FF: Temporary Insanity - Part 14

Read all previous parts of this series over here.

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Part 14

Arnav stretched out an arm lazily and then opened his eyes quickly when he encountered only empty sheets. He watched in silence for a few minutes, a slow grin adorning his face as Khushi whizzed around the room getting dressed. ‘Khushi,’ he drawled lazily as he sat up slightly and stretched his arms.

Khushi looked over her shoulder briefly but continued to brush her hair, ‘hmm?’

‘Why are you getting ready? Come back to bed. Don’t you want to show me what else you taught Akash?’

Khushi’s face coloured instantly, the shyness that hadn’t made a single appearance during the night suddenly overtaking her all at once as she remembered everything in vivid detail. She ignored Arnav though, knowing that getting involved in that type of conversation with him so early in the morning would make her later than she already was.

Arnav pulled his legs out of the blanket and to the side of the bed and began to stand up and walk towards Khushi when his foot came into contact with something large and heavy and he tripped and fell.

The sight of a naked Arnav sprawled at her feet had Khushi in a fit of giggles and she held her waist to prevent a stitch forming as Arnav got up with a litany of curses, rubbing his shoulder in pain and turned around to look at the source of his humiliation.

‘What the... What’s this Khushi?’

‘It’s a... a... sui.... a sui...’ Khushi covered her mouth with one hadn’t trying to stifle her giggles and held the other one out to Arnav by way of apology as he stood there with his hands on his hips trying to look formidable and intimidating. The fact that he was naked and that he’d fallen over less than 2 minutes ago considerably lessened the impact his stance would normally have had. ‘Suit... suitcase,’ she finally managed to get out breathlessly.

Arnav sighed, ‘I can see it’s a suitcase Khushi. Why do you have a suitcase out?’

Khushi turned back to the mirror still laughing to examine the damage to her face. Her eyeliner had smudged slightly where her eyes had teared up while she’d been laughing and she began to wipe it away. ‘Well if you knew what it was, why did you ask? I forgot to pack last night, so I have to do it all today.’

‘Pack?’ Arnav finally located his boxers near the end of the bed and went to pull them on, ‘where are we going?’

‘We’re not going anyway Arnav. I’m going to Lucknow.’

‘What?!’

Khushi continued to reapply her eyeliner even as Arnav came to stand behind her and glare at her through the mirror.

‘Why are you going to Lucknow? You never told me!’

‘I’m going on honeymoon,’ she said airily as she put down the eyeliner and picked up her mascara.

‘What the f... honeymoon? On your own?’ He folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at her waiting for her response.

‘Arnav. How could I go on my own?’

Even before the smirk had fully formed on his face she continued and his face fell back into a scowl.

‘Everybody’s going. Jeeji, Jeejaji, Dhruv, Suhanaji, Di and Nanheji. We’re all leaving tonight.’

He narrowed his eyes as his brain processed all the information he’d just received, ‘You’re going to Lucknow? On a group honeymoon? Without me?’

Khushi began to put away her make-up and looked up at Arnav in the mirror’s reflection. ‘No need to thank me Arnav. I know you don’t like the whole ‘group honeymoon thing’ so I saved you the trouble of having to refuse and told Jeejaji not to bother inviting you since you’d say no anyway.’

‘I... I... well... good! I don’t want to come on a stupid group honeymoon anyway!’

Khushi stood up and smiled widely before she patted his shoulder condescendingly, ‘I knew you wouldn’t.’

 ‘But... but... how long are you going for?’ Arnav spluttered as Khushi began to walk towards the door.

‘Oh not long, just two weeks,’ she caught a glance of his mouth falling open in shock as she closed the door behind her, her smile turning into a full blown grin.