SS: Paper Planes [Completed] - Page 5

Originally posted by: Vandie

Is her marriage date fixed suddenly by her fiance because maybe he knows that she likes somebody in her office? Because earlier he avoided it and now she doesn't seem happy..

Update soon

We'll find out soon! The next update will be published shortly. Thank you for reading!

Interesting ..Will Khushi marry this Roy chap

Khushi is not happy with her fiance......hope she open up with arnav why she is not happy

Originally posted by: ranogill

Interesting ..Will Khushi marry this Roy chap

Thank you! More on Khushi soon 😳

Originally posted by: sammymas

Book marking

Hope you enjoy reading! 😊 Let me know your thoughts!

Originally posted by: Noor1234

Khushi is not happy with her fiance......hope she open up with arnav why she is not happy

Thank you for reading 😳

I love to read your stories. I accidentally came across this one it’s a very light romantic story just loved it .

One thing is sure Arnav has fallen for kushi and right from the time he has entered this office he keeps an eye on her while doing his work. Now he came to know she’s engaged to a guy called Roy as he happened to visit the office and officially declared about the wedding .But kushi doesn’t seem happy about the wedding nor the guy.

Will wait to know more about this person ,he doesn't seem to be a sincere person as he was avoiding marriage all this time and suddenly he makes their marriage public

Originally posted by: abivicky86

I love to read your stories. I accidentally came across this one it’s a very light romantic story just loved it .

One thing is sure Arnav has fallen for kushi and right from the time he has entered this office he keeps an eye on her while doing his work. Now he came to know she’s engaged to a guy called Roy as he happened to visit the office and officially declared about the wedding .But kushi doesn’t seem happy about the wedding nor the guy.

Will wait to know more about this person ,he doesn't seem to be a sincere person as he was avoiding marriage all this time and suddenly he makes their marriage public

Thank you so much, that means the world to me as a writer ❤️ I'm elated to know that you're enjoying this story! Thank you for leaving your thoughts lovely 🤗

Chapter 5: More Than That

The chill of the night hits me right as I get out of my car. Despite the fact that I am wearing a sweater and jeans instead of my usual ‘work clothes’ (a plain collared shirt and polyester pants), my change of outfit ceases to spare me from the merciless January wind.

Our boss, Ranveer, has organized a party for all the employees of Penn Papers on the third floor of our office building. It has sort of become a winter tradition. Apparently the main attraction of tonight is to be the game of pool, gambled amongst anyone who wishes to play and all the proceeds from every game will be donated to a charity. The boss pitched his idea during a meeting a few weeks ago, looking very proud of himself. “Stellar idea, really,” He had said with a grin. We all clapped and agreed. Last year it was casino night, this year it’s pool.

I usually never come to parties of any kind but I couldn’t resist coming to this one. I let out a quick breath and open the glass doors to the sizable room, dimly lit and crowded with formally dressed employees socializing with one another. I immediately catch sight of her within three seconds of panning my eyes around the room – she has her hair completely down instead of it in a ponytail or fastened with a clip like it is during office hours. She’s wearing a pale pink dress, the shade identical to the color of her smiling lips. I suddenly don’t remember what I had prepared to say to her as my mind goes completely blank, and then I feel an abrupt weight on my chest when I see her fiancé hug her waist.

“Arnav! Fancy seeing you here!”

“Ranveer, hi,” I manage, shaking his hand with a practiced smile.

“Come on, get a drink and play a game, my friend!” Ranveer ushers me to the bar, laughing exuberantly at seemingly nothing.

I gulp down a glass or two, squinting my eyes at the taste. Gathering courage I didn’t know I needed, I walk up to her.

“Arnav, hi!” She looks as if she is about to hug me, but stops. “I don’t think you two have met. Roy, Arnav. Arnav, Roy.” She introduces, gesturing with her hand.

“Hey man, what’s up.” Roy speaks in a gruff voice, shaking my hand.

I struggle to match the firmness of his handshake. “Hey, nice to meet you,” I hesitate. “Congratulations on the engagement, by the way.”

I look at her. She looks… happy.

I snap myself out of it and try to remember why I downed those two glasses earlier. “Ms. Gupta,” I smile, “Would you care to be challenged by me to a serious game of pool?”

Khushi smiles, wider than she already was. “Why of course.”

We walk over to the pool table and for the next 15 minutes, Khushi and I engage in a not so serious game. She is surprisingly good, and I find myself learning new techniques from her, that is when I am able to concentrate on her words without getting lost in her smile.

“You’re going to have to do better than this, Raizada,” She smirks, walking over to the other side as she sharpens her cue stick.

“I’m giving you an easy win here, Gupta. Jeez, take a hint,” I retort, rolling my eyes in jest. She laughs, and I memorize this moment in my brain to recall on my drive back home.

“Maybe I like some tough competition. Wouldn’t kill you to try,”

“Well, I’m afraid I’m a very gracious loser,” I shrug, faking an innocent pout. Khushi looks down and shakes her head, the tendrils of hair swaying by the sides of her full cheeks. “Besides, I could lose to you any day,” The words spill out before I can think twice. Her smile fades slightly, clearly trying to decipher the meaning behind why I said what I did.

“Khush, I’m leaving,”

She looks to see Roy waving from a few feet away, looking extremely bored. She rushes to him and I look away, somehow deeming it wrong to see her with her fiancé. Not improper, just… amiss.

I walk over to the bar, secretly hoping Khushi doesn’t have to leave since Roy is. Just as I grab a drink and sit down, a familiar voice interrupts my thoughts.

“Hey, when did you arrive?” Sumit asks, sitting down beside me.

“Oh, just a while ago. Good to see you man,”

“Same here. By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you. When are you going to tell Khushi about your transfer?”

I pause mid drink to look at him. I know what he is referring to, of course. When I found out about Khushi’s engagement I’d gone in for an interview at the corporate office for a position in a different branch.

Foolishly, at first I tried to persuade myself to believe that it will be fine, that I’ll be able to walk in everyday and see her face and not feel anything, that the fact that she’s an engaged woman won’t affect me, that the fact that the woman I’m in love with will eventually be married to another man won’t affect me.

The woman I’m in love with.

And then I told myself how incredibly impossible it is for me to be able to exist in the same room as her if I know that she can never be mine. Feelings can’t just disappear. So, the only solution was for me to disappear. Or at least in this case, transfer to another branch.

The only person I had told about the interview and the possible transfer is Sumit. What I’m confused about though, is why he specifically asked if I had told Khushi.

“Khushi? What do you mean?”

“Oh come on, Arnav, it’s clear as day that you have strong feelings for her. On top of that, you two are great friends. She told me once that you’re her best friend,”

I raise my eyebrows and look down to my glass, my heart warm. “She told you that?”

“Yes. How do you think she’ll feel if she comes to know about your transfer from someone else?”

“You’re right,” I nod, “She should hear it from me,”

“And brother…” He puts his hand on my shoulder, “It’s never too late,”

I manage a dry smile. “She’s engaged, Sumit,”

“So what? Engaged ain’t married.”

I take a second to assess what he says, nodding sincerely. He pats my shoulder and walks away with his drink.

I look down at my glass again, filled to the brim. I swish the amber liquid around, before putting in down. I’m not trying to get buzzed tonight.

The chill of the night welcomes me once again as I open the glass doors and walk out of the building, the noise of the party dwindling behind me. I couldn’t find her anywhere inside – she had to be out here, unless she left with Roy.

“Are you leaving already?”

I turn around to find her leaning against a pillar, a pale blue sweater that she usually wears to work now over her dress. She looks adorable this way, with an oversized sweater over her fancy pink dress.

“No, I was just…” I attempt to laugh to try to mask my awkwardness and hesitation, failing miserably.

I look at her and then at the parking lot, unable to find Roy.

“Roy-“

“He left. Said he was getting bored,” She fiddles with a piece of lint on the arm of her sweater, sighing, “He was my ride tonight, now I’ll have to call an Uber,”

I walk closer, leaning on the opposite end of the pillar. “No need for that, I’ll drop you home,”

“I wouldn’t want to bother you Arnav-“

“Are you kidding? I’m not letting you take an Uber home this late at night,”

I can feel her gaze on me as she thanks me, but I can’t look back, because I’ll forget why I came looking for her in the first place. I find myself thinking about how Roy just left her at a party and went home, taking the car with him. No one should do that, let alone a fiancé. Especially because Khushi deserves so much better. I want to tell her that, but I can’t.

“Sometimes I just don’t get Roy,” I hear her say, her voice small. It sounded like she had just voiced her inner thoughts, and she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

The seemingly trivial declaration catches me off guard, and I can’t help but ask.

“Are you happy?” The question comes out more desperate than I had intended. She meets my gaze, unswerving as I see the conflicting emotions in her eyes.

“Of course I’m happy, I’m engaged why would I not be happy?” The answer is a hurried string of words and she fumbles to get them out, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Why does it sound like you’re trying to convince yourself that you’re happy? Is what I think, but refrain from saying.

It’s silent for the next few minutes as we stand side my side, the pillar being the only separation. I sense that she’s uncomfortable after the previous exchange, so I decide to tell her what I had initially planned to.

“I’m transferring to another branch,” The air feels colder now, almost icy as it dries my throat. The skin on her nose is now a faint shade of burgundy.

“What? Why?” She stands in front of me now, facing me completely as she crosses her arms in front of her chest.

I let out a small laugh and look to the sky and then back at her.

“There’s nothing here for me to stay,” I’m not exaggerating when I say this. With family and most of my friends in another state, there’s no one here for me except for her, since seeing her is pretty much the only motivation to go to work. If she does get married, well… then I’d lose her too.

“What about me? I’d miss you terribly, Raizada,” She softly punches my arm, no sign of a smile on her dejected face.

I push my hand further into my pocket and brush back my hair, noticing her silver heels for the first time. “No need for fake consolations here, Gupta,”

“No, Arnav, I really mean it. I honestly don’t know how I would go through a day at work without you there. I would seriously blow my brains out,”

I laugh and nod my head at the hyperbole, telling myself she’s probably only saying this because I’m her friend. She did tell Sumit that I’m her best friend, didn’t she?

“Please don’t go,” She reaches out and touches my wrist, her touch the warmth of a fireplace during a snowstorm. There’s so much I want to say, but somehow I can’t bring myself to. This is too fragile of a moment and I fear that it’ll end if I say anything in response. So instead, I hold her hand as my thumb brushes her palm, before I tell her that it’s getting late and I ought to drop her home.

The drive to her apartment feels like the shortest drive of my life. She’s never sat in my car before, but the sight of her sitting right next to me in the passenger seat of my car is something I could get used to. If I had the chance.

For most of the drive we don’t really talk, instead she asks to play my Spotify playlist and I happily oblige, smirking as I see her goofily lip syncing to some of her favorite songs that are in my playlist. Within no time I find myself stopping at her apartment, shifting the gear to park.

“You’ve got some bangers in that playlist. I’m proud of you Arnav, you cultured man,” She giggles, handing my phone back to me. When I don’t respond, she has that look on her face again, the one that makes me want to take her into my arms.

“There’s something else I wanted to tell you,” She nods, waiting for me. It’s now or never.

“I…” If I tell her and it doesn’t work out, I have nothing to lose. She’s already engaged. But if I don’t tell her I’ll be regretting this for the rest of my life, wondering what could have happened if she knew how I felt.

“Arnav, you can tell me,”

“Khushi… I’m in love with you,”

I feel a lump in the back of my throat as I see her expression change, from curiosity to shock.

“What? What- what do you mean?”

The car suddenly feels extremely small. I can hear her breathing, can hear her breaths becoming shallower every second.

“I know this is probably not the right time. I just wanted you to know, once,”

“Arnav, I can’t. I’m engaged,” Her eyes are glassy, her voice shivering, even though it’s warm in the car. “I’m so sorry if you misinterpreted our friendship. You’re my best friend…”

The lump in my throat is aching now. I wipe a single tear that I failed to keep from falling.

“Please, don’t do that. I want to be more than that,”

I look up at her, only to see tears escape her eyes. At that moment, I don’t know whether it’s my wishful thinking, but she looks at me like she wants to say something but can’t. She scoots close to me and inhales sharply, but no words come out of her mouth.

“Khushi,”

I can smell her perfume, a deep, rose scent. She looks at me longingly, with an expression I cannot quite read. My gaze falls to her lips and it becomes physically painful to try to keep from touching her. Her hand then comes up to my neck, her fingers brushing my unkempt hair and before I know it, her lips are on mine. I squeeze my eyes shut in surprise, my tears mingling with hers as my arms involuntarily hug her close, fearing that she’ll disappear if I don’t hold on. She gasps and looks into my eyes, but doesn’t move away. I take the opportunity and kiss her again, tasting the flavor of piña colada as I gently touch her tongue. Her fingers clutch my hair and I click our seatbelts open, fighting to get closer still. She lets out an almost inaudible moan, shattering my self control. As I raise my hand from her waist to her cheek she pulls away with a jerk.

“I have to go,” She untangles my arms from her body, tears her gaze away from mine and opens the door, the sound of her closing it piercing me. I watch her walk into her apartment building without looking back, and I rest my head on the steering wheel, feeling like she’s taken a piece of me with her.

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A/N: Dying to know your thoughts!! 😳 Thanks for reading and commenting everyone 🤗 - Rain

Khushi is clearly not happy n she surly loves Arnav as much as him n the kiss was the evidence of their feelings towards each other Arnav did the right thing by telling her abt his feelings now the ball is in Khushi’s court n I think she should break her engagement with Roy bcoz she is clearly unhappy.