Chapter 33: Apology

-Archi-

@-Archi-

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Chapter Thirty-Three

Apology

Khushi entered the darkened penthouse, tired to the core. She had another long day at the hospital and was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Things had once again turned sour after her fight with Arnav almost a week ago now. She reverted back to sleeping on the sofa, staying late nights at the hospital and avoiding her husband at all costs. In many ways, it felt like those initial days of their marriage, but only worse. Back then she had no idea what life could be like, but now that she knew, it was so much harder to forget and go back to her lonely existence. 

There was at least one good thing that resulted from their fight, however. Arnav resumed work and was going on about his daily tasks as though nothing had happened. Although it was good news, Khuhsi wasn’t happy. 

She knew it was silly to expect anything from him, least of all reconciliation. They didn’t owe each other anything; hadn’t he made that clear during his visit to London? So why was she hoping he would come apologize now that he seems to have come out of his depressive episode? It was naivety. Arnav was a master at the game of indifference, and although she wished to be the same, she just couldn’t.

Shrugging to herself, Khushi was just about to head into the shower, when she heard Arnav walk in. Pretending not to acknowledge him, she continued towards the bathroom when she heard him clear his throat.

“Hey… do you have a minute?”

Khushi whipped around, dumbfounded to see him making the first move. His face betrayed no emotions, as he gestured to sofa, ignoring her confused face.  She had no choice but to sit down, waiting for him to continue. 

“NK invited us to his farmhouse this weekend.”

Khushi sighed, disappointed. So he wasn’t trying to make amends. “You can tell him that I am working.”

Arnav frowned. “For real or is that just an excuse?”

“Does it matter? We are obviously not going to go.”

“Actually, we are this time. So if you really are working, ask someone to take your shift.”

Khushi paused. “Too bad. I can’t trade my shift, so looks like you will have to go on your own.”

Arnav watched her carefully, before saying, “What’s the issue here? Going to the farmhouse or going to the farmhouse with me?”

She glared at him, unable to keep up her act of nonchalance any longer. “Have I grown-up enough in the past week for you to have a conversation with me?”

Arnav sighed, running his hands through his hair. “If you want an apology, then just say so.”

“You don’t ask to be asked for forgiveness!”

“Hmph… so why don’t we come to a compromise then?”

“Like what?”

“Either we both say sorry, or neither of us does.”

Khushi couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “So you aren’t even sorry then!”

“Are you?”

No. She may miss talking to him, she may miss spending her evenings with him, but she definitely was not sorry about what she said to him. And even if she was, the memory of his taunting words made her forget about it. 

“Fine,” she finally said. “I don’t need your apology.”

“Likewise,” he answered coolly. “So are we good for this weekend then?”

Khushi snorted. His audacity was applause worthy. “No, we are not. I am working.”

“What happened to our ten second-old compromise?”

“We compromised on apologizing to each other. Not about me coming to the stupid farmhouse.”

“Okay,” Arnav replied thinking that over. “How about you come this weekend and in return, I will spend a weekend wherever you want to.”

As if she was going to go anywhere with him. Far from being apologetic, he was acting as though she was the criminal. Didn’t he realize what he had said in a fit of anger?

“No thank you,” Khushi snapped. “I rather save lives than go somewhere with you.”

“How noble. But you have to stop taking all those extra shifts at the hospital just to avoid seeing me.”

“I am not-”

“I know Awasti is not assigning them to you.”

Her argument fell short. Stubbornly crossing her arms, she said “Why not?”

“Because you are supposed to be my wife. Jeejaji gets a list of all the employees and their hours every three months to make sure the finances are clean. And your hours this time are off the charts.”

Great. 

“Which reminds me, Lata will be resuming work from tomorrow. So you need to quit sleeping on the sofa and start using the bed again.”

Khushi glared at him. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“I’m warning you… don’t come back later and blame me for not informing you about my family.”

“Fine. I will think about it.”

“So you are not going to come this weekend?”

“No.”

“Can Lavu convince you otherwise?”

“No.”

“Will you say yes if I apologize?”

“Only if you mean it.”

Arnav snorted. “Typical.”

“Okay good night,” she said standing up, knowing full well how desperate he was. And she wasn’t wrong. 

“I am sorry.”

Khushi waited, suppressing her smile. She heard him stand up from the sofa and walk around so that he was standing in front of her. Surprisingly, instead of indifference, his eyes sparkled with genuine regret.  

“I am sorry for being rude to you,” he said softly. “And commenting about your family. I had no right.”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not convinced.”

He stared at her, incredulous, realizing what she wanted. Khushi watched him carefully, wondering how much her forgiveness really meant to him. 

“Okay fine,” Arnav grumbled at last, dropping to his knees and clasping his hands together as if in a prayer. “I am very very very sorry Dr. Khushi Kumari Gupta. I promise I will never ever repeat those horrendous words, in fact, I am very thankful that you dared to come and talk to me–”

“Now you are being sarcastic.”

“Okay, sorry for that too… but please forgive me?”

“Do you promise never to bring up me and my father in the same sentence again?”

“I promise.”

Khushi bit her cheeks, trying not to grin. “Okay then.”

Arnav rolled his eyes and stood up. “So you are coming?”

“I suppose, but why on earth is it so important that I come? This won’t be the first family gathering we missed.”

“It’s not the whole family. It’s just us – no parents or kids.”

Khushi was surprised. “How come?”

“NK wants to introduce Prachi to the family –Prachi is his girlfriend– but she is freaking out, so he thought she should meet us first.”

“Us?”

“You, me, Di, Jeejaji, Lavu, Akash, Mitali, Sam, Dev, Arjun and Baghi.”

So the whole gang. “Lovely. I’m so excited.”

Arnav chuckled. They were at least on the same page about one thing. “Good, because it’s gonna be one heck of a long weekend.”

Khushi sighed and began to collect her pillows and sheets, ready to call it a night. 

“Um no,” Arnav objected, snatching the pillows from her hands. “You can be angry with me all you want in the bedroom, but not here.”

A smile escaped her lips as she watched him storm off inside. What was with him and beds? 

“You are being obsessive you know,” she said, following him. “Why can’t I sleep on the sofa today? Lata will come tomorrow.”

“Because the sofa is meant for sitting, not sleeping.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have problem-”

“But I do.”

“And why is that?”

Arnav stopped, dropping everything he was carrying on the bed, and said seriously, “Because I took away enough things from you already. I don’t want to take away your sleep too.”

Khushi had no answer to that. It had been a long time since anyone thought about her comforts. Her mother was perhaps the only one who ever did in her whole life, but even she too was bound by her father’s rules. Vihaan, of course, was out of question. He never had any say in the family.  

But Arnav was an exception. He probably had more cause to hate her than anyone else, and yet, he managed to think of her on more occasions than her own family. 

So loosing whatever little anger she had left, Khushi softly asked when they were finally settled in bed: “Why do you care? What I have and don’t?”

“Oh, so are we on talking terms again?”

She rolled her eyes. “Just answer the question.”

“I won’t until we are officially talking again.”

She knew what he was doing. It was childish as hell, but perhaps after everything that had come to pass, it was what they probably needed. She didn’t want to have a melodramatic conversation with him again, least of all about his ex-girlfriend, anytime soon. 

“Fine,” Khushi muttered, grumpily. “Don’t tell me. But you still didn’t answer my question from before.”

“What question?”

“Whose idea was it to force me to come?”

“Can’t it be mine?”

“I am not an idiot.”

He sighed, perhaps giving up on her. “I promised Di that I would bring you.”

“And why does Anjali want me to come?”

“Because you are family.”

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Note: So I hope that cleared up the last of doubts about the Arnav-Myra scenario… as much as we want to know why she chose not to tell Arnav about her pregnancy, there are just some things in life we will never get the answer to. Arnav is making peace with that for now… may be somewhere down the line, he will know 😉