Chapter 19

rulama

@rulama

[MEMBERSONLY]

[NOCOPY]

RECALLING ARNAV - II

Part 20

Arnav looked at Khushi sitting by him on the bed. She was looking through the dishes Di had sent up for them.

"Khushi, did you travel all the way from Lucknow alone?" he rasped.

"No," she said absently. "Buaji, Amma & Babuji are at Laxmi Nagar."

Arnav drew in a deep breath of relief.

"Khushi..." he began.

She stuffed a spoon of something in to his mouth.

He swallowed and grimaced. "It tastes bland," he complained.

Khushi smiled. "I will tell Di that you called her soup bland."

"No, no," Arnav tried to backtrack.

Khushi laughed.

He looked at her laughing visage for a long moment and then asked what he had been itching to ask. "Khushi, will you stay with me? Here?"

Khushi looked in to his eager, waiting eyes and nodded.

A relieved laugh left him. "It is good that I fell sick if it brought you to Delhi to live here," he whispered in her ear as he crushed her in his arms.

Khushi too smiled as she wound her arms around him, holding him tight and safe to her.

NK & Akash came home for lunch to find Khushi there.

"Khushiji!" NK screeched.

"Khushiji, it is good that you are here. Bhai was about to set out for Lucknow," Akash said more sedately.

She smiled and greeted both of them.

"I was planning to come to Lucknow to get you, but Nannav said he would go himself," NK explained.

"NK, you wanted to help me by getting Khushi to Delhi, right?" Arnav asked, a naughty glint in his eyes.

"Yes," poor NK said.

"You can help me now by going to Laxmi Nagar and getting her luggage instead," Arnav suggested, a laugh in his eyes.

NK stared at Nannav for a moment, speechless.

"I will get it myself, Nanheji," Khushi said, throwing daggers at her husband for teasing her brother. "Don't listen to your Nannav. The fever has done something to his head."

"I will go, Khushiji. It will be nice to meet Amma, Babuji... and Buaji again," NK said bravely.

Arnav recovered under Khushi's eagle eyes and excellent care. No virus would dare to prey on him with his wife hovering over him 24x7, her anxious eyes inspecting the rise and fall of his chest, her hand testing if his body temperature was normal, her hands pushing delicious food and pills down his throat at regular intervals...

Three days later he dressed to go to office. The shirt, jacket and coat hung loosely on his shoulders, the fever having beaten the stuffing out of him.

As he buttoned his coat, Khushi came in to their room with a thali in her hand.

"Arnavji, stand still," she ordered as she tried to apply a tilak on his forehead.

"Khushi, yeh kya he...?" he complained like a kid.

She applied a tilak on his temple and muttered under her breath, "Now let me see how any disease dares to come a mile near you."

Arnav rolled his eyes, amused and touched.

"What will you do if any beemari comes near me?" he asked.

"I will pound it in the mortar & pestle we have in the kitchen," she said, all bloodthirsty and revengeful.

"The one you were pounding when I was trying to make a phone call?" he asked, his eyes laughing at her as he remembered a scene from their past.

Khushi laughed along with him. "How dare you not talk to me, Arnavji? I was punishing you for your silence," she laughed.

"You asked me not to talk to you," Arnav protested.

"I did. But who asked you to agree to it?" she asked, with inescapable logic.

Arnav stood with his mouth open for a moment. Then he said, "I am going now."

"I will send lunch to the office with Hari Prakashji," Khushi smiled.

Arnav walked to the door and halted. He turned, walked back and kissed Khushi warmly on her cheeks before he left, leaving her all flustered and pink.

Khushi entered AR Designs, smiling at the guards who greeted her and opened the door for her. After enquiring about their families, she walked in to see Aman.

"Khushiji," Aman beamed. "It has been so long since we met."

"A lifetime," she said, smiling. "How are you keeping, Amanji?"

"I am fine, Khushiji. ASR is in his cabin, meeting with the head of HR," Aman informed her.

"I will wait here," Khushi indicated the lounge.

"I will let him know that you are here with his lunch," Aman said.

"No, Amanji. Let him finish his work. I will wait," Khushi smiled as she took a seat.

Khushi looked around at the red and white interior of AR Designs.

She had been so scared when she had stepped in to it the first time. Every moment, every day had been fraught with danger. She had been agitated, anxious, on her toes every minute of every day, fearing his eyes on her, his cutting words, his challenges... Even her sleep had been filled with his images. She had woken up every day imagining him shouting her name. An alarm clock hadn't been needed to send her leaping out of bed.

It had been a terrible time.

She had lived on her nerves, running scared of him and unable to reveal her fear to him, caught in a trap of unwilling enchantment, touched by his rare kindnesses, wondering what the man had been made of... she looked down at her fingers, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Khushi!"

She looked up.

Arnavji was walking to her, his feet eager to join her, his eyes lit by happiness.

"I thought you were sending lunch with HP," he teased her.

"Haan...," she said, thinking furiously. She had not been able to miss the chance to see Arnavji and had grabbed the bag before HP could even think about taking it to the office. "Woh... woh.. Hari Prakashji was busy," she found an excuse.

"Really?" Arnav took the bag from her, took hold of her hand and led her to his office, ignoring all the overt and covert glances they were receiving.

As he ate, Khushi walked around his room and inspected it for changes. Everything was the same except for the absence of Di & Shyam's photo. Now it was replaced by a photo of Di smiling at the world.

"Khushi, why don't you share my lunch?" he invited.

"I had mine," she replied.

"Khushi, bring your lunch along with mine from tomorrow? We can have it together," he pleaded nicely.

"Who said I am going to bring your lunch tomorrow, Arnavji? I will send it with Hari Prakashji," Khushi teased him.

"Khushi," he protested as he finished his lunch.

She laughed and went to stand near the glass wall to look down at the office. Many chairs were empty of their occupants. Some nibbled on sandwiches as they worked through their lunch break. Amanji was striding across the hall, the phone held to his ear.

Arnav came to stand behind her. He looked at her pensive eyes with troubled ones. He wanted to ask her why she was sad, but feared he knew the answer. All her memories of this office were bad. Some were even terrible.

Slowly his hands cupped the balls of her shoulders.

Khushi turned her head to smile at him.

"It is time I went home," she said.

Arnav felt a weight settle on his chest. He gently pulled her back against his chest and moved back from the wall for some privacy. He dropped a kiss on her hair and her right ear.

Khushi stood still in his hold, her heart galloping in her chest.

He turned her in his hold and cupped her face. Khushi looked at him with wide eyes. Just as he lowered his face to kiss her lips there was a knock on the door.

Khushi jumped back, knocking his hands away.

He lifted his head to look at a female employee standing hesitantly at the entrance.

"Yes?" he growled.

"You have a meeting in five minutes, Sir. Aman Sir asked me to remind you," she stammered. "The delegates from London..."

ASR nodded as he swallowed his ire. The girl ran down the steps with trembling legs, glad that she was still alive after an encounter with the lion.

Khushi picked up the bag and moved towards the door.

"Khushi..." he began.

"You have a meeting now, Arnavji," she smiled.

How could he keep her with him 24x7? Arnav wondered.

A brilliant idea ran though his head. "Khushi, why don't you join my office again? We can come to work together and leave together," he suggested, hope springing in his heart.

Khushi's eyes skittered away. She brought her gaze back to her husband with great effort. "I am not Lavanyaji to entertain you when I am not working," she said.

Arnav's mouth fell open. Damning memories of how Khushi had seen Lavanya fiddling with his tie and hanging around his neck in this very office burned through his head like corrosive acid.

As he searched for nonexistent words to console her, calm her, make her feel better, Khushi said evenly, "I will definitely find a job, Arnavji. But I don't want to be your employee... ever again. I want to be independent."