FF: It's Not Right - Chapter 13

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Chapter 13

'Finally,' Arnav said to himself as he saw Khushi coming out of the house. He'd had the engine running for five minutes already, anxious to get home and show Khushi off to Di, as if she was some present he'd bought home for his sister.

After they'd been driving for about ten minutes Arnav realised that Khushi still hadn't spoken yet. He thought back to what she'd said about leaving him and his family alone. He couldn't remember his exact words but it was very likely that he would have said something like that in anger but her silence still annoyed him. 'Since when did you start listening to me anyway?'

'Huh? What?' Khushi had been thinking about what she should say to Anjali, how would she go from refusing to talk to someone one day to turning up at their house the next without any awkwardness.

'You said I told you to leave me alone, so you did. I don't remember you ever listening to me before.'

Khushi couldn't tell from his tone what he was trying to achieve, was he needling her or genuinely asking her? 'Well they say if you always do the same thing you always get the same result so I tried something different. In my case however the result was the same as usual.'

'What? What are you going on about?'

'You. You're the result, every single time no matter what I do there you are. Shouting at me and telling me what to do as usual. In case you forgot I don't work for you anymore Mr Raizada.'

Khushi only rarely addressed him directly and even then as 'Arnavji' but her calling him 'Mr Raizada' when she was fine with calling that man 'Abhi' tipped him over the edge of his annoyance with her. 'Believe me, I haven't forgotten about your amazing new job and amazing new boss.'

This time Khushi recognised Arnav's obvious sarcasm but she didn't understand it. Was he trying to insinuate something about Abhi? 'Yes, he is amazing. Do you have a problem with that?'

Arnav suddenly turned to stare at her, 'what's your problem? Are you trying to get out of this?' Arnav stopped the car at the side of the road 'Fine, get out, go home, whatever. I don't care!'

Khushi looked around in shock, it would take her at least 30 minutes to walk home from here. 'What?! The only reason I'm even here is because of you! You were the one that came to me and demanded I come with you! And now you're saying 'get out'? No. No way. I came with you because you said Anjaliji wanted to see me but if you've changed your mind then fine but you are going to drop me home. I'm not going anywhere!'

'Do you plan on spending the rest of your life in my car then?' Arnav gritted his teeth in frustration and started the car.

Khushi was about to answer back when she noticed he wasn't turning the car around. She allowed herself a small smile. It would be nice to see Anjali again, Khushi hadn't liked the idea of just cutting off all contact although most of her family members and Shyam had all approved of it.

As soon as they reached the house Khushi got out of the car and scurried to the door praying somebody would open the door quickly so she could avoid being alone with Arnav any longer. He was just so difficult all the time. Thankfully Jai Prakash opened the door before Arnav had made his way to the door and Khushi quickly went inside to search for Anjali.

Arnav followed into the house muttering to himself, 'can't this girl do anything without turning it into a drama production?' He watched her go towards the kitchen and had a bizarre notion of following her but instead he went upstairs to his room.

***

Arnav fought off the desire to see exactly what Khushi and his Di were up to for three hours. Anjali had been up briefly to thank him for bringing Khushi but he hadn't heard anything from either of them since.  It was 5 now so he figured he could at least go down on the pretence of asking Khushi what time she wanted to go home.

He put away his laptop and went downstairs. He saw them immediately sitting on opposite ends of the sofa. Khushi had her feet folded underneath her and was gesticulating wildly with her arms to Di about something causing Di to laugh. Why couldn't Khushi make him laugh he wondered, why did she only do things to annoy him. He ignored the voice in his head saying 'maybe it's you that's the problem, not her.'

Khushi suddenly felt somebody watching her and looked up to see Arnav staring at her as he walked down the stairs. She stopped talking and looked down avoiding his gaze. She wasn't sure if she was still angry at him or not, he made her all confused. She didn't like his dictatorial attitude and the way he had forced her to come here but she had to admit she had enjoyed herself. Anjaliji had been so nice about the whole phone thing and they'd spent the whole time just talking about so many things that they'd never had a chance to talk about while Khushi had been training Lavanya.

'Chote? Come here and sit with us for a bit, you've been working all afternoon.'

Arnav sat down on the couch facing them. He wasn't sure how to approach Khushi about going home. Every sentence in his head sounded too domesticated and almost couple-y.

He watched as Khushi fiddled with her dupatta and fidgeted in her seat putting her feet down and stuffing them into her shoes again before catching his eye for the briefest millisecond and then standing up. 'Anjaliji, I should be going now.'

Arnav stood up as well pleased that he wouldn't have to bring up the subject himself. 'I'll just get my keys.'

'Keys?' Khushi looked at him with her eyes wide in shock. 'No, no I can go by myself.'

Arnav ignored Khushi and went to get his keys, 'wait here.'

'What are you saying Khushiji? Of course Chote will drop you off it's not problem.' Anjali hugged Khushi bye while Khushi wondered what was wrong with Anjali. She never seemed to be able to tell when Khushi was uncomfortable in Arnav's presence, which was pretty much 90% of the time.

Khushi waited until she and Arnav were outside before speaking 'I'll take a taxi.' She intentionally avoided looking at Arnav and began to walk towards the gate. If she was honest she expected the hand on her arm earlier than it came but it wasn't as forceful as she had been expecting.

Arnav pulled on her hand gently to make her face him, it annoyed him when people didn't look at him and Khushi had a habit of doing it practically every time she spoke. 'Khushi, you're doing me a favour by visiting Di, you shouldn't have to take taxis to come and go. Now stop being obstinate and get in the car.'

'But I'm not doing this for you... I mean, I like Anjaliji, I like spending time with her.'
Arnav waited until Khushi had gotten in and closed the door behind her before going around to his own side. 'Khushi you haven't talked to her in two weeks and you only came today because I forced you to.'

'If you could remember properly you'd know I didn't speak to her because you didn't want me to!'

Arnav glared at Khushi. Why did she always have to remind him of all the stupid things he said. 'Whatever. When are you coming again?'

'Oh, I told Anjaliji I'd come next week.'

'Saturday? Okay I'll pick you up at 12ish?'

'What? No, you don't need to pick me up, I'll come by myself.'

'Khushi, I said I'd pick you up and I will. Whenever you want to come, just ring me or ask Di to send a car. Understand?'

He watched Khushi nod before she started muttering to herself in a low voice, obviously calling him all sorts of bad names to her Devi Maiyya.

They didn't talk on the way to her house but there was no tension like there usually was. It was almost companionable. Arnav waited until he'd seen Khushi go into her house before he turned the car around and drove home trying to figure out the conflicting emotions in his head.

Khushi annoyed him. Definitely, yes. Therefore the less he saw her and spoke to her the less she would annoy him. Also yes. So then why had he spent all afternoon trying and failing to come up with a non-lame excuse for going downstairs and seeing her?