Chapter 33 - Pg 53
Chapter 1: A Break From The Norm.
The buzzer rang for the fourth time that night. Khushi was pacing back and forth in her apartment. "Who the hell does he think he is? Strolling in at ridiculous o'clock, Laad Governor!' The buzzer rang again.
"I am NOT going to open the door!" Khushi stood at door waiting for the boom of Arnav's voice. She knew the routine by now. He would turn up at her door, she would eventually let him in and then the screaming match would begin. Sometimes they wouldn't even know why they were arguing. But lately, he had been turning up on a weekly and now a daily basis. Even if it was for a couple of minutes, even if he had nothing to say to her. She stood there waiting for him to growl her name. But there was silence. 'Hai devi maiyya thank you thank you thank for saving me from that Rakshash for one night.'
She turned to make her way to her bedroom when she heard a soft knock at the door. At first she thought she was hearing things, it was 11 o'clock and it had been a long day. Then there was a second knock at the door."Who is it?" She asked, her voice slightly shaking. Arnav's knocks practically woke up the entire building. This had to be someone else, but who? There was no reply. She turned once again when she heard him.
"Khushi please, let me in." His voice sounded husky and tiered. Khushi's heartbeat began to race! She started patting her chest and hushing to her heart to calm down.
"This man will be the death of me." She murmured to herself. She debated whether to leave him out there or let him in. If she let him in he would probably scream at her for making him wait. If she didn't let him in then she would have to face his anger tomorrow.
She opened the front door slightly peeking through the gap to gauge his mood. He was standing with his head hung and eyes shut. One of his arms was pressed against the door frame as if he needed the support.
"Arnavji?" Khushi asked slightly alarmed at sight of him. His eyes flicked open at the sound of his name. He straightened up so that he stood taller than her.
"Khushi, how man times do I have to tell you not to add 'ji' at the end of my name." He spoke in a low voice as he strode in to her apartment and flung his briefcase, jacket and himself onto her sofa. 'Hai devi maiyya protect me.' Khushi prayed to herself as she shut the front door. She walked over to the kitchen and came back with a cold glass of water and placed onto the table in front of him. Arnav took the glass without acknowledging her presence. He sat back and felt a sense of peace wash over him. After spending a whole day stuck in an unnecessary meeting with some gutless investors this is exactly what he needed. A place unknown, untouched by the cruel corporate world.
"You can just turn up here at any hour you please and expect me to let you in." Khushi tried to catch her words as they spilled out of her mouth. Arnav glared at her for what seemed like infinity, this was the calm before the storm she thought to herself. She shut her eyes tight and braced herself for his verbal onslaught.
"Of course I can." He simply replied before he shut his eyes and put his head back. There was no anger or hate in his voice, just a matter of fact. Arnav knew that had it have been Khushi who was turned up at his house at unknown hours he would not have thought twice before throwing her out. He had to consider the fact that she did let him in and allowed him to escape his own thoughts, and for that he would always remain thankful. Even on the nights when they had argued, Arnav was glad that Khushi was able to evoke some reaction from him that had nothing to do with his business. He felt less robotic. 'But isn't that exactly what you have been trying to do all your life Arnav? To switch your feelings off?' a little voice said. He tried to push the voice to the back of his mind. This was not one of the nights where he was up for a fight be it with Khushi or himself.
"What's to eat? " He asked in the same indifferent tone. Khushi stood there for a moment, as still as he was. She could feel her frustration burning her stomach, she needed to calm down. He didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon and she needed something that would calm her nerves. She made her way to the only place she knew she could find the answer, her kitchen.
***
Khushi glanced over at the kitchen clock, it had just gone past midnight. She could see that Arnav hadn't moved at all. 'Has he gone to sleep?' The thought of him staying the night wound her up further, increasing her speed of icing the cupcakes with butter cream. She knew she hated the man, his arrogance, short temper, total disregard for others and ice cold heart made that clear from day one. But there was something about him, a strange pull. She could never figure out what it was but she was completely fascinated by him. He was completely unpredictable, only a year ago he had told her that he hated her and never wanted to see her again. And now he was here, in her apartment, eating her food.
Lately, she had seen glimpses of a new side him. A more subtle, less oppressing Arnav. She turned to get the second batch of out of the oven. She knew there had to be more to him than the cold exterior he presented, it was evident in the way he cared for his sister.
"Cupcakes, at this hour?." He said with a quizzical brow. Khushi slammed the tray of freshly baked sugarless cupcakes on the counter top in front of him.
"Don't you have anything else, like proper dinner?" He asked. For a split second she was taken aback by his innocence. His hair was ruffled, the top buttons of his shirt and his tie undone. His eyes were scanning the kitchen like a little child avoiding to eat his vegetables. A part of her started to mentally prepare parathas for him, another part reminded her who she was preparing these mental parathas for.
"In my house proper dinner is served at a proper time. If you wanted dinner you should have been here at 7pm" Khushi snapped. She could feel Arnav's eyes on her weighing her down, but she didn't look up and instead turned around to face the window. She shut her eyes tight again, waiting for him to snap. But he didn't.
"Anyways," she pressed on, "I thought that if you held no qualms in barging into a girls apartment in the middle of the night, then you can't possibly have a problem with eating cupcakes." She said with a smug smile. He snapped.
"Khushi Kumari Gupta, You need to get your facts sorted, I did not barge through you let me in." He growled. Any trace of innocence was lost. He was standing pointing at Khushi with rage filled eyes. She grabbed her tray of butter cream cupcakes.
"Tomato Tamato. If you want to eat then eat otherwise leave." As she was making her way out of the kitchen, she could see that he was about to say something. He grabbed her hand and in that same moment she grabbed a cake from her plate and shoved it into his half open mouth.
"Good night!" And with that she ran to her bedroom. She knew that if she stopped now it would have been her funeral. He hated it when she walked away without listening to him. Arnav spat out the cupcake.
"KHUSHI!" He shouted after her, wiping the butter cream from his lips.
"Don't forget to close the door behind you!" Khushi shouted back before she slammed and locked her bedroom door. 'If I'm not out there then he has no one to argue with or shout at or wind up.' In the past she had always felt that she couldn't leave him alone in case he had needed something. But today she was over it. If he couldn't find his way around her little apartment then he was not the man of the world he makes himself out to be. She hurried along and sat down in the middle of her bed with her plate full of cupcakes. Before she knew it sleep had engulfed her.
'Oh no 6:30 already!' Khushi groaned thinking about how she would find the energy to keep up with her kids at school today. She brushed her teeth and had a quick shower before throwing on white sleeveless salwar kameez. She made her way out of the bedroom and to her little mandhir which was situated on her living room wall. After she had done her morning pooja she made her way into the kitchen throwing her dupatta onto the sofa. As she was pulling her hair into a bun she stopped and took a few steps back towards the sofa. Her hair, hands and mouth dropped at the sight of Arnav sprawled across the sofa in deep sleep.
She wanted to shout at him to get out. She wanted to yank him off her sofa and throw him out But she couldn't move, she couldn't shout, she couldn't blink, and it was only when she realized that she wasn't breathing she took in a loud, sharp, gasp of air. Arnav stirred from his sleep to see Khushi standing shocked in front of him.
"Khushi, are you ok? What's the matter? What happened?" His voice was husky as he spoke. He saw the dupatta she had thrown at him and handed it to her without looking up at her. Khushi hastily draped the dupatta over her shoulders.
"What happened?" She whispered. "What happened!" She exclaimed. "Please please please tell me you didn't spend the night here. Please tell me you went home." Khushi clasped her hands in prayer. Arnav started to stretch.
"Hai devi maiyya what's going to happen now? What are we going to tell Di and Nani" Khushi asked her self, starting biting her nails.
"Stop it, Stop biting your nails." He said evidently annoyed with her habit. Khushi removed her hand in equal annoyance that he was avoiding the issue at hand.
You didn't spent the night here, right?" She asked in a slight voice. Arnav stood up and face her with a stern look.
"Not at all. I went back to my beautiful home and walked into my perfect bedroom where stood and stared at my king sized bed and thought 'This can't be more comfortable than khushi's couch so I drove all the way back for this special than special couch." His sarcasm always missed that that pinch of humour required to take the edge off.She stormed to the kitchen and started to prepare breakfast furiously.
"Didn't you think, not even for a second of the repercussions?! What will the neighbours think? What will our families think? What am I going to do?" She slummed against the kitchen counter.
"Don't you think that if I had known that I was going to fall asleep that I would have just left! You think I wanted this?" He wasn't angry not yet. He was annoyed.
"Ha! I had told you to leave in plenty of time. But why should you listen to me? Why should you listen to anyone else a part from your big fat ego!." They were standing about a foot apart before Arnav took another step forward.
"Look, Khushi, it's still too early for me to argue with you, so just stop. There is no need to tell Di, Nani or Shashi Uncle anything. I'll tell everyone that I had spent the night in the office. As for the neighbours, let them say what they want to. We haven't done anything wrong so what difference does it make to us?" His voice was full of conviction, he believed in every word he was saying, in every lie he was about to tell his family.
"Of course it doesn't make a difference to you. When a man sneaks out of a woman's home it's the woman that is talked about not the man! This is your fault and there is nothing you can do to make it better. Unless you can go back in time and never have come here in the first place. Yes why don't you do that, you are your own god after all so prove it. Undo it all. Why did you come here? Why do you come here? Night after night, what is it that you are looking for? If its Lavanya then am not her, I won't give in to your wayward ways and I won't spend another moment with a man like you!"
"ENOUGH." It felt as though his voice echoed throughout the entire city.
"I am not just some man and you are not just some woman. We are engaged dammit!" He held Khushi by her arms. Not tight enough to hurt her but tight enough for her not to run. "This is it. This is all it's ever going to be. Me and you. When are you going to get Lavanya out of your head?" There was despair, though not present in voice it flooded through his eyes.
***
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai
CID
Anupamaa
530