Chapter 7

7

Khushi was back in her hotel by 6 in the evening from her meeting with the client. She had two more hours till her dinner with Arnav. So she decided to pamper herself with a long, comforting bath.

As she relaxed in the plush bathtub, she remembered her encounter with Arnav in fragments. A small smile crept up her lips as she remembered how he had loathed Rohan. Now that she thought about it she wondered if Arnav had been jealous! No matter how arrogant he mostly was, he was somewhat sweet at times.

Khushi had been really touched when she had received a small parcel early in the morning that day. There were two strips of pain killers accompanied by a prescription – nothing else. Coming from Arnav Singh Raizada, though she knew probably his PA got this arranged, this really touched her heart. He was not really happy knowing she was actually scoring him on a scale. Now that she thought about it, probably she would not have been happy either if she were in his place. He still made peace with her in the end and agreed to meet her again, for her sake only. She thanked Devi Maiya for the turn of events that perhaps calmed him down.

Hardly did Khushi realize, though there would be no lack of pretense, but for Arnav, agreeing to meet her again was more than just for her sake. That is why Arnav Singh Raizada bothered to text her on his own, setting the time for their dinner. "8 pm, ok?" was what he finally typed and sent after trying a number of other fragments. He was less than satisfied when he received only a smiley in reply. Could not she just type two-three words? However, he did smile a little before locking his phone screen. That smiley really suited her.

"You deserve some numbers for the parcel, Arnav," Khushi murmured as she looked at herself in the mirror, "but my bad. I promised not to score you before we meet again."

She dressed herself in a chocolate chudidar and put on a pair of little Turquoise earrings matching with the embroidery of the dress. She was happy with the way she looked. She was surprised realizing how conscious she was to look good tonight. It was very unlikely of her. Khushi suddenly felt a bit alarmed; she felt her obsession was slowly being replaced with something else – something she could not quite fathom but she feared might get more dangerous.

All lost in confusion, Khushi entered the restaurant when it was few minutes to 8. She chose a seat overlooking the swimming pool. Arnav arrived just in time and walked towards the table relaxed, eyeing Khushi with ease. Khushi, on the other hand, had difficulty appearing unaffected because she was mentally drooling over Arnav in a plain white shirt & denim. This was the first time she was seeing him in casuals and she was floored.

Arnav pulled a chair opposite to her, still eyeing her. Taking his seat, he looked into his eyes and softly greeted her.

"Hi."

All Khushi could manage was a nervous smile.

"Namastey".

Arnav was little surprised with her reply but nodded his head smilingly. Without any ado, he started going through the menu as it was handed over by the over-enthused waiter.

"They have really good Italian dishes here. I come here sometimes."

"Accha."

"So shall I order for you too?"

"Ji, please."

"What sort of sauce do you prefer for pasta? Tomato or cream?"

"Anything will do."

"Great. Would you like something for starter? Or should I order a risotto for you, if you don't like pasta?"

"I will have anything."

Arnav was a bit surprised the way Khushi was behaving. He was never famous for his conversation skills and here he could feel he was the one trying to strike up a conversation. What was wrong with her? Without probing her further, he ordered for both of them.

"So Khushi, where do I stand today?"

"Ji?"

"Is it still 23? I guess it is not under 20 yet."

Khushi widened her eyes and flushed a bit. She was getting bowled out by Arnav from the very beginning today. Firstly, he floored her with his looks. Then he greeted her casually. Then he initiated the conversation, ordered food for both and now he was casually asking his score. What has gotten into him?

Arnav looked at Khushi's awe-struck expression and smiled slightly – a pampering one.

"I thought about it later, Khushi. You were right. I am the one who preaches for number. So I should rather appreciate that you decided to take things practically and sort it out logically. I never believed in theories or concepts without proofs and numbers anyways. So, you can stop stressing your eyes now and tell me where I stand at this point. You said you want to be transparent, didn't you?"

Khushi tried to ease herself. She took a sip of her orange juice and looked straight at Arnav. Why was she getting nervous? If he could play smart and comfortable, so could she.

"Well, Arnav. I decided not to score you for whatever happened between us after I told you I was scoring you. So you were at 23 then and I will carry on from there today."

"Fine. So before we depart today, I would like to know my score."

"Sure."

"But something tells me if you continued scoring, I might have had a better score right now. Are you trying to fail me?"

" Yes. That was the ultimate reason for this whole thing, was not it? I made myself very clear to you why I wanted this. But of course, that was not the reason why I paused the scoring at that point. It was just that things went wrong between us and I just thought we could start on the right note again."

Arnav felt a strange twitch in his heart as she so bluntly admitted that she wanted him to fail. He could feel rage rising but he also felt something more than rage that did not allow him to take out his anger on her.

"I will be my true self for keeping things more transparent. I am interested to see how you find me as I really am."

An awkward silence suddenly took over the table as Khushi did not know what to say in reply. She could feel there was something different about Arnav today. He still had the arrogance radiating from him but there was something else adding to it, making her feel uncomfortable.

They were saved as the food arrived. Without bantering, they started eating their food. Arnav was his usual chivalrous self – pouring her water, serving her salad, asking her how was the food. He seemed very much at ease while Khushi was the one having cold feet tonight. She played with her food wondering what to say to him. What was the use of spending time if they were not talking?

Lost in her thought, Khushi kept twisting the spaghetti round and round around her fork. Suddenly her fork slipped causing a lump of spaghetti to fly off towards Arnav. Arnav too startled to react had to give in to the assault and he sat stiff with the strands of spaghetti accompanied by the aromatic tomato sauce sliding down the chest of his milk white shirt.

"What the …" he growled.

Khushi was staring at his ruined shirt shocked, her jaw dropping. She slowly looked up to meet Arnav's eyes and saying those were glaring will be an understatement. None of them said a word looking at each other's eyes, taking time to fathom how to react.

Before Arnav could even decide whether to be angry with her or just plain & simple ignore her, drops of tears started to leave her large hazel eyes. Arnav was completely taken aback by her reaction and instantly forgot about the mess he was sitting in. He even forgot to comfort her. He kept staring at the teardrops and jerked back to reality as the waiter approached him if he needed any help. He simply waved him aside and concentrated on Khushi. She was completely silent while tears kept streaming down her cheeks from her innocent eyes. Arnav got flustered.

"It is ok, Khushi. It was just an accident."

Khushi remained silent.

"Why are you crying? I am not hurt. It is just my shirt."

Arnav could hear slight sobs. That's an improvement!

"Please, Khushi. You are embarrassing me even more now."

And the dam broke.

"I am sorry. Forgive me, please!" She uttered between continuous sobbing and sniffing.

"Ok, ok. First, please stop crying, Khushi. Please." Arnav was visibly embarrassed by now.

"Why these things always happen to me?" Her sobbing continued. "I ruined your trousers last night. And tonight your shirt .. that too a white shirt."

"Khushi, please. It is ok. I will just clean up. Will you please stop?"

"How? Look at what I have done. I have ruined our dinner." She wiped her nose with the napkin.

"No, no. We will continue our dinner. Just let me clean up ok. And stop crying. I am going to the restroom, ok? Please compose yourself."

Arnav almost ran away to the restroom. He was completely flabbergasted at Khushi's reaction.

"She is crazy," Arnav thought while cleaning his shirt and a small smile appeared as he remembered her eyes full of tears, "but she is cute."