FF: It's Not Right - Chapter 30

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Chapter 30

Khushi sighed as she looked at her phone. Arnav should have called her by now. He’d said he would call her just before the flight took off but an hour had passed and his phone was still switched off. She put the phone down on the dresser and began to get ready. All the preparations were done and the guests would be arriving soon and then Rohan would be bringing Abhi. Khushi couldn’t wait to see the expression on his face when he came in.

Khushi bit her lip to stop herself smiling as she reapplied concealer on her neck and face hiding the marks Arnav had caused last night.

‘Chamkili!’ Lavanya rushed over to hug Khushi as Payal and Anjali entered the room as well.

They all greeted each other although Khushi spoke to Payal slightly awkwardly after the argument at the Gupta House last night. Buaji had demanded to know where Khushi had been and then their mother had gotten involved claiming that Khushi going out so late at night would have people talking, especially since she spent all day out as well. And then there would be no possibility of getting Payal married to a nice man. Khushi had listened silently until Babuji had intervened and stopped their tirades.

She hadn’t been angry with Payal at the time for not saying anything but as she had lain in bed thinking about Arnav and then thinking about what Amma and Buaji had said she’d started to feel resentful. She spent all day working, earning money for the house not just out gallivanting. If Payal worked too, maybe Khushi wouldn’t have to spend all day out of the house.

‘Come on, we have to go down. Abhi will be here soon!’

---

‘I’ve arrived.’

‘Chote, was the flight okay? How’s the weather? Where are you now? Are you still at the Airport or have you gone to the hotel?’

Arnav answered all of Anjali’s questions blankly, his mind still on Khushi as it had been the entire flight. 5 Hours into the flight he’d come to the conclusion that he was jealous. Which was ridiculous. Arnav Singh Raizada didn’t do jealous. Lots of women in the past had tried and failed to incite that particular emotion in him but apparently Khushi Kumari Gupta could make him jealous without even trying.

‘Ridiculous,’ he said out loud to himself as Aman directed him to their car. So what if she preferred Abhinav? So what if she dressed up for Abhinav and not him. He didn’t care. If she wanted to break up with him and date Abhinav that was fine by him. Perfectly fine... Except it wasn’t.

Arnav sighed. He was getting too attached. Khushi was almost becoming part of his life. It had become almost routine now to call her up and see her every time he’d had a trying day at work. She no longer hovered on the fringes of his life as she had done since the day he’d met her but had slowly started to encroach on his private inner circle which for the past 12 years had only included his family.

This business trip had come at the perfect time. Two weeks away from Khushi should be enough time to get his feelings in check. Then he could go back to India and he’d be more careful this time. He’d been so guilt-ridden over his accusations against her that he’d given her special treatment. Treatment never afforded to any of his previous girlfriends.

Even with Lavanya, before she’d moved in, apart from at work they barely saw each other even once a week. He’d probably been on more dates with Khushi in one month than he had been on with Lavanya in the whole 7 months they’d been together.

And that ridiculous anniversary date. What had he been thinking? It had been partly an attempt at apologising for the way he’d shouted at her. But only partly he admitted to himself; the rest had been purely stupid sentimental crap. Arnav groaned and pushed a hand through his hair as he watched the heavy rain pound against the car window.

---

Khushi woke up and scrunched up her nose as she realised what day it was. He was supposed to return today. Not that she cared.

She had spent the first three days checking her phone constantly for a phone call, a text message, a missed call, anything. The next two she’d been angry. She’d taken out her anger on her family, on Anjali, Abhi and even Akash on one occasion. Then she’d cried for an entire day. And now she didn’t care. She had spent the last week doing everything possible to not think about him and it had actually worked most of the time.

Buaji and Amma were even more annoyed with her now than they had been before since she’d been out almost every night that week but for once in her life, Khushi didn’t care... well she was doing a perfect job of pretending she didn’t at the very least.

---

‘What did you say?’ Arnav looked up from where he was taking off his shoes to look at Anjali who was taking his clothes out of his suitcase.

‘Khushi’s boss? Abhi? It was his party we went to.’

Arnav pursed his lips as Anjali told him about how much fun the party was and how much she’d enjoyed herself. He was torn between feeling annoyed hearing about Khushi and Abhinav and feeling happy about Anjali’s happiness. This was the first time since Shyam’s truth had come out that he’d seen her so animated.

She held out her phone to him and he reluctantly went through the pictures. There were pictures of Abhinav, Khushi, Anjali, Payal, Akash, Lavanya and lots of people Arnav didn’t recognise in various combinations. The pictures of Abhinav and Khushi on their own had the vein in his temple throbbing and the other pictures made him feel an odd sort of restlessness.

The air of friendship was obvious in all of the pictures and Arnav thought about his own friends. There was only Akash and Aman he would ever consider friends and neither of them really counted since one was his brother and the other was his employee. Since the death of his parents he hadn’t had any time for friends or activities that didn’t result in a monetary profit, but he’d never really regretted it before now.

Arnav felt his heart lurch at the last picture that filled the screen. It was a picture of just Khushi and Anjali smiling widely and his own lips unconsciously curved into a smile.

It had been hard enough not talking to Khushi while he’d been in London but now he wanted to call her immediately, see her immediately, thank her profusely for returning his sister to him, for returning that smile to her face and to to see her own smile in person, not on a tiny phone screen.

As Anjali spoke about the numerous times she’d met Khushi over the past two weeks, the desire to see Khushi grew and grew. He wanted to experience her crazy and cute ways himself, not hear about them from someone else.

Khushi had obviously not only intruded on his own inner circle but also his family’s. As Arnav surreptitiously forwarded the picture of Khushi and Anjali to his own phone he realised that the idea didn’t bother him as much as it had done two weeks earlier.

---

‘I’m outside. Can you come out?’

Khushi blinked rapidly and finally closed her mouth from the gasp it had fallen into since she’d seen his name appear on her phone. ‘Yes. Okay. Give me 2 minutes.’

She hastily tied her hair up in a bun and picked up her bag before making her way to the living room and telling her father she was going out for a while, ignoring the disapproving looks her Mother and Aunt shot her.