FF: It's Not Right - Chapter 7

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Chapter Seven

Khushi couldn't concentrate on her work at all. Lavanya had done her such a huge favour and found her this job as a receptionist after Shyam had been unable to find her one. Today was her first day but judging from the amount of work she still had left to do it might probably be her last as well.

She couldn't help but think about Arnav and her mind kept imagining all these scenarios is which she would accidentally run into him. Payal had joked last week that it was almost as if Khushi couldn't wait to see Arnav again. Obviously Khushi had denied it adamantly at the time but as more days passed without even the promise of seeing him she began to wonder if it might be true.

When she had hated him and prayed every morning that her day should pass without even seeing his shadow he had been everywhere all at once. And now, when she... 'When I what? Miss him? What kind of stupid thinking is that, Khushi? How could you miss that devil? He's done nothing but trouble you since you met. Now even his family is troubling me. How hard is it for Anjali to make one phone call and at least let me know what's going on. He could be married by now for all I know!'

She remembered the last time she had seen Arnav. She had planned it all out by the time she got to the Raizada living room. She repeated it over in her head; Arnav wasn't ready for marriage after his break up and she didn't want to anger him any more by interfering and so on. Then she saw Nani and Anjali's hopeful faces as she descended the stairs and every word she had been planning to say escaped her head. She'd somehow convinced them that Arnav didn't want to be disturbed by details and for them to look for a wife without bothering him. Khushi had even offered her own services to help reject girls once Nani found some prospects but going by the lack of phone calls from Anjali they didn't need her.

'Okay, okay. I've already lost two jobs because of this Arnav Singh Raizada, I can't lose this one too,' Khushi told herself and began typing up a letter for her boss when the phone rang. She jumped to answer the phone, although she didn't know why. 'It's not like Anjali even has this number. Hello?'

***

Arnav closed the document in frustration; there were so many mistakes in it. Most of them of his own making. He hadn't been able to concentrate on any of his work for days. It was obviously Khushi Kumari Gupta's fault. Even when she wasn't in his life, she still managed to ruin things.

Arnav picked up his phone to call Lavanya and see if she could attempt to fix this disaster of a contract. It had taken them a while but Lavanya was no longer awkward around him. It seemed so natural to just slip back into work mode as if the 6 months they'd dated and the month she had spent in his home had never even happened. Arnav slammed the phone back on its cradle finding Lavanya's line busy and looked briefly up at the calendar on his desk. 'Unbelievable,' he spoke to himself.

Three whole weeks. She had managed to stay silent for three whole weeks. Almost every day he had expected Khushi to turn up to his office and try to convince him to get married to some girl or some such nonsense and every day he'd been disappointed. The disappointment didn't end in the office either. As much as he expected her to turn up to the office he doubly expected her to be at his house chatting with Nani and Di. He'd tried leaving for work late, going home early, going home for lunch and even just randomly stopping at home on his way to and from meetings hoping to catch her out but she'd never been there.

He just couldn't believe that it had finally happened. Khushi Kumari Gupta had learned to leave him and his affairs alone. 'Well of course she can forget me easily. She doesn't have Di and Nani extolling her virtues every other second.'

The idea of Khushi just brushing him and his family aside so easily irritated Arnav and he wasn't sure why. He should just be glad to be rid of her, the whys and whens shouldn't matter. Realising that he was thinking about Khushi instead of working again Arnav picked up the phone to try Lavanya again. He slammed the phone down in disgust this time as he got a busy signal again. She must be on the phone gossiping to one of her simpering friends, no business call would take this long.

Arnav grabbed his jacket, putting it on as he walked down the stairs and burst into Lavanya's office to find her lounging in her chair with her feet up on the desk laughing into her phone, 'Lavanya!'

Lavanya instantly stopped laughing, 'sorry Chamkili, I have to go.' She put the phone down and rushed towards Arnav. 'I'm so sorry ASR, did you need something?'

Arnav hadn't heard anything beyond 'Chamkili'. What was this? Even Lavanya was talking to Khushi now?

'Unbelievable,' he said out loud to himself again. So she had all the time in the world to talk to Lavanya, but couldn't come to his house even once?

'I'm really sorry ASR, it was just that Khushi was just telling me all about her new job and I didn't realise we'd been talking so long.' Lavanya prattled on, unaware that the source of his irritation was not that she had been on the phone but rather who she had been on the phone with.

His head jerked up as he took in what Lavanya said, 'new job? What? What does she need a job for?'

'What are you talking about ASR? Of course she needs a job, she needs the money. That was the only reason she agreed to help me b...'

Arnav thrust the file into Lavanya's hands and barked 'fix this' at her before storming back up to his office.

New job? She had a new job? What kind of job? More importantly what kind of boss? The idea of some guy manhandling his Kh... no, not his. 'What does she even need a new job for? Does she hate me that much she couldn't even ask me to give her a job in the office again?' He asked himself as he found himself picking up the phone to ring Lavanya again.

Lavanya picked up the phone almost as soon as it began to ring, 'yes, ASR? I'm, really sorry, I didn't mean to bring up the whole thing about us...'

'Lavanya! Where is Khushi working? Who for?'

'Huh? Khushi? Oh ASR, you don't have to worry it's a really good job with Abhinav Sinha's ad agency. You know him right? I found it for her myself, actually you know I thought it would be perfect for Khushi because see she likes Salman Khan and I always thought Abhinav kind of reminded me of him so I thought it would be really cute if Khushi and Abhinav...'

Arnav slammed the phone down. He really didn't want to hear what Lavanya thought Khushi and Abhinav could get up to. What was wrong with women? Couldn't they live their lives without trying to pair up every single person?

'And what is this nonsense with Salman Khan? Is he the type of guy people even like?' Arnav muttered to himself as he tried to place Abhinav Sinha in his mind and conjure up a mental image.

Arnav rarely watched films unless Di and Akash forced him to go with them but he was familiar enough with Salman Khan to know he didn't like him. Not that he had had any particular dislike of Salman Khan until that moment.

Suddenly there was a very vivid image in his mind of Khushi and some guy who could have been either Abhinav or Salman it didn't really matter which. What mattered was that the guy was kissing Khushi. His Kh... no, not his.

Arnav groaned and pushed himself up from his chair, trying to forget the image in his mind and concentrate on finding a certain file.