Chapter 37

rulama

@rulama

[MEMBERSONLY]

[NOCOPY]

MARRYING KHUSHI

Part 33

Section 1

"Khushi!" ASR called her.

Khushi gasped in shock, turned away her head to wipe away her tears, and stood up and turned to face him.

"Ji."

"The dressing table will be brought here tomorrow." he said, his voice husky, low.

Khushi nodded.

"Khushi, come with me. I will shift my files and make space for your clothes."

Khushi followed him.

As they shifted files and clothes, ASR tried to talk to her, but she blocked him every time with silence or monosyllabic answers. She was thinking furiously about the revelations that evening.

"Khushi, if you need to go shopping, just mention it to Di." ASR said, looking hopefully at her.

Khushi's eyes were on her bottle of chavanprash. He was rich!

"If you need anything, tell me."

Khushi looked at the jooti in her hand. He owned Sheesh Mahal!

"I will ask Di to bring you to my office tomorrow. You can meet my employees. You know Aman, of course."

Khushi squeezed the life out of the box of channa in her hand. And girls liked him?

"I will have to go to Lucknow next month for the fashion show at Sheesh Mahal. You can come with me if you want to. We can meet Amma, Babuji, and Buaji."

Khushi strangled a bottle of chameli ka tel. Did he like the girls?

"Take Mittu along if you want to. I..." ASR was not fated to complete the sentence.

"Do you like girls?" she blurted out.

ASR's eyebrows hit his hairline.

What the! Had his lack of action on their wedding night prompted her to think that he... that he... ASR opened and closed his mouth like a landed fish.

"I mean... the girls who proposed marriage to you..." she tailed off.

ASR swallowed in relief.

"I don't know... I mean, Nani dealt with such crap. I have no idea who proposed and what." ASR confessed.

"Oh!" Khushi sighed in relief.

"Why did you ask, Khushi?" His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Nothing." She bundled her clothes in to the space provided and stood up. "I am sleepy. Good night."

ASR spent a good part of the night looking at the sweet face of his bride as she slept, exhausted after such fruitless and furious thinking.

Why had she asked him about other girls? ASR wondered. Was she... was she jealous of them? Joy flooded his heart. Would this spark of jealousy, if fanned, help him get through her blank face and distant demeanour to her heart? He was tired of being kept out of her head and heart. He was scared of her silence. The look of fear that he had glimpsed on her face at times rent his heart. This had to end. He wanted the old Khushi back, the one who thought nothing of speaking her mind, who was ready to teach him a lesson if she felt he needed it, who hit him, cried over him, shouted at him, dreamed of him, who was fearless... He couldn't let her withdraw from him.