FF: 30 Days - Day 6

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Day 6

Arnav opened the door to find Khushi standing at the mirror fixing her hair. He smiled involuntarily when he noticed she was wearing a saree. She rarely wore them because she always seemed to trip up in them, even more so than usual although it never bothered Arnav. Catching her as she tripped just gave him more chances to be close to his beautiful wife.

'Arnav, we're going to be late! What took you so long?'

'We're not going to be late, just let me change and then we can leave.' Arnav closed the door behind him and picked up the clothes laid out on the bed before he made his way to the bathroom. Normally Arnav hated parties; he preferred spending his evenings alone, just him and Khushi. Khushi however loved parties, she loved the atmosphere, the people, the food and Arnav loved watching her smile. Today was going to be different though, Arnav planned on enjoying the party and he looked forward to seeing Khushi desperate to leave.

***

Khushi got out of the car and walked next to Arnav. As she saw Akash put his hand on Payal's back to usher he inside the doors she looked up expectantly at Arnav. Arnav only held the door open with one hand and held his other up by his shoulder apologetically, 'no touching, promise!'

After they'd been sitting at their table for an hour in which Khushi, Akash and Payal talked about nothing except the wedding Arnav decided it was time to put his plan into action. He looked around the room before his gaze fell on a woman sitting on her own at the next table. He got up murmuring 'I'll just be back,' near to Khushi's ear but she only waved him away distractedly.

'What's Bhai doing?'

Khushi looked up from her conversation with Payal as Akash spoke. She'd assumed Arnav had gone to talk to some business associate or something but she watched wide-eyed as Arnav led some woman by the hand to the dance floor. 'He's... He's... what?'

Arnav felt all three pairs of eyes on him as he danced with the woman. She had told him her name but he hadn't been paying any attention, concentrating only on Khushi's reaction. He put some pressure on the woman's back pulling her closer to him as they danced. It didn't feel at all good. The woman wasn't the right height, she wasn't clumsy enough, wasn't pretty enough, she wasn't right. She wasn't Khushi, basically. Arnav hadn't danced with anyone except Khushi in over a year and it felt strange but he resisted the urge to let the woman go and pretended to be listening to what she was saying.

Finally the song finished and Arnav was relieved to be able to release the woman. He smiled at her charmingly before he offered her his hand again to walk her back to the table. As they walked he saw Khushi looking at him with daggers in her eyes, muttering to herself and shredding the napkin in her hand into tiny pieces. He took his time, pulling out the chair for the woman and making sure she was seated properly before he walked back to their table and sat down nonchalantly.

Khushi didn't speak to Arnav for the rest of the night although he tried to provoke her into responding. He had been planning on dancing with more women but he was thankful that his plan had already had its desired effect without him having to dance with anyone else. He went to bed feeling pleased with himself as he watched Khushi fuss around with her jewellery still avoiding his gaze.

Arnav woke up some time before dawn to find Khushi snuggled up to him, arms around his waist and no sign of the pillows that had separated them for the past week. He smiled as he pulled her closer and felt her mumble unintelligible words into his chest. Now this felt right, this was the body that was meant to be aligned with his.