to each other? That’s what I planned to do with uncle and aunty when we decided we wanted to take things further.”

“I did consider that but I decided against it. Nani is fixed with traditions and she won’t like the idea that her grandson is marrying someone of his own choice. Regardless of what you are like, she will have reservations about us when going into rishta talks and I worry she won’t give us a fair shot. This way, we all get what we want without anyone’s thoughts or values getting hurt.”

“See this is why I love you, so thoughtful about everyone around yourself.”

“Why thank you. Any way, I feel that you should let Lavanya know so that she doesn’t say anything to anyone in her family regarding the fact that we already know each other and that we are already seeing each other.”

“I will, but what about your family. You know, NK, Payal Jiji, Anjali Di, Shyam Jijaji, Akaash, they all know me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get all of them to play along! Also, you don’t have to call Payal “Jiji.” When we get married by relation she will be younger then you, so you don’t have to call her Jiji. And in actual age she’s only a little older than you any way.”

“I know and she told me not to, but she said that I’m like a sister to her and I’ve always wanted a sister older than me. So she fits the bill perfectly and I like calling her jiji. But I guess after marriage I’ll have two older sisters wont I? Anjali Di and Payal Jiji.”

“I cant wait for nani to meet you. You’re the perfect person for our family. You have everything she’s been looking in a bride for me.”

“I’m glad you think that!”

“You know Khushi, when nani used to go on about what my wife should be like; I thought that I would have hell of a time trying to find someone that would fit the bill. But after finding you… You’re everything nani wants while being everything I want too.”

“Why did you think it would be hard to find someone you like who would be nani’s choice too?”

“Well nani wanted someone who would be very traditional and attached to home and family. I used to think that if I got married to someone like that, I would be doomed as she would be too busy serving everyone else. I wanted someone who would be about me more than anyone else.”

“And what do you think now?”

Arnav moved over and hugged Khushi from behind.

“I think I’m safe. I know just how amazing you are, just how loving you are and how much you care about me. I have nothing to worry about because I know that while you will care for my family, I will always be most important to you and that’s all that matters to me. You’re everything I want in a wife!”

“Who says after marriage I’ll give you time?”

Khushi wiggled her eyebrows at him playfully and he smirked.

“I know what you are like, you won’t be able to resist me. All I have to do is look at you and touch you in a certain way and you’ll be putty in my hands.”

“I think you are overestimating how much of an affect you have on me.”

“Khushi, baby, you know you can never resist me, I don’t know why you’re trying to convince either of us otherwise.”

Khushi turned in Arnav’s arms and kissed him.

“You know me so well… I love you so much Arnav, and all of this… I can’t believe we’re actually speaking about marriage already, it’s like all of my dreams are slowly becoming a reality and I don’t know how to react.”

“Just be happy and enjoy it all. It’s all happening and this is our reality! I can’t wait to start making every single one of you dreams come true! I love you so much and the thought of us moving forward with our lives… I’m so excited!”

As Arnav and Khushi hugged, they couldn’t help but start feeling excited about what was coming next. Their life was moving forward at full speed now and they couldn’t be more ready.

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!”

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? 

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.”

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!”